I was thinking about my time in Japan the other day, while munching away on my last Matcha Kit-Kat (sad times!), and wondering what I would stock up on when I next go back. Which got me thinking about my friend’s wedding that will be taking place in less than two weeks’ time in Nara. How my mind went from green Kit-Kats and Umeboshi to weddings, I don’t know. Stream-of-consciousness is supposed to be logical, no?
Anyway, the thought process led me to contemplate a Canadian friend and who first moved to Japan as an English teacher in 2003-ish. He intended on staying for “a year or two” and, like a lot of people I know, ended up staying for a good five or six. He met a lovely Japanese lady whom he is marrying in Japan where they will most likely raise their kids. To an extent, my Dad actually belongs to this ilk of gaijin, only he and my Mum had absolutely no initial intentions of getting married, especially since my dear mother was mere 19 when they met. They’ve been happily together for almost 26 years now. Just goes to show we shouldn’t trust our gut instincts.
I met my friend when I was 16 and he was, let’s say, much older than me. As we hung out alot, I’d say he is responsible for introducing me to a great portion of the English-teaching crew I have in mind while writing this post. They were all older than me and seemed so grown up, so I never questioned the notion of English teaching as a career. However, after a year of teaching English, my Canadian friend moved on to a different profession due to the near-to-nothing satisfaction rate of his English-teaching job at a large (and notoriously crap) corporation.
Now that I myself am at the age at which traveling is often assimilated with the concept of settling somewhere temporarily to teach English, I’ve been giving the profession more thought. Many of my friends, especially those who studied languages with me, have wandered off to teach English in various corners of the world. Recently, I read a rather disheartening article about teaching English abroad. It’s a bit old (2004 seems like ages ago now, huh?), but the reality doesn’t seem to have improved all that much in some places (cough, cough, Italy, cough), which really saddens me. Being able to effectively teach any language is a truly valuable asset and yet it often gets shoved into the “part-time job” category, along with bartending and waitressing. I have absolutely nothing against the latter jobs, but if we consider the qualifications required for all three then surely English-teaching ought to be ranked slightly higher in terms of wages (at least at the language establishments that actually require credentials). I mean, you do invest a certain amount of time and money in acquiring these qualifications. Certainly, this should be reflected in your pay cheque.
Ready for an injection of irony? I strongly believe that language teachers, or anyone filling an educational role for that matter, shouldn’t have to feel as though their jobs are not sufficiently financially rewarding, yet I work for the largest language school company in the world and know for a fact that our teachers don’t get a fair deal. I don’t expect to make loads, but the reality is my pay is also relatively poor, for someone living in Switzerland. Why is it that businesses in this sector tend to consistently exploit their workers? Of course almost every company exploits its employees, but I find it particularly disconcerting when it involves education-oriented companies. Personally, when businesses selling products that are designed to be genuinely beneficial to their consumers, as opposed to purely materialistic and essentially superfluous, I can’t help but feel that when the employees are mistreated, the positive image the company portrays is instantly marred and the hard work that goes into providing customers with a truly life-enhancing product goes down the drain.
Anyone care to share their views? Do you teach a language under really good circumstances? Are there some rewarding English teaching jobs that don’t get enough attention? Or do you think you’re under-appreciated?
I don`t know what it`s like in the rest of the world but working in Japan (for me) you get paid a lot of money to sit at your desk and drink green tea.
The teaching however can be somewhat unrewarding as you are usually only wheeled out to repeat English words during the classroom dog and pony show. So I guess things even out.