14 posts tagged “japan”

When I first considered a job teaching English in Japan I had a vague idea of what learning a foreign language might be like. My experience of learning a language at school in Australia was disjointed at best, and was centred around standardised classroom texts and didactic teaching methods. Subsequently I didn't learn much of the Japanese, Italian, French, German, Latin or Ancient Greek I was taught.

I was fortunate however to have been educated in a school where most of the students spoke a second language at home, so I knew even then that bilingualism was a reality for many people. When I made the commitment to go to Japan, I also committed myself to learning the language, and studying martial arts over a two to five year period. My best chance of learning the language centred around being immersed in the culture, and using it to accomplish tasks of an everyday nature.

When I arrived in Japan, I enrolled in survival Japanese courses offered at the local international centre and took my notes home and practised phrases every day. I also mastered hiragana and katakana early on because I wanted to be able to read. Towards the end of my first year I moved to a rural town, from a prefectural capital, and my opportunities for engagement with the locals grew. I was beginning to feel more confident in my language ability.

Being a language learner gave me a much greater appreciation of what my students needed in the classroom. Everyone learns differently, and made sense for me to approach language acquisition from a learners perspective. I took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in my second year, and sat it each year following. Studying for the test helped me understand the different modalities of language learning. Doing the past exams helped me to understand my weaknesses and better prepared me for what was ahead. I was constantly on the lookout for different learning techniques. Language learning itself, became my hobby.

When I met my then future wife in 2004 all of our communication was in Japanese. As we grew together as a couple my language needs changed, I was now required to understand things with a degree of subtlety that I hadn't had before. Speech was infused with nuance, and although the potential for miscommunication was high, I credit my wife's patience and understanding with my current language ability. We now have two children, a boy and girl aged 2 years old and 3 months respectively. They will be joining me in Australia in June.

I have come to the realisation that language learning is not separate from cultural experience. Language learning doesn't happen in a vacuum, it must be connected with and through people to what you want to achieve as an individual. Just as the motivation for learning a language must come from within, so too should the approach. Language learners are individuals first, and approaches to language learning should be centred around individuals.

This is the beginning of a big year, after the train wreck of last year, time to count my blessings:

• the love and support of my family here in Japan and in Australia.
• a beautiful wife that has expresses her commitment to our relationship with devotion.
• a sensitive and crazy smart boy about to turn ten who wants to spend more time with his dad.
• an inquisitive boy with boundless energy who just turned two.
• a baby girl born on christmas day.

That feels better.

I've just spent the better part of the morning emptying boxes of junk ready for the trash, and packing others for the big move. My flight back to Australia is booked for the 25th of January. Through all of the turmoil and hardship over the last couple of months, I am embracing change as the only certainty. Bring it on.

At home we are preparing to welcome a newcomer to the family. C is due to give birth just before Christmas, she tells me she is ready now. It looks like I will have about one month or so with our newest addition. Leaving her, R and C behind is going to be one of the hardest things I have to do next year, but it's for the best.

I had to knock back two job offers yesterday. As much as we need the money, I couldn't justify starting with a company that expected me to work well in to next year, only to turn around and leave in under two months. That wouldn't feel right. My private students are still happy to have me, and they are even bringing in new students. It feels much better to support those who have supported me.

On Sunday I sat the JLPT, I had no trouble in either the writing/character or reading comprehension/grammar sections of the test but felt uncertain the whole way through the listening section. Usually the listening is my best section, and I was counting on it to pull me through to a low pass, because I knew I wasn't going to get the marks I needed in the other sections. We'll just have to wait and see, the results are out in February or March next year.

Now that my test is over, I can focus on being a full time father for a while and it feels great. Lot's of walks to the park, cuddles and story-time, just what I need.

I almost wrote flying back home, but then checked myself. I have called Japan home for close to five years, it's not going to be easy to leave. I'm glad I have stuck firm to my conviction to put a cap on my time here.

It does mean however that my little Japanese family, which is just about to include another, will have to leave the comfort of their familial home. It's going to be more difficult for them than it is for me.

Of course things have become more urgent with the job situation over here, it's bad for us financially but a good opportunity to make a break. We still have a lot of red tape to get through, to make sure that Chie gets her Australian Visa, and the new baby her(?) passport and certificate of citizenship.

I've got to get cracking on a new career as soon as my Japanese test is out of the way next Sunday. Min and Nettie were talking me around to considering teaching as a career, when they were here last week. I am starting to see the sense in a job for life. Job security was something I was looking for when I came to Japan, and something that I still desire.

In the short term, I will need to find a job that will give me some flexibility to do some study for my Diploma of Education, while providing me with the income to feed my family. I will probably have to do some training or retraining as soon as I step of the plane. Out of the pot and into the proverbial fire.

We've just spent the morning at a friends place digging for sweet potatoes. Toshihiro and Mieko have just come back from a week in Australia where they saw Sydney harbour and Uluru (Google Image Search), the red rock in the centre of the desert. They were away for roughly the same period of time my family was over here to visit. It has been a very full couple of weeks.

