english teaching

I relaxed as much as a teacher can when you know that a wily student seated near you was playing with a knife after having had an altercation with you a few moments earlier.

"Do you smoke in the school?”
All of the teachers who smoke, we all smoke inside the school. There’s a tiny little maintenance room wayyyyy off in the back where we huddle around a coffee can filled with water and enough ash and butts to make me consider quitting every time I see it. But, was this common knowledge to the non-smoking teachers? I wasn’t sure…

If you are an English teacher in Japan and think you have it tough, contrast your working conditions with those of your fellow teachers in Korea, where the government "may consider revising the current regulations to allow foreigners to tutor legally for money."

I felt sorry for Takahashi-sensei, as usual. She looked like she was being bitch-slapped by a pimp. The other teachers in the office were pretending not to notice this, but it was like not noticing a total solar eclipse. It was the Tyrannosaurus Rex in the room.

I have been involved in one form or another with teaching English to Japanese people for most of the past 15 years. I’ve worked for an English school, have taught at Colleges and High Schools, have taught children from 3 years of age and up, and have taught plenty of my own private classes.

Vlogger Jason who is currently in Japan with the JET program shares his views and advice on what you need to do the same in a series of YouTube videos.

Or you can follow his day-by-day adventures at his blog, here.

Loco is headed for the darkside of the Gaijin experience in Japan. He's taken to giving Japanese a little bit of their own medicine. He begins to retaliate against the treatment he's received, with some interesting if not funny results...

Tomomi came to class in low cut sweaters, mini skirts and pumps. But was she there for work or for play? Girls are girls, usually, but there's something about Japanese girls that give them an extra uuumph. Call it the J-factor.

One year on, the collapse of Japan's largest and most well-known English language school still resonates today. Nova's 300,000 students and 4,000 instructors are still owed billions of yen in refunds and unpaid wages. The vaccuum created by Nova has sucked the life out of the foreign language sector. Although Sahashi has been indicted for embezzlement, his trial has yet to begin.

The Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office has filed charges against Nozomu Sahashi, the former president of bankrupt English language school operator Nova Corp., accusing him of embezzlement.