English teacher « Long Countdown

Posts Tagged: English teacher

ESL — 2 Comments
16
Jan 08

Get ESL Tips from Chris’ English School

One of the more recent blogs I’ve subscribed to is that of ESL teacher, Chris Ballard. Born in Hawaii, but now residing in Yanai city in Yamaguchi, Chris runs his own English school out of his own home.

Another disgruntled English teacher? NO!

What makes this blog so unique is that instead of criticising the ESL industry, or even writing articles on “how to teach English”, Chris shows us exactly what he is doing with his students through a diary-type blog that includes photos of their work, and reasons for the activities he chooses.

Examples from Chris’ English School

Recent posts on Chris’ English School include Girls Up which has some great photos of his students studying hard, a look at using a Nintendo DS as a study tool, a selection of photos of his students’ diaries, showing just how much English they are getting through, and motivating posts such as January 2008’s Top 10 students.

A must-read for wannabe school owners

As an ESL teacher myself, what I find most compelling about Chris’ blog is the passion he has for his chosen profession. Very few people care enough about their work to want to blog about it everyday. I’d recommend it to any ESL teacher, but especially to those who are hoping to set up their own school in the future. Having the freedom to teach from home and decide your own curriculum is the dream of most Eikaiwa teachers in Japan, at least those who plan to stay for a while. Subscribe to Chris’ blog and watch how he does it.

I don’t have the energy to teach!

I often feel that way, and it turns out I’m not the only one. It seems teachers across the nation rely on some form of energy drink. My sugar-rush of choice is Ripobitan D (third in this list). Chris swears by the new make-me-happy Garlic Power. How about you? Do you load yourself up on these liquid energizers? If so, which ones?

ESL — 8 Comments
20
Oct 07

Teach English Online

Learning English online I’ve been teaching English in Japan for over ten years, but I haven’t ventured into online English teaching. However, the internet is now part of our everyday lives, and email is no longer the only common means of communication. People everywhere, young and old, are using webcams, headsets, and software such as Skype to communicate with friends and family.

The demand for English teachers is as strong as ever, but students are looking for cheaper and more convenient alternatives to traditional classes at English schools. Teachers are looking for work at home opportunities that allow them to set their own hours and rates. With the internet, the world of language learning is changing to accomodate both students and teachers alike.

Services offering online English teaching jobs

Here are some resources for teaching English online. If you’ve used any of them or even run them, I’d love to hear your experiences. Leave a comment at the end of this post.

Verbal Planet - verbalplanet.com

English Flow - englishflow.net

American TESOL - AmericanTESOL.com

Teacher James - TeacherJames.com

Culture Link – Teach-English-Online.com

Spoken Skills – SpokenSkills.com

I’m sure there are others, and I will add them as they come to my attention.

Teach English in Second Life

The 3D virtual world of Second Life offers everything you need to recreate that traditional classroom atmosphere.

La Paz, Bolivia, October 8, 2007 – - Educators are now finding that teaching in virtual worlds such as Second Life is most effective when combined with real life activities. The 3D virtual world, Second Life, provides language learners with new opportunities for socially interactive learning, and when it is blended with other online teaching methods language learning becomes a truly communicative, immersive and practical experience… (Source)

Here are some resources for teaching English online in Second Life. Again, if you’ve used them or run them, please leave a comment at the end of this post.

Avatar Languages - AvatarLanguages.com

Second Life English - SecondLifeEnglish.com

I’m particularly interested in using Second Life because it would make teaching English so much more fun, and I’d imagine it would be less intimidating for students than sitting in front of a webcam feeling pressured to talk.

Experiences from real online English teachers

Here are some quotes from and links to articles written by work-at-home teachers.

Teaching English Online by Karen Bond, M.A.

I quickly draw up a table on the whiteboard, and we brainstorm different sports. I mention scuba diving, and I find lots of questions in the text box. “What is scuba diving, Karen?”. I try to explain it, but one student is still puzzled. So I do a quick search on the internet, locate a picture, and post it on the whiteboard.

Teaching English Online by James Hogan. An article discussing some obstacles of online teaching.

“James, I am an ESL teacher and am wondering how you get started teaching english online and does it pay enough? thanks for the help! Jean”

The quick answer is it’s easy but, if you have a family or other responsibilities, it doesn’t pay enough!

Be a Stay-at-Home English Teacher

There are as many different styles of online teaching as there are companies. Some services allow you to log on whenever it’s convenient for you, and others have set class times. Some provide online materials or software for you to use, and with others you are largely on your own.

