Job announcement at Aichi Prefectural university

Here's another classic. Check it out! Go here for the Japanese version.

The Faculty of Letters within Aichi Prefectural University invites applications for one non-tenure track status English teaching position, beginning April 1, 2005.

This sounds normal until you learn that jobs for Japanese teachers are not advertised like this. "Tenure" and "non-tenure" are Western, American constructs, not covered in Japanese labor law. People in Japan are either employed, or they aren't. Here is the Japanese that they use for non-tenure track: 非終身雇用 (hishushin koyou, non-lifelong employment)

Contract period: One year, beginning April 1, 2005. Subject to yearly review, the initial contract may be renewed for up to five more years (until March 31, 2011)

Again, people in Japan are employed or they aren't and in most jobs if a person works for a company for five years, the employee would be let go if he/she quit on his/her own, broke the law, retired, or if the company went under.

Up to five years...Based on what? Yearly review? I've been through those kangaroo courts. A bogus department committee is hastily thrown together with no interest given to education or university rules and regulations. They make up some criteria by which the teachers will be evaluated, and they interview the person. They come back later with a decision based on who-knows-what. A totally fraudulent, corrupt system.

And by the way, these are only for foreign teachers that get this treatment. How could it be otherwise? No Japanese teacher would be qualified for the job unless they fit requirement number 2 below, no matter how good their English is.

Qualifications:A prospective candidate for this post must: 　　

1. be a native speaker of English
   　　
2. not have been resident in Japan for any purpose between September 14,2002 through the September 15, 2004 application deadline for this post
   　　
3. be less than 50 years old at the commencement of employment
   　　
4. have a Master's degree or its equivalent in an academic field closely associated with the educational, linguistic and cultural nature of the post (e.g. English or foreign language pedagogy, applied linguistics, TESOL, etc.)
   　　
5. have received formal training in TESOL at the certificate and/or degree level and possess extensive experience in teaching English as a second or foreign language to multicultural populations of university undergraduates
   

...not have been resident in Japan for any purpose between September 14,2002 through the September 15, 2004 application deadline for this post

2002年9月14日から2004年9月15日の期間に、目的の如何にかかわらず、日本に居住した経験のないこと

Huh? What's this about? It is about having a person with no attachments to the country. No family. No mortgage. No network of friends and relations. No idea that they could unionize and fight for their jobs when the five years are up. Just like a spy novel. Get someone with no next of kin to start asking questions when they disappear.

...be less than 50 years old at the commencement of employment

Age discrimination, too. No it is not illegal to discriminate according to age here.

Note to applicants: The Aichi Prefectural Government has mandated condition number 2 above and therefore continued funding for this post is contingent upon this requirement being met fully.

Now what does this mean? That if a teacher lands the job and then teaches for two years, that the 5-year deal goes out the window because the two-year policy kicks in?

The rest is all pretty standard fare. Do all the work, and get none of the perks of working in a real community of learning. You may notice that the teachers' responsibilities do not include departmental or university wide committees other than entrance exam creation. Any decision making that happens during the period that this teacher is at Aichi U. will happen without him/her.

My prediction is that a teacher with an other-than-Japanese-nationality will take the job and either not know what is going on or will find out somewhere down the line and try to take action. Yeah, there are people who would like this job. Unfortunately, since there is no rule of law in Japan, whether they like it or not, the teacher will still lose his/her job in five years, and even if he/she takes it to court, it will be thrown out because public organizations like prefectures can act with impunity when they do so under the heading of "Public Interest."

Exams over

On this last day of exams for my classes, I gave two exams, both of them in Conversation classes. The students wrote a brief exam while I interviewed other students to test their ability to use the target language.

Everyone did alright. I will miss this particular group. They came in really not very enthusiastic about English. (there is an understatement) Now some of them are relatively enthusiastic, and one student, the one who was most difficult in the early days, says that English is his favorite class now.

This student is great to watch. In enneagram terms, he is an eight. This morning he came in the room and sat down next to me. That is unusual, because, even though we sit with our desks in a square, I was sitting in front of the blackboard, nearest to the door, where the lectern is positioned, obviously the position of power in the room. Though I sit different places during class and I try to change the position of power to where the students are, most of the equipment in the room is fixed, and I was sitting in the driver's seat. I can never remember anyone in 18 years of teaching in Japan who willingly chose to sit in that position when other options were available, as there were today. My strategy with him, as with any other student in the class, is to remind them that they have the power; they are in control of their destiny in this particular class. It worked with this student.

