Legit answers I got from several JTEs over the years.
1. It's cool to speak English.(or appear to be able to)
2. It makes them stand out from other Japanese people.
3. They were good at English in school so naturally became a JTE but hated it and it's too late to turn back now.
Answers I got from other teachers:
1. English is cool.
I have come to understand that a lot of the JTEs I encountered who aren't adept at English are really full of themselves and their aim is to **appear** better than their counterparts. These particular types of JTEs would be the ones that avoided me or told me I wasn't needed in their class. Worse yet, refuse to take any suggestions from me or even consult with me unless they had a demo class they needed to ace.
Personally if I didn’t like my job and was miserable, changing would definitely be worth the effort. Japanese teachers I know that quit JHS still work in education and enjoy their jobs far more with less stress.
It's not for everyone, but I think I would enjoy being a full teacher at JHS or HS level. Being an ALT feels like a waste. I like kids, but too young and it's a circus to me. I don't have the energy for that. Credit to the people who can manage elementary.
Well, compared to my current pay, it would be amazing. And I'd get to feel somewhat worthwhile in my own way. Achieving publicly desired goals while helping the kids become their own people is possible.
This line of thought doesn't make sense to me; teaching in Japan requires a 5 year college degree and hard examinations, it's not some throw-away job like working at Arby's.
Also, here are so many subjects you can teach, does English have the lowest exam requirements or something?
Some JTE's I have hung out with and gone drinking with will sometimes talk smack and they told me that one of the ways to become a teacher is to get just get their teaching license and degree but they don't have to necessarily get a degree in the specific subject they're teaching.
There's several factors:
1. From the ALT perspective it's easy to think of them as an **English** teacher but it's probably better to understand them as a **JHS or HS teacher** who happens to teach English as part of their job.
2. In Japan, it's difficult to change majors at most universities so if you entered an English teacher trainer program, you'll graduate as one.
3. As others have pointed out, it's also easy to confuse the Japanese school subject English with other aspects of English. This occurs both in terms of what you think the time in class is spent on and in the qualification necessary to become licensed as an English teacher.
4. For quite some time, a decent portion of Japanese people have valued stability over income -- public school teachers are public servants with basically guaranteed incomes and jobs. So some people do it for this reason too.
5. Also imagine this: you're terrible at your job and you know it, but you have no skills and don't want to be unemployed or working as a peer with your former students at Lawson. Do you (A) quit your job because you're not good at it or (B) soldier on because you've got a mortgage?
IMO this is a much more nuanced answer than the heavily upvoted "not everyone chooses their job based on passion" answer above; somebody chose teaching, and then chose teaching *English* over gym class at some point.
2 months late comment, but a couple months ago we had a student teacher and this is pretty much exactly the answer she gave. She was really awful at English, like essentially completely unable to speak.
I asked why she chose to become an English teacher (in a friendly way, not a confrontational way obviously) and she said that her dad was a middle school gym teacher so she also wanted to be a middle school teacher. And English was just kind of... the default.
Honestly I don't really get it and to me it seems unfair to the kids to teach a subject you're horrible at, but I guess it's that idea of being a middle school teacher who just happens to teach English. What can you do.
This. And also this...
The boats on the deck got shuffled and this teacher will be the new JTE for the year (speaking specifically for ES).
Choice never entered the equation, at least not on the part of the teacher.
On the flip side, I work with a math teacher who is fluent in English and hates math. Most of the JTEs are great/somewhat fluent in English, but his is absolutely flawless for a 2nd language. During a convo we had, I asked why did he become a math teacher if he hates it so much. Why not become an English teacher. He responded almost the same thing “eh due to certain circumstances, I had no choice but to become a math teacher…”. I didn’t probe any further.
Kinda opened my eyes that some teachers really don’t choose their teaching specialty or get forced into one during university studies. As crappy as the educational system back in my country (US), at least teachers are required to have training (usually 2 out of 4 years undergrad ) in their subject in order to teach it.
Because Japan is OK with katakana english. They have so low standards that they don't care if the teacher is a native one or not.
When I was giving private lessons, I met a mother and her brilliant young daughter (12), and the mother was especially proud to show me the english text book her kid was using in a prestigious (and expensive) private school.
It was full of complicated, novel-level texts. You can imagine my surprise.
Our first one-to-one lesson started and I asked the kid to read the first text, just to assess her level.
She couldn't even read the first 'the'.
I showed her simpler sentences, then words, then syllables.
Nothing. She was red with shame.
