☆ENGLISH ONLY☆コミュのwould like to hear your opinion

cant follow link from keitai

i mostly agree with what you wrote. however, i don't think it has to be a bad thing if people are going to go to japan (or anywhere) to teach english 'just for the hell of it'. sounds like a good enough reason to me.

aside from that, i really agree. it's like, i don't think many americans would imagine travelling to Germany or South America or Russia to teach english without knowing any German, Spanish, or Russian. So it's odd that so many people think they can go to japan and do that.

Anyway, i think that most non-japanese that use this site probably know at least some japanese and are making efforts to improve theirs, so i don't think anyone should get too offended.

There's some kinda common myth that if you swear off something you write as 'something that's not supposed to offend' or 'just a joke' it's all "okay" and kosher, and anyone who might take offense or try to respond reasonably is obviously some kinda idiot who "uh, didn't, like uh, get it or something?" <insert hair twirl>. Then there will be the people who avoid looking logic and reasoning square in the eye, and say something equally inane as 'well, like, it came with a disclaimer so...like..you shouldn't have read it stupid-head!'

Now, THAT disclaimer given, I think if you're wanting people here to respond to your statements in some sort of objective collective manner (which could only somehow occur by the reader consciously bleeping out all of the emotion in the post) that you're likely not to get what you want.

People respond to emotion with emotion. You're rant, no less, is chock full of it. So, I guess I'm wondering--

Do you have an actual question that you want answered? More importantly, can you state it in such a manner as to get the kind of responses you're looking for, if any?

What are you wanting to know, Ayame?

It should be noted that I blocked out all of the emotion in your post, and then responded.

I'll thank anyone not to assume that I really have any sort of care or emotional investment in this topic myself.

And now, a picture of Mum-Ra...

i prefer liono!!!

thundercats!! HOOOOOO!!!!

what's wrong with liono's hip?? he's got some kind of weird cancer or growth or something.. it looks like a guy's face. gross

I wasn't offended but I gotta tell ya, I'm gonna have to disagree with you there. I lived in Japan for a little over 3 years and loved my job. (I was an English teacher to prescool kids.)

The only reason I ended up coming home was because I became really ill - but I would have stayed there if I could have.

A lot of people hate thier jobs (esp. teaching English) because the main English schools there (GEOS,etc...) aren't meant to teach but to drag people in off the street. You get bonuses for the more students you bring in - and the interest is to keep people coming in, and get pressured to do it.

Some idiots (that's right - idiots) think that Japan is just like their home country and that they can do things just like they did back home. Then they're up to their neck in it. I tried to steer clear of them. They're irritating as hell.

I didn't make a ton of money... I paid my bills, ate well, had subsidized rent (which any school worth their weight in shite does), partied it up from time to time, and had a bit to put away. I sent money home because the dollar was so weak that I was able to travel around Europe for 3 months after coming home. And most of my friends who basically went the same route were just as happy.

It's not as bad as you make it out to be.

still cant read the entry but heres my take on the comments. there are plenty of people from any country (including japan) that go live in other countries with almost no intention of learning the language. ive heard of many working holidayers from japan that stay in their japanese bubble, not that different from the eikaiwa teachers being accused (or so it reads). if one doesnt intend on living in that country semi-permanently, i can see how learning the language may seem more trouble than its worth. though its always preferable to learn, rather than not.

This is one naive question, and it may be totally off, but since I've been away from Japan for 15 years I have to ask you this. Are those English schools still popular at all? Japan was in the middle of the bubble era right before I left. There were literally hundreds of schools teaching "eikaiwa" there. Now that the bubble has burst and they're still struggling to recover from the recession, is there still high demand for schools like that?

Hi クリス. Thanks for the response. I guess I hit the nail right on the head?

Having spent a bit of time in Japan, but never having taught English before, I can empathize with your feelings. I hated meeting foreigners who had spent years (decades in one case) and still spoke little to no Japanese. However, Japanese isn't exactly the easiest language in the world and I would contend that your example is not quite equitable. For one, as pathetic as it is, Japanese are taught basic English from elementary school. Secondly, you were immersed in an English speaking environment at a young age, the older we get, the less able we are to pick up language. Thirdly, you seem to have had an inkling that you were staying in Canada for a while as opposed to a 6 month or 1 year stint. Hence the motivation is far different. And lastly, in my experience Japanese have a far better chance of communicating in English than Westerners do in speaking Japanese. This imbalance makes it possible to survive easier in Japan with no language skills that the reverse situation.

There are many westerners that become exceedingly good at Japanese, and are there because they want to be. But Language school instructors have different goals in mind and serve a very constructive purpose. You see, in my opinion the Japanese education system teaches English in an ineffective way from the students standpoint. In the Japanese education system, the focus is on "Testable" instruction. Because of this, English it taught in a backwards fashion. You are taught with the primary focus on Grammar, then Vocabulary, and lastly Pronunciation. While this makes it easy for you to be tested, it is exactly the wrong way to be taught a language for communicability.

I have had many many Japanese friends over the years. The one thing they all shared was the ability to conjugate and structure English far beyond my ability, and almost no skill to pronounce the most basic English words in anything approaching native fluency. The thing is, that English doesn't require correct grammar to be understood, and in common practice, most people have terrible grammar. And while vocabulary is important, neither are a factor if the person you are conversing with can't understand the word you are attempting to say.

Having native speakers (hearing British or Australian accents coming from Japanese is always a cute surprise) teach this vital skill is imperative if Japanese are to become fluent in English. And not to sound like a typically empiric westerner, but at this time English is the International language (sorry esperanto) and the Japanese population suffers from the self imposed isolation of poor English skills.

Now before everyone jumps on me for dissing the Japanese, I will be the first to admit how pathetic monolingual westerners are, lazily wallowing in the fact that they were born into a language that the rest of the world is forced to bend to. But I'm not yet willing to throw out the useful aspects of English language speakers by imposing some kind of Japanese competency on them. You would just get a far smaller, more expensive, and more frustrated pool of people in which to teach.