Monthly Archives: November 2012

初雪 はつゆき

What’s 初雪[はつゆき] Hatsu Yuki ? It means the first time of snow in a year. There is no such a term in English, yet Japanese people see first snowing as an important thing so they invented such a term.

In my town which is close to Sendai仙台, I experienced the the first snow yesterday in the school when I was outside trying to move my bike to another spot. At first, I just saw something a little bigger than drizzles falling from the sky. I took a closer look and found they were more than drizzles, but ice patches with a little bit of whitish color. And I realized it is the first snow this year- the very first one I see since coming to Japan.

Since it was recess time, kids were running around on the campus. Everyone got so excited when they saw the snow. Many of them were yelling out loud ‘It’s snowing’ in Japanese.

Yes, I was yelling too, in my heart: ‘IT’S 初雪 Hatsu Yuki!’

Cleverest scales

It takes tones of time and patience when it comes to teaching kids Math at home. Whenever you ask to do Math exercises, objections usually come. Every mom has their own Bible which details all the ways they have ever used, those that work and those that do not. Even if they listen to you and get started, it doesn’t mean that they will finish everything. They may get bored by the tedious Math questions, be drawn to the cartoon programmes on TV or comic books, video games, Barbie dolls…

Cleverest monkey on earth?

Wouldn’t it be amazing if you can put your feet up while your kids will finish all the Math drills for the day? Or, if you are in a teacher, your students will forget about playing with their cell phone under the desk and get interested in your teaching once you show them this.

I happened to find it last week in the toys department of a grocery store.

How does it work?

It’s super simple and easy to use. Even kids as little as 3 or 4 year old will figure it with only a little assistance. In the package, it comes with a money scales, plastic numbers from 1 to 9. The job for player is to find the suitable numbers so the scales won’t tit to either side. That’s it! It also comes with a handbook teaching you how to use it. Though it is in Japanese, the pictures and numbers are more than enough to tell you all you need to know in order to use it.

What makes it special?

Without doubt, this toy certainly grabs the attention from kids and they will love playing with it [and learning] without any pain involved. Yet, the biggest advantage is that kids can tell if they have got their answer correct by looking at the pointer, whether it is pointing at the equal sign or the cross sign. It doesn’t use any batteries either. It means that you can take it anywhere and use it, when you are on the plane, in the library, restaurant, etc

Want it to arrive at your door? We now accept orders and it is just 5USD [or equivalent other currency], shipping and handling included!

Don’t want your kids to waste their time over the Christmas holidays? Place your order before 10 December and you will get it by Christmas Day!

We accept Paypal and bank transfer.

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Heaters in Japan

If you have been to any Japanese home in winter, you may have noticed the nasty smell once you stepped in. Compared with other countries, Japanese people prefer kerosene heater to electric/ radiation type.

Why kerosene heater?

I was in a little chat with Komori sensei小森先生 [the teacher sitting in front of me] today. She said that because electricity is quite expensive in Japan so the bill can go way high if you use electric heater, kerosene heater is the mainstream. Yet, it still costs you at least 2000 yen for the fuel each month!

8pm or pm8?

In one of the 6th grade classes last week, it talked about time difference and time expressions. When it came to telling the different expressions of day and night time, we touched on am and pm.

We use am and pm every day to tell whether it is day or night time, but the way that it is expressed in the east seems quite different and it is one of the most common errors I have ever seen in my professional life.  9 times out of 10, I will see am/ pm put before the time. Say, 8o’clock at night, they put it pm 8, which is really annoying to me.

Because this error is way too prevalent and seems to be so commonly accepted, as a teacher, I thought I had the responsibility to clarify it at that moment. So I told the students the ads in various media are wrong because they put am / pm before the time, though it can be seen everywhere every day. But, Japanese homeroom teacher defended for this immediately. She told the students that there are two ways to use am and pm, putting am/pm after the time is western and the other way is Japanese. This is one of the biggest jokes I have ever heard of. Yet I have never ever seen any native speakers putting it that way.

Anyway, what gets me really upset is that as a teacher, she rather let the students learn the wrong thing than admit this is wrong to put am/ pm before the time! No wonder Japanese people score one of the lowest in public English testings such as IELTS, TOEFL, even after having introduced native English teachers into their classrooms for 20 years or so! I guess the prospect that Japanese people will speak and write proper English one day is quite bleak, as long as they still think their English is always right and it is fine to use pm8.

Do I really look like that?

A girl in one of my classes drew a picture of me during the lesson and gave it to me. I was so touched though it is not the first time I am given such a picture.

