The Eye of Patrick / 2006 / May

Headache for Saitama teachers; schools grade kids on patriotism

26-May-06

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN Amid the controversy over patriotism in a bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education, 50 elementary schools in Saitama Prefecture are already grading pupils for their “love of the nation.” Click here to read more

I found this article to be interesting as it got me thinking on how do you grade nationalism? I think Japan does need to gain a sense of pride in their country, as so many of my friends are not proud of Japan. But at the same time I do not know if it is wise to grade them on it. Nationalism is such a complicated issue becuase of of the extremes that it can lead to. But at the same time a sense of pride in ones nation is an important thing for any citzen in a countr.y

So you can see I am torn on this issue. But I thought would share it with you.

Take care,

Patrick

The Road to Japan is long

26-May-06

Hello everyone,

Since April 19th I have been done with school and also found out where I will be going in Japan. This seems to have been the easy part. Now that I know that I will be going to Japan I have finally started to prepare for it. This leads me to my post today about the stuff I am working on to get to Japan.

In the last 3 years I have been to 15 countries and have re-entered some of them more then once. This has taken a heavy toll on my passport and as a result it looks like it has seen better days. As you can see the photos below the passport does not look good and the photo too. When I took that photo I had learnt you were not suppose to smile, but that created a problem later as my face lacked any expression. When I look at it, I feel how any country could let me in.

So this time when I went to get my passport photo taken I made sure to practice not smiling but at the same time having a more positive emotion. I also learnt that you can’t wear white shirts when you take a passport photo. This is funny because I had selected a black shirt for the day, but decided to change it to a nice white one for my photo. So rather then walk home I went to a second hand clothes store and bought a black shirt. Though it turned out to be too small, but still good enough for the photo. I will probably have to go back and return it.

Then I had to go to the post office and mail it off. One of the things you must have when you submit your passport (besides the photo) is someone to sign saying that you are, who you say you are. But this can not be any person, but someone who is a member of a professional body (i.e. lawyer, doctor, and teacher). I am currently away on university studies, so I could not go to the people I used before when I lived in Calgary. So luckily my father will be in Calgary on business and he can get one of his friends to sign it.

So I will wait and see.

It is interesting next week I will graduate from Trent University with a Bachelor of Business Admin and International Development Studies with an Emphasis in International Political Economy. This sounds very fancy, but is in reality a degree of business, politics and economics. But they just add all those extra words to make it look fancy.

I went to Mexico after I finished my school year in April and I took about 800 photos. I will try to include some in my posts. I hope you enjoy.

Patrick

Some Photos to share

24-May-06

My dear friend Chris (Muse) has created a wonderful photoblog plugin for wordpress called Muse. It is so simple to install and use, that even I can understand it. I wanted to show you guys it and also to show some photos, as so far I have only text.

I seem to have lost my camera and for the near future won’t have new photos, but I have a backlog of photos that I can share with you guys. Please tell me what you think. Hopefully leading up to the time i am in Japan I will post more photos of my previous exchange year in Japan.

Don’t worry, I am still working on my post about JET program and Japan. I hope to share it with you all very soon.

Take care,

Patrick

Oldest Everest climber says he was surprised he broke record

23-May-06

KATMANDU, Nepal — Takao Arayama didn’t set out to break a record when he climbed Mount Everest, but last week the 70-year-old Japanese reportedly became the oldest man to scale the world’s highest peak. Mainichi news

I just read this article on mainichi news and thought back to when i read a book for one of my business classes on an attempt to climb mount everest. I thought one day I would like to try that, but then everyone around me thought it was crazy. But then i read this article about a 70 year old man doing it and I think if he can do it so can I. I really respect him for truely living each day to the fullest.

So hats off to him.

Patrick

English teaching in Japan Part 1

22-May-06

Before I start to talk about the JET (The Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme) program, I will give a short history of how I ended up in the JET program.

During my one-year exchange in Japan, I started to fall in love with the place. It felt like I belonged here and that it was natural for me to be in Japan. Do not get my wrong; my Japanese is not great so there were many communication problems. Nevertheless, while in Japan I felt a sense of belonging. The people, the environment and culture where all things that had grown on me and caused me to want to be there longer. I realized finally that I wanted to return to Japan when I noticed things I did not like about Japan. The long work hours of family friends parents, the practice of following most rules to the T and so on. However, even with all those things that were not great about Japan I still liked it more then ever. For me that is a true test of whether the place is good for me. That after being there for a while and seeing the things that I like and dislike that is still like it.

So back to my exchange, I was nearing the end of my stay at Kansai Gaidai in Hirakata, Osaka, Japan and realized I wanted to return.

The common way to return to Japan is teaching English. If you make the decision to be an English teacher there is another two routes you can go. First, the common things required for both JET and Eikaiwa or English Conversation Schools are:

- University degree – this is required to get a work permit in Japan.

- Native English speaker for the majority of the education, though it may depend on the company you are applying for.

The first being ‘Eikaiwa’ or English Conversation schools. These are the large English schools that you usually find at the exits of major train stations in Japan. They are everywhere and the big schools are Geos, NOVA, ECC, Aeon and so on. While there are many other smaller English conversation schools.