I hope more students begin to push some boundries. The testing regimin here is so overwhelming, that students feel that there is only one right answer, one right way to do things, and that everything else is wrong. During yesterday's exam a student asked several questions about the ways that he written parts of the exam. For each of the questions that he had there were several different ways of approaching it. I assured him that his were alright, too.

Fireworks

Went with the family to see fireworks in Kuwana, Mie Prefecture on Saturday night. These are some pics from the event. There were mobs of people lining the river. The pyrotechnics were marvelous.

fireworks scene 2 Originally uploaded by Yokkaichi 1.

Exams Today

Today is exam day for the Basic English courses that we teach in our faculty. We are required to give a unified exam for all of the students. It is a first-year class that is leveled, so even though the classes and students are quite different, we are required to give all of the students the same exam. The only up side to this system is that we can grade it, or not, as we see fit, so each class can get the kind of treatment it deserves.

I have speaking exams tomorrow, some grading afterward, and then we're done. Hard to believe. It went so fast.

At the end of the semester, I'm always happy, and sometimes I feel guilty about it. I spoke to my father, who was also a college prof, about that one time. He said that he felt that if he were happy when classes started up again, that feeling glad when they were over was also alright. Couldn't agree more.

I'm testing Flckr

I'm testing out Flckr, an online system for sharing photos. There has to be a better way of posting photos than the system that I have now. More on this later. I have to run to a meeting.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Seinen Kyoryoku Tai- The Japanese Peace Corps

Have been absolutely swamped over the past couple of weeks and have just now found a little energy to play with here, so I thought I'd write some good news.

Yokkaichi University has been working closely with the Seinen Kaigai Kyoryoku Tai, 青年海外協力隊、in order to encourage students from this university to consider the group as an employment option after graduation. The group is similar to the American Peace Corps in its objectives. I have been working with the group this year, and will be leader for a group of students from this university who will go abroad for a overseas training retreat.

The first group to attend an overseas training retreat went last year, and that group is going through the application process now. There were six people who sat for initial exam. Three have passed. That is very good news. I was told that there are nearly 700 applicants and only 35 spots available. For us to have three students get this far is a real accomplishment for everyone concerned.

High court upholds reprimand to teacher over anthem

The Tokyo High Court threw out an appeal by a teacher who was punished for refusing to play the national anthem on the piano at a school function.

Here is a quote from the presiding judge.

"Public servants' freedom of thought and conscience are subject to restraint when working."

I sure am glad I quit my job as a teacher at Prefectural University of Kumamoto. I may have had my thought and conscience restrained.
Japan Today - News - High court upholds reprimand to teacher over anthem

Institute tries to roll back sea of katakana words

The National Institute for Japanese Language has made a list of 33 Japanese terms as replacements for 33 katakana loanwords "mostly English" that are used in government documents and by the media, but that are difficult to understood by the public.

I guess the most interesting part of this discussion is the question, "What is Japanese and what isn't," or "What is English and what isn't"? All I can say about loan words in Japanese is that they are often difficult to understand, and it slows reading considerably. When I run into a word written in katakana, I have to sound it out and try to link it up with the word it is meant to represent in another language. It is also interesting that the article says that most of the loanwords are English, because they resemble English so little. For example, one word that comes up in the article is "dei saabisu". It is supposed to represent "day service." I don't think it resembles the English very closely in spelling or in pronunciation, and I don't think there is an equivilant concept in English. Day service is the care of elderly people during the day at their home or in a facility and then letting them be with their families at night.
Here's the article.

Summer Clouds

These are some photos of a cloud that I watched grow out my office window instead of doing what I was supposed to do.

Ideas and suggestions for the English Club

The following is a kind of write up that I did before I met with the leadership of the English club, just to get my head together more than anything else and to brainstorm some ideas.

Yeah, the TOEIC... I have a love/hate relationship with that thing. On the one hand, it is important for our students to get some kind of certification for skills that they have worked so long and hard to acquire. The TOEIC test is well regarded in the Japanese and Korean business world, and according to other people's stories, it will become more well regarded at least in the near future.

On the other hand I hate it because lots of time is spent in exercises like we have had in the past, answering some questions from the TOEIC test that are just way over our students' heads. They will never be able to profit as much in two hours from that kind of study as they would with the same time working on materials that matched their levels. If the TOEIC test is supposed to me a measure of a person's ability to communicate in English, then anything we do to help the students improve their language ability should help them with the test.