Toshihiro and Mieko fell in love with Australia the first time they went, just over a year ago. I know they are looking forward to the chance to visit again one day. Hopefully I'll be able to share with them a little bit of true blue Australian hospitality and have them stay at my place.

To tell you the truth, the last couple of weeks has brought back a flood of sensations and memories related to Australia that make it hard at times not to feel sentimental. The red scorched earth in Toshihiro's photos, the deep blue Pacific Ocean, the casual yet inquisitive nature of my Australian family, are all bringing things home to me.

It has a taken me a while to sort through the photos taken on the trip, and it will probably be a few more days until I am ready to post anything about it. My aunt Nettie said it best, when she said, it was so much better to do an overseas adventure with family.

I have put most of the photos up on my flickr account, and there are still more to come. Here is a just a brief teaser.

 

It feels good to be sitting infront of a terminal again, I haven't been able to post anything too long via my cell phone. We've been out reach also for the last day and a half. Yesterday we were at Koyasan, the centre of Shingon Buddhism in Japan and one of the largest cemetaries I've ever seen. We stayed at a Buddhist temple and had dinner with the monks, we also joined a prayer service in the morning, very early in the morning.

Mick and Min were exhausted last night after lugging their suitcases across Osaka and through the subways of Kyoto, so they crashed at about half past eight. They elected not to send their bags on via delivery, I think only now are they realising the benefits of packing light. I can't complain though, I know most of what they have in their suitcases are gifts for my family in Matsusaka. 

Nettie and I wen't for a walk last night around Gion, we saw many typical kyoto Street scenes. We saw, kimono clad girls bidding their customers farewell at the door of high class restaurants. There were people out and about, Nettie kept saying it's hard to believe we are here. I need to keep reminding myself that everything my guests see here is highly exotic, even if it has become everyday for me.

I'm probably going to be in for a bit of reverse culture shock when I get home. I can't spend too long typing, there is someone waiting for this terminal, so here are some photos.

As far as eikaiwa schools go, NOVA was one of the biggest, in 2003 it had captured over 66% of the market share in Japan and was voraciously clawing it's way in to uncharted territory. Expanding beyond it's much touted school in front of the station model, it opened in shopping centres and strip malls hoping to become the McDonald's of English. When I moved to Japan in 2003 I was part of that expansion, and in 2004 I had taken a position as a titled instructor in a rural branch.

When I moved into that role, there were 7 full time teachers and 2 part timers, working in a branch of around 230 students. On Saturdays we filled 5 rooms, sometimes with the full complement of 4 students in each room. Nowadays I am lucky to see a single lesson with 4 students. Most days I teach 3 or 4 students and a handful of kids. There are 5 instructors including myself, and when one of them leaves in 2 weeks for a big city job at a different eikaiwa, we won't be getting a replacement. There are half the number of students there used to be.

There has been a lot said about the financial demise of NOVA over the last couple of months, and it could be said that their trouble started a long time ago. What ever the reason, it has come to a crunch in the most predictable, yet heinous way. Thousands of students are demanding refunds, many are lodging formal complaints and the lawsuits are piling up in the courts. Staff haven't been paid, instructors are miserable if they are turning up to work at all, many  more are leaving daily. NOVA is defaulting on loans, struggling to pay rent on schools and even the apartments it leases on behalf of instructors. Many instructors face the threat of eviction.

Schools are closing at an alarming rate and instructors are being forced to transfer, many are not showing up for work at their new posts, afraid that their travel expenses may not be reimbursed. Despite this turmoil, new instructors are being shipped over to Japan, unaware of the deep financial crisis they may be about to step into.

Last month my pay was delayed by 2 weeks, this month I doubt it will come on pay day as promised, if it at all. I am still turning up to work, under the advice of the General Union, and I am encouraged by my family to hang in there. I have no faith left in the company, because the president abused my trust by stringing me along on a trail of empty promises. I feel a sense of responsibility towards my students and my co-workers, we all accept that the end is near, and we are all working hard to enjoy the last few days of our professional relationships together.

I don't feel hopeless, just betrayed, by a man who would put his greedy pride before the welfare of 7000 employees, some of them who are just days into their first experience of this beautiful country.  I am disgusted that he would leave 400,000 students in the lurch, with worthless points to be reclaimed at a school that is sinking further into the mire with every minute.

Where are you Sahashi? What do you have in store for us? Are you brave enough to admit defeat, or will you string us along again with your vapid prose and empty promises?

You can follow the unfolding drama on my tumblr, or my jaiku.

 

There once was a very clear line that separated my professional life from my social life, but increasingly that line is becoming blurred.

My employer has recently launched a new blog, and has invited contributions from instructors. There is also a short video competition for instructors with the theme "My Japan". I am interested in contributing to both of them. I think anything I can do for new instructors to help ease the transition to living in Japan is a good thing.

I know there are other instructors are out there blogging for the public, but I'm not sure how many of them would want their students to know it. Especially in light of the tragedy earlier this year.

The recent launch and invitation has raised a few questions about how much I want to reveal of myself online and in class. I've always kept a professional distance in my dealings with students, and that isn't about to change. However students and others are going to have greater access to my online life, if I start contributing to a potentially high profile blog.

