senseiinjapan

This is a bit of a funny story of the types of communication breakdowns you can expect in Japan.

I hope you find this story as funny as I did after it happened to me!

Background knowledge required for the story- Last week when I went into the city centre I found some tinned food goodies that were really reasonably priced, so I bought them expecting to save some money on eating out. Fast forward a few days to when I was expecting to eat one of the tinned meals and I realise that it doesn’t have a pull-ring on it like most cans in the west.  So I had to go back into the centre on a quest for a tin opener!

Upon arriving at the OK supermarket (a quite large chain of cheap supermarkets in Japan) I went up to the second floor as that’s where I had remembered seeing kitchen ware previously. Approaching the nearest member of staff, I say in my fantastic Japanese “Tin opena wa doko desu ka?” Expecting it to just be a katakana version of the western name. When she looks baffled I repeat myself, but this time pretending to open a tin with an invisible tin opener, which by some miracle she understood. With some gestures she conveyed that the tin opener was in fact on the first floor (Or as we call it in England, the “ground floor”)

So going back downstairs I ask the first member of staff I see once more. The same broken Japanese sentence, followed by the same act of charades. This member of staff wasn’t quite as quick on the uptake so it took 2 tries to get the point across. Upon reaching some level of understanding they go charging off to try to get a tin opener for me. A couple of minutes later they come back and direct me back upstairs to the second floor.

On the way upstairs I decide to do some research online so I can phrase my request for a tin-opener better. I then discover that I am a complete idiot. The word for tin-opener isn’t simply a katakana translation. It is instead a totally different word “Kan-Kiri”.

So armed with an actual Japanese word this time I ask the first staff member I see once more. I then realise that it’s the exact same staff-member that I asked last time…. And she adamantly insists that the tin opener is on the first floor. While I try to explain that the staff on the first floor told me it was on the second floor. My attempts to explain what had happened must have been pretty pitiful, as they summoned an English-speaking Japanese person from some other realm who explained what I was trying to say and then took my downstairs, in the middle of her shopping trip to show me the tin openers.

As humiliated as I was in the end I got the tin opener! So I hope those of you who read the giant wall of text find the same amusement in this story as I do, now xD

Next post is going to be on either Hanami and a trip to Ueno or my Cherry blossom hunt where I found a beautiful temple about 40 minutes walk from my apartment!

This post is mostly directed at people who are interested in the teaching aspect of work in Japan, if that’s not your thing you should probably wait for the next post 😛 Although there will be some small mention of Japanese business etiquette, probably. It will first explain (broken into each day) what was learned in training, and afterwards how that has actually prepared me for teaching at ‘real branches’ in Japan. I will then finish with some advice to all aspiring English teachers on how you can better prepare yourself for this! N.B. I’ve marked in bold some basic, basic teaching stuff if that’s what you’re interested in, so scroll away!

At an Office Branch, the first day of training.

The first day of training for my company took place in the beautiful area of Shinagawa, in the midst of a giant business metropolis, this day was also the shortest day of training, and lasted 6 hours not including travel time. The first half of the day is more along the lines of a brief orientation for company policy, signing the relevant forms and giving a basic overview of what their expectations will be. Basically don’t do stupid stuff while you’re in Japan and don’t be late or ill ever 😛

The second half of the day was a little bit more interesting, with an introduction to the eikaiwa teaching resources and then a step-by-step breakdown of the lesson, as they want you to teach it. They then make you demonstrate each part of the lesson on other trainees. Some of the trainees will laugh, some will freeze, some will ask questions that seem incredibly common sense, what you need to remember is to act like a teaching professional at all times. And while it may seem contradictory, don’t be afraid to try difficult things or to make mistakes in the demo! This is a steep learning curve, and it’s better to get it wrong on your fellow trainees and feel like an idiot, than it is to screw up in a lesson and feel like you’re a terrible teacher. Which you’re not 😛

To all new and aspiring teachers! Please remember to get a good night of sleep before this day, as you really need to stay sharp for the entire day, they are evaluating you throughout the day and it has an impact on your second day of training!

