Being an ESL Teacher in the Japanese Educational System

The land of the rising sun has many secrets that are dying to be discovered. Between the food, technology, people, and government, one would never know where to start. As an English teacher within the Japanese educational system, one will learn about all of these aspects of culture. One aspect that is very important to learn about before one travels abroad is the educational system they will be teaching under. From how the classroom is set up, to job opportunities, it is very crucial to attain information regarding this essential part of the Japanese culture.

In many ways the Japanese educational system is very similar to the American one. It contains all of the same types of schools, kindergarten through college. The major difference between these educational systems is that Japan has more types of schools than America, and some of these schools are not mandatory. Unlike America, Japan does not require attendance at the kindergarten level. This being stated, "over 63% of the number of new entrants to Primary or Junior School...start their education earlier than required by the state." (Japan Guide, 2001) The school structure is very similar to America after kindergarten, because Japan then has elementary schools, junior high schools, senior high schools, and colleges. An addition to student schooling is a school called juku, or cram schools. Although these schools are not mandatory, most students attend them. The schools are provided so that students can either catch up to their peers, or get ahead. "A 12-hour day is not unusual for the Japanese high school student," (Japan Guide, 2001) as a normal school day consists of classes, after-school activities, juku, and homework. Another difference in the school system is that senior high is also not mandatory. But in Japan it is seen as very important to go to high school and college to receive a good job, so over 90 percent of students attend high school. To be accepted into high school, students must pass an entrance exam. The better the high school, the harder the exam is. High schools are very competitive because of this, which is why students attend cram schools.

The next important aspect of the Japanese educational system is the curriculum. As of 2003 a new curriculum was enacted for Japanese schools. This curriculum changed several aspects of the Japanese school system including a "five-day school week was introduced...more elective subjects are to be provided at the junior high schools...and each school is now also able to devise educational programs on their own." (Komatsu, 2002, p. 53) All of the schools curriculums are overseen by MEXT, the Japanese Ministry of Education. They look over the three areas of curriculum that include, "subjects, moral education (except for senior high schools), and extra-curricular activities." (Komatsu, 2002, p. 50) In Japan, the students are taught a variety of subjects at each level of schooling. In elementary school, they are taught, "Japanese language, social studies, arithmetic, science, music, arts and handicrafts, homemaking and physical education." (Improvement of content of- Education and Development of Ability) They are then taught "Japanese, social studies, mathematics, science, music, art, health and physical education, and industrial arts- homemaking," (Improvement of Content of- Education and Development of Ability) in middle school. They are also offered a variety of electives including "foreign language, agriculture, industry, business, fishery." (Improvement of Content of- Education and Development of Ability and More) The subjects are very similar in high school, except the students are offered more classes that they want to take and that will influence their careers.

The Japanese government also conducts ACTFL testing. ACTFL is "a national metric for measuring language competence based on the U.S. governments Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) language descriptors." (Introduction to ACTFL Assessments) In this case it measures Japanese students English language abilities. It does this through a series of tests that is broken down into three categories: speaking, writing, and reading.

Along with the subjects that are taught in Japanese schools, there are many strengths and weaknesses in the school system. One strength of the Japanese school system is the number of days the students attend school. Japanese students are in school two-hundred-forty-three days out of the year. That is sixty-three days longer then American students. A lot of these extra days are Saturdays where students do activities such as cleaning blackboards and sweeping the halls. This gives the Japanese students an extra boost by building character. Another strength of the Japanese school system is in mathematics and sciences. Subjects such as these can be learned by rote learning show high proficiency for Japanese students. On the other hand, Japanese students tend to do poorly in subjects that require creative and independent thought, such as "history, foreign languages, geography." (Nesbitt, 1992) A final positive aspect of Japanese language classes is the class size. Average elementary school classes are twenty-seven people, junior high school classes are thirty-three people, and senior high school classes are twenty-seven again. Though these class sizes are not optimal, they are better then most situations presented in other countries; they are manageable.

The next notable aspect of the average classroom in the Japanese educational system is the classroom variety-especially when it comes to the number of Japanese students. Japanese classrooms can come in many shapes and sizes. One can be placed in a classroom of fifty Japanese students, or a classroom of ten. It just depends on the size of the school, and if it is a public or private school. Many classrooms in the Japanese educational system look similar to American classrooms. They have a clean atmosphere, desks, a teacher's desk, whiteboard, and other basic materials. For most Japanese classrooms, the ESL teacher will be allowed a wide variety of materials. An ESL teacher can use Internet, whiteboard, flashcards, overhead projectors, document cameras, etc. The ESL teacher can also bring materials that her or she would deem useful to the classroom.

One aspect of being an ESL teacher in the Japanese educational system that can be different is dealing with shoes. It is considered impolite to wear shoes indoors, so Japanese students must either take their shoes off, or change into indoor socks called tabi. The Japanese are very strict about the cleanliness of the classroom. Also, Japanese students are encouraged to make frequent use of dictionaries-a lot of the times they do not really need to use them. A good classroom management skill for any ESL teacher is to decide when it is okay or not okay for Japanese students to use dictionaries. Many schools will have different policies on language use within the classroom. The Japanese educational system is becoming very modern though, so you will not likely have to know any Japanese to teach. Full immersion contexts are becoming extremely popular within the Japanese educational system.

