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 Quote:
Originally posted by Ocean11:
> Why would you fire me?

Because you can't reliably write an English sentence.
Because you think that you are qualified to produce, administer and test a curriculum based on your degree in something else.
Because you don't look beyond what your managers specifically require of you.
Because I suspect you have yet to develop a work ethic.

Any one of those alone would be reason enough.
-I teach conversation and this is an internet forum where I don't really give a flying **** what my english looks like.
-Glad your not my boss and I feel sorry for anybody you ever manage
-Why would I do extra work?????? I don't like work. Who does?
-And the last one- Hmmm. **** work. I'll be going home in an hour or two.
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I like and enjoy my work, and I do more than is asked of me.

 

Ocean11 would seriously be the manager from hell! (if he were ever lucky enough to advance to being able to be in a position to manage people apart from your family)

 

\:D

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If only Japanese people had the choice between a real teacher and you, which would they choose? Which would you choose Toque?

 

> -Why would I do extra work?????? I don't like work. Who does?

 

I know the answers to those questions even if you don't yet.

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You're so clever.

 

I'm glad you take such care in whatever you and other people post on an internet forum. The attention to detail when it's not necessary some might find admirable, I'd say it was a waste of time. Nothing better to do?? wakaranai.gif Do you have a job?

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It's not so much that they don't have a choice as it is that qualified teachers don't want to come over here to make less money than they already make teaching at home. Maybe if they raised to income of JETs more "Real" teachers would choose to come over here.

 

And I worded one of my things wrong way up top on this page. I do like my job and it is work. Does that mean that I like work? I guess it does. Would I choose to not work if I didn't have to? Hell Yah \:\)

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I'd like to hear a recent opinion too.

 

Many years ago, after negotiating with Board of Education people in Osaka (formerly English and science teachers), we had a few drinks and they dropped the bureaucratic mask and lamented that they could do nothing about the JET program even though it obviously didn't deliver. They wanted to be able to hire qualified teachers of any nationality and any age, but they weren't allowed to. It may be objected that that is exactly what we wanted to hear, but it didn't make it easier for them that we knew they thought that next time we met them with their bureaucratic mask up... plus they were too drunk not to tell the truth.

 

As far as they were concerned, if Japanese education was going to compete with education in the international arena, the JET program would have to go.

 

I wonder how many JETs have read the documents establishing the JET program and the relevant employment law, and have talked with educators responsible for policy, and with Japanese teachers who have been fighting all their professional lives to raise first their own level, then that of education as a whole. I certainly didn't set out to do that, but that's what happened when I got curious about why I was lined up for a shafting...

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No AET, I didn't get shafted, that's the point. I got on the phone, organized 52 largely apolitical people from different parts of the world into a union, persuaded them to adopt a common platform, then shafted right back. I also had a very good time doing it. My partners in founding the union also included a few ex-JETs who were also qualified teachers. They realized JET stinks, and rightly pushed for professional development as a major demand.

 

Nice try at ad-hominem there. Shame it doesn't stick. (And I have enough humility to doubt my capacity for business management, even if I do know a thing or two about organizing political action.)

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Same pay and conditions as JETs, same limitation on employment except canning after 5 years instead of 3. Same case by case application of working conditions. Same lack of interest and funding of professional development. Same examples of unmediated friction between Japanese and foreigners.

 

We joined with a Japanese union and held negotiations and media events. It wasn't hard to hold the JET system up to ridicule, and some of the media were helpful in providing support. The Japanese unions also have some very clever and dedicated people working in them. There was no absolute victory, although we got some significant changes. The 52 out of 54 people that joined us, in spite of the most elaborate and irrational fears, had a good taste of joint political action.

 

In the end though, everybody lost because conditions in education are worse now than they used to be. And in spite of abundant evidence that it is a completely wasteful failure, the JET program and its imitators march on into the internationalized future. I thought I had got out of it completely, but now I realize that AET, Toque and co. are there to 'do their best' with my son, the same urge to grab the loud-hailer comes upon me...

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Ocean,

 

There are not enough fully trained and fully motivated teachers in our own home countries, why are you so shocked that they`re not here either?

 

I agree that JET in particular and the ALT system in general could be a hell of a lot better, for everyone involved. Your last post sounds pretty spot on, but in most jobs in most parts of the world you would be lucky to even get someone `to do their best`.