At a working branch, Day two of training.

This was one of the two longer workdays (9 hours each + travel). It started off with a brief recap of what we had learned of lessons the day before, and how they’re basically broken down into 5 stages.

Intro/warmer. This is where you try to encourage communication within a class, and get the students to open up to each other a little bit. In Japan this is a little bit more difficult than in the west in my opinion, as students are generally scared of failure or of being perceived as stupid. Getting them to talk about their hometown or hobbies to each other is usually a safe start.

Language- This is where the new grammar point/target language is introduced, and is repeated over and over until it sticks.

Listening- the ‘breather’ for the students, they listen to a script and have to answer some pretty simple questions on them. Generally it’s pair peer checking, then group feedback.

Practice- More of the same as in the language section, but it’s a little bit more hands off. As a teacher you set up the activity and then monitor and support when needed.

Production- the cumulation of the lesson, the students are expected to have a targeted discussion, which is focused on the specific grammar/language point. 

After this recap they give you a hour to plan a lesson, during which time the instructor is available to give suggestions to your plan/ to let you demo it. However once you get into the classroom, it’s all on you. There is another teacher there to bail you out if you do freeze or something, but that’s more for the student’s sake than yours. After the class there is a feedback session, so you have targets to improve for next time. There are an average of 3 lessons on this day, but never less than 2 from what I can gather. (at least for my eikaiwa!)

Teaching more adults! The third (and final) day of adult training!

On this day there are 2 more supervised lessons, and then a lengthy talk about student ability testing/ how to rank them up within the company grading system. The tests are pretty standard, but unlike many that most of you have seen/ will have sat, these tests are completely communicative, which makes it firstly faster, (less than 30 minutes) and secondly pretty biased, as many students don’t speak English much day-to-day. This means that they get placed a bit lower than their probable ability (Again, in my opinion). Then there is a mock testing of a student so you can practice what you just learned. After a few more contract-y things and handshakes you’re done. You are now a qualified English-speaking professional!….apparently

Note- you still need more training to teach kids 😛 Another post to follow on that topic at some point!

Overall I’d say that the training was kind of adequate, it gives non-teachers a very, very basic grounding but if you don’t do the legwork before your lessons the first week or so you will suffer. And that’s not a good thing for you or the students. If you can cope with reading boring books I’d suggest Harmer’s “The Practice of English Language Teaching” even if you just get it and skim it, it’s very informative and it’s one of the reasons I found the training so easy to deal with. 😛

Anyway I hope you enjoyed this post! I know the teaching ones won’t be for everyone. There’s another one coming soonish that’s a funny story, so watch this space!

So today was a really awesome day!

It started off with my finding one of the training buildings for my Eikaiwa chain in Shinagawa and meeting up with one of my friends for lunch. Shinagawa is a really beautiful area with lots of wonderful buildings, it also helped with the day being so beautiful and sunny!

After Shinagawa we went to Shibuya and then walked all the way to Harajuku. I was really impressed by the amount of diverse looks people had there, but my friend had warned me that it was an area for kids, and he was right. It’s definitely worth a little wander around the area though. So behind Harajuku station there are two quite famous sights, one of which will be getting it’s own post shortly 😉 but no spoilers!

The other place, Yoyogi park (代々木公園-Yoyogi Koen) was really beautiful, even though it is only spring! I’ll definitely be visiting it a few times throughout the year to see how it changes with the seasons. One thing I noticed in the park was just how peaceful it was, like Hyde park in London it’s amazing to see a place of such relaxation surviving in the centre of Tokyo! But there was one more photograph that I couldn’t resist taking and here it is!

Hanami (花見- Flower Viewing) Is a festival observed late March/ early April around Tokyo. It’s a festival where people gather under the cherry blossom trees to drink and eat with their friends and colleagues. Once it’s true cherry blossom season I’ll post a full entry about it, but for now I’ll leave you with this picture and a promise of more to follow!

Thanks for reading 🙂