Living & Working in Ishikawa, Japan
Courtesy of http://thisjapaneselife.org
Ever wondered why your JTEs seem to start every sentence with, “Maybe,” “Probably,” or “I think”?
Eryk over at This Japanese Life has answered your curiosity with an amusing and informative article on the gap between Western and Japanese notions of surety, “On Japanese Probability.”
Check out his article and see if you can’t get a better grasp on communication with your JTEs just in time for 8 hours with them at Skill Development Conference (October 28).
Ahh the Undokai. One of my favorite times of year. September and early October are when many schools have their annual sports festivals. These festivals promote exercise, teamwork and school pride for the students. Upperclassmen will spend hours outside of the normal school day preparing for the undokai and trying to make it the best for the younger students.
As with all things in Japan there are some interesting fashion rules that occur the weeks prior to and on the day of the sports festival, which is another reason why I love undokai so much.
The week or so leading up to your undokai will usually involve some sort of training and various meetings between teachers and students during the school day. Since the teachers may be helping students prepare and train for the games they will be dressed a bit more casually than usual. Clothes such as cargo or track pants and basic T-shirts or sports gear are acceptable to wear during this time. If you aren’t sure if there will be some kind of training that day, wear your normal work clothes, but bring a bag with clothes to change into if you see other teachers in a casual manner.
Also, don’t be surprised if you have a lot of classes canceled this week. If you find yourself with a lot of free time, try to go watch the training for the games. It’s a great excuse to get out of the staff room and talk with some of your students.
On the day of the sports festival, the look you want is sporty casual. If you have a full track suit, you can wear that. Throughout September the weather is extremely hot and humid so dress in light, breathable clothes. There are usually a couple games where students face off between parents and teachers, so dress ready to participate in some activities such as relay races or tug of war.
Try not to wear clothes that are too tight or revealing. This is an event with lots of parents and VIPs in attendance and they may not appreciate your cleavage-enhancing tank top or junk-highlighting bike shorts. (Also, this is an event for children, who are you trying to impress, really?)
Other things to keep on your must-bring list include:
Melanie is a third-year JET living in Ishikawa. She wore a denim skirt and tank top to her first undokai.
This is the first installment of the “How to Dress” series, where we tackle the topic of proper attire for various occasions throughout your JET career. The first of this series is dedicated to the new JETs and what they should wear upon their arrival in Ishikawa.
When you arrive in Tokyo, the Orientation Assistants are going to have you send all your luggage except for one bag ahead of you to Ishikawa. In your bag you should have at least three days worth of proper business attire (as well as casual clothes for evenings out in Tokyo).
Upon arriving in Ishikawa you should be in formal business clothes. You will be meeting your new supervisors, coworkers and possibly principals, various heads of departmental offices and maybe even the mayor or other higher-ups in your town. Many offices have implemented “Cool Biz” (クールビズ) meaning men can forego neckties and undershirts and women can dress in a more business casual fashion. It’s a great program, but it also means that the air conditioning will be set to a higher temperature in the office.
Since this is your first day and you may not know who you’ll be meeting, play it safe and opt for the full suit and tie. If your supervisor has any compassion, they’ll schedule all your important meet & greets early in the day so you can change out of your work clothes as quickly as possible.
Ladies, if you’re going to wear a skirt, it would be appropriate to wear pantyhose. Also sleeveless tops (even if it’s a blouse) are not considered proper business attire, so you way want your suit jacket or a nice cardigan to cover up bare arms. Again, this is more of a formality issue and something you may be able to get away with once the important meetings are finished.
Do your best to stay cool next week and we can’t wait to see you in the ‘Kawa!
Melanie is a 3rd year ALT in Kahoku. Her constant fashion faux pas in Japan led to an intervention held with some of her teachers. Please learn from her mistakes.
From the June 2011 CLAIR newsletter:
The JET Programme announces the cancellation of the 2012-2013 JET Calendar and JET Diary. We would like to thank current and past participants for the many photos submitted throughout the years. (link)
I’m quite sad to see that both of these items have been cut. My JET planner has saved me on the Tokyo subway more than once, and the crucial information it contained, which included medical terminology, road signs, food labels, and laundry tag information, all within a compact, easy-to-use format, will be sorely missed.
Leah Zoller is a second-year CIR in Anamizu and is the outgoing editor of this blog.
