Abby, a great helping hand for my blog, is leaving Japan this summer. I'll miss her a lot, but I won't stop her from leaving because she needs to leave. She is so talented and her ability wants a greater field to work. It's time for her to find another place or field that needs her, or, to follow and deepen her vision.
I worked with many ALTs. I learned a lot from them, not only English. You jump over the borders so easily to the other side of the Earth. You are open-minded to accept a quite different culture. You are positive and active in many things here. I enjoyed working and talking with you, young foreigners.
But some of the ALTs I worked with seemed not to be interested in children , or bored in teaching. You may say your aim here is not working or teaching. We, Japanese teachers know that you are not trained as teachers, but we expect you are interested in education, or you like children, at least. And we see you as co-workers, not as guests.
To tell the truth, the work as an ALT is boring, I think. You are talented and curious, but your work is not always creative. You have to repeat the same dull things many times. Sometimes you are like a CD player, sometimes you have nothing to do in class. When you are not going to be a real teacher, all these things seem to mean nothing, I guess. I feel sorry about it.
The JET program started nearly thirty years ago, I think. The reason why Japan started the program is that we had too much foreign currency holdings in those days. Japan was expected to decrease it, and the program was one of the ways to use money. So it was not the idea of the Ministry of Education, but of the Ministry of Finance! So the program was a little strange for us from the beginning.
A New Zealander I worked with once said, " What a stupid program this is! Business class flight, gorgeous hotels, and more pay than Japanese teachers... to us, just young English speakers. We enjoy the life here for one or two years like a vacation and leave. It's no use for your English education. One of your problems is the English ability of the Japanese teachers. When you have this much money, you should send the teachers abroad to study English. Then it works for a long time. But this is a good program for us. We are lucky. Thank you!" I'm sorry, but I almost agree with him.
I want to say one more thing. Many of the ALTs are the people sent by the JET program, but there are ALTs who are hired by personal service companies. Their working conditions are far worse and the pay is far less. They have no chance to communicate with other ALTs or learn about their jobs. I once worked with one of those ALTs. She was one of the best ALTs I worked with, but she was dismissed by the city and she left. JET ALTs, you are so lucky, and please be friends with people in other situations.
However, I see many good points in this program. Children can have a chance to talk and live with foreigners and to know they are the same human beings. For children, you are the windows opened to the world. (It's a problem, however, that all of you are English speaking Western people.) Children listen to real English and know the power of language as a tool of communication. Also, many of you young foreigners live near us in small towns and villages all over Japan and learn our local lives and cultures. On your TV or newspapers, most of the news from Japan must be about Tokyo or the big cities, I think.
Some of you will finish your stay and go back home this summer, like Abby. I hope you enjoyed your days in Japan, and get interested in our life and culture. Please be ambassadors between your people and our people. As this many young ambassadors start working for understanding each year, we can understand more, and some day we can make better world.
Good luck, young people!
1 comment:
Thank you for the send off message sensei. I am currently two thirds of the way home, typing a comment at Brisbane airport. I must say, I agree with 'some' of the sentiment in your message, but not with the wholehearted condemnation of the program given by a fellow New Zealander.
Leaving Japan I have to say that there is a lot more good about the program than bad. I worked in a high school where the students, as is typical, spend a lot of time focussed on English grammar and seldom have opportunities to actually speak. The mere presence of the ALT there is a big bonus for the students and the English teachers, who quite genuinely appreciate being able to practice their own English and find out about various forms of English.
So...the actual problem is the structure of the program. As it stands there is not much control over who comes. Whilst putting controls on things may make it hard for the government to attract applicants, I think there are several things that should be considered:
1. Demanding either some prior knowledge of Japanese language before coming over, or actually doing on job training in it.
2. Demanding some kind of teacher qualification such as an ALT training certificate or full-blown teaching diploma.
3. Further ongoing training on the job, such as opportunites for further qualifications etc.
You need to be attracting the people who are smart, want to teach and who are professional. I would like to think that that was the way I approached the program, and I saw many other ALTs doing so. Of course there are a few bad apples or plain incompetent assistant teachers amongst us but I really don't think that that was endemic.
I would fully support any notion of increased training and overseas programs for JTEs. I got on very well with my JTEs and they would have loved the opportunity to upskill. Most of them were actually good English speakers, but the more they can upskill the better. This should be a priority. Spend some money on your own deserving teachers.
Finally, I would actually suggest a national dialogue in your country about the attitude students need for learning English. I think all of us saw a great bunch of young kids starting off at school and then emerging some way down the line as courteous but shy late-teens who would not speak to ALTs. That is conditioning, and to make strides in English the nature of this conditioning should really be changed. I hope those words aren't too blunt (as I know many of my JTEs saw the student attitude as part of Japanese culture), but its the truth I see.
I miss Japan so much already, and wish you all the best in the future.
Pete Carter
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