Japanese school system

[fayebelly]

Krystal Jade

@fayebelly- wow, thanks so much for sharing some of your blogs from your experience teaching in Japan. biggrin It sounds like it was over all good (though, I'm not sure I personally would be able to handle being thrown into teaching on such short notice as well sweatdrop But that's in part because I only have a little bit of childcare experiences.).

Just one more question for now: based on this experience, would you want to do that as a full time job? Or is it something you only think you'd like to do on a short term basis? (I think you have probably said something on the Gaia forums already that would answer these questions, but I'm not sure which thread to look in since I've started to see you around quite a bit on the forums sweatdrop )

Ha ha ha! I basically live on this forum! ^^

I wouldn't want to teach English as a long-term career... It was loads of fun and a real learning curve for me as a person... But English is too bloody hard! I also did some private one-on-one lessons on the side (which I didn't mention in my blogs) and they were way more intense and in-depth! It was SO difficult to explain all the stupid grammar rules we have! I would hate to be an English teacher! >< But it was way fun on the short term... Especially with the group of kids I had and the woman I worked with! We basically played loads of games and just had a laugh. My friend came to sit in on one lesson and said afterwards "you actually get paid for this?!"

My experiences were quite unique from what I can tell... Most JET teachers get teaching lessons beforehand. Then they're given a set number of classes where they basically just help the teacher out with lessons until they're comfortable, then, depending on the school, they can teach lessons on their own. Most JETs I've met are so bloody annoying 'cause they're convinced that they're amazing because they're living in Japan and teaching, when in actual fact the company organised their home, job and EVERYTHING for them. All they had to do was get on a plane and do what they're told... ¬¬ (I don't like most JETs, as I say, most of the ones I've met are arses).

[carcer]

fayebelly

My experiences were quite unique from what I can tell... Most JET teachers get teaching lessons beforehand. Then they're given a set number of classes where they basically just help the teacher out with lessons until they're comfortable, then, depending on the school, they can teach lessons on their own. Most JETs I've met are so bloody annoying 'cause they're convinced that they're amazing because they're living in Japan and teaching, when in actual fact the company organised their home, job and EVERYTHING for them. All they had to do was get on a plane and do what they're told... ¬¬ (I don't like most JETs, as I say, most of the ones I've met are arses).

Heyyyy... don't get angry at JET just because they're selective.

We get NO teaching lessons, thank you very much. JET also isn't a company, its simply a prgram the Japanese government uses. CLAIR is the company we are dispatched through.

And CLAIR only gives us an assignment, they don't organize anything for us, that would be the government. I know a lot of JETs that have is really hard, as in they do everything at their school or may have up to 10 schools. I have a friend who is practically a Japanese teacher for all the work she has to do, and I know JETs that have nap time every day. I have it fairly easy, I just work at one high school and do the lesson planning myself. We work for the government, so of course things like our home are organized for us, we're public servants and are paid with tax payers money. XP

[carcer]

Mercurial Anima -Zeph-

Is skirt-lengthening still associated with sukeban (female delinquent students)?

I wouldn't say as much delinquent as it is just the fresh or popular girls. At my school girls can choose, in the summer, between a short skirt and a long one. The better, quieter, students are in long skirts, but the more active students are in the short ones. But now its the winter and everyone is in a cute jumper and cardigan, haha.

[fayebelly]

carcer

fayebelly

My experiences were quite unique from what I can tell... Most JET teachers get teaching lessons beforehand. Then they're given a set number of classes where they basically just help the teacher out with lessons until they're comfortable, then, depending on the school, they can teach lessons on their own. Most JETs I've met are so bloody annoying 'cause they're convinced that they're amazing because they're living in Japan and teaching, when in actual fact the company organised their home, job and EVERYTHING for them. All they had to do was get on a plane and do what they're told... ¬¬ (I don't like most JETs, as I say, most of the ones I've met are arses).

