[Tsuwabuki]

Originally Posted by WingsToDiscovery

You took everything I said out of context.

Maybe.

Firstly, the majority of people who do come to Japan to teach generally do Eikaiwa work, where you don't need Japanese. Hell, I know people who are college students who don't have degrees yet who are teaching English at companies like Gaba here.

I think this differs by area, whether the majority is eikaiwa or ALT work. In my area most are ALTs, either dispatch or direct hire. We have a university professor as well, as we have one university. We've also previously had two foreign teachers (American and Australian) who had kyouin menkyo (teaching licenses) and aside from administration positions (due to Japanese law), were day to day indistinguishable from Japanese teachers. That's my current path.

Or it's not even uncommon for real programs like JET to hire people who can't speak a lick of Japanese. I think you would have been better off not getting a degree in English/Teaching back home because it's not like you need any teaching qualifications to be a teacher in Japan. With another degree you could have the option of switching jobs or moonlighting or something.

I agree with you that many foreigners come to Japan to be dancing monkeys or human tape recorders. That, however, is not teaching. Teaching requires actual pedagogical methodologies, and while you can learn them from doing, even eikaiwa instructors and ALTs benefit tremendously from having an actual education background and Japanese. I've done both. Unless you want to be a hiring manager or owner, eikaiwa is a dead end. If you do, however, I know foreigners who own their own schools and are successful at it. So even there, the issue is ambition, not career type.

If you want to be a human tape recorder for the rest of your life, then by all means, get a mickey mouse degree or game the system and get hired solely for your ability to speak your native language, but you'll never get anywhere, because your skillset will never be one that will bring you higher responsibility, nor the positions and money which come with it.

As for the value of my degree, I would not have been "better off not getting it" because 1) I intended to teach in Texas, meaning that I had no clue I was coming to Japan at the time 2) it provided me with the pedagogical skills I needed to immediately come into a Japanese classroom, and with or without a co-teacher, take command of the classroom and impress 3) led to a higher initial salary and evaluation based bonuses 4) was a requirement for getting into graduate school which leads to university opportunities and also my specific area of scholarship falls under Contribution to Japan for permanent residency 5) makes it substantially easier to get a kyouin menkyo, especially the prefectural based temporary version, but eventually the necessary national permanent one.

Secondly, I said "many" people. For every one person like yourself who actually enjoys teaching and are successful at it, there are 1,000 people here just looking for a visa. They've got no end game, can't be successful back home, and are complacent living off 30K a year. They could climb the ladder at Starbucks back home and make at least that much.

Right, but the issue here is not this nebulous concept you have of English teaching, but rather the issue is the unambitious individuals who are consistently recycled in these positions that undermine the label of "teaching." Even as an eikawa instructor, you could actually teach if you knew how. Most individuals do not. Therefore they are not really rightfully teachers.

I know you'd like to add some kind of prestige to your job, but in most cases it's not there. Teaching in general, I have utmost respect. "English teaching;" not so much.

I don't just teach English, I also teach elements of government, political science, and history. However, even if I did only teach English, because I am a qualified English teacher in the United States and speak Japanese, I am able to actually work with my students on issues of mechanics and style. Most of the individuals you are describing couldn't diagram themselves out of a paper bag, let alone diagram a sentence and explain that sentence structure in a second language about their first language. This isn't a matter of prestige, it's a matter of efficacy.

Most of the time English "instruction" in Japan has absolutely no real teaching, which is why I always am quick to draw a distinction. You say you have an utmost respect for teachers in general, of which I certainly am one. My subject being English doesn't preclude the fact I am a "real" teacher, so I feel quite disrespected in being placed in the same box as non-teachers. Title, eikaiwa or ALT, has nothing to do with teaching or not teaching. Ability to teach does.

Do you understand where I am coming from?