My Thoughts and Motivation by John D Buchanan

I realized that people were willing to pay a lot of money just to speak to native English speakers. So I put together a website, downloaded Skype, did some free advertising and BAM, I was ready!And it didn’t take long until I found my first paying student from Korea. I couldn’t believe it! I finally did it! I offered a service on the Internet, and I made money. I continued to do this month after month, and I became more popular.

Teaching English online – are you ready for it?

Did you know that Skype and YouTube started as recently as 2003 and 2005 respectively? Skype has over 200 million users and over 100 million video clips are viewed daily on YouTube. The growth of these two services has been phenomenal. Combining telephony and video is already possible and within two or three years, everyone will be video conferencing… and taking it for granted. Not only will the number of users rise dramatically, but the quality of video conferencing software will improve as technology develops.

When our students are used to talking with their friends by videophone, they might find going to a school and paying high tuition fees somewhat wasteful if there are cheaper, more convenient alternatives on the internet. Just as traditional brick and mortar businesses are turning to the net, it may soon be necessary for English teachers to do the same.

Japan — 1 Comment
7
Apr 07

English teacher murdered

Ichihashi - prime suspect In my post Misleading Media, I talked about how I don’t watch the news anymore, but there was one story late last month that got my attention. It was the tragic death of Lindsay Ann Hawker, a 22-year old British girl who was an English teacher at NOVA.

It was huge news in both Japan and the UK, and Japan Probe covered the story in the following posts:

During my first week back at school, the subject of Lindsay’s death was a hot topic. Some students apologized to me because I’m also British. That in itself was kind of strange. While I may be from the same country and work in the same profession, I certainly don’t feel as though I’m owed an apology.

Ichihashi, the man suspected of murdering Lindsay, was originally from Hashima in Gifu Prefecture, very close to my school. In fact, one of my students was in the same year at the same Junior High School as him. She has his photo in her school yearbook and remembers him as being very short-tempered. Apparently he comes from a family of doctors, which makes it all the more surprising as children brought up in such families usually receive the best education.

Coming to Japan at the same age as Lindsay did, I can sympathize with her supposed need to earn extra money on the side by teaching students privately. I remember feeling envious of foreign women who seemed to be able to get new students, usually businessmen, simply by being female. However, I also recall a female colleague telling me how much she hated the commute to and from work because she was constantly pestered by men, sometimes drunk, wanting to practice their English on her.

It seems to me that Japan is full of pent-up frustration. Just recently, my savings have been severely dented by all the taxes, bills, pension and insurance payments I’ve had to fork out for. I wonder how on earth young men in this country are expected to keep up with the demands of society, particularly those who never graduated from university.

I’ll stick my neck out and say that women in Japan want a man with money, someone who can provide for them while thay stay at home and take care of the family. Those men that can’t get a good job, will probably not find a wife either.

I’m in no way making excuses for the actions of Ichihashi, but in this country you either ‘make it’ or you don’t, and with the growing number of people who can’t get a good job, crime will inevitably increase.

I don’t think we’ve seen the last of such horrific crimes. If anything, things will only get worse.

Japan — 1 Comment
6
Feb 07

Kancho – A Japanese pastime

“Kancho is the ancient art of clasping your hands together, and playfully poking your friend or enemy,…in the rear. It is also called “The Friendly Enema”, and is practiced by children in schoolyards and classrooms around the world. Kancho.org is dedicated to spreading the good news about Kancho.” Source: www.kancho.org

When Japanese kids first started shoving their fingers up my bum about ten years ago, I was more confused than shocked. I mean, why would they want to? I still don’t know, but it’s clear that they take great pleasure in doing so. While I’m still learning to avoid it, Az of www.gaijinsmash.net, and surely the king of kancho has mastered the art of kancho evasion. If you’re thinking of coming to Japan, this is his response:

As I said before, it’s a good experience. You learn a lot about yourself, Japan, and your own country (just by being away from it and seeing how others perceive it – not just Japanese, but all the people from different countries I’ve met while here). I’m definitely glad I came. Whether you want to come or not is up to you, but don’t let a few possible fingers up the ass deter you. Lighten up, and see the humor in it. And now that you know, you can do as I did, climbing Mt. Fuji and fine-tuning my Kancho Sense™ to a precise science. And then maybe you too can make a website about kids trying to grab your dick.

If you think everyone is making too much fuss about kancho, watch these videos from YouTube and think again.