Heyyyy... don't get angry at JET just because they're selective.

We get NO teaching lessons, thank you very much. JET also isn't a company, its simply a prgram the Japanese government uses. CLAIR is the company we are dispatched through.

And CLAIR only gives us an assignment, they don't organize anything for us, that would be the government. I know a lot of JETs that have is really hard, as in they do everything at their school or may have up to 10 schools. I have a friend who is practically a Japanese teacher for all the work she has to do, and I know JETs that have nap time every day. I have it fairly easy, I just work at one high school and do the lesson planning myself. We work for the government, so of course things like our home are organized for us, we're public servants and are paid with tax payers money. XP

I wasn't attacking JETs in general... I was talking about the ones I'd met... As I said, they were arses, they were generally lazy, whiny and completely and utterly looked after. I met one guy who only went to Japan just because he wanted a Japanese wife and was there blatantly flirting with the school girls... ¬,¬

Also, the ones I met did get lessons... In teaching and Japanese, so it's odd that they did and you didn't...

[carcer]

We have workshops and stuff at orientation, but not lessons. Can't really be taught how to teach, it just sort of comes naturally. We do get a CLAIR provided Japanese course, but that is while we're already here and you're already immersed in the language. I won't say we aren't looked after, because we are, as government employees, but we're hardly babysitted (babysat?... is there even a past form on that word? I can't speak English anymore!).

It may very well be that different countries have different preparations. I know the UK has to pass a grammar test, as well as South Africa, but no one else does.

[Ukryu]

@fayebelly: How were the pay and benefits? I've heard that JET participants get around 300,000 yen a year along with cheap insurance and rent, and they don't have to pay taxes during their first couple of years. Well, you did homestay so housing was free (homestay is free right?), but did you get any other good benefits?

@fayebelly and carcer: What kinds of things did you teach / are you teaching? Just simple things like basic sentences (this is a pen) or actual grammar?

[carcer]

Ukryu

@fayebelly: How were the pay and benefits? I've heard that JET participants get around 300,000 yen a year along with cheap insurance and rent, and they don't have to pay taxes during their first couple of years. Well, you did homestay so housing was free (homestay is free right?), but did you get any other good benefits?

@fayebelly and carcer: What kinds of things did you teach / are you teaching? Just simple things like basic sentences (this is a pen) or actual grammar?

btw, I'm a JET... if that wasn't clear XD, so I can answer those questions.

Don't have to pay taxes? Er. Lie XD. We have to pay taxes at home, and, to my knowledge, only Americans are exempt from Japanese taxes. We are paid 300,000 a month (3,600,000 for the year), but then you take out pension (which we can file for later), health insurance (which is socialized), and fees based on your school, along with other little fees. It ends up being around 260,000 for the month. Rent is based on where you live. I pay only $183 a month for a condo, I have a friend who pas $500 for a one room crap hole in Osaka. Only some prefectures subsidize rent for JETs.

Most JETs and ALTs in high school (which is what I teach) teach Oral Communication. So speaking and such. I do have some friends who teach grammar and writing courses as well, but our main purpose is to be a native English speaker.

I'm mainly given a topic, (ie I just taught a class on Directions) and make up a lesson plan, go over it with the JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English) and teach the lesson together.

I can have conversations with some of my students and a few that are fluent even. Some just stare at me haha.

[fayebelly]

Ukryu

@fayebelly: How were the pay and benefits? I've heard that JET participants get around 300,000 yen a year along with cheap insurance and rent, and they don't have to pay taxes during their first couple of years. Well, you did homestay so housing was free (homestay is free right?), but did you get any other good benefits?

@fayebelly and carcer: What kinds of things did you teach / are you teaching? Just simple things like basic sentences (this is a pen) or actual grammar?