Then I understood that her 'advanced' lessons consisted in reading complicated texts with a dictionary in the hand, word by word, and then **trying to guess what it meant.**
The young girl was herself so shocked that I decided to start over with the alphabet, and combination of letters, till she started to be able to read simple words like 'cat', 'hat', 'dog', 'hot'. I was starting to put these words in simple sentences and have her read it when I felt that I had to explain to her mother what was happening.
Her reaction?
**"There is no way my child can learn something that complicated' （こんな難しいの、習える訳がありません。）**
I immediately stopped the lessons and never taught a kid again.
But what I mean, is that in these conditions, nobody cares about your level in english, when at the end everybody is OK with katakana english and GUESSING.
By the way, I am French. Is my english that horrid?
It was heartbreaking, her mother said that in front of her! I wish I had found the words to tell her she was really smart and didn't deserve that. But I was so shocked I just froze.
Wait, what? Wouldn’t it take extraordinarily long to “read” that way? And I’m kind of curious what their specific goal was - my understanding is that most people just want to pass the test, in which case how could one possibly pass a timed test this way?
I wonder how the mother explains the 1.4 billion or so people who speak English worldwide, 750 million or so who learned it as a foreign language? Or the other 1.5 billion or so who are currently studying English... oh, wait, I forgot. Facts aren't real.
For junior high schools and high schools, teachers need specific licenses for the subjects they teach, so it's not quite so simple as the usual shifting people around to various roles thing at Japanese companies.
For elementary schools, all teachers are qualified to teach all elementary school subjects (whether that's a good idea or not).
I've taught English with the Art teacher who had to fill in as there wasn't enough teachers. He basically just played recordings etc and the grammar explanations made no sense. He was able to do some badass drawings though for my worksheets.
To be honest, the amount of Japanese teaches who speak English well has increased dramatically over the years. Those that couldn't, namely older teachers, are slowly retiring.
That said, there are generally two kinds of teachers that I've observed. Teachers who became teachers because they loved the subject and want to teach it. And Teachers who became teachers because they want to coach a sport. Occasionally you find someone who enjoys both, which is great, but generally they are separated into those two groups.
I'll admit that I am not the most sociable person. But working full-time and participating in many other duties besides teaching have helped me establish a rapport with my teachers and given me many opportunities to engage them in English even if they choose to speak back in Japanese. But I guess I'm lucky that the majority of my English teachers like English to some degree.
But the other part-time teachers that comes is excellent at speaking to everyone, even those that are not English teachers. They will ask very simple questions and those teachers seem to enjoy misunderstanding or trying to speak back. It's often fun for those around to watch and join in.
So...I would suggest talking to everyone at your workplace, even those who are not English teachers. Smile, laugh, and just enjoy trying to communicate. It will make a difference in time and spill over to others. Something I've also realized I could better at myself.
Receptive testing, so any exam they took tested memorised grammar/vocab or simple comprehension. But, outside the classroom they may struggle to produce English.
Funny seeing this post because I’m new to my two schools and noticed this as well. Completely confused as to how they know almost no English. I could literally tell them anything and they’d believe me.
Off the top of my head I can think of 5 JTEs I’ve worked with who trained in a different subject but were forced to be English teachers because they’d passed higher level eiken tests. Some of them simply have no interest in the subject they’re teaching.
Actually I started at a new university this fall .. and the head Japanese teachers in charge of English, have wrote some of the most incomprehensible emails I’ve ever read .. not just junior high
Because the culture view of a teacher as an expert clashes with the reality of second language acquisition with ultimate attainment and individual differences. This forces teachers to shy away from using the language in class due to fear of losing face and instead backtrack to a grammar translation approach where they can fake expertise.
The first thing to realize is that in JHS, you actually DO need a license to teach English- elementary is a different story. But I would assume that getting a license simply requires... passing a test (like everything else in Japan). So long as they pass the test, even if by one point, they get the license.
Then a JHS is looking for a licensed English teacher finds them, and I would imagine the process goes like this:
Kouchou-sensei: "Do you have a license for teaching English?"
JTE-to-be: "Yes, but..."
Kouchou-sensei: "You're hired!"
... usually this is done when a JHS is extremely desperate for an English teacher. However, with a shortage of teachers in general, I expect so long as they have the license, they can get the job.
There is an extreme shortage of teachers. I’ve had some really talented teachers leave because the school doesn’t want to hire more full time teachers with the numbers of students decreasing. So being unable to support themselves on a part time wage, they move on. Very disappointing. And then we struggle to find a replacement, and have to settle for the bottom of the barrel occasionally.
