I love this quotation, “Because you know how to feel, and knowing how to feel is more important than how you feel. Deadness of soul is the only unpardonable crime, and if there is one thing happiness can do it is mask deadness of soul”. So said Stephen Fry in his letter to his 16 year old self recently published in ‘The Guardian’. Why have I included this rather serious quote at the beginning of today’s blog entry? Well, it occurred to me recently that Ian and I do tend to talk about work rather a lot and most of what we say is quite negative. Ian is stuck in a horrible situation at work where his daily schedule is totally random (there’s no pattern controlling which days he goes to which schools) and he often ... read more

Where was I? I feel I have neglected my blog for too long. This is mostly due to laziness but partially due to the fact that I am now doing a TEFL on-line course as well as my Japanese Studies. The TEFL course is a 40 hour on-line course run by travel company and training provider, i-to-i. I reasoned that I could do with some evidence in paper form of having trained for the job of English Language Teacher. And I really do need to have a better grasp of grammar. The Japanese Study is a bit more painful. I'm enjoying going to my classes on Thursday evenings (bless the volunteers at the Fushimi Life Plaza) but the JET Language Course is kind of useless. I'm no expert in how to produce a decent language course ... read more

So first I must apologise to anyone reading this on a regular basis for the angry rant followed by the long silence, I’ve been coming to terms with a few things! Firstly, the job. I’ll put it in to numbers: Longest stretch without lessons: 8 days. Longest stretch at my base school without lessons: 2 weeks. Number of lessons taught at my visiting school since September: 4 Average number of classes per day: 2 Number of times I’ve taught the same lesson (Self Introduction) 36. The problem is complex. On the one hand the schools don’t see working with an ALT as a priority especially during exam time when the students are drilled in grammar. Also, many teachers simply don’t know how to work with an ALT. They either give the student a script to read ... read more

Last weekend eventful. On Saturday we went to the Nagoya festival and enjoyed the passing parade. All kinds of strange things went by including Miss Goldfish, sword wielding Samurai (one of whom had forgotten to remove his digital watch), some beautifully made-up Geishas and other women wearing assorted traditional dress, flag wavers, dancers, creepy puppet bird things on stilts and of course the ever present brass bands. Have to say that considering Nagoya is the fourth largest city in Japan the police present was minimal to none existent. One guy we saw looked about 16 years old. (Makes me think of the ineffectual 'countryside' police in 'Hot Fuzz' but hang on we're in the middle of a major city, maybe he's harder than he looks). I asked about the festival at one of my schools and ... read more

All the good bits about Japan so far 1) Students Yes, really. Contrary to popular belief not all Japanese pupils are passive, obedient angels but they are far far easier to deal with than pupils in the UK. Why is this I wonder? Well, from experience, I can tell you that when I was teaching in British schools, especially as a supply teacher, the first thing that always struck me was the level of pupil hostility. Ian can confirm that this is even more true in British secondary schools. Hostility not only to the teachers but, more worryingly to each other. Fights, bullying and disputes were daily occurrences. Verbal assaults towards staff were common place. Physical assaults were rare but they did happen. This behavior simply does not exist in Japan. Walk in to any school ... read more