[Tsuwabuki]

Originally Posted by killyoself

Oh yeah, and who might you be Mr? And what makes you think people actually give a crap if you want them there or not??

Hmm... perhaps it's that I went to college to get a degree in English so that I had a few different options, including knowing how to teach English as a global language?

I never said I expected people to "give a crap," but that doesn't mean I will stand idly by and let you suggest that my career, yeah, not a stopping point, not an excuse to avoid responsibility, not this sorta-temp thing I do while I sort my life out, but MY CAREER is a place for just anyone to just jump into. I am a professional. I spent years working very hard, not to mention about $70K, to get that little piece of paper that says I give a damn about my job. Which I do. If you DON'T, if you see your students as a means to an end INSTEAD of the end, then just get out, or don't come in the first place.

Mayne, it's people with your attitude that we (me) could really do without. So much of the average Eikawa job is doing 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes', colouring books, telling people they should say 'it's a pen' instead of 'it's pen', and pressing play/pause on the tape player.

Which I think is absolutely awful instruction. This is not what I do. It is not what I went to college to do. It is also not something I feel is going to give students any true attainment of language use, let alone any degree of fluency. I am not a dancing monkey. I am not a human tape recorder. I work in Japanese public schools, and while I do team teach, I also teach courses alone. That includes a lot more than what you suggest above. The kind of skills you learn by going to classes in college to be a teacher.

What qualifications (and I do mean qualifications) should you have for that ish?

At the very least an earnest desire to go to Japan to be a teacher. However, I would be far more demanding and expect someone who can claim at the least classroom instruction on pedagogy. Even when I expected to work in politics or as a reporter, I was still required to take classes on how to teach, and in specific, how to teach English.

A bachelors degree in Law?

Law is a post-graduate degree. You need a BA first. Perhaps in a subject like political science or hmm... ENGLISH is often a very common BA for those wishing to pursue law.

Maybe a masters in neurology? Cos let's face it, hardly anybody teaching over here graduated with a degree that's even remotely relevant to teaching English.

Neurology is a medical field, you would need a medical degree, which is much more than a masters.

Yes, too many people here don't have degrees related to English, and I think that should be changed. It's true, that I am the only one in my district with my background, but the others have worked tirelessly to bring themselves up to speed, and they are darn good teachers. Why? Because of what I said above: they came to Japan knowing they had a job, and that job was their students, and their students came first. What they didn't know they learned. That you view your job as being so much as a clown or dancing monkey shows how little you recognise or value your impact on your students, and therefore you should not be a teacher.

And don't say "that isn't what I said, I wasn't talking about ME, just these OTHER people." You demean the field, you demean me, you demean yourself.

Furreal, I hope I never have to be in the same room as you or any of your friends.

It's not you I'm worried about with your attitude: I worry about the students that have to be in the same room as you.