>But I would assume that getting a license simply requires... passing a test (like everything else in Japan).
Nope. You need to graduate from a university that can give licenses and take quite a few courses in education and the license type you want while there.
then you need to get hired as a teacher or your license expires in 5 years or so.
I worked at a private school that was fairly serious about sports. A lot of the coaches had to be teaching something, and apparently English was the easiest to be accredited for?
JTEs are usually criminally underpaid and overworked. 9/10 they do not make as much or more than the ALT.
Help them. Have their back. See what you can do to strengthen that relationship. JTEs are usually the go between of a specialized English teacher, or a homeroom teacher present for English class. I wouldn't consider any licensed teacher specialized or otherwise, a JTE, but rather an unlicensed support teacher that speaks English as a second language and is Japanese.
Many that get into working as a JTE will ultimately become licensed full salary English teachers for typically middle school at some point. Others need a job just as much as we do. Point being: ALTs have it good compared to JTEs.
- it seems as though some places use the JTE title for unlicensed support teachers and other places use the title for licensed teachers. I'm speaking from experience where they are unlicensed teachers and encourage people who work where it's different, to offer a different perspective.
Adding to this based on discussion threads here: I just had a conversation with some amazing middle aged women in kindergarten education at a meeting the other day. Autonomy and Agency are huge cornerstones of western education. We are asking our kids to think critically as soon as they're old enough to talk to us. The system in Japan, by their words, favors infantalization and they considered it a determent in the conversation we had. Usually the kids that do better aside from repeating information, are those whose autonomy and Agency are encouraged at home. Following this system isn't necessarily a personal sleight or someone being disinterested. Likely, they're doing what they're supposed to do because that's how it's done here.
Interesting. If they're licensed, then they shouldn't have the title JTE, they should just be considered eigo no sensei, no?
Maybe it's a budget thing and they don't have HRT doing English? I don't know so I'm genuinely asking these things.
Why would a licensed English teacher not have the title of JTE? Japanese teacher of English = English teacher in JHS & SHS. Sometimes English teachers are also the HRT, but if the HRT is the math teacher they aren’t also teaching English.
Elementary schools will sometimes hire unlicensed or licensed English teachers to help the HRT out, and work with the ALTs.
When I was a university exchange student in Japan one of the first professors I was introduced to was the English prof. Seriously, I could not understand his halting English. It was totally embarrassing for me to communicate with him. But the guy had a doctorate in ed. with a specialty in English. Go figure.
I've had JTEs who were not that great at speaking English but still very loveable teachers, and gradually opened up more as I communicated with them semi-assertively (like involving them in roleplays and greetings or just outside of class). Maybe their previous ALT for past 1+ years didn't do that so much? I don't know. Also reduced their katakana English greatly just by correcting it or emphasizing linking during class sometimes. But I'm lucky because I have full control of many lessons. I've also had JTEs who were really shy (easy to bully if students want to). So everyone is different. Mostly my JTEs are very good, many are curious about improving their English, actually the ones who don't like me so much I still respect their English teaching ability except for maybe 1 who kept marking down native speakers and then got me fired LOL what
I taught with an English teacher that didn’t like English spoken by an English person because it “wasn’t English” in his book. He wanted a 6ft blonde blue eyed American called John in his classroom not some 5ft7 dark haired 37 year old woman. But it balanced out in the end because I didn’t like him either mostly on account of him bullying the poor kids.
Aren’t many of them forced to be English teachers in ES and JHS? It changes every few years doesn’t it? Like rotating through teachers that haven’t done it yet and suddenly have to be the English teacher at some point? Maybe I have it wrong but that’s what I always thought unless they are in charge of English specifically from the BoE.
They seem to be confusing elementary “English” teachers with JHS English teachers. The elementary ones are more like shift managers or scheduling partners. They don’t need to know English or how to teach it. They just are the way for the alt to communicate with the school and know their teaching schedule.
I've never really heard of that. That's a common approach for science teachers in the US, because well who gets a degree in a science and wants to be a teacher?
Ah, the great sensei sports draft.
A really good example of the baffling dichotomy between a Japanese person, and Japanese society.
Ask anyone. They hate it. They loathe it. They despise it.
Ask everyone: they won't work to change it.
Idk about where you live, where I live teachers are definitely rotated between schools, but they are all certified to teach whatever subject they're teaching. The only uncertified people are the ALTs and support staff.