With the new JETs arriving in two months, now is the time to upload your favorite lesson plans, proposals, and notes to Entrepreneurial Teacher. Give your successor and the rest of the Ishikawa JETs the benefit of your knowledge and experience in a format they can access before they even get to Ishikawa!
For example, what recipes went over well at English Club or your international cooking lesson? What would you do differently at your next eikaiwa? What are the best games for elementary first graders? What tips do you have for writing an event proposal?
The content of ET is only as good as we make it. Get a head start on your departure preparation or your orientation material collection today!
More Information
Read more of this post
Image from "履歴書 – Japanese Résumés (blog post by former CIR)"
Not recontracting? Building your professional resume and cover letter, whether in English or Japanese is, frankly, stressful. How do you convey exactly why and how you are the perfect candidate for a job—and how do you explain JET?
Luckily for us, Vince Ricci, a lecturer and admissions consultant at the University of Tokyo, does pro bono work helping JETs prepare for life outside the program. Although he will be at the Leaver’s Conference on Feb. 21-23, 2011, you can get started now with his blog, located at http://jetresumes.blogspot.com/.
This week, I would like to kick off a mini-forum of lesson planning and worksheet-creating tips and resources. Every classroom and school situation is, indeed, different, but we can all learn from each others’ experiences. Similarly, we can all benefit from each others’ lesson planning related bookmarks!
Please comment with a quick breakdown of a lesson that worked particularly well for you, or, (for those of you who have done teaching or ESL before JET) any helpful tips from your past training/teaching. Also, if you have used any online resources, it would be awesome if you would post a link and describe how you modified what you found.
I’ll go first.
As a part of my job as a writing tutor, I attended an ESL/ELL teaching workshop meant for volunteer teachers for adult immigrants and refugees. Most of the content was very situation specific, but there was one thing I took from it and have tried to apply to every teaching moment I’ve had since. The instructor recommended structuring activities around a very simple pattern: I do it, we do it, you do it.
It’s par for the course to do an example of any given activity with your JTE before telling your students to pair up. A good example–a good “I do it”–can be the very best supplement to (or even substitute for) an explanation of an activity. However, the ESL instructor found that an interchange between the class or a group as a whole and the teacher made students less shy: if they made mistakes, they made them anonymously, and heard the correct answer among their peers’ replies. A “we do it,” even as simple as getting the class to say an answer or speak a sentence with you, helps to close the percieved gap between learner and native speaker. It is also a more active way of getting an example sentence or vocab word to stick. It’s easy to forget a new word you have just heard; it’s hard to forget a new word that you’ve just said twice with the class and the JTE.
I notice when I forget a “we do it” portion of an activity. The students are either silent in the first few minutes of their conversation groups/pairs, or they simply read off the page. Without a “we do it,” I often find that too much of my time is taken up with explanations or just by trying to get students speaking. What are the “we do it” parts of your activities, and how can you use them best?
—
And now some resource links!
The classic Englipedia. This site is a compendium of ALT-generated and textbook-supported activities and games. There are lots of book-based resources for Junior High, and increasing resources for elementary school. For High School, there are many games and activity ideas.
PB Works’ activity compendium. This is a huge lesson and activity wiki with lessons generated by ALTs everywhere. It includes links to worksheets. All levels, and a great source for ideas!
Discovery Education Teachers’ Resources. This is geared toward teachers of all levels for US school subjects, but has great information if you want to do a topic-based lesson. Also, clip art!
Please share your favorite lessons, tips, and links! Sharing is caring!
Posted by Lauren, who wants to read your replies. 
This guest post is by Gavin Lynch of Hokuriku Gakuin University about the October 2010 Cambridge Oral Examiner Training Session, a professional development training session that will qualify you to become an oral examiner for English-language proficiency exams.
Hello!
My name is Gavin Lynch, at Hokuriku Gakuin University. We are a private college, but are involved with the JETs in a number of ways.
Last week, (May 15th) we had some JETS helping us out with our English Camp – thanks a lot guys! Last December, we held training for the children’s Oral Examiners. Very successful day, with all the attendees getting an important qualification on their CV/resume and (maybe more importantly), getting some much needed professional development that could be used in their classes.
We will hold training for the KET/PET levels of Cambridge (bigger kids/adults) on October 10, 2010. If you are interested, please get back to me as soon as possible as numbers are limited.
It is a training session, so you will have to pay to attend. The 10,000 yen course fee covers the costs of training and registration. When you pass, you will be registered and asked to be an Oral Examiner when the tests are held (usually, twice a year – those of you who are EIKEN examiners will kind of know what it is like). You will be paid for doing this.
