so after three years my job as an
English teacher will soon be Atta meant
to be in place by the next generation of
faster smarter more powerful English
teachers and with that in mind it seems
like an ideal time for me to pass on any
useful knowledge or advice that I might
have before I literally forget it all
but the tips materials and personal
examples featured in this video contain
what I believe to be the most important
or useful tips to anyone coming to Japan
to teaching with you so the first thing
you'll be asked to do when you arrive is
give yourself introduction class known
in japanese as tickle short code it's
really important as it's your first
chance to make a good impression with 40
students in each class that's 40 good
impressions to make and in your first
month alone of teaching in Japan you can
expect to do this class at least 10 or
15 million times and actually over my
three years the way I dealt with this
class changed quite a lot before I used
to go in with the television lots of
pictures and handouts for a quiz I would
do and there was usually a lot of
preparation required I'd spend maybe the
first 30 minutes doing a presentation
using the pictures on the television and
talking about myself my hometown and
British culture fish and chips and
voldemort yeah British culture and any
but the overall feel of this
introduction class was very much like a
structured presentation it was like a
monologue and the focus was on wow it's
a foreigner teaching in your school from
a distant land many students had never
met a foreigner before but because of
this style I felt that when I left the
class I'd barely built a rapport with
the students like barely got to know
what the class was like by the end of my
time as a teacher the way I did this
class had completely changed I would
literally just go in with a few printed
pictures some chalk and a smile rather
than tell them where I was from I would
get them to shout out some countries and
guess and guess my age as well often
with depressing results 38 years old
really I cut down the opening
presentation and got students to think
up questions in pairs to ask or to do
their own self introductions in English
and most importantly because there was
less structure I was able to be less
serious and more fun and the way I knew
that this less structured way of doing a
jig or shortcode class was better was
that when I returned to the class I was
often welcomed with genuine applause and
excitement and students were actually
enthusing
stick about English cloth so there are
many ways you can tackle the tickle
short code plots but my advice is focus
on building a rapport don't drone on and
on about your family in your hometown
bless your hometown has a zoo or a
spaceport don't be too serious
don't take too many materials and try
and be really happy smiling from and
you'll do well remember in the crowd and
you will win your freedom and don't
don't talk like that
it'll probably scare the children one of
the questions I get asked a lot is do
you need Japanese to be an English
teacher in Japan and the answer is no as
I've mentioned before I came to Japan
with no knowledge of Japanese in between
trying not to fail my degree and working
almost full time it wasn't possible for
me to take classes and I didn't have
much luck finding a tutor in the run-up
to coming here at this point many
confused people will be asking chiken
Japan without knowing Japanese
impossible
the answer is nearly everyone teaching
English in Japan is an alt or assistant
language teacher working alongside a
native Japanese teacher of English they
can explain the complex grammar you can
immerse the students in native speaker
in machine the setup works quite well
probably half-full teachers coming to
Japan come speak any Japanese and some
never even bothered to learn when they
do get here
because it's not a job requirement for
me though not knowing Japanese at work
was a real problem when I first got here
I work in a school with over a thousand
students and with one or two exceptions
no students can really communicate in
English that well particularly as it's
not an academic school and here in the
countryside English is often regarded as
relevant which in hindsight is probably
why we have local bands with names like
brown
and after months of furious study in my
first year I was able to speak and read
basic Japanese and it was then that the
job became a lot more rewarding first of
all I found students were a lot more
willing to talk to me in English in and
out of the classroom as it gave them a
sense of comfort knowing we could revert
back to Japanese better stoic it helped
students a lot more when it came to
translating or correcting their work and
this transition from knowing nothing to
being able to communicate with students
was really rewarding and not only helps
with my relationships with students but
also with teachers and colleagues as
well so by knowing Japanese have made
work parties and social events a lot
more fun so my advice is no you don't
need Japanese to teach English in Japan
but it will make your time here more
fulfilling and it will allow you to
build better relationships with students
and staff and if like me before I came
you're having a nightmare trying to find
a Japanese tutor or someone to practice
speaking with these days you can meet
great Japanese tutors online I mentioned
before I'm a fan of the site I talking
with many awesome friendly conversation
partners on who you can talk to
naturally there's no substitute to
learning spoken Japanese than from a
native Japanese speaker and by doing it
online it's far cheaper and more
convenient than tracking down a Japanese
person who's also an experienced tutor
in your neighborhood if you are
considering it particularly to viewers