Say me fuzzy. Same as other pictures the other kids have drawn me, the conversion rate seems poor. I guess the first thing I wish for my Christmas present is eye surgery – I just don’t think I have got that big eyes!! 🙂

Do I really look like that?

 

You are hired because you are black!

We have heard a lot about those who teach English as a second language are hired not because of their ability in English but because of their skin color. Because of this, white people are more likely to be hired. I believe this is true to a certain extent. What about people of other skin colors, say, black people? You may be interested in the story I am going to tell you.

I was in a little chat with my boss while he was driving me home today and I learned that we have got a new teacher coming early to replace the one who was laid off two weeks ago.

Someone different this time

It came as a surprise to learn that we have got someone from Nigeria this time. Unlike the teachers before who were usually Caucasian, we have a black guy this time. Don’t get me wrong! I am not against any particular race. What came up immediately in my mind when I was told this news was: Why a black guy this time? We haven’t had any before. Japanese people are so into the United State as everyone knows. The society in general puts much focus on the States when it comes to something related to the west, newspapers, magazines, TV, books, etc. The States has got a historically high unemployment rate right now so it should be easy to get someone from there, right?

Why color outweighs qualification and experience?

After my asking about the reason, I realized that it is not because we cannot get someone from the States, but because of the fact that the last two teachers did not work out, with one vanishing overnight and the other did not pass the probation due to complaints from 4 out of the 5 schools she works at, he wanted to try something new, something different to see if it works. And because the two before were Caucasian, so he concluded that it is because of their race so this time he is trying another color. Undoubtedly, this kind of random testing based on over-generalized conclusion is precarious. I do not have idea as to whether the guy we got this time will work or not. But I am sure the company has got the whole issue wrong.

Wanna get hired? Get tanned!

The second teacher who got complaints has nothing to do with her skin color or where she is from, but because she is inexperienced and her background, being a child growing up in an affluent family makes her lack of social knowledge and awareness. So, it’s the screening process that they should review, not the skin color of the applicants. Anyways, it’s the first time I realize that being black is not a disadvantage, but an advantage. No wonder tanning salons are flourishing these days and news often comes around reporting someone almost gets killed because of prolonged tanning in these salons! Getting a darker skin color can truly raise your competitive edge on the job market! Believe it or not.

Teaching English as a second language/ Assistant Language Teacher ALT in Japan (part 3)

There are loads of self-help books out there on the market telling you how to teach, but they will not teach you what to do under a given situation in the classroom (because there are just too many possibilities), how to survive as a teacher in a completely different cultural environment.

What you see is NOT what you get WYSIWYG

Does this mean that there is nothing you can do to prepare yourself if you are new to the profession? Some people choose to take courses. Yes, taking courses may help but it is not a panacea. Many people perceive that having studied a culture for many years by taking courses, reading piles of books, etc will prepare them completely for the cultural challenges and everything will go fine, including the female teacher in our case. I still remember how much she bragged about her understanding in Japanese culture when I first met her. The thing is that books and courses often contain ideological theories more than practical work. They tend to provide you generalized, superficial information, hardly touching on actual classroom teaching in a Japanese classroom.

Having lived in countries of different cultures, I can say that you will not truly understand a culture until you have lived in a country and engaged in some activities for a year or so, such as non-voluntary type full time work. A student who pays tuition fees (or they be paid by government) will be under the protection of the school. A tourist holding cash in his hands is always greeted with overwhelming smiles and hospitality. That explains why sbeing a student or a tourist will only tell you one side of the story, denying your chances to truly experience a culture, which has got the bright and dark sides.

Worse still, there is this problem with most of the books (and sometimes courses as well) on the market: they only deliver positive messages and skip the negative things you have to be cautious of. It does not take a genius to figure out the possible reason: people are prone to accept (and purchase) something that cheers them up or get them excited. As a commercial body, sales figures always stay on top of a publisher’s agenda.

A while ago, someone from the US/ UK sent me an email, saying how much she loves Japan, its culture and people. Her major at university was Japanese and she told me she went to Kyoto (京都) and stay there for a few months a couple of years back as an exchange student. Based on the couple of months experience living in Japan as a student in hall, she said that I was mistaken about Japanese culture in some way.

All I wanna say is: living in a country for work and for study are totally two different things. We have heard millions of foreign workers in Japan complained about the terrible treatments they get, ranging from pay being docked to being laid off without any reason.
Yet, how often do you hear complaints from foreign students living or having lived overseas about the treatments they receive in the school, particularly the foreign students in Japan? As an exchange student, they are just like a customer walking into a restaurant. You pay the tuition and you become their guest. When a guest gets bad treatments, they will go and it’s the seller who suffers in the end.