When you apply to one of them, you must go for an interview in one of the cities they have listed for interviews. During the interview, you will probably have to give a demo lesson and they will test how you handle a class (the interviewers will probably pretend to be students). My knowledge of this area is very limited because I decided to go the JET route.

I know that the large schools will help you to get a Visa, but will require you to make payment on your own plane ticket, but will reimburse you after a year and may pay for you to go home in the holidays. They just want to make sure that you don’t ditch them when you get to Japan.

They usually will provide company housing, where you will share a room with other English teachers. This can be a positive thing as it gives you a small of group of people you know when you move to a new country. But it can be a negative in that they will deduct the cost of rent from your salary whether you occupy the apartment or live outside in your own private residences.

The pay for these schools is usually very similar and in writing this article, I checked out NOVA. They have two types of employment, one is Sponsored Instructors and these are people who probably work around 29-33 hours a week and they earn between 2,768,000-3,624,00￥ or 24,783-32,448 USD per year.

NOVA also has a program called “Flexi-Schedule teachers” they are teachers who work less hours; this is probably a good way to test the NOVA environment without committing to it full time. The pay is obviously less and it ranges between 2,340,000-2,613,000￥ or 20,939.60- 23,382.55 USD.

The reason that many people decide to go this route and use the private communication schools is because they are located in the city. If you want to have a chance to see Tokyo, Osaka, or Kyoto this is the route to go. They usually have many openings and are fairly accommodating about where you end up. Many people use the large schools to get to Japan and then look for employment elsewhere. This is because many of the smaller schools in Japan will only hire you if you are already in Japan and have a Visa, while the large schools will usually sponsor your Visa. That is why they require you to buy your own plane ticket.

I personally can’t say whether or not this is the route to go to end up in Japan. I can tell you that I have read many stories of people either loving or hating it. It really depends on your where you end up. Though if you decide to teach in one of the large schools, you will not have much freedom in what is being taught as the course material is tightly controlled and you are required to follow it exactly. This can be a bonus to someone who wants to come to Japan and party and have a good time and not worry about doing much work. But some people have felt like they became trained monkeys.

Some websites to check out if you are interested in teaching through an agency or private conversation school are:

Schools

Nova - http://www.teachinjapan.com/

Geos - http://www.geoscareer.com/

AeonNet - http://www.aeonet.com/

ECC - http://www.japanbound.com/

General Job sites in Japan

A popular site for jobs in Japan - www.gaijinpot.com

Has lot of information, and resources - http://www.eltnews.com/

Helps you find students while in Japan - http://www.findateacher.net/

This is the conclusion to Part 1 of teaching English in Japan. In this part I covered the private converstation schools or “Eikaiwa”. I hope this information provides you with a general introduction to the field, if you have any more questions please do not hesitate to ask by leaving a comment. Next time I will go into the JET program and how it works. This is the route I chose to come to Japan on and I hope I can provide you with a understand of why I chose JET.

So till next time,

Ja-ne,

Patrick

Hello Everyone

14-May-06

Hello Everyone,

I have finally gotten around to starting this blog. It has been a long work in progress. I meant to have started it when I started the application procedure for the JET program. However, with school and other stuff I could not find the time. Now I am on my summer vacation so I decided to start.

I will spend this post just introducing myself and then the next post I will go into more detail about the JET program.

My name is Patrick and I was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I lived and grew up there until the age of 17. It was mid way through my 11^th year of high school that my family was relocated to Brazil due to my father’s work. It was in Brazil that my love for travel and new cultures emerged. Before Brazil, I had not lived in any other country, let alone travel to one. This was a great experience for me; I got to see Brazil, Argentina, Holland and England before my high school graduation.

After my high school graduation I would return to Canada to study at Trent University. Where I would study Business and International Development studies with an emphasis in International Political Economy. This may sound fancy, but in reality, it is just business and economics. It is while at Trent that I met many friends from around the world, this would include Japan. Therefore, when I was in my 2^nd year of studies I decided to look for opportunities to spend my 3^rd year abroad and I settled on Japan. The reason I chose Japan was that I felt that I would not have the same opportunity to visit Asia in the future. I mean I had lived in South America and had traveled part of Europe, so it was not going to be difficult to return. While Japan and Asia seemed so different and unique and I wanted to try it out. Therefore, I went and applied for the study abroad and I was accepted. I spent 2005-2006 in Japan on exchange at Kansai Gaidai University. If you want to read about my experience while at Kansai Gaidai you can look at two places, one being the sushicam forums and the other being www.livejournal.com/users/patrosoft. They both share the same stories, and it is better then me repeating them here.

I will stop there and in the next post I will talk about the JET program and the application process for other people interested in it.

Take care,

Patrick

The Eye of Patrick

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Headache for Saitama teachers; schools grade kids on patriotism

26-May-06

The Road to Japan is long

26-May-06

Some Photos to share

24-May-06

Oldest Everest climber says he was surprised he broke record

23-May-06

English teaching in Japan Part 1

22-May-06

Hello Everyone

14-May-06