Loco in Yokohama #2: Props and Camouflage
10 Ways Not to go Loco in Yokohama: # 2 – Props and Camouflage: As I’ve mentioned, #1: Don’t be you, is by far the most difficult step. A lot of water has to pass under the bridge before that kind of transformation can occur. So, what do you do in the meantime? My mother used to say, “fake it until you can make it!” In other words, pretend not to be you. This is much simpler.
I used to work for NOVA. Those of you who live here know of it, I’m sure. For those of you who don’t know, it used to be the biggest language school franchise here in Japan, focusing primarily on English instruction since English is in the greatest demand here. I won’t get into my life at NOVA. It’s not essential for this post (maybe I’ll tackle it in later post.) What is relevant is that the uniform for Nova instructors was at minimum slacks, shirt and tie, but they preferred you wear a suit. And so most everyday I left my house dressed very conservatively. This was not my preferred mode of dress.
Before I came to Japan, I used to work at a reputable company in New York and there, too, the expectation was for all account executives to wear suits. And, so, for the money, I did. (さらに…)
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) & PlaySay
It’s that time again! Those planning on taking the JLPT test or interesting in improving your Japanese should check out PlaySay. Click on the BT PlaySay link to test it out! PlaySay can be downloaded to ANY MP3 device. The picture above and below show PlaySay on an iPod. (Pix credit to Japan Newbie)
PlaySay is a great resource for preparing for the Japanese Language ProficiencyTest (nihongo n?ryoku shiken?), or JLPT, which is a standardized test to evaluate and certify the language proficiency of non-native Japanese speakers. It is held once every year, on the first Sunday of December. The JLPT has four levels beginning at level 4 and progressing to level 1 – the most difficult. The Japan Foundation estimates that level 4 is reached after approximately 150 hours of study and level 1 after approximately 900 hours of study.
Content
The content of the test is determined by the Test Content Specification (Shutsudai kijun?). The Test Content Specification was first published in 1994 and partially revised in 2002 and serves as a reference for examiners to compile test questions (rather than as a study guide for students). The JLPT student is therefore required to obtain past-exam papers or other publications that reference the Test Content Specification in order to determine what to study.
The test specification is written in Japanese and consists of kanji lists, expression lists, vocabulary lists and grammar lists for all four JLPT levels.
The JLPT exam does not require the examinee to write in Japanese, as all of the questions are multiple choice. The questions classified as writing involve choosing the correct word or grammar to complete a sentence, or choosing which kanji is used in a particular word. (さらに…)
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) & PlaySay
It’s that time again! Those planning on taking the JLPT test or interesting in improving your Japanese should check out PlaySay. Click on the BT PlaySay link to test it out! PlaySay can be downloaded to ANY MP3 device. The picture above and below show PlaySay on an iPod. (Pix credit to Japan Newbie)
PlaySay is a great resource for preparing for the Japanese Language ProficiencyTest (nihongo n?ryoku shiken?), or JLPT, which is a standardized test to evaluate and certify the language proficiency of non-native Japanese speakers. It is held once every year, on the first Sunday of December. The JLPT has four levels beginning at level 4 and progressing to level 1 – the most difficult. The Japan Foundation estimates that level 4 is reached after approximately 150 hours of study and level 1 after approximately 900 hours of study.
Content
The content of the test is determined by the Test Content Specification (Shutsudai kijun?). The Test Content Specification was first published in 1994 and partially revised in 2002 and serves as a reference for examiners to compile test questions (rather than as a study guide for students). The JLPT student is therefore required to obtain past-exam papers or other publications that reference the Test Content Specification in order to determine what to study.
The test specification is written in Japanese and consists of kanji lists, expression lists, vocabulary lists and grammar lists for all four JLPT levels.
The JLPT exam does not require the examinee to write in Japanese, as all of the questions are multiple choice. The questions classified as writing involve choosing the correct word or grammar to complete a sentence, or choosing which kanji is used in a particular word. (さらに…)
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )10 ways not to go loco in yokohama: #1-don’t be you!
This from Loco in Yokohama: I know it’s difficult to do anything life altering. I didn’t come here planning to alter my life. It just kind of happened and I fought it every step of the way. Which only made it more intense, and more interesting I’d like to believe…the results of which I am filling my blog with. But, for those of you who are planning to come to japan or have come here already and just want to have fun and not upset the status quo- Japan’s or your own- too much in the process I have compiled a list of ways to make the potential life altering experience of living in Japan less…life altering.
Of course, if you’ve been here 3 years or longer, and assuming you aren’t loco already, you’ve put together your own list of ways to survive life in Japan. It’s the rare foreigner, I believe, that hasn’t had to significantly adjust his thinking, behavior, lifestyle, and so on, in order to adapt to life here. And perhaps like I, you feel the better for it.
The following list I’ve been putting together in my heart and mind for several years. I’ve tested each one and they have proven to have a high success rate. They’re not 100% but they range from the high 70s to the low 90s percentile. Whether or not they’ll work for you, I really can’t say. And any feedback you have on my list is of course welcomed.
The reason I specify Yokohama is because I know Yokohama well. I also know Saitama and Tokyo well, but, though Japanese are indeed Japanese, I do believe that people have different experiences depending on their area or region. I’ve met foreigners who live in Kansai and were utterly surprised when I told them about some of my experiences here. And I’ve met Nihon-jin in the countryside whose reaction to foreigners was significantly more dramatic and intense than the usual. (さらに…)
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Teaching English in Japan with Ato – Bananas
I was sitting talking with a female friend in an otherwise almost empty train-car on my way to Tokyo. On the other side of the train, some seats down, sat an old man – grinning maniacally. I know the look: It’s the “I’ve-been-practising-English-all-this-time-and-never-had-the-opportunity-to-speak-to-a-real-live-gaijin-and-now-I’ve-got-one-trapped-on-a-train!” look, so I fully expected him to attempt to have a conversation with me sometime before the ride was over.
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 )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.
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Black Tokyo Japan 