The Reason I'm In Japan

“Teacher, teacher, teacher.” This is the way that my two favourite students get my attention during their lesson. In return I repeat their names back at them. The funny thing is both of these students are 11 or 12 and they know what my name is, but still like to repeat the word teacher to me.

Tanja sensei

I’ve been teaching in Japan now for just over 5 months and haven’t yet detailed how the job that I am being paid to do is actually working out. I work at an eikaiwa, which is a private English speaking school; they have these all across Japan. I work with kids and help them to improve their conversation English.

Did you think I was in Japan for the food and the sites? Nope I'm working here and really enjoying it.

As with all jobs there are good days and bad days, with my job it’s more like there are bad classes and good classes. I do have to say that the majority of my classes are good and I always enjoy teaching them, but I do have those few that make it hard.

I teach at four different schools, 3 in my city and one in another. If I had to rank them in terms of enjoyment I would say three I enjoy going to and really look forward to teaching and the other one well let’s just say that I won’t miss going there or any of the students.

Since I really can’t talk about students or the curriculum on here I guess I can give you a sort of overview of my days and how I teach.

I am lucky in that I have a fairly light teaching schedule, I work about 3 days a week doing actual teaching and the other two are used as office/prep days (or they I can be called in to do coverage for someone who is sick). My teaching days usually have 3 classes and I start around 5pm and I go to about 8:30pm, which isn’t too bad when at home I’d be working 8-hour days. I am at the classroom about 45 minutes before my lesson though doing prep for the classes that day, such as pulling out class sheets or organizing my activities.

The first students arrive about 5 minutes before the lesson and right away we get into work. I check homework and then begin my lessons. I teach them using the classroom materials provided by the company. To help them understand and enjoy the lessons I create games for them to play, the games have them using the English that they are learning. The games make the classes fun for me and for them, I really love seeing the kids getting into the racing games especially, cheering each other on and laughing as they watch their fellow students run.

I teach kids from ages 2-15 and that makes my teaching styles different for each lesson. It also means that the English levels vary and so do attitudes.

With the youngest of my students I sometimes feel more babysitter than teacher, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t getting a base of English words. The young ones are also the ones that I am most hyperactive with just to keep up with their energy.

The kids between 6-11 are the ones with the ones with the attitudes. The ones that are younger tend to be more of the distracted hyper attitude, while the older ones are more of the ignoring or talking back attitude. With these ages I have to be more of a disciplinarian in my lessons, just to get through and to make sure that the kids are participating. The lessons are still fun, but at the same time these ones are more intensive with actual lesson work and practicing and using English. This age group is also where you can see the students that are going to excel in English and those that aren’t. It also identifies those whose parents really want them to work hard and make them practice at home, and those who think that just sending them to eikaiwa will be some miracle and their child will just know English.

Those that are between 12-15 are the students that are already in Junior High and have been exposed to English on a more regular basis. These are also the students that have been going to eikaiwa for the longest time. I also enjoy teaching the students of this age because they tend to have a better grasp of the English language and are less likely wanting to be running around during the lesson so I can do more subdued word or card games. These also tend to be the most “text” heavy lessons as the students are not only practicing speaking, but also reading and writing as well.

At my favourite school for Halloween Lesson

As you can see my teaching days are varied and I have to switch gears between the classes. Though I can’t say anything specific about students I will talk a little about my favourite school.

This school has the students that are the most proficient in English, from the youngest to the oldest. There are a few that struggle and there are a few troublemakers that I won’t miss when I get home, but overall I look forward going to the school each month. Apparently the parents at this school are also the ones that are the most interested in making sure that their kids are learning English so they practice at home and I heard that all the parents enjoyed my lessons and thought I was doing a great job, some even said better than my predecessor. This is also the school that has my favourite students, two boys who are jokers and make me laugh when they come into the class, they also love to try and show off the fact that they are learning to shuffle and do a bridge weave with the cards. The class that these two boys are in is one of my largest and every one of the students is good at English and I always have a great time during the lesson. I also feel the most welcomed to join in with jokes and break time with this class. The high level of understanding from the classes with the junior high students also means that I can talk to the students about things that interest them and talk to them about non-lesson topics.

One of my favourite students during summer school

I know that when I get home I will remember this school and will miss teaching these kids. I can only hope that all the kids from that school will one day be in jobs where they get to use all the English that they are practicing or travel to English speaking countries and be able to communicate well.

Overall the job is great and I’ve loved teaching. Being here and working with kids has cemented my desire to get home and go to teacher’s college and be able to teach in Ontario.