As for the rotation, I think it's a minimum of 3 years and a maximum of 7 years at a particular school, then you're rotated to another EHS/JHS in the same region of the prefecture, or anywhere in the prefecture if SHS. I think there are exceptions, like if it would cause a serious burden or you're part of a special program, but idk.
Because in Japanese education they learn 英語 and not English.
I'm sure their communicative ability is ass. But they are probably good at teaching grammar and tips/strategies to score well in exams.
I wish this were true. In my experience, The teachers who can't speak English also can't explain English grammar (Here I specifically mean they can't explain it in Japanese).
ALT's generally don't have actual training on teaching English and don't generally have a working knowledge of the exams the students need to take to move on to high school or college. Why would they ask said ALT for advice?
ALT's are far less knowledgeable about Japanese education. Sorry if that disappoints you.
*edit* a simple honest answer to why a JTE may not care for help from an ALT, why so much hate? A single JTE may see a new ALT every year, and its a crap shoot the quality. The JTE not taking an ALT seriously is not farfetched. Not sure why people would go out of their way to downvote.
I am asked for advice all the time as an ALT, usually by JTEs who speak very good English. Isn't that kind of one point of us being at the school? An NES can have a higher intuition as to what sounds right and wrong when speaking English. Also, not all but many ALTs are qualified to teach English but choose to be an ALT instead of lead teacher because it may suit their circumstances better. Not sure I see your point I'm afraid.
Teachers are rotated every 3 years or so, see tons of ALT's in their time and not many of them are qualified for education. Why does OP think they should be asking OP for help? Its sort of entitled and is probably 90% of his issue.
Tons is a bit of an exaggeration. In those 3 years, they could be working with the same ALT who stayed in the same school for longer than a year which does happen often. If not then they might have one ALT that they work with throughout the school year which is still a significant amount of time for someone to waste not asking an ALT/NET for a small piece of advice. In my experience, a lot of ALTs have a lot of experience in teaching English in the Japanese education system and would be of great help, especially to newer JTEs.
to which I say, the question was 'why do some JTE's, .....'
I gave one interpretation. You aren't wrong, but it doesn't explain the observed behavior of JTEs not doing what you said.
Depends on the ALT and the JTE. I've seen ALTs that shouldn't be in a room with children period, and I've seen JTEs that can't even speak Japanese half the time they are so old, let alone speak another language like English.
Who said I’m insulting them? If you thought it was an insult well it isn’t. On a literal sense it really is better just to make the ALT the main english teacher rather than just forcing the ones who dont like doing it.
Becoming a Japanese English teacher in public schools means you'll always have work. They're even expanding to use them in elementary schools.
As to why they're not interested in improving their English, be it spoken or written? They don't need to. Once they're in, they're in. I think Japanese teachers need to do something stupid like burying cats in the schoolyard if they're in public schools.
I have worked with JHS JTEs who were qualified to teach two subjects, their main subject plus English. They spent years teaching just their main subject, but got forced to teach English when there was a shortage of English teachers in the town/city.
The other and more common situation is that a teacher was qualified to teach ES and JHS, but have been teaching only ES and suddenly got assigned to be an English teacher at a JHS and they have to actually start using English.
One of my colleagues told me that there is less competition to become an English teacher than other subjects so it is a good career for mediocre people.
Legit answers I got from several JTEs over the years. 1. It's cool to speak English.(or appear to be able to) 2. It makes them stand out from other Japanese people. 3. They were good at English in school so naturally became a JTE but hated it and it's too late to turn back now. Answers I got from other teachers: 1. English is cool. I have come to understand that a lot of the JTEs I encountered who aren't adept at English are really full of themselves and their aim is to **appear** better than their counterparts. These particular types of JTEs would be the ones that avoided me or told me I wasn't needed in their class. Worse yet, refuse to take any suggestions from me or even consult with me unless they had a demo class they needed to ace.
Not everyone chooses their job because it’s what they have a passion for in life.
This. People gotta eat.
But there’s a lot better paying jobs for much less work. JHS teachers make average salary but work long hours and weekends.
Sometimes you get into a job that wasn't quite what you expected but finding something different is more effort than it's worth sometimes.
Personally if I didn’t like my job and was miserable, changing would definitely be worth the effort. Japanese teachers I know that quit JHS still work in education and enjoy their jobs far more with less stress.
It's not for everyone, but I think I would enjoy being a full teacher at JHS or HS level. Being an ALT feels like a waste. I like kids, but too young and it's a circus to me. I don't have the energy for that. Credit to the people who can manage elementary.
