Foreign students to fill the halls
Japanese universities look abroad in hopes of upping their sagging enrollments
Rie Yoshinaga had a wide range of colleges to choose from.
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| Globalization: Of the 6,000 students at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Kyushu, nearly half come from abroad, as does the faculty. Classes are taught both in English and Japanese. TOMOKO OTAKE PHOTOS |
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Having studied at a high school in Canada for 10 months, Yoshinaga, an 18-year-old native of Oita Prefecture in the northeast of Kyushu region, is perhaps more globally minded than many of her peers. She says she seriously considered applying for Australian universities — one of the closest English-speaking countries to Oita — until she realized there was an international university right in her hometown.
Yoshinaga is now a freshman at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU), whose 99,000-sq.-meter hilltop campus commands a panoramic view of Beppu Bay, and where nearly half of the 6,000 students come from abroad, representing 87 countries. Half of the faculty are foreigners, and classes are taught both in English and Japanese. Proficiency in Japanese is not required for international students seeking admission, but once they get in, international and domestic students undergo intensive language training in the two languages, so that when they graduate, they should all have perfect bilingual — or trilingual, depending on their native tongue — capabilities.
“I found this university attractive because, while it is located in Japan, it is international,” Yoshinaga said, noting that she had no interest at all in other Japanese universities. “I thought that, if I studied here, I could study Japan and its relations with other countries, including the rest of Asia, whereas if I went to Australia, I would be looking at Asia from an Australian perspective.”
In the eight years since its establishment, APU has built a solid reputation for providing a multicultural and multilingual learning environment for all its students — a rare example among Japanese universities, where foreign students are a tiny minority and often segregated into their own programs separate from local students. APU has also breathed new life into a dying onsen (hot-spring) town, by providing a yearly inflow of 6,000 young students who spend their cash locally, and through joint research projects with local governments and industries. (さらに…)
Teaching English in Japan with Ato – Question Everything, Pt. II
Part 16: Safe?! No I am not!
5-minutes before the beginning of the class and I am still unable to find one of the teachers. I had assumed that she was in homeroom, the bathroom or late but i could be mistaken. I decide to wait in the class. I double check my printed schedule and find the class (making sure to walk by all the other classes in case she’s in one of them), but she is not there. The science teacher is there…and he doesn’t speak English.
After enlisting the help of some of the Philippine students (whose English is invariably better than that of the Japanese students) I discover that she is absent today and that he, the science teacher that doesn’t speak a lick of English, will be supervising their self study(?).
In broken English and even more broken Japanese I inform him that I would still like to try to teach at least the target phrases, but it turns out to be a disaster since the students speak more English than he does and use the opportunity to make fun of every single thing I say. Not being able to understand what they’re making fun of (because he (*sigh*) doesn’t speak English), he cannot reprimand them properly and classroom order disintegrates…
…I decide that I cannot teach this class without a Japanese English teacher present and leave the room to the hyena-like laughter of the students. (さらに…)
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Teaching English in Japan with Ato – Question Everything!
Part 15: One of the more annoying situations that the foreign English teacher can find himself in is being stuck between a disorganized company and an even less organized school.
I rotate between schools, with the end effect being that I have the schedule for the next school sent to me before I’m scheduled to go there. This (for obvious reasons) is to provide me with enough time to plan my lessons before I get to the school..
Sounds great doesn’t it? Flawless in it’s simplicity…
In actuality this seldom happens.
In the past I religiously received my schedule 1 – 3 days after I had already started working at the school.
Not…useful… (さらに…)
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )In Japan, Hope Fades for Disposable Workers
OSAKA — With job signs stuck to their vans’ windshields and sliding side doors left open in expectation, the recruiters were sizing up the potential hires at Japan’s largest day labor market here recently.
Kazuyasu Ikeda, 64, had good jobs during Japan’s economic boom but now works sporadically.
By 4:30 a.m., thousands of aging day laborers had spilled out of the neighborhood’s flophouses and homeless shelters, or risen from its parks and streets, to form a potential work force of mostly graying men.
A sign on one blue van, barely legible in the twilight, offered a 15-day construction job paying $95 a day, minus $33 in room and board. Although the terms were comparatively decent, the recruiter sitting in a folding chair in front of the blue van had found only one suitably young laborer by 5 a.m. Most were above the unwritten cutoff age of 55.
“It’s really hard to use the men here because they’ve gotten old,” said the recruiter, Takuya Nakamae, 55, turning his head toward his prize catch, a recruit in his 30s. “If you’re this young, everybody wants you and you get plenty of offers. Just look at how young you are!”
And yet it was the older men who really knew how to work, he said, adding: “They’re the ones who worked during Japan’s decades of economic boom, so they know the ins and outs of every job. It’s just that they don’t have the strength anymore.”
Nowadays, few young men gravitate here, the Airin district of Osaka. Little is being built in Japan’s stagnant economy, and young day laborers or part-time workers find jobs by registering their cellphone numbers with temporary employment agencies. (さらに…)
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Teaching English in Japan with Ato – Pimped
With that said, I’d like to discuss another aspect of teaching English in Japan – namely, some of the companies that hire the teachers. As most of you probably know, the wage case against NOVA and it’s obviously corrupt president, Nozomu Sahashi, was dropped.