There are some restrictions (such as allowing only people with
teaching experience attend), but Cambridge counts things like work
experience in university, summer school teaching, etc.
Please contact Gavin Lynch (email) gavlynch at gmail dot com to see if you are qualified to attend the training session, and if not, what you can do to become qualified before the next one.
For more information about Cambridge OE, check out the official websites at www.cambridgeesol.org (English)
www.cambridgeesol.net (Japanese)
If you’re responsible for teaching your own class, chances are your teaching is going to be evaluated. Since not all ALTs are briefed on what is expected of you as a teacher in Japan , I thought I’d point out what the students are asked to evaluate about their teachers at the high school I work at. (My evaluation by students was in July, by the way).
Questions about the Teacher
Photo: Steph & Adam
March 3rd was graduation at my high school here in Japan, so I thought I’d give the run-down of what it’s like, as well as a few tips to prepare for yours if it hasn’t happened yet. If you notice any difference from your own, write in the comments. I’ve only seen graduation at one school, after all.
Graduation came the day after exams ended, in the middle of the week, with classes for the 1st and 2nd year students continuing the very next day. At my school, it takes place in the gym, and fortunately it was sunny outside, so I only needed to wear 4 layers to stay reasonably warm.
The entire ceremony went just over an hour, from 9:50am – 11:00am, although I was recommended to head down around 9:20 to get a seat in the teachers’ section. The front row of the teacher’s section is reserved for the homeroom teachers of the graduating 3rd year classes. As it happened, I was the first teacher to actually sit down, so I went with my supervisor’s suggestion and grabbed the seat closest to the heater, and other teachers quickly sat down near me. The 2nd year students were already seated (1st year students don’t attend), and most of the parents had already found their seats.
At 9:50 the school band started to play and the 3rd year students began filing into the gym, two by two, led by their homeroom teacher, standing before their seats, and sitting as a class when told. They spent the day prior to graduation practicing the whole ceremony. They wear their school uniform that they wear everyday.
Photo: bazylek100
At 10:00 the ceremony began with everyone standing to sing the Japanese national anthem. Then, we sat down and were immediately asked to stand to sing the school song, which was displayed in hiragana so I could follow along.
With the singing finished (for now), we sat down, and each 3rd year student was called by name by their homeroom teacher. As each name is called, the student stands up and says “hai!”. Interestingly, the less-motivated students said nothing at all, and the more motivated students spoke loudly. Amazing what you can glean about a student just from how they say the word “hai”.
When all students’ names had been called, one student from the graduating class approached the principal at the podium and formally received a diploma on behalf of all of the students, by raising it above his head, bowing, and retreating backwards off of the stage. There is a lot of formal footwork by anyone who approaches the ceremony, as they have to pay respect to the flag on the stage, the teachers to the left of the stage, and the city officials to the right of the stage. It’s very interesting to watch, considering the in U.S. all I had to worry about was making sure I didn’t trip and taking the diploma in the correct hand — oh, and switching the tassel on my mortar board!
After the diploma is received, speeches follow. This takes up the majority of the time, and might be interesting if you can understand Japanese. If not, consider it a good chance to try to understand Japanese intonation and pick out any katakana words. The principal and mayor both gave speeches, as did a 2nd year student to his upperclassman, and a 3rd year student to his fellow classmates. Each person giving a speech has it written on a special, long piece of paper, that is folded in an accordion, so they can read the speech without any page flipping. Afterwards, it’s put into a special envelope and placed on the podium.
Finally, the ceremony nears completion when everyone sings “Auld Lang Syne” (in Japanese). The 3rd year homeroom teachers tell their students to stand, and they file out. In previous years the students used to shout something at their teachers or make some kind of joke, but this year it was decided that it wasn’t formal enough for a ceremony so that (along with party poppers, a previous tradition) has fallen to the wayside.
After graduation, the students go back to their homeroom to receive their yearbooks and enjoy looking at photos of everyone and taking photos with friends and teachers. The homeroom teachers often receive large bouquets of flowers. It’s a fun time to wander around the halls with your camera and say your final goodbyes to the 3rd year students.
For the visual types among you, here’s a video summarizing graduation ceremonies in Japan — complete with “Auld Lang Syne” at the end.
Tips
Useful Vocab
Even if you can’t count to ten in Japanese, you’ll be in-the-know if you can at least recognize some of these words:
sotsugyou (卒業) – graduation
Upcoming Events
