what experience is necessary?

[Josh_]

hi all. im planning to go to fukuoka at the start of next year to do a few months of japanese language school, after which i intend to support myself with teaching english. i was wondering what experience is necessary to get either private students, or work with an eikaiwa or school/primary school. at the moment im thinking of doing something like a JET programme so that i can get training/familiarity with teaching english, and can therefore handle any private classes comfortably.
what i was wondering is if anyone has done this already, whether they did have any prior experience, and whether it is possibly to just go straight into teaching?

any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks.

Josh

[dmr214]

Hi Josh,

From what I understand about JET you need to be recruited from outside of Japan, they don't take people living inside of Japan. I've never taught English before in Japan but I would think you can pick up private students pretty easily. My friends don't have a lot of experience and they make good money.

[Belton]

Teaching isn't as easy as it seems. Being a good teacher requires a lot of skill and preparation.

Although being a native speaker means you can speak English well, it doesn't necessarily mean you can teach it.

I would suggest doing a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course.
This should give you pointers in how to run a lesson and how to turn your ability to speak English into some ability to teach non-natives. The less they know the harder it is I would think. The certification might impress an employer as well.

Knowledge of the pupils language is very useful. Both in terms of explaining to them in their own language and knowing about their concepts of how language works.

[Josh_]

thanks, i was thinking about possibly doing something like that. ill look it up in australia.

[dmr214]

I know maybe 50 or 60 English teachers here in Tokyo and not one has any experience and teaches just fine. If you make an effort and want your students to learn then they will learn. No need to take an extra class. How many JETS do you think took an actual teaching class? Their training program is THREE DAYS. If Jet thinks thats enough and it's a pretty good program then why should you worry so much?

Sure you can spend your time doing a teaching class, but are you going to be a teacher forever? Do you need to make that kind of investment in yourself to each English in Japan?? Do Japanese people know what that class is if you put it in a resume in English? (Probably not)

Don't waste your time. Just start teaching.

[peace123]

From what I've been told by my friends who have worked in Japan as teachers, you only really need (or it would help if you had) experience or a TEFL course behind you if you plan to move beyond a JET or NOVA program at some point, or just get a better teaching job in general. If you only want to go to Japan for a year or two with JET then you don't really need anything other than a your degree.

[Belton]

People on the JET program are ALTs. Classroom Assistants not teachers. The teacher takes the responsibility for how the class is run, lesson plans, how things are taught etc.
Mind you the smart ALTs should go away with valuable classroom experience.

(3 whole days? I can see why there was talk in some areas of using the resources spent on JET on training indigenous English teachers instead. )

I'd suggest Japanese adult learners might be better off cutting out the middleman, getting a CD course and book, listening to podcasts and getting a language partner who would have a similar knowledge and ability to most untrained native speakers.

But yeah, it seems it's a fairly big market, so you can just hang up your shingle and off you go. I guess it's for rent and beer money rather than a career choice.

I'd also say this. People will be handing over their presumably hard earned cash and their time. They deserve value.
When you went looking for a language teacher what were you looking for? What abilities and qualities did you expect them to have? What were you paying for? Why did you seek out a teacher rather than do it yourself? Did you experience the difference between a teacher and a native speaker friend trying to teach you?
The people you've met that are good teachers, why did they make that impression on you? And I suppose what made the bad teachers such poor teachers?

The good teachers I've met are enthusiastic about their subject and can infect others with this enthusiasm. They don't make things up as they go along, they have a plan and are prepared. Their enthusiasm for teaching, as distinct from their subject, means they try to find good ways to teach. It might be training, it might be reading, it might be by being a pupil themselves.

Here's another idea. Have a go at teaching English to someone while you're still in Australia. It might help you figure out what you might or might not need to do to be an itinerant language teacher. And how difficult or easy it is to teach.

Good luck in your plans for Japan.

[Belton]

PS
you might also find this site helpful or interesting.
http://www.eltnews.com/guides/teaching/ ... ide1.shtml

[Josh_]

thanks so much for the feedback guys, really helpful. i guess its hard to know exactly how things will work until you get there. only, once you get there, you cant apply for JET, hehe :\