Kamen Hanya wrote: Sahashi deserves punishment to the full extent of the law. Too bad for the crusty NOVA people who didn’t get paid, but I have to say is what goes around comes around. There’s an old saying that probably originated in Japan “…stand by a river long enough and you’ll see the bodies of your enemies floating by.” This situation has rendered quite a few visible corpses I’ve seen. I don’t feel the LEAST bit SORRY for ANY of them. Besides, all the rinky dink “eikaiwas” in the Kansai area have proven to be the best sympathizers.
- Having one textbook used in all the schools (for the most part).
- Pre-set lesson plans.
- Other foreigners to speak to during your downtime.
- Mostly adult classes resulting in less stress.
- A ready supply of poor gaijin to take your shifts if you were sick, hungover or just plain didn’t feel like dealing with it.
Some of the bad:
- Being treated like a child (especially by managers with no managerial experience who were often children themselves).
- Not being allowed to speak Japanese to students.
- Coming all the way to Japan to experience the culture, then spending 8 hours a day in what I like to call the “gaijin cocoon.“
- Having to sit in the same tiny teacher’s room with the same annoying people day, after day, after day.
- No paid summer vacation.
Teaching English in Japan with Ato – Pimped
With that said, I’d like to discuss another aspect of teaching English in Japan – namely, some of the companies that hire the teachers. As most of you probably know, the wage case against NOVA and it’s obviously corrupt president, Nozomu Sahashi, was dropped.
Kamen Hanya wrote: Sahashi deserves punishment to the full extent of the law. Too bad for the crusty NOVA people who didn’t get paid, but I have to say is what goes around comes around. There’s an old saying that probably originated in Japan “…stand by a river long enough and you’ll see the bodies of your enemies floating by.” This situation has rendered quite a few visible corpses I’ve seen. I don’t feel the LEAST bit SORRY for ANY of them. Besides, all the rinky dink “eikaiwas” in the Kansai area have proven to be the best sympathizers.
- Having one textbook used in all the schools (for the most part).
- Pre-set lesson plans.
- Other foreigners to speak to during your downtime.
- Mostly adult classes resulting in less stress.
- A ready supply of poor gaijin to take your shifts if you were sick, hungover or just plain didn’t feel like dealing with it.
Some of the bad:
- Being treated like a child (especially by managers with no managerial experience who were often children themselves).
- Not being allowed to speak Japanese to students.
- Coming all the way to Japan to experience the culture, then spending 8 hours a day in what I like to call the “gaijin cocoon.“
- Having to sit in the same tiny teacher’s room with the same annoying people day, after day, after day.
- No paid summer vacation.
Teaching English in Japan – Sexual Chocolate
Teaching English with Ato – The Ass Grab
My early feelings of disdain for the school were cemented when one of the Japanese teachers rushed out to meet me and then had me wait outside while the staff meeting was in progress. I took this to mean that the staff strictly adhered to the rules and that I would probably be stuck here until the time stated on my contract.
The interesting thing about being the foreign English teacher in a Japanese public school: they fully expect you to arrive quite early and stay late. Your contract clearly states the working hours but those in-charge want you to merge seamlessly into the Japanese machine just like any other Japanese cog. Well, there are two problems: one, I am not Japanese and two, I am not a cog.
Passive Aggressive Rule of Engagement for Non-Japanese Working in the Japanese School System #573: Create Your Own Reality
The Japanese teacher dutifully stands outside of the staffroom, peering longingly through the glass window in the door like a loyal pet. The time comes to enter and she looks around for the English teacher, but where is he? ? He’s several meters down the hall (seemingly) looking at trophies. ? Hidden passive aggressive meaning: “I’m dangerous. I do what you request of me, but I do it in my own way. The job will be done and it will be done well, but remember: I am not Japanese, and the more you try to force me to be Japanese the more I will resist. I’m a being of logic and will pander to your Japanese rules only as far as my tolerance for subjugation allows. Just get used to it from the beginning” (さらに…)
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Teaching English in Japan with Ato – The Ghetto, Part I
My time at the previously mentioned school has come to an end and since then I have worked two weeks at another school. This school wasn’t bad; a bit dingy and rundown, but the students were by far the “genkiest” group of kids I have ever taught and the teachers quite dedicated.
The interesting part of working at this school wasn’t the actual school, but rather the walk to the school.
Everyday on my way to this chugakko I would walk by the grimiest, dirtiest, most ghetto-looking Japanese school I have every seen in my life. The grounds were unkempt and the paving stones were perched at differing angles. Some of the windows had tape on them preventing the cracks in the glass from spreading further.
Actually, for the first week when I walked by the school I thought it was condemned and the kids moved to a different school months before, until I saw a few straggling students walking around on their sports day. In my disbelief, I joked to myself that I would take pity on the poor gaijin that had to turn up there to work every day for two weeks. Imagine my surprise when I checked my schedule and saw that it was I. (さらに…)
Teaching English in Japan with Ato: Yakuza Light
Part 8: So I’m walking along the fence of the new school and see a lemon chuhi tallboy inside the fence. I think to myself, It can’t be that bad…can it?The neighborhood is pretty nice and it’s unlikely that someone tossed the can in there. Hmmm!
The school itself actually doesn’t turn out to be that bad; it’s not quite newly refurbished, but it’s not ancient either. The staff seems pretty nice as well but I’ve learned not to judge too much within the first week or two. The students are the usual mix of good students willing to learn and bad students who couldn’t give less of a sh*t about English and stare out the window. Overall, the students seem ordinary, that is except for one kid…let’s call him “Akira.” (さらに…)
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Black Tokyo Japan 
