Quote:
Originally Posted by sarasi
The main source of jobs for people without specific skills is English teaching, and it is obvious that most of the foreigners teaching English here are going to be white, because the majority of the population in most English-speaking countries is white.
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While this is accurate, it's an attitude that drives me up the wall. A bit of a threadjack, but this perception is the reason why:
1) Most Assistant Language Teachers suck
2) Many Japanese people do not take us with teaching backgrounds seriously
3) Boards of Education refuse to do direct hire and consider ALTs to be temporary, or transient individuals
4) Culturally unaware individuals fail to grasp the importance both of their profession and their need for a certain degree of sensitivity (or as I call it, "White Boy Entitlement Syndrome" though it may not necessarily involve a white male).
Teaching is a
skill. Those that arrive without the ability to teach are often
bad at it. At least initially. Japan really needs to do more to set teaching requirements and standards for native English teachers. I have a job; I don't need to be doing a second trying to make up for/help fix unqualified individuals.
Sorry. Threadjack over.