If you can’t view the videos, go to YouTube: First Vid | Second Vid

Boong-Ga Boong-Ga Kancho game It seems kancho-ing someone in public is not as acceptable as perhaps it used to be, so they’ve made a video arcade game called Boong-Ga Boong-Ga so people can kancho all they like. I don’t know about you, but I’m worried my kindergarten kids will start training on this thing, and as one commenter said on TokyoMango, “I wonder if they’re ever gonna make a Nintendo Wii version of this game?” Now that is a scary thought! Read more about Boong-Ga Boong-Ga at Seanbaby.com.

ESL — No Comments
19
Jan 07

Think you can teach Japanese kindy?

I’ve been teaching at Japanese kindergartens for years now, and I always have a lot of fun. The key to success in teaching these classes is to be fun and energetic. While some “proper” teachers complain that they came to Japan to “teach”, and not dance around like clowns, I believe that if your style of teaching is entertaining then your students are going to learn a whole lot more from you… or at least have a blast trying!

Kindy kids are full of energy and really enjoy their English classes if you make them fun. So, with that in mind, I give you Supa Gaijin!

If you can’t view the video, you can see it here at youtube.com. Thanks to Japan Probe for bringing this video to my attention.

‘Macho’ Joe and ‘Gorgeous’ Rod have a few videos up on www.youtube.com if you search for “supa gaijin”. You’ll see they’re a right pair of nutters, maybe having too much fun in Japan, but they’ve inspired me to try out some new tricks next time at kindy… if I can get hold of that music somewhere!

Try www.supagaijin.com for more on Joe and Rod. The link doesn’t work for me but hopefully that’s just temporary.

ESL — 9 Comments
3
Oct 06

Is ESL in Japan a big joke?

According to an NHK report in 2000, Japan has the largest commercial English language education market in the world, valued at $20 billion. So, you would expect most Japanese to be fairly proficient in English, right? Wrong! Official TOEIC figures for 1997-1998 showed Japan to have the lowest average score among the 17 countries in which TOEIC test taking is most popular.

As an ESL teacher in Japan, I should consider myself fortunate that people are willing to spend so much money on learning English. I wouldn’t have a job otherwise. That doesn’t mean to say I don’t take pride in teaching my students to speak the language. After all, that is what they are paying for, right? Wrong again, it would seem.

Time and time again, I hear of students frustrated about using the textbook too much in class, or having too much homework, while many simply forget to do their homework completely. Remember that in most ESL schools in Japan, students only take one class a week, so common sense would suggest that if they really wanted to learn English, they would take their lessons seriously and devote some of their free time to self-study.

Okay, fair enough, a lot of adults just study ESL as a hobby. Hey, it’s cool to tell their friends they study English, regardless of whether they are learning anything or not. But how about children? Surely the parents are paying these huge fees so that their sons and daughters can learn English. Well, that’s debatable.

You’ve got two kinds of schools in Japan, the English Conversation eikaiwa schools, and juku, or cram schools. Eikaiwa are where the foreigners like myself teach, while juku are heads down, study, study, study, Japanese teacher-led classes. Although English lessons at juku focus soley on reading and writing English, I always thought that eikaiwa were equally important for learning communication. Now, though, I’m changing my mind…

After disciplining one of my elementary school students for atrocious behaviour, his mother kicked up an enormous fuss.

“This isn’t a school!”, she said. “We don’t pay this money for you to discipline our children! They come here to have fun! If I wanted my child to learn English then I’d send him to juku!”

Well, that knocked me for six.

The next couple of days I walked around shell-shocked. If I’m not supposed to teach English, then what am I here for? Why did I bother studying to be a teacher? Do all the mothers feel this way? Why have I spent the last few years developing a curriculum to teach English, when I should have just pulled out a copy of 101 Great Games for Kids?

I’m starting to come to the conclusion that the boy’s mother is right, and I should not worry about teaching, and just have fun with the kids instead. I mean, from a business point of view, going head-to-head with the grammar and vocabulary-based English curriculum of juku is a no-win situation, as the Japanese will always consider juku as real education. Instead, I think I’ll just go in the opposite direction altogther and play game after game after game, perhaps throwing in a bit of English here and there just to appease the teacher in me. Who knows, maybe the kids will have so much fun, none of them will ever want to go to juku!

As things stand however, until high schools, universities and companies start requiring English communication skills over the ability to read a book and memorize 10,000 words, Japan will continue to produce the most educated yet worst English speakers in Asia.

Long CountdownNick Ramsay, blogging from Japan.