living outside Japan the folks I talked
give kindly donated vouchers to anyone
watching this video just visit the link
below and if you decide to book a class
you'll get your second one for free it's
pretty cause it's something you can
actually use and if you do it it will
give you a good chance to practice
speaking Japanese before you're here
thrown in the deep end I hope it helped
when you start work as a teacher you'll
probably notice lots of cultural
differences in subtleties that you
hadn't known about before that no one's
ever told you obviously everyone knows
the major ones like you take off your
shoes and Westlands indoors often but I
found I discovered 90% of these cultural
differences simply from firsthand
observation you'll see something unusual
and then go off to a bar after work and
discuss it with other seemingly confused
foreigners slippered there's no rubber
food and schools in particular can be
quite different from the West so my
advice is to try and be observant all
times as you'll find no one will explain
these differences beforehand so here are
three examples if you're caught napping
in most classrooms of the world the
teacher will destroy you
but in Japan is tolerated to a much
greater degree if you see a student
napping in class don't necessarily go
over and harass them students in Japan
don't get a great deal of sleep as they
have lots of homework club activities
and chores and things to do at home so
be a bit cautious when waking them up
you don't know what their situation is
more often than not when you ask a
student a question they'll turn to their
neighbor to check the answer and it can
be frustrating when the answer is really
easy you know the student knows the
answer but they want to check it first
with a neighbor and so the whole class
is sort of shot down for 10 or 15
seconds while we wait patiently but as
Japan is a highly collectivist culture
you'll find teachers actively encourage
it in class so don't fire it go along
with it it just means you have to be
more patient when getting that answer
out the student
you'll find you'll be complimented quite
a lot in school almost turned absurd
degree you'll be walking down the
corridor and students will say Kakui or
kawaii or ikemen you're here in the
classrooms you're here in the corridors
just don't let it all go to your head
you're not cool you're not good-looking
you're just a rare foreigner also at
many social gatherings you'll find
yourself being complimented for two
things in particular number one is a
dream of snakes - you are Chris des
Corey 110 days Chris more doors on it
and the second is Chris Gracia doors
Maiasaura
try not to get too frustrated when this
still happens after two years when I
came to Japan one of the things that
shocked me the most was how often I saw
students play the game rock paper
scissors or as it's known in Japan Junko
I estimate every student in Japan
probably does junk in about 35 times a
day and there are genuine cultural
reasons for this namely to avoid
confrontation with small trivial
disputes but also to avoid standing out
so in team activities in class students
will decide the leader usually by doing
jump game because no one wants to stand
out they'll pass the decision over to
fake may difference between rock paper
scissors and junk M is what you say as
you play it first everyone holds out
their fists and says so sure you and
then just before revealing your hand say
junk and palm and on palm show your hand
if it's a tie you'll quickly say I
called a shot and try again and keep
continuing until someone wins
honestly master that and you've mastered
the art of decision making in Japan it's
not just used for classroom disputes as
well it's used for literally everything
so make sure you know it and who knows
perhaps one day the UN will adopt rock
paper scissors to solve major
geopolitical disputes with potentially
devastating consequences
and finally don't forget about the
bigger picture about life outside of
work it's likely you'll be placed
somewhere fairly rural where there might
not be many foreign people around so
you'll probably stand out a fair bit and
this has some pros and cons mainly pros
in my opinion the pros are that you'll
be given lots of opportunities to engage
and get involved with the local
community in my case I've taught English
classes at the International Centre I've
helped run special events and take apart
into Japanese speech contests and some
of the most rewarding things I've done
whilst in Japan have been outside of
work by getting involved with the local
community I discovered the trick is to
keep saying yes to things opportunities
that come up even if it puts me out of
your comfort zone just keep saying yes I
guess the bad point is that you stand
out a fair bit in my case I'm one of
about 10 Western people living in a town
of a hundred thousand people and of
those hundred thousand people I've
taught three thousand of them English
over the last three years so I'm always
careful that whatever I do outside of
work never gets back to school at best
I've gone to a bar then got into work
the next day and some students in the
class now I was out drinking because I
was served by somebody's mum but be
aware that your actions and your
reputation can travel quickly around
town so stay out of trouble so 5 tips I
hope at least one of them was useful if
you've just started teaching good luck I
hope your experience is as amazing as
mine has been if you are thinking about
teaching definitely do it it's probably
the best job in the world
after fried-chicken inspector and as for
me I've been up all night
I feel pretty awful and now I'm going to
fly to Hiroshima to eat some biscuits so
much should be good anyway I have a good
day see you later oh and also follow the
new year on Japan account on Instagram
because yes