I have turned down friends requests from students before on youtube and facebook, and I will do it again. But with Facebook launching public search listings, the illusion of a private circle of friends is becoming even thinner. There is always the possibility that the stage whispers I make on line cold be overheard by students or my employer, taken out context and served up to me in a memo at work. By the way, I have opted out of having my profile show in public search listings on Facebook.

Since rounding off my involvement in Aikido my social life has revolved around my family first and foremost. If I am interacting with other English speaking people outside of work they are usually other instructors, that's part and parcel of expat communities all over the world. The other place where I interact with people is online, so I am glad that there are privacy options on Vox and other sites where I have a presence.

So, really, I don't have any qualms about blogging for work. Let the dialogue be open, honest and based on mutual respect.

I'm going to buy a small car today, a Suzuki Alto. It'll be my first car since last century (no kidding), and it it'll be smaller than my first car. At least I'll be less of a burden on C, she won't have to drop me off at the station or pick me some nights from work. Hopefully we can save on petrol too. One round trip is always better than two, no matter how big your car is.

As C's pregnancy progresses her ability to move around is going decrease, I'm not sure that she'll even be able to drive to the shops in a couple of months time.

A short while ago, Jonathon got in touch with me about studying for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. He stumbled across a 43 Things post of mine and thought there might something I could share that might help him in preparation for this years level 2 test. Hopefully I can share a few things here that might also help others studying for the test.

First, just a little background on me and why I study for the test. I came to Japan in April of 2003 to study Japanese and practice Aikido, at the outset I gave myself anywhere between 2 and 5 years, but no more. For the first six months or so I didn't do any any study, except daily writing practice of the kana, and a 6 lesson course in survival Japanese. I was really too busy at that stage with adjusting to my new lifestyle and working environment.

After about one year, I had picked up a few useful phrases, but I was no where near approaching real fluency, I hadn't even begun to study kanji. Then I joined a small class run by volunteers at my local international centre, bought Japanese for busy people and started studying in earnest. My aim at that stage was to pass the level 3 JLPT, I felt confident that had already done enough to pass level 4.

In the summer of 2004 I met my wife to be and we were married in August of 2005, we have a son who is now just over one year old. I would be normally be satisfied with a mere conversational level of Japanese, if it weren't for my family. I study because I want to communicate with my wife in a way that expresses my true feelings in a way that she understands. My wife doesn't speak English. I study because I can't imagine asking my son to do his Japanese homework if I haven't done mine. We plan to move to Australia early next year, where his exposure to his mother tongue will be minimal, outside of the home environment.

The JLPT provides a good measure of competence in reading and understanding what choices are necessary when writing, but it doesn't directly measure your writing or comunicative ability through conversation. These things aside, it is a reason to study. Having sufficient motivation for learning to read, write and speak Japanese is absolutely essential. Every year I study like I am expecting to fail and each time I am pleasantly surprised by my results.

So assuming you have the necessary motivation, and you have the time set aside to study, here are a few small things that might help you when planning your course of study.

First of all, understanding the format and the kinds of questions you are likely to face, is most important. If you have the done the test before you will also have some idea of where your weak points are.

Early on it is essential to build your knowledge of kanji, as it will help you study other parts of the test and improve your vocabulary. If your reading speed is high you can cover a greater number of texts. Because learning kanji is time consuming I put this first on my list of priorities. I also never stop learning kanji, I just adjust the amount of time I spend on it based on other priorities.

Do a few practice tests, under test conditions to establish some baselines, that way you can focus your attention on your weaknesses when you study. If you can find out where you are having trouble then you can focus on those areas a little more strongly. If you need to, buy books that will improve your skills in these areas. I remember an old adage from my days as a competitive cyclist, train your weaknesses and race your strengths.

The test is broken down into three sections, you need to understand these well and also how best to train your abilities in each area.

• Kanji and Vocabulary - Kanji cards are invaluable, for the first 2 years I was never without 30 or so cards in my pocket. More recently I've been using KankenDS on NintendoDS and the studying written kanji with the help of the same books that Japanese students of Kanji use. Almost every morning I write between 6 and 8 characters 15 times each in a kanji notebook.
• Listening Comprehension - this is the section I usually do best in, partly because I am constantly exposed to real Japanese at home. Closer to the test I do some specific training using the audio and scripts from the past test and other texts that I have. If you don't have the opportunity to listen to Japanese on a daily basis you will need to get access to some good podcasts, from sites like JapanesePod101 or from the past tests.
• Reading Comprehension and Grammar - This is my biggest weakness, memorizing archaic forms of grammar isn't fun, and usually I don't get much of a chance to practice them in real situations. It is also the most demanding part of the test, the volume of text covered and the time allotted always leave me scratching for answers as the last minutes of the test wind down. Get a good book, and make a habit of using past exams as much as possible for this section.

I hope I haven't overwhelmed you with too much too soon Jonathon, I'd like to know more about you and your motivation for attempting the test. For anyone else who is studying for the test I'd like to hear from you, what works best for you?