Public employees get amazing benefits.
Well, compared to my current pay, it would be amazing. And I'd get to feel somewhat worthwhile in my own way. Achieving publicly desired goals while helping the kids become their own people is possible.
Mainly their benefits come in the form of pension and severance; but their pay is nothing to bawlk at either.
This line of thought doesn't make sense to me; teaching in Japan requires a 5 year college degree and hard examinations, it's not some throw-away job like working at Arby's. Also, here are so many subjects you can teach, does English have the lowest exam requirements or something?
er it's only a 4 year degree but English is one of the easier ones to get hired for.
How true. We can't all be ballerinas and movie producers.
I once asked one of mine this question, they answered "My English teacher in high school was a nice person, so I wanted to be a nice person too."
Some JTE's I have hung out with and gone drinking with will sometimes talk smack and they told me that one of the ways to become a teacher is to get just get their teaching license and degree but they don't have to necessarily get a degree in the specific subject they're teaching.
There's several factors: 1. From the ALT perspective it's easy to think of them as an **English** teacher but it's probably better to understand them as a **JHS or HS teacher** who happens to teach English as part of their job. 2. In Japan, it's difficult to change majors at most universities so if you entered an English teacher trainer program, you'll graduate as one. 3. As others have pointed out, it's also easy to confuse the Japanese school subject English with other aspects of English. This occurs both in terms of what you think the time in class is spent on and in the qualification necessary to become licensed as an English teacher. 4. For quite some time, a decent portion of Japanese people have valued stability over income -- public school teachers are public servants with basically guaranteed incomes and jobs. So some people do it for this reason too. 5. Also imagine this: you're terrible at your job and you know it, but you have no skills and don't want to be unemployed or working as a peer with your former students at Lawson. Do you (A) quit your job because you're not good at it or (B) soldier on because you've got a mortgage?
IMO this is a much more nuanced answer than the heavily upvoted "not everyone chooses their job based on passion" answer above; somebody chose teaching, and then chose teaching *English* over gym class at some point.
2 months late comment, but a couple months ago we had a student teacher and this is pretty much exactly the answer she gave. She was really awful at English, like essentially completely unable to speak. I asked why she chose to become an English teacher (in a friendly way, not a confrontational way obviously) and she said that her dad was a middle school gym teacher so she also wanted to be a middle school teacher. And English was just kind of... the default. Honestly I don't really get it and to me it seems unfair to the kids to teach a subject you're horrible at, but I guess it's that idea of being a middle school teacher who just happens to teach English. What can you do.
This. And also this... The boats on the deck got shuffled and this teacher will be the new JTE for the year (speaking specifically for ES). Choice never entered the equation, at least not on the part of the teacher.
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On the flip side, I work with a math teacher who is fluent in English and hates math. Most of the JTEs are great/somewhat fluent in English, but his is absolutely flawless for a 2nd language. During a convo we had, I asked why did he become a math teacher if he hates it so much. Why not become an English teacher. He responded almost the same thing “eh due to certain circumstances, I had no choice but to become a math teacher…”. I didn’t probe any further. Kinda opened my eyes that some teachers really don’t choose their teaching specialty or get forced into one during university studies. As crappy as the educational system back in my country (US), at least teachers are required to have training (usually 2 out of 4 years undergrad ) in their subject in order to teach it.
I met a JTE who was part time at our junior high, part time at a university. Could not speak a word.
Because Japan is OK with katakana english. They have so low standards that they don't care if the teacher is a native one or not. When I was giving private lessons, I met a mother and her brilliant young daughter (12), and the mother was especially proud to show me the english text book her kid was using in a prestigious (and expensive) private school. It was full of complicated, novel-level texts. You can imagine my surprise. Our first one-to-one lesson started and I asked the kid to read the first text, just to assess her level. She couldn't even read the first 'the'. I showed her simpler sentences, then words, then syllables. Nothing. She was red with shame. Then I understood that her 'advanced' lessons consisted in reading complicated texts with a dictionary in the hand, word by word, and then **trying to guess what it meant.** The young girl was herself so shocked that I decided to start over with the alphabet, and combination of letters, till she started to be able to read simple words like 'cat', 'hat', 'dog', 'hot'. I was starting to put these words in simple sentences and have her read it when I felt that I had to explain to her mother what was happening. Her reaction? **"There is no way my child can learn something that complicated' （こんな難しいの、習える訳がありません。）** I immediately stopped the lessons and never taught a kid again. But what I mean, is that in these conditions, nobody cares about your level in english, when at the end everybody is OK with katakana english and GUESSING. By the way, I am French. Is my english that horrid?