The membership's English skills are important, and I think we should encourage them to work together with the common goal of raising thier TOEIC test scores AS WELL AS other skills. We should also encourage them to do English outside of the English Club. This time just isn't enough. If they spend a few minutes every day, if they commit themselves to a program of developing their English skills, they will improve greatly in the 4 years that they are here, and some of them can graduate from here with well over a 400 on the TOEIC test.

Therefore, I think we should work on some activities that will help them grow as people and as language learners, but I don't want to and cannot force anyone into anything. Here are some ideas:
1. spend less time on fun, game-like activities, and spend it on working together to improve levels
a. sempai helping kohai to develop along a chosen path
b. language learning strategies, setting up individual goals and strategies
2. create English Club matierials, learning matierials, hints for English learners, books in English on topics such as Yokkaichi, Mie, Yokkaichi University, Gero Onsen, Ise, life in Japan 50 years ago, recipes, travel guides, whatever. Put them on the internet, publish them, sell them for money for the club.

There is a difference in levels among the members. I think that is natural and may be something the members could work out. Put themselves in groups, with the members of the highest level group teaching the lower level people. Teaching is a great way to learn, because they not only have to be able to do it, but tell someone else what they need to do. That would take some of the pressure of you to do all the work.

The club will take a club trip at some point, I would suggest that we come up with some project that they could put together and have a product to show at the end. A play about their lives as students. Art work about how they feel when they think of graduating. A visitors guide in English to the place that they are going, with pictures and interviews of the people that live in the area. Make two or three groups, send them out with notebooks and a digital camera, and have them go to town. Have them put the thing together in English, and then publish it for sale to the town or on the internet. Then I can stay at the hotel and read a book while they are out doing their work.

These suggestions were met with mixed reactions, but on the whole they seemed to be relatively attractive. Now it goes on to the membership.

English Club TOEIC

As the advisor for the English Club at this University, I attend as many of the gatherings as possible. This last gathering was on Monday. The club has various themes. This week's was TOEIC preparation.

I'm not really in favor of TOEIC preparation as a theme. It seems shallow and less effective than other potential activities, but it isn't my club. As a matter of fact, I have a meeting with the club leadership today to express my feelings about this and other issues. I'll write about that later.

The activity, for two hours was this. The group in charge of the activity copied some listening questions on a piece of paper and as we listened to a CD, we tried to answer the questions. At the end of the question, and after people had heard the passage enough times, we analysed the question and what the answers were and were not. I'm not sure how the questions were chosen. My guess is that they were chosen randomly. They were very difficult, with words in them that I was not familiar with, some locations in Washington State, and "dungenss spit." After looking on the internet for a location I finally know what it is. It's on the Puget Sound. For this Hillbilly, the only spit I knew was the kind you do when you're chewing tobacco. And I couldn't figure out why spitting in a dungeon would be a tourist attraction.

At the end of the activity, the students were feeling pretty beat up, and I was feeling like they had just spent 2 hours finding out what they couldn't do. I made three points.

1. The TOEIC is not real communication. As for the listening, in real communication, if you don't understand what the other person is saying, you can ask them to repeat, simplify, or change the words in their statement. There are pictures, maps, gestures and context to rely on. All of them absent in a test.
2. Most of the TOEIC test is above their level. If the average score in the club was 300, and I'm being generous, then there are 690 points above them. Two-thirds of the test is going to be beyond them. They can practice and develop their language ability to reduce that amount, but the test itself is going to be that way.
3. The questions are tricky. In the listening test there is a section where the speaker makes a statement or asks a question. The test takers must choose from three spoken responses which would be the best to respond to the innitial statement. One is the correct response. One is a distractor. One is totally off base. First, the initial statements or questions are totally without context. Second, in real communication no one would respond in the way the test is arranged unless they misunderstood, were intellectually challenged, or unless they were being funny or rude.

Preparing for the TOEIC test is all well and good, but there needs to be more of a systematic approach to it for this Enlgish Club.

JTop court endorses sports festival's ban on foreigners

This is a follow-up to a previous post. An American resident of Japan was prohibited from participating in Japan's National Sports Festival because he was a foreigner, as I blogged sometime last week. He took the issue to court, and up to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court rejected the claim, as I predicted they would.

Hey, I paid 30% of my income in taxes last month, and I bet Douglas Shukert did, too. Something stinks.
Japan Today - News - Top court endorses sports festival's ban on foreigners