Just Another ALT Post - Silak Version!
Happy Sunday Minasan!!!
The weather is slowly cranking up and it's getting more and more difficult to step out especially when you don't have a car and will have to walk to destinations. The dangers of heatstroke are real people!
So today I want to talk a little bit about my life as an ALT in Japan.
Time and again, people from outside Japan would ask me: "What work do you do there?", to which I reply, "I'm an ALT." Wait, what?
To people who have been interested in Japan as I had been before coming here, you would know that ALT stands for Assistant Language Teacher. Now, this takes different meanings as well depending on where you're teaching and I will discuss the role in detail in a Junior High School perspective as this is where I am assigned. I am basically an assistant to a Japanese Teacher of English.
I will try and get Jerome, Richard, and Leizel to talk about their experience in the Elementary school front so we can have insight into that area as well as soon as I can.
Okay! Let's get started!!!
JHS- Junior High School. In Japan, JHS is equivalent to grades 7-9 or middle school in some countries. The major age demographic are kids ranging from 12-15 years of age. So mainly, my students comprise of tweens and early teens.
Teenagers!!!
I remember being a teen myself and let me tell you, they change moods as often as the weather. One day they will be bright and sunny and all smiles the next you're facing faces grim as district 12 in the hunger games.
So, what exactly do I do?
I am a part of a two-person team teaching an English class. I always join the class with a Japanese English teacher and mainly do the warm-ups, pronunciation, reading drills, and occasionally playing games with the kids. In JHS, this is the norm as this is the time where the kids start learning about English grammar syntax. This is when they start learning the use of the English language. From what I know, mostly in Elementary school, they learn about vocabulary and the basic greetings and counting.
So once they enter JHS, they start learning the significance of the subject-verb agreement, past-present-future tenses, and all the structures that makes the English language what it is. And this needs to be explained in Japanese first to facilitate understanding. And, unless you are flawlessly fluent and can speak Japanese correctly, you can not handle the class alone.
Although from time to time I do conduct a class in English, although these are usually fluff pieces like writing fan letters but no major grammatical lesson.
Teenagers have this air of superiority about them. They feel like they are so grown up and simply refuse to be treated like children. (Oh honey, you are far from being an adult, and believe me adulting is ^#% hard). So there will be days where you are met with the cold dead stare of the cool kids.
So what do I do?
As for me, it was hard for me to get the kids' comfort and I really had to earn their smiles. What I try to do is to act a little bit funny (I am not a funny person so this was a big challenge). I learned to let go of my feelings of embarrassment and wore my Pierrot nose with pride. I tend to act like I'm stupid to elicit reactions from them and once the initial tension is broken, I started being more comfortable being in front of them.
One thing to remember when you are teaching, you don't have to be perfect. You have to be prepared to the best of your ability but if you do make mistakes, simply admit and turn it into something you and the kids can laugh about. I think having fun and making the class enjoyable for everyone is more important than conducting a perfect class. Reason: It allows the kids to relax and be more open to trying the language. Japan is a country of perfection that kids are so scared of making mistakes. And you need to let them know that the time to make mistakes is now as experience is the best teacher. This relaxes the classroom atmosphere encouraging the kids to try using English.
Working with other people is always a challenge and the language barrier does little to help. Working with other teachers can be difficult at times especially if they refuse to listen to you or to reason. I am lucky enough to have kind teachers (to my face at least :P). I think it would be best to just do your best to be a contributing part of the faculty offering assistance when you can and showing an effort to learn their language. Remember the golden rule, respect begets respect, if you treat everyone kindly, even the most difficult teacher will have no choice but respond in kind. The Japanese culture demands nothing less.
Well, these are some of the things I have on the top of my head about my work. This, by no means, justifies what we do exactly, but if you have questions, please feel free to comment to reach out to me via the page.
See you soon!!!
The weather is slowly cranking up and it's getting more and more difficult to step out especially when you don't have a car and will have to walk to destinations. The dangers of heatstroke are real people!
So today I want to talk a little bit about my life as an ALT in Japan.
What is an ALT?
Time and again, people from outside Japan would ask me: "What work do you do there?", to which I reply, "I'm an ALT." Wait, what?
To people who have been interested in Japan as I had been before coming here, you would know that ALT stands for Assistant Language Teacher. Now, this takes different meanings as well depending on where you're teaching and I will discuss the role in detail in a Junior High School perspective as this is where I am assigned. I am basically an assistant to a Japanese Teacher of English.
I will try and get Jerome, Richard, and Leizel to talk about their experience in the Elementary school front so we can have insight into that area as well as soon as I can.
Okay! Let's get started!!!
ALT in JHS
JHS- Junior High School. In Japan, JHS is equivalent to grades 7-9 or middle school in some countries. The major age demographic are kids ranging from 12-15 years of age. So mainly, my students comprise of tweens and early teens.
Teenagers!!!
I remember being a teen myself and let me tell you, they change moods as often as the weather. One day they will be bright and sunny and all smiles the next you're facing faces grim as district 12 in the hunger games.
My Role
So, what exactly do I do?
I am a part of a two-person team teaching an English class. I always join the class with a Japanese English teacher and mainly do the warm-ups, pronunciation, reading drills, and occasionally playing games with the kids. In JHS, this is the norm as this is the time where the kids start learning about English grammar syntax. This is when they start learning the use of the English language. From what I know, mostly in Elementary school, they learn about vocabulary and the basic greetings and counting.
So once they enter JHS, they start learning the significance of the subject-verb agreement, past-present-future tenses, and all the structures that makes the English language what it is. And this needs to be explained in Japanese first to facilitate understanding. And, unless you are flawlessly fluent and can speak Japanese correctly, you can not handle the class alone.
Although from time to time I do conduct a class in English, although these are usually fluff pieces like writing fan letters but no major grammatical lesson.
Class Clown
 |
| I'm okay, I swear |
Teenagers have this air of superiority about them. They feel like they are so grown up and simply refuse to be treated like children. (Oh honey, you are far from being an adult, and believe me adulting is ^#% hard). So there will be days where you are met with the cold dead stare of the cool kids.
So what do I do?
As for me, it was hard for me to get the kids' comfort and I really had to earn their smiles. What I try to do is to act a little bit funny (I am not a funny person so this was a big challenge). I learned to let go of my feelings of embarrassment and wore my Pierrot nose with pride. I tend to act like I'm stupid to elicit reactions from them and once the initial tension is broken, I started being more comfortable being in front of them.
Perfect
One thing to remember when you are teaching, you don't have to be perfect. You have to be prepared to the best of your ability but if you do make mistakes, simply admit and turn it into something you and the kids can laugh about. I think having fun and making the class enjoyable for everyone is more important than conducting a perfect class. Reason: It allows the kids to relax and be more open to trying the language. Japan is a country of perfection that kids are so scared of making mistakes. And you need to let them know that the time to make mistakes is now as experience is the best teacher. This relaxes the classroom atmosphere encouraging the kids to try using English.
Working with Japanese Teachers
 |
| Ohayou Gozaimasu! |
Well, these are some of the things I have on the top of my head about my work. This, by no means, justifies what we do exactly, but if you have questions, please feel free to comment to reach out to me via the page.
See you soon!!!
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