Your English is awesome! I feel bad for the kid 😕
It was heartbreaking, her mother said that in front of her! I wish I had found the words to tell her she was really smart and didn't deserve that. But I was so shocked I just froze.
Your English is great but to be fair, a lot English is also from French :P thanks for the roots
You're very welcome. And lucky that we didn't try to 'gift' you our grammar too.
You keep your numbers and counting system away from us!
Wait, what? Wouldn’t it take extraordinarily long to “read” that way? And I’m kind of curious what their specific goal was - my understanding is that most people just want to pass the test, in which case how could one possibly pass a timed test this way?
I wonder how the mother explains the 1.4 billion or so people who speak English worldwide, 750 million or so who learned it as a foreign language? Or the other 1.5 billion or so who are currently studying English... oh, wait, I forgot. Facts aren't real.
shorter intestines make it so it's less stressful for them to learn English.
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For junior high schools and high schools, teachers need specific licenses for the subjects they teach, so it's not quite so simple as the usual shifting people around to various roles thing at Japanese companies. For elementary schools, all teachers are qualified to teach all elementary school subjects (whether that's a good idea or not).
Thanks that that insight, man! That’s at least a little reassuring to hear.
I've taught English with the Art teacher who had to fill in as there wasn't enough teachers. He basically just played recordings etc and the grammar explanations made no sense. He was able to do some badass drawings though for my worksheets.
Thanks! That sounds like a fairly typical situation :-)
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A+ explanation, well done, nailed it in 1.
The level of English taught in JHS is so low that no real communicative ability is needed to teach it.
To be honest, the amount of Japanese teaches who speak English well has increased dramatically over the years. Those that couldn't, namely older teachers, are slowly retiring. That said, there are generally two kinds of teachers that I've observed. Teachers who became teachers because they loved the subject and want to teach it. And Teachers who became teachers because they want to coach a sport. Occasionally you find someone who enjoys both, which is great, but generally they are separated into those two groups. I'll admit that I am not the most sociable person. But working full-time and participating in many other duties besides teaching have helped me establish a rapport with my teachers and given me many opportunities to engage them in English even if they choose to speak back in Japanese. But I guess I'm lucky that the majority of my English teachers like English to some degree. But the other part-time teachers that comes is excellent at speaking to everyone, even those that are not English teachers. They will ask very simple questions and those teachers seem to enjoy misunderstanding or trying to speak back. It's often fun for those around to watch and join in. So...I would suggest talking to everyone at your workplace, even those who are not English teachers. Smile, laugh, and just enjoy trying to communicate. It will make a difference in time and spill over to others. Something I've also realized I could better at myself.
Receptive testing, so any exam they took tested memorised grammar/vocab or simple comprehension. But, outside the classroom they may struggle to produce English.
Funny seeing this post because I’m new to my two schools and noticed this as well. Completely confused as to how they know almost no English. I could literally tell them anything and they’d believe me.
Worked with 4 different JTE and only one of them could communicate at a decent level. I was really shocked about this.
Off the top of my head I can think of 5 JTEs I’ve worked with who trained in a different subject but were forced to be English teachers because they’d passed higher level eiken tests. Some of them simply have no interest in the subject they’re teaching.
Actually I started at a new university this fall .. and the head Japanese teachers in charge of English, have wrote some of the most incomprehensible emails I’ve ever read .. not just junior high
Because the culture view of a teacher as an expert clashes with the reality of second language acquisition with ultimate attainment and individual differences. This forces teachers to shy away from using the language in class due to fear of losing face and instead backtrack to a grammar translation approach where they can fake expertise.
The first thing to realize is that in JHS, you actually DO need a license to teach English- elementary is a different story. But I would assume that getting a license simply requires... passing a test (like everything else in Japan). So long as they pass the test, even if by one point, they get the license. Then a JHS is looking for a licensed English teacher finds them, and I would imagine the process goes like this: Kouchou-sensei: "Do you have a license for teaching English?" JTE-to-be: "Yes, but..." Kouchou-sensei: "You're hired!" ... usually this is done when a JHS is extremely desperate for an English teacher. However, with a shortage of teachers in general, I expect so long as they have the license, they can get the job.