 

Japanese schools have plenty of trained english teachers. What they need are teachers with english ability and the confidence to use it. Until this happens anything is a stop-gap solution. The JET program is a blatant example of this.

 

Obviously, trained teachers with english as their first language would be ideal. It`s just impractical. They`d have to be trained in the Japanese Education System; have an effective supervisor (or have a decent level of language and cultural fluency); and be motivated to spend at least a few years here. This surely adds up to a HUGE price tag, one that is at least as overblown as the JET program`s.

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connackers,

 

I had excellent French and German teachers at my bog standard British state school. One of my French teachers was actually French. We also had 'assitantes' - hoighty-toity French female university students who came in and did a few turns every month. Ironically, although they were touted as being very good from the point of view of the culture that was supposed to rub off onto us, they were a complete waste of time because they never taught anything and weren't really expected to. (But they did stimulate most of the lads to hope they might be the one to get a bit of French culture rubbed off on themselves. \:D )

 

But how did my French and German teachers get to be such flamboyantly good speakers? By going to live in those countries and doing the assistant thing.

 

The reason so many Japanese teachers of English feel that the JET program is a kick in the teeth for them is that they wonder why the money spent on airline tickets, apartments, recruiting, and parties for JETs isn't spent on them. Instead of going to benefit undecided young people from other countries, they can plainly see that it would be better spent on themselves, who have committed themselves to a career already. And some of them, even right out in the sticks, are sophisticated enough to see that it only perpetuates the ridiculous idea that Japan somehow needs to 'internationalize', whatever that may be.

 

If all the money spent on JET was spent on Japanese teachers instead, the results would become apparent in just a few years. Whereas the JET program has been going for years and years, and yet you still hear things like 'supervisors don't know what to do with me'. Of course they wouldn't have that problem with a real teacher who had been through the full training.

 

I'm not talking about achieving perfection, and I begrudge JET AETs nothing whatsoever (although most of them begrudge me my views). I'm just suggesting that there are better ways of spending the money that are more likely to deliver something of value.

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Without knowing too much about the subject and not having too much of a strong opinion either way --- isn't the idea of the Jet program to enable all those lovely little Japanese brats the chance to meet and interact with non-Japanese people, and at the same time start to be able to communicate with them in the school environment? That would not be achieved with Japanese teachers having experience overseas (but of course I can see the large good in that - just trying to make a different point here)

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Well, you know, you might wonder, and you might even go over to the Official JET Program(me) website to find out ... only you won't find out because it doesn't say.

 

Another website says "The JET Programme aims to promote internationalisation at the local level by inviting young overseas graduates to assist in international exchange and foreign language education in local governments, boards of education and junior and senior high schools throughout Japan. It seeks to foster ties between Japanese citizens (mainly youth) and JET participants at the person to person level."

 

So you have to do bukatsu. That settles it. Otherwise the internationalisation wouldn't get fully promoted.

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Why should we participate in club activities?

 

I don't get the respect from teachers and students. I am lower in scenority than even the tea/lunch ladies. If a student messes up and accidently calls me Matt Sensei the entire class errupts in laughter. Even my JTE's only call me Matt Sensei which is my first name.

 

And I don't get a big bonus at the end of the year which is rumoured to be given to "Real" Japanese teachers. Is this true?

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I can`t understand how it is that most japanese english teachers have never spent a significant amount of time in an english speaking country. I would be surprised if the reason is entirely to do with JET. Why is it not part of the university course? I think it has a lot to do with the general attitude of japanese people to foreigners and foreign countries. After all when the JET program was put in place it was back in the day when the Japanese government had enough money at its disposal to instigate both options.

 

If it is a choice between sending teachers to an english speaking country to study, or flying out `teachers` from those countries the best option is obvious. That`s what i mean by JET being a stop-gap solution.

 

My point is that compared to this problem, the issue of whether JETs or their equivalents should actually be trained teachers, is not such an issue.

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I think we should do bukatsu. It`s a good opportunity for us to get involved and actually have fun with the children, who on the whole only play up to impress their mates, not to take the piss out of you. Also doing more than the precise elements in our job description is any easy way to show that that you do actually give a ****. It tends to go down really well, even though that might not be obviously apparent. \:\)

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