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[yatagarosu-blog]

Giving Credit where Credit is Due

Woowee is this quite an adventure! At the time of writing this, I’ve been in Japan for just shy of 7 months and the fact I haven’t died yet (actually I’m doing quite well) is largely due to some key people. So what better way to start off my blog than to give thanks?

First, shout outs to Tawa-sensei and the rest of the Japanese department at my college for preparing me for here. I was ready to quit after two years of that hell but I pulled through and am so better off for it. Sure my kanji reading is still utter trash and formal study can never prepare you for the amount of accents and slang you encounter on the daily but I am at such an advantage for being even partially fluent in the language, from a work perspective, daily life perspective, and social perspective. I’ll go into details later but I just wanted to say thank you to the lovely ladies who put up with me for four years!

Now for the lady that’s put up with me for 23 years. I cannot adequately express how much I owe to, nor how much I love my mother. She has been my motivation, my comfort, and my inspiration for as long as I know. I strive to make her proud each and every day and while I’m sure she misses me more, I do miss her. She’s sacrificed so much for my betterment and my happiness. That’s not to say I’ve peaked, oh no. I will continue to strive for bigger and better things, and continue to make her proud of me and happy. I love you.

Now that my preface is complete, time for me to actually get to posting some content! I’ll get to work on that whenever I have time (which is always and never). Stay tuned!

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9 Reasons I won’t Hire You After JET: A Response

So this article showed up in my circles on Facebook and of course with a title like that, why wouldn’t I click and read? I immediately regretted my choice.

To start, points 3 to 9 have a tangential relation at most to any sort of ALT position (JET is one of the most recognizable ALT programs but their name can be substituted with any other program in this case). In fact, points 3 t 9 have a tangential relation to ANY position. These are not issues exclusive to ALT participants in Japan. I could title this “congratulations on getting your MBA now here are 7 reasons why I won’t hire you” and nothing changes.  

But let’s focus on points 1 and 2. “You had the easiest job on the planet.” I can’t speak for everyone, but based on articles like this, this, this and this, teachers are underappreciated, underpaid, and with several shortages of late, overworked. Couple that with teaching English in a foreign country where you most likely have an imperfect grasp of the Japanese language (if you grasp it at all) and STILL try to teach to students of often varying levels (though generally poor) of proficiency with coworkers of varying levels of proficiency, within a rigid educational system at a school you had little to no say in being placed at and one might think that a statement such as “You had the easiest job on the planet” is not only insulting, but a blatant lie. My friend Kome has 12 schools she teaches at of varying distances away from her home. I asked her if she could negotiate to balance her schools out with the new ALT that just entered mid-year. She said it is balanced; the new ALT has 13 schools. I won’t go into details on the numerous problems that causes in teaching in general but I believe I’ve given adequate evidence to debunk the point.

Continuing, the article questions how anyone who’s immersed themselves in the culture could come away from the program without being able to pass at least N2. I would love to meet the person who can pass the N2 after a year or two of living here. Hell, I’d love to meet the person who lived in any country for two years with no prior experience and can pass that language’s equivalent test while still working five days a week and trying to deal with the intricacies of everyday life in a language you don’t speak. And unless you speak Chinese, the sight of kanji should be enough to make you visibly cringe. I studied Japanese for four years at a reputable college. My speaking ability is at a comfortable enough level, but figuring out the shape, usage, and reading of a kanji is not something that shows up regularly in my day to day outside of students’ names. And even that’s not always accurate.

The most bothersome part of this article however, is the flippant tone the author takes. This was never meant to be some advice to ALTs looking to stay in Japan and work after their session. This, I believe, was written as an attack against their profession, weak as it may be. I would honestly characterize the tone as some middle-aged adult frustrated and lashing out against the up-and-coming millennial crowd and actively trying to keep them down. The question I have though is “why?” Why as a website that promotes itself as the place to go for jobs in Japan would you attack the one group you most rely on for jobs in Japan? In my idle time on the site, I saw about ten jobs pop up on their “Latest Jobs” feed. 9 of those 10 were for English teaching positions of some degree. Too bad I think of myself as a unique person. I suppose I’ll go back to preparing my students for university.    

[listentothestories]

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[myfairylily]

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[freshbrewedlife]

Janice Armstrong | @gatheredthreads

[yatagarosu-blog]

The ALT RPG

Hey folks, Yata here! What better way to log the progress of my 日本生活 than like an RPG character? I have discerned 6 key stats that an Assistant Language Teacher must have to be successful (strictly subjective mind you). If any of you are doing a similar blog or just want to see how you would compare, please feel free to use this rubric:

Discipline: A teacher’s ability to control the class

Endurance: A teacher’s ability to handle the pressures of a vastly foreign society without wanting to snap

Intelligence: A teacher’s raw knowledge and their ability to convey that knowledge in a way for the students to understand

Patience: A teacher’s ability to handle the idiosyncrasies of the students and teachers at the workplace without wanting to snap

Efficiency: A teacher’s ability to keep organized, plan, and manage time effectively

Charm: A teacher’s likeability, and ability to keep the class entertained and their coworkers interested

 Now, for the purposes of simplicity, let’s say all values for a first year ALT start at 5. In addition to that, to account for differences in experience and personality, I am going to allow 5 free points to be assigned to any of the 6 stats, as well as three perks. Perks, while nice, are not always positive mind you…

 Yata

Dis: 5

End: 5

Int: 5 +3 (I would like to think I have a fair amount of intelligence)

Pat: 5 +1 (I have a little more patience than the average person)

Eff: 5

Cha: 5 +1 (I at least try to be friendly haha)

 Now the perks

Exotic (Black): Mild bonus to discipline, mild bonus to charm. Side effect: everyone thinks you play a sport. (dis +2, cha +2, pat -1)

Random Knowledge: Has all this knowledge about a variety of subjects. Just may not be the subject at hand (int +3, eff -1)

Japanese level (Intermediate): While you’re by no means fluent and kanji still makes you cry, you are able to speak enough of the language that both students and faculty alike go “すごい！” (cha +2, end +2)

 After some mild calculations, these are my starting stats!

 Yata

Dis: 7

End: 7

Int: 10

Pat: 5

Eff: 4

Cha: 8

 Hmm my charm looks a lot higher than I personally feel but I’m going to chalk it up to being in a foreign country and not being worn down by stereotypes and shit like I’m used to in the US. My efficiency however looks right on target.

From here on out, any events I share will have a stat modifier attached to them, and maybe even a little more. Let’s see if I can become the best of the best (not likely), or if I reach the point of wanting to burn the entire school to the ground (somewhat likely). The adventure is just beginning.

[myfairylily]

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