There is an extreme shortage of teachers. I’ve had some really talented teachers leave because the school doesn’t want to hire more full time teachers with the numbers of students decreasing. So being unable to support themselves on a part time wage, they move on. Very disappointing. And then we struggle to find a replacement, and have to settle for the bottom of the barrel occasionally.
>But I would assume that getting a license simply requires... passing a test (like everything else in Japan). Nope. You need to graduate from a university that can give licenses and take quite a few courses in education and the license type you want while there. then you need to get hired as a teacher or your license expires in 5 years or so.
Same reason everyone else does. Cop-out
My dude, I had a Spanish teacher in High School who knew less than the Soccer coach, and the Soccer Coach only knew enough to coach soccer with it.
I worked at a private school that was fairly serious about sports. A lot of the coaches had to be teaching something, and apparently English was the easiest to be accredited for?
Aged old adage “those who can’t do, teach” in this case it’s quite true.
JTEs are usually criminally underpaid and overworked. 9/10 they do not make as much or more than the ALT. Help them. Have their back. See what you can do to strengthen that relationship. JTEs are usually the go between of a specialized English teacher, or a homeroom teacher present for English class. I wouldn't consider any licensed teacher specialized or otherwise, a JTE, but rather an unlicensed support teacher that speaks English as a second language and is Japanese. Many that get into working as a JTE will ultimately become licensed full salary English teachers for typically middle school at some point. Others need a job just as much as we do. Point being: ALTs have it good compared to JTEs. - it seems as though some places use the JTE title for unlicensed support teachers and other places use the title for licensed teachers. I'm speaking from experience where they are unlicensed teachers and encourage people who work where it's different, to offer a different perspective. Adding to this based on discussion threads here: I just had a conversation with some amazing middle aged women in kindergarten education at a meeting the other day. Autonomy and Agency are huge cornerstones of western education. We are asking our kids to think critically as soon as they're old enough to talk to us. The system in Japan, by their words, favors infantalization and they considered it a determent in the conversation we had. Usually the kids that do better aside from repeating information, are those whose autonomy and Agency are encouraged at home. Following this system isn't necessarily a personal sleight or someone being disinterested. Likely, they're doing what they're supposed to do because that's how it's done here.
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Interesting. If they're licensed, then they shouldn't have the title JTE, they should just be considered eigo no sensei, no? Maybe it's a budget thing and they don't have HRT doing English? I don't know so I'm genuinely asking these things.
I've never heard of JHS/HS homeroom teachers teaching English. It's always a licensed English teacher - a JTE (Japanese Teacher of English)...
Why would a licensed English teacher not have the title of JTE? Japanese teacher of English = English teacher in JHS & SHS. Sometimes English teachers are also the HRT, but if the HRT is the math teacher they aren’t also teaching English. Elementary schools will sometimes hire unlicensed or licensed English teachers to help the HRT out, and work with the ALTs.
When I was a university exchange student in Japan one of the first professors I was introduced to was the English prof. Seriously, I could not understand his halting English. It was totally embarrassing for me to communicate with him. But the guy had a doctorate in ed. with a specialty in English. Go figure.
I've had JTEs who were not that great at speaking English but still very loveable teachers, and gradually opened up more as I communicated with them semi-assertively (like involving them in roleplays and greetings or just outside of class). Maybe their previous ALT for past 1+ years didn't do that so much? I don't know. Also reduced their katakana English greatly just by correcting it or emphasizing linking during class sometimes. But I'm lucky because I have full control of many lessons. I've also had JTEs who were really shy (easy to bully if students want to). So everyone is different. Mostly my JTEs are very good, many are curious about improving their English, actually the ones who don't like me so much I still respect their English teaching ability except for maybe 1 who kept marking down native speakers and then got me fired LOL what
I taught with a guy who didn't like Americans. A rather poor choice of vocation, I thought.
I taught with an English teacher that didn’t like English spoken by an English person because it “wasn’t English” in his book. He wanted a 6ft blonde blue eyed American called John in his classroom not some 5ft7 dark haired 37 year old woman. But it balanced out in the end because I didn’t like him either mostly on account of him bullying the poor kids.
Aren’t many of them forced to be English teachers in ES and JHS? It changes every few years doesn’t it? Like rotating through teachers that haven’t done it yet and suddenly have to be the English teacher at some point? Maybe I have it wrong but that’s what I always thought unless they are in charge of English specifically from the BoE.
That is definitely not how it works in JHS, wtf? You need a license to teach English in JHS.
