ESID-a flaw of the programme?

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Thanks for the info Ms. Nichols and Musashi! This actually makes a lot of sense. I think teacher assistant education could improve in Canada also, but we did touch on it slightly. Anyway, this does show that it really isn't the Programme's fault for many of the problems that might occur - there are a lot of outside reasons mashed together.

Not to get picky, but I'm not Musashi. I seriously doubt s/he wants credit/blame for half of what I get up to...

I agree with the sentiment that we really all do have it better than a large portion of people on the planet, but I think it's not really a black and white issue.

I do think the OP has a point that ESID is kind of a catch-all for "suck it up". I think having flexibility in your job, but just telling someone to "suck it up" every time they have an issue, big or small, is not only combative but counter-productive and makes you kind of a jerk.

"I don't like the fact I'm forced into living in this crappy apartment I have to pay a high rent for"
"suck it up"

Yeah, sorry, it sucks to just tell people to suck it up. It means you're being a jerk. Yeah, we all have problems. But the world doesn't get any better if we're all just walking around telling each other to suck it up whenever we bring it up.

That being said, it'd be nice if people had a little bit more flexibility. I can think of some things that drive me a little crazy, but overall, I feel lucky to be where I am today: I make a good salary, I live in a relatively populated area (or about a 30 minute train right away, anyway; hell, I have a train to begin with!), and I work in elementary schools where a lot of kids tend to go crazy when you just walk by their room. So yeah, I'm not going to complain too much, but when someone occassionally has a problem or two, I'm not going to just tell them to suck it up either, because I'd be happier if someone listened to me if/when I have an issue.

I've gotta say, there's a big difference between "Suck it Up" ESID and "ESID" ESID.
ESID definitely can be used as a 'suck it up', but by the same token a lot of the time ESID is given as an answer because, well, the answer actually is ESID.
JET is kind of luck of the draw to a large extent after all, for us and for our COs both.

[Namisuke]

Not to get picky, but I'm not Musashi. I seriously doubt s/he wants credit/blame for half of what I get up to...

Sorry - I didn't see that you were quoted in AVNichols post when I responded - not that I don't appreciate your ideas or anything...lol My bad.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Not to get picky, but I'm not Musashi. I seriously doubt s/he wants credit/blame for half of what I get up to...

Sorry - I didn't see that you were quoted in AVNichols post when I responded - not that I don't appreciate your ideas or anything...lol My bad.

I hope you realise that in keeping with current Official forum procedure, we now have to engage in an increasingly hostile multi-page bicker-fest which gets more and more removed from the original topic, with ever-increasing levels of grammar nit-pickery. I propose baby zoo animals for the semi-requisite picture spamming.

Or, just, y'know - no worries.

On a related topic, if anyone with decent Japanese has a heap of spare time and still has their copy of the Team-Teaching Handbook from TO, translating that into Japanese might make a decent side-project for JET. Beats me why they only made it in English when the ALT Handbook is in both Japanese and English.

[Namisuke]

Not to get picky, but I'm not Musashi. I seriously doubt s/he wants credit/blame for half of what I get up to...

Sorry - I didn't see that you were quoted in AVNichols post when I responded - not that I don't appreciate your ideas or anything...lol My bad.

I hope you realise that in keeping with current Official forum procedure, we now have to engage in an increasingly hostile multi-page bicker-fest which gets more and more removed from the original topic, with ever-increasing levels of grammar nit-pickery. I propose baby zoo animals for the semi-requisite picture spamming.

Or, just, y'know - no worries.

LOL!
I much prefer admitting to my errors, hugging it out, and moving on with life - especially for posters like you who give a lot of good info and help others out.

On your other note, I have a copy of the Team Teaching Pizza, or whatever it's