Having said so much about classroom situation and things you will have to be careful about, it is time to have a walkthrough on a typical schedule as a teacher of second language in Japan:

1. Arrive at school 5- 10 minutes early
2. You will usually not be given any lesson for the first period. Take the time to prepare for the first lesson on 2nd period
3. 2nd or 3rd period:

You walk into the classroom and the にっちょくさん(The student on duty that day) in the class will announce something like this ‘二校時の英語の勉強を始めます。れい！’. Students and you will have to bow to each other. Then, the lesson starts. If it is the first lesson, you will have to introduce yourself. You can talk about your country regarding the food, drinks, sports, life style, anything you like so as to let you know more about each other. Since I have lived in different countries, I usually tell them what I have experienced in these countries one by one and it takes loads of time!

4. Having done a few lessons you’re getting a bit tired so it’s time for lunch. Probably you have heard numerous foreign teachers in Japan saying the lunch time with students is the most stupid moment they have ever had in their life. I agree in part  During lunch time, you will be arranged to go into one of the classrooms you teach during that day to eat with students. A team of students responsible will prepare the food for everyone. At this time, you will have nothing to do. You can watch how they prepare the food. You can chat with the other students. You can volunteer to help out. Entirely up to you.
5. When everyone has been given their lunch, it’s time to eat. A student will come to the front and announce that it’s time to eat by saying ‘いただきます’. Everyone will put their hands together like what Buddhists do so while they say it. You just do the same. After that, you can start eating.
6. When it’s time to finish the meal, a student will announce ‘ごちそうさまでした’. Everyone puts their hands together again as before and lunch time is finished. Students will start putting their plates and utensils back to the tray. You just do the same.
7. After that, it’s time to brush teeth. Everyone, including the HRT, will take out their toothbrush and a cup and they will start brushing their teeth in front of everyone in the class though it sounds a bit weird (and disgusting I reckon). At the same time, they will put on a teeth brushing song. When the song is done, it means the time is up and they will go to the sink outside the classrooms to gargle. You can skip brushing and gargling if you don’t want to do so. They totally understand there may not be such a habit for people in other countries so they will not expect you to do that.

8. After brushing teeth, it is either rest time or cleaning time. The sequence of depends on the school. When it comes to rest time, the time is yours. But, schools willbe happy to see their foreign teachers play with their students. For cleaning time, students will clean the whole school according to tasks assigned on that day. School won’t tell you to clean with students but they will appreciate it if you do so, or pretend to do so!
9. There is about 5mins before the 5th period starts, usually speaking, after the cleaning time. If you do not have a class, you will be sitting in the staff room and doing your things. But, it doesn’t mean that you can do whatever you want including reading your favourite novel or checking your email. It’s your working hour so you are prohibited from doing anything which is not or may not be absolutely related to your work.
10. Time flies and it’s the time you finish work today. You will need to ask 教頭先生‘Kyouto sensei’ [head teacher] to stamp on your roaster sheet to prove that you work on that day.　Who is the head teacher? It is the one sitting in the middle amongst the three on a long desk in the staff room! You can just tell he is the biggest as he can oversee everyone and every corner in the room from where he sits.

Typically, you will be given a maximum of 4 lessons a day. Sometimes less than that because of school activities or 2 lessons being combined into 1. I have been given 2 lessons in a day for a few times : )
I hope this Teaching English as a second language series will help anyone who is new to the profession. Lastly, if you find the information useful, please pass it on to anyone you might know.
Enjoy your teaching in Japan!

Goods ordering service

There has been an increasing number of readers asking me to order things for them in Japan . The reason is that most of the companies in Japan, whether online or not, will not ship their products overseas. The other reason is because of the language barrier. Though online business has been flourishing for years in Japan, most of these sites only support Japanese language.

How much do you charge?

The very first question that pops up in your mind is possibly: how much do you charge for the service?

Total cost = [price of goods * exchange rate] + shipping cost

Why so cheap?

If you have ever used any goods ordering services, you may find this one charges you the lowest. But why? How can we make it so cheap?

Reason:

Since this business is running in small scale, costs can be saved to a minimum such as water and electricity bills, staffing, and all other hefty overhead costs that usually put a heavy burden on a typical company, which in turn, means higher prices of goods.

Reliable?

There have been over hundreds of readers of my blog that I have helped ordering goods and there has been no complain thus far. If any problem does occur, I will do my best to fix it so you do not have to worry about the safety of your purchases.