Homestay cost 30,000 a month... Which was really good 'cause I got a room and a kitchen all to myself and that covered everything like heating and electricity... Plus I'd always eat dinner with my homestay mommy, so evening meals were free. She refused to let me pay. =/
My pay was 1,000 yen a lesson... I generally had about 4/5 lessons a week... So it was nowhere near enough to live on. The government was paying. But I'd saved some money from my previous job as a waitress where we got paid 100,000 yen a month, way should've saved more money =/.
The guys at the association that organised my lessons and homestay were so lovely! When they realised that I was running out of money, they suggested that I stayed in Japan and just worked for them! ^-^ Was rather tempted...
Although, about a week before I left I met my work-mates employers who owned an English-teaching school... I helped them out for a day and they offered me a job there and then. ^^:; If I was staying longer I'd have worked for them.

I taught the basics really... For the really little kids we did greetings, please/thank-you, adjectives (like colours and stuff), numbers, body parts.... Then just made up games around that, like touch __ colour, find your nose, colour in that with __, playing uno, snakes and ladders, bingo... Stuff like that.
With the older kids who I was teaching by myself I covered mostly the same stuff, but more advanced, using full sentences and stuff. I also did directions, which was a hilarious game where one was blindfolded and they had to guide eachother to the sweets. I got them to draw pictures of their friends and then describe them. I also did a hilarous tongue twister, which is always fun to play with Japanese people; "red lorry yellow lorry"! =D It's great! They found it hilarious!
I also did private lessons with a 15 year old girl who had decided she was going to get fluent in English and travel around the English-speaking countries. She was really intelligent and hard-working (apparently she was from the best high school in the whole area). I covered really advanced stuff with her, went through grammar stuff like verbs and tenses.

Also... Funny you should mention "This is a Pen". =D

[carcer]

1,000 yen a lesson?! o__o How did you survive, holy crap.

[-Hellstwitch-]

Bump

[fayebelly]

carcer

1,000 yen a lesson?! o__o How did you survive, holy crap.

You see why the JETs I met annoyed me? My god, they complained...

[carcer]

Well if they complained about money, that's just silly, we're paid the highest of all ALTs, and a lot of us have side jobs too. If they have school issues, that I can understand. Some have really s**t school situations. I have a friend who works in inner-city Osaka where the kids throw chairs and he's kept at the back of the room and isn't allowed to teach at all.

I won't pretend some JETs aren't elitists, and those who think they know everything about Japan. yes, some are crazy fluent and can blend in as easily as a gaijin can XD, but the majority of us really are nice and are just interested in traveling and Japan and Japanese culture and language. Us suburbs and country folk are nicer than the city JETs. Where were you placed? I live in Shizuoka (home of that b*****d volcano Mt. Fuji *shakes fist*).

[fayebelly]

carcer

Well if they complained about money, that's just silly, we're paid the highest of all ALTs, and a lot of us have side jobs too. If they have school issues, that I can understand. Some have really s**t school situations. I have a friend who works in inner-city Osaka where the kids throw chairs and he's kept at the back of the room and isn't allowed to teach at all.

I won't pretend some JETs aren't elitists, and those who think they know everything about Japan. yes, some are crazy fluent and can blend in as easily as a gaijin can XD, but the majority of us really are nice and are just interested in traveling and Japan and Japanese culture and language. Us suburbs and country folk are nicer than the city JETs. Where were you placed? I live in Shizuoka (home of that b*****d volcano Mt. Fuji *shakes fist*).

As I said, it was the ones I've met who annoy me! I was in the countryside, up in Fukushima... But it was definitely the ones who came up from Tokyo who annoyed me the most!

[carcer]

There aren't JETs in Tokyo... only out on the islands. Surrounding area like Gunma and Yamanashi I imagine. Sorry your experience with us is rather s**t, I swear we're nice.

[fayebelly]

carcer

There aren't JETs in Tokyo... only out on the islands. Surrounding area like Gunma and Yamanashi I imagine. Sorry your experience with us is rather s**t, I swear we're nice.

As I said at the start... I was only only referring to the ones I'd met...