There are also many other aspects that you can expect from the Japanese educational system. Japan has many teaching positions available, especially for an ESL teacher. It is not too difficult to find a job as an ESL teacher, especially with a teaching certificate; the harder part is finding an ESL teacher job with good benefits. The first thing to look for is salary. The minimum wage for being a TEFL teacher in the Japanese educational system is 250,000 yen. If the school is offering you less then it is probably a scam. With this in mind, you can make more than this, even as a beginning teacher. Many teachers do private lessons on the side or if you find a high-end school you can get paid 300,000,000 to 600,000,000 yen per year. The next thing is how much you would be working a week. In most jobs that you will find they will say twenty-two to twenty-seven hours per week, but you this usually does not include office hours so you have to keep that in mind. Then you should look at vacation time. You should expect at least two weeks of vacation days per year. Also, make sure that this does not include national holidays. If it does include national holidays, you are not getting a good deal. Most jobs in Japan also provide health insurance. If the job you find does not, make sure you are compensated with more wages or more vacation time to make up for the loss of health insurance. One thing to not expect in your contract is for them to pay for your flight. It is rare for schools to pay for flights in this day and age, so do not expect it. Finally, Japan also has its fair share of job scams so be careful. There have been horror stories of teachers arriving in Japan only to realize they are jobless. Many schools over-hire teachers expecting some to drop out, but sometimes not enough teachers drop out, so you may not have a job.

Japanese students would seem the perfect candidates to teach English too. They are well behaved, view school as important, and do well on tests. However, they are still lacking in their English teaching. Japanese students are quite proficient in their reading and grammar skills, but are extremely lacking in their speaking, pronunciation, and listening skills. This is not the fault of the students, but a problem stemming from lack of experience on the part of the ESL teacher. It is rare to find an ESL teacher in the Japanese educational system who has actually lived in an English speaking community. An ESL teacher who has never lived in an English speaking community is often lacking in important English speaking skills. To compensate, the ESL teacher may focus on the grammar and reading skills to make up for the speaking, listening, and pronunciation skills. So, these skills should be taught especially well by the ESL teacher. One way to teach pronunciation as an ESL teacher is to focus on the fact that English has more sounds then Japanese. English has fourteen vowel sounds, but Japanese only has five. To help teach listening, you need to teach students that native English speakers often "connect words together in their natural speech, and they also reduce vowel sounds." (Ikeda, 1998) So, Japanese students not only should learn the phrase as it should be said originally, but also be able to recognize common phrases that may be shortened in native speakers' speech. Japanese communicative competencies are hard to measure. At the present, most do not have very good competency due to low speaking and listening proficiency. However, if the students have a high motivation to learn English their competency improves.

In conclusion, I will provide a list of various job opportunities in Japan. The Japanese are very concerned with their students' education and a big part of the Japanese educational system promotes learning English. With this in mind, jobs as English teachers within the Japanese educational system can be found all over Japan. Some major programs outside of the traditional Japanese educational system that supply jobs are the JET Programme, O-Hayo Sensei, Safe Jobs in Japan, and Westgate. If you are looking for a starting job in Japan, one of these programs would be the place to start. They each provide different opportunities and benefits. Some of the benefits that come with working in the Japanese educational system include housing, transportation, extra supplements, airfare, and connections to long-term agencies. I will most likely choose one of these agencies to help me start my teaching career, but not until I do research on the benefits each company offers.

Overall, working in the Japanese educational system seems a good fit for a beginning ESL teacher. It also makes for a great job for a more experienced ESL teacher. Not only is the culture wonderful, but so is the entire Japanese educational system. Japanese students always seem to be looking towards the future and having the "next best thing" before anyone else. An ESL teacher will feel like a great asset in Japan because of the positive outlook of Japanese students. Not only are most of the Japanese students going to be taking English courses, but many of them are motivated and willing to learn. Any ESL teacher would be happy to provide these enthusiastic Japanese students with a great learning environment while working in the Japanese educational system.
Works Cited

(2001). Japan Guide. Retrieved April 14, 2009, from Visa Guide Web site: http://educationjapan.org/jguide/school_system.html

(2009). Teaching English in Japan Your Guide to Teaching and Jobs in Japan. Retrieved April 14, 2009, from All About Teaching English in Japan Web site: http://www.all-about-teaching-english-in-japan.com/

Ikeda, Miki (1998). Teaching English to Japanese Students. Retrieved April 20, 2009, from Teacher Corner Web site: http://humanities.byu.edu/elc/Teacher/japanesestudents.html

(2008). Improvement of Content of- Education and Development of Ability. Retrieved April 20, 2009, from Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Sciences, and Technology-Japan Web site: http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/hakusho/html/hpae196501/hpae196501_2_025.html

Introduction to ACTFL Assessments. Retrieved April 14, 2009, from ACTFL Testing Web site: http://www.languagetesting.com/home.cfm

Komatsu, Shigehisa (2002). Transition in the Japanese Curriculum: How Is the Curriculum of Elementary and Secondary Schools in Japan Determined?. International Education Journal , 3, Retrieved April 14, 2009, from http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/iej/articles/v3n5/4komatsu/paper.pdf

Nesbitt, Scott (1992, Dec, 02). Education in Name Only. The Globe and Mail, Retrieved April 14, 2009, from http://www.scottnesbitt.net/articles/japanese_ed.html

Paxton, John (2006, June, 06). Japan & ESL Teaching Contracts - What You Need to Know Before You Sign. Buzzle.com, Retrieved April 14, 2009, from http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/6-5-2006-98338.asp