Payment

We are open to any payment methods and you may suggest your own! These days, most our customers use Paypal, which is one of the safest, most convenient, and low cost method.

Language barrier? No problem!

If you ever find anything of your interest but do not understand what it says in Japanese, ASK US! We will translate it to you til you feel 100% comfortable!

Questions and quotes? Ask us at:
chris chris guitar[one word no space!]@gmail.com

Enjoy your shopping!

Teaching English as a second language/ Assistant Language Teacher ALT in Japan (part 3)

Sitting on the desk and yawning

Another issue that brings up to the end of her contract is concerned with manners. Japan is a very traditional society whose people place a high importance on manners.

Let me ask you some questions and you will get it.

Have you ever seen any Japanese wearing thongs walking in the street? Have you met any Japanese who obviously has done something wrong to you / others yet didn’t or refuse to apologize?


Sitting on the desk and yawning in front of students does not mean much in other cultures, yet it means the world to Japanese people. Students will be surprised if you drink (anything) in front of them while the lesson is going. They will be shocked if you sit on the desk and yawn in front of them while you are talking to them. The whole thing goes terrible (and irreversible) if you wave your hand in front of your face as you are yawning. The HRT in the same class co-teaching with you will be dumbfounded and get very upset because he / she thinks you are very unprofessional. The image of a teacher being a role model they have been trying to build is destroyed bys You!

I am lucky enough to have got both eastern and western culture in myself. But , to be completely honest with you, with my eastern culture and having lived in Asian countries for many years, there are still so many things happened on me I can’t get it while I am in Japan. Japan has got a unique system in many aspects.

Unsaid rules

Except for not sitting on the desk and yawning in front of students, not drinking during the lesson, there are millions of other unsaid rules in Japan and Japanese classroom.
For instance:
1) You cannot sit on someone else’s chair because it is not yours

2) Though it may say you are an orderly and neat person in your culture, you cannot stack up your dishes after finishing your meal

3) When something shows up on TV at lunch time, you will have to turn to face the TV, even if it means that you will have to stop eating because you are not sitting facing the screen

4) When a given time is intended for a certain activity, you can only be engaged in that activity. You cannot do any other things. For example, during cleaning time after lunch, you must do cleaning only. You aren’t allowed to take pictures with students, even though you may have already finished your work early. You will have to wait until the cleaning time is up! Computer in school is for teaching material preparation only! Checking email, general browsing activities are all prohibited. Your browsing history will be tracked. Sites which are not related to work purposes are mostly blocked. Printers are also only for printing work related materials.

5) To show you are part of the group, you should eat the lunch provided by the school and finish everything without any leftover, no matter how disgusting it may taste to you and how fed up you are with the same kind of food every day. Don’t even think about eating self-prepared lunch while everyone else is eating the school lunch with you in the same classroom. You will be busted!!! [I still remember the teacher raised her eyebrow above her head when I raised this idea : ]

6) You are not allowed to drink (or eat) [even water!] in/ on many places and occasions, such as classroom while lesson is going, bookstore, library, clothing store, etc. Cinema is an exception, though you will only be allowed to eat and drink those you can purchase there.

7) Japanese people are generally very frugal. They are very thrifty with resources. They usually unplug an electrical good after using it so as to save energy. In the school, photocopying can only be done on strictly necessary situations. While you use the photocopy machine, the maximum limit is 20 pages only. You are required to book it when you do it for over 20 so students will pay at the end of the month. In the pantry, you will find coffee, tea and drinks. If you use any of these, you will have to pay ‘tea money’. Also, the lunch you eat with students daily in the classroom will cost you about 280yen and you will have to pay too.

These are just tip of the iceberg. There are millions of others out there I have not bumped into or been told. The golden rule is: always watch the students and do exactly what they do and it won’t go too far.

Teacher, role model, salutation

In contrast to the west, teachers in Japan generally enjoy a higher status. How can we tell? Well, it’s in the Japanese language and the ways you are treated as a teacher. As compared with the west where doctors (Dr.) and professors (Prof.) generally are more respected, enjoy a higher social status and bear a special title whereas teachers are simply greeted with ‘Mr/ Miss’, which is used with anyone, teachers in Japan are greeted with the same title as doctors and professors, which is ‘sen-sei 先生’. The society, in general, gives a high regard on, and expectations from, teachers. Teachers are expected to display a very high degree of self-discipline. That explains why sitting on the desk and yawning while the lesson is going is against the rules, is unacceptable in the Japanese society.

Teachers take the role of passing knowledge on to students whereas in Japan, teachers also have the responsibility of being a role model for students.