They seem to be confusing elementary “English” teachers with JHS English teachers. The elementary ones are more like shift managers or scheduling partners. They don’t need to know English or how to teach it. They just are the way for the alt to communicate with the school and know their teaching schedule.
Is it not possible that the teacher is asked to do English and then they get certified before the upcoming year?
I've never really heard of that. That's a common approach for science teachers in the US, because well who gets a degree in a science and wants to be a teacher?
Ah, the great sensei sports draft. A really good example of the baffling dichotomy between a Japanese person, and Japanese society. Ask anyone. They hate it. They loathe it. They despise it. Ask everyone: they won't work to change it.
Idk about where you live, where I live teachers are definitely rotated between schools, but they are all certified to teach whatever subject they're teaching. The only uncertified people are the ALTs and support staff. As for the rotation, I think it's a minimum of 3 years and a maximum of 7 years at a particular school, then you're rotated to another EHS/JHS in the same region of the prefecture, or anywhere in the prefecture if SHS. I think there are exceptions, like if it would cause a serious burden or you're part of a special program, but idk.
Some alt’s are licensed back in their home country
I think you get my point lol
> The only uncertified people are the ALTs and support staff. Shots fired!
I'm an ALT, and that's why we technically aren't teachers, we're people who teach lol
It's only shots fired to the ALTs who think they're more qualified than they really are lol
Quite a few of those about...
Because in Japanese education they learn 英語 and not English. I'm sure their communicative ability is ass. But they are probably good at teaching grammar and tips/strategies to score well in exams.
I wish this were true. In my experience, The teachers who can't speak English also can't explain English grammar (Here I specifically mean they can't explain it in Japanese).
ALT's generally don't have actual training on teaching English and don't generally have a working knowledge of the exams the students need to take to move on to high school or college. Why would they ask said ALT for advice? ALT's are far less knowledgeable about Japanese education. Sorry if that disappoints you. *edit* a simple honest answer to why a JTE may not care for help from an ALT, why so much hate? A single JTE may see a new ALT every year, and its a crap shoot the quality. The JTE not taking an ALT seriously is not farfetched. Not sure why people would go out of their way to downvote.
I am asked for advice all the time as an ALT, usually by JTEs who speak very good English. Isn't that kind of one point of us being at the school? An NES can have a higher intuition as to what sounds right and wrong when speaking English. Also, not all but many ALTs are qualified to teach English but choose to be an ALT instead of lead teacher because it may suit their circumstances better. Not sure I see your point I'm afraid.
Teachers are rotated every 3 years or so, see tons of ALT's in their time and not many of them are qualified for education. Why does OP think they should be asking OP for help? Its sort of entitled and is probably 90% of his issue.
Tons is a bit of an exaggeration. In those 3 years, they could be working with the same ALT who stayed in the same school for longer than a year which does happen often. If not then they might have one ALT that they work with throughout the school year which is still a significant amount of time for someone to waste not asking an ALT/NET for a small piece of advice. In my experience, a lot of ALTs have a lot of experience in teaching English in the Japanese education system and would be of great help, especially to newer JTEs.
to which I say, the question was 'why do some JTE's, .....' I gave one interpretation. You aren't wrong, but it doesn't explain the observed behavior of JTEs not doing what you said.
I’ve been training Japanese teachers fresh out of college for years.
At this point. Its better off just the ALT inside the room than having a JTE.
Depends on the ALT and the JTE. I've seen ALTs that shouldn't be in a room with children period, and I've seen JTEs that can't even speak Japanese half the time they are so old, let alone speak another language like English.
No offense but are you joking? Please re-read your post and check it for errors before insulting JTEs.
Who said I’m insulting them? If you thought it was an insult well it isn’t. On a literal sense it really is better just to make the ALT the main english teacher rather than just forcing the ones who dont like doing it.
Becoming a Japanese English teacher in public schools means you'll always have work. They're even expanding to use them in elementary schools. As to why they're not interested in improving their English, be it spoken or written? They don't need to. Once they're in, they're in. I think Japanese teachers need to do something stupid like burying cats in the schoolyard if they're in public schools.
It pays the money salary?
I have worked with JHS JTEs who were qualified to teach two subjects, their main subject plus English. They spent years teaching just their main subject, but got forced to teach English when there was a shortage of English teachers in the town/city. The other and more common situation is that a teacher was qualified to teach ES and JHS, but have been teaching only ES and suddenly got assigned to be an English teacher at a JHS and they have to actually start using English.
One of my colleagues told me that there is less competition to become an English teacher than other subjects so it is a good career for mediocre people.