JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
- Salary: ¥6.0M / Year Negotiable
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- Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Kanto region
- RCS (RCSコーポレーション), Kanto
- Salary: ¥180,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month includes performance bonus
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- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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ninjaboy
Japan needs to take a lesson from China. Many of Japan's private language schools have yet to utalise the kind of language-learning facilities that China has implimented for many years. I work for a corporate training centre in China which is very "IT competent" and does make use of automation when educating students. Many of China's private language schools have invested heavily in IT and teaching technology that has really improved the teaching and studying experience for everyone. So much so, in fact, that the current generation of Chinese students are moving away from that traditional - dare I say, almost 'Japanese-style system of karaoke English,' by becoming more creative and imaginative. Chinese students are developing their own sense of style and independence, as well as a strong motivation, to learn English.
China's universities and private language schools woke up a few years back and realised that good ideas and innovation keep any country ahead of the game. Corporate training and language learning centres (and the one I work for is a good example) inspire their students with a strong sense of creativity and imagination, mostly as a result of hiring the kind of professional instructor, not the "tourist teacher" I always seem to meet in Japan.
I would like to work in Japan applying my knowledge and skills so that a generation of Japanese students can achieve the kind of results I've succeeded in doing for countless hundreds in China. So why can't I get a job there? Reason? I'm not required. Even though my second language is Japanese and I'm quite familiar with, and comfortable within, Japanese society and culture, I'm not a "tourist teacher." I'm in it for a long term commitment and this makes Japanese training centres nervous. If only private schools in Japan woke up and realised how important creativity and innovation are to a country's development, like China did, then (perhaps) Japan wouldn't be in the state it's in now.
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ninjaboy
In this culture, kids are left to fend for themselves. They grow-up learning to adapt to their environment from the 'school of hard knocks.' I've always found this difficult to understand in Japan ever since I was a student at a university in Tokyo many years ago and did home-stay. The parents would allow their three young children to play outside unsupervised for many hours in the carpark or run around the neighbourhood. Maybe it was the only time the mother could get some peace and quiet so she was glad to see the back of them (???) Whenever it rained and the kids had to play inside, they would run riot around the cramped apartment playing with (and throwing whatever they could find at each other), even knives from the kitchen. Their mother did nothing to warn them of how dangerous this was. But it wasn't just the family I stayed with, it's like this with pretty much all Japanese families I've ever met. There have been no end of times I've had to alert shop, restaurant, onsen, or security staff of an abandoned child crying their eyes out because the parents have wandered off to do something after telling the child to 'stay put - don't move,' ... Yeah.., like a child at such a young age is going to do that! Irresponsible parents are chiefly to blame for all the tragic and needless deaths we read about on this, and other, Japanese news sites.
Posted in: What's your impression of parental supervision of children in Japan?
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ninjaboy
Well that's bound to work! Now the police don't need to patrol the area - this sign takes care of everything. hmmmmmmm
Posted in: Cleanup
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ninjaboy
Great article! Loved reading this!
Posted in: Capt Kirk, American icon?
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ninjaboy
Fruit punch anyone?
Posted in: Japanese pop singer dressed as pineapple robbed in Sweden
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ninjaboy
Sounds more like an expensive 'face saving' exercise to me. Anything to stop China from toppling Japan off the No#2 spot.
Posted in: Japan to spend more than Y10 tril in new economic stimulus
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ninjaboy
Quote: “We have sent the bullet-like metal to the Metropolitan Police Department for examination.”
Yeah.., that'll make a big difference... A bunch of Keystones standing around staring at it for several minutes in silence until until one is brave enough to venture a breakthrough theory... "I think this is a bullet!"
Posted in: NHK faces terror scare for second day
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ninjaboy
Well.., if it all goes wrong and young Alfie has to join Father's For Justice, at least he'll be able to find a Spiderman costume that fits!
Posted in: Baby-faced dad, 13, raises 'broken Britain' fears
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ninjaboy
One of the biggest problems I've encountered is the phenomenal amount of "tourist teachers" in Japan. Or more to the point, schools and colleges who are happy to employ those taking the 'graduation holiday' and could not care less as to their professional qualification, training, or experience. This may explain why, in the majority of cases and with the exception of kindergarten teachers, the more dedicated and professional teachers are simply not required in Japanese schools and I'll even go as far as saying this is why the J-Gov will continue to bemoan the fact that Japanese students will always be glued to the bottom of international English language test scores.
In my case, do you think I could ever get a job teaching English for business, practical communication skills, or cross-cultural seminars in Japan? Even though Japanese is my second language, thats unheard of!!! No, I'm in China where my knowledge and skills are more highly valued and (to a certain extent) why students like mine are communicating at more of an international level than their Japanese counterparts. I am astounded that the average Chinese fifteen year old is able to talk for an hour-long about business, politics, and culture in a near-fluid conversational manner.
I have yet to meet a Japanese adult in more than 20 years who is able to achieve that kind of level. I also believe the Japanese education is too teacher orientated. The teacher 'outputs', they talk and the students watch and listen. It is the opposite in "western" education systems where the students 'output'; they talk, write and put their skills into action... and thats what education is all about.
Posted in: What's wrong with the way English is taught in Japan?
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ninjaboy
Gambare to the next generation of unemployed / unemployable !!!!
Posted in: Job rally
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ninjaboy
I was lucky enough to have been tutored by most of the authors of this brilliant book when I was an undergrad at Sheffield. Believe me, they know their stuff. This work is insightful and a must-read for anyone interested in racial/cultural identity and/or ethnicity. Japan is far from anything 'homogeneous.'
Posted in: Japan’s Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity
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ninjaboy
Betting - yes, I agree. The Philippines is to the Japanese what the Costa del Crime is to the Brits. Anyone can disappear, get a new identity etc. This guys is already way beyond the reach of the keystones.
Posted in: Fugitive Ichihashi may be in Philippines
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ninjaboy
"My company fired me!" The new catchphrase and/or famous last words for every knife-wielding maniac in 2009!
Posted in: Man arrested for wielding knife at Roppongi Hills
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ninjaboy
copy-cat crime?
Posted in: Osaka taxi driver found stabbed to death
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ninjaboy
They don't look all that busy... they're just standing there as if they've never seen a fire before. Perhaps they forgot the fire drill or are having a meeting to decide what to do. Could be their lunch break perhaps..?
Posted in: Fire
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ninjaboy
Maybe this headline should read: "Police make public appeal over 2000 unsolved murder cases." What the Japanese police lack in corruption, they certainly make up for in incompetence.
Posted in: Police make public appeal over unsolved 2000 Setagaya murder case
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ninjaboy
The world needs a modern-day Captain Nemo in charge of a Nautilus! No 'rotten butter bombs... just one torpedo to rid the oceans of the barbaric whale killers. And if we can't fight them in the oceans, then we'll fight them on land with an international boycott of all Japanese products world-wide, as suggested above.
Posted in: Sea Shepherd intercepts Japanese whalers in Antarctic waters
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ninjaboy
This is Japan - home to 88 percent of the world's child pornography. FACT
Posted in: Police bust child porn ring
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ninjaboy
The easy answer.. DIVORCE!
Posted in: What's your recommendation for helping Crown Princess Masako recover fully from whatever is ailing her?
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ninjaboy
Sounds like a Japanese version of "Tough Guys" (1986) with Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster.
Posted in: Two elderly men arrested for robbing supermarket in Sapporo