Beckteria

Future of Japanese Education

Yep, today I was helping the BOE (Board of Education) conduct interviews for Japanese people that want to become English teachers. The good news is that it was not for me to decide who is good enough. Apparently, it is quite difficult to become a teacher here. First, there are written exams. Then there are interviews, group discussions, and a reading portion. For these teachers, it was all in English. It was pretty rough on them. I guess this test is only conducted once a year. Whew! And they must pass all of the tests in order to qualify to become a teacher.

It was interesting to hear some of them talk about their ideas for teaching English. Of course, this is because I need to usurp their ideas for my own classroom. Many of the candidates had done homestays in the U.S. and Australia, so it was different to hear about those experiences as well.

I found one female applicants comment particularly interesting. She said that the other kids in school made fun of her because she had brown hair. Bizarre. Talk about MN`s duck, duck, gray duck. (Who knows about the first two ducks? What color are they?) Sucks to be different.

Well, most of the guys that were in my groups sucked at English. Plus, most of the applicants were women anyway. I don`t know what the deal is. In my school, it seems like most of the teachers are men.... Maybe it`s just that more women are interested in teaching English than men.

I hope that I did my job well. I would hate to think that they didn`t get hired because I`m not doing my job well. On the other hand, only about 1 in 10 or 1 in 15 people actually are good enough to become a teacher here. Those aren`t good odds.

posted by Bex @ 9:08 AM