I've got news for everyone!!!!!!

[Tsuwabuki]

No, no, DON'T just pack and go and find English teaching jobs.

Unless you're qualified, and I do mean qualified, then I don't want you here. Your presence will merely be detrimental to your students.

[McKinstry]

Konnichiwa Killyoself,
It was nice to read your positive note on your mates living/working in Japan without a Degree. I know it doesn't work that way for everyone but it's still nice to hear success stories.
I will be heading over to Japan around March/April 2010 for 6 months so your message gave me a little more confidence in heading over without a Degree (not that anything will stop me from going).
Perhaps it's just me but I have read more complaints than positive feedback.

Arigatoo Gozaimasu!

McKinstry

[killyoself]

Originally Posted by Tsuwabuki

No, no, DON'T just pack and go and find English teaching jobs.

Unless you're qualified, and I do mean qualified, then I don't want you here. Your presence will merely be detrimental to your students.

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??

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. What qualifications (and I do mean qualifications) should you have for that ish? A bachelors degree in 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.

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

[killyoself]

Originally Posted by McKinstry

Konnichiwa Killyoself,
It was nice to read your positive note on your mates living/working in Japan without a Degree. I know it doesn't work that way for everyone but it's still nice to hear success stories.
I will be heading over to Japan around March/April 2010 for 6 months so your message gave me a little more confidence in heading over without a Degree (not that anything will stop me from going).
Perhaps it's just me but I have read more complaints than positive feedback.

Arigatoo Gozaimasu!

McKinstry

If you're going to be in Tokyo PM me and i'll tell you the name of the school that sponsored my friend who doesn't have a degree.

[burkhartdesu]

Originally Posted by McKinstry

Konnichiwa Killyoself,

I will be heading over to Japan around March/April 2010 for 6 months so your message gave me a little more confidence in heading over without a Degree (not that anything will stop me from going).

COMPLAINT #331,009


A tourist visa is 90 days. How can you stay there for 6 months?

[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.

[MMM]

I erased the senseless bickering, again. This is the second warning I have posted in this thread. The third one will include it being shut down. Play nice or get off the playground.

[noodle]

Originally Posted by Tsuwabuki

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.



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

I haven't really read any of this topic, but for some reason these two statements poped out at me...

You can do a BA in Law. In fact, there are a lot of different BA's in law, from American law, to criminology law to travel law.

And neurology is also available as a masters. I'm pretty sure the reputable McGill university has a very popular Neurological Sciences Masters degree!

[Thrownaway]

Originally Posted by MMM

I erased the senseless bickering, again. This is the second warning I have posted in this thread. The third one will include it being shut down. Play nice or get off the playground.

I've been on many different fora, and I'm surprised that this thread has been allowed to go on as long as it has. What "discussion" is still occurring has long since ceased to be productive, and forum members are actively fomenting personal discord, ad hominems, and drama instead of intelligently disagreeing and then moving on. These exchanges just poison the well for future discussions, and you can bet the wunderkind heroes in this thread will be actively searching for points of disagreement through which they can attack each other and derail actual productive threads in the future.

I'm just Brussels, here, but I counsel time-outs.

[killyoself]

MMM, why did you erase my reply to burkhartdesu's comment?? There was no 'bickering' going on. Obviously he's missed the entire point of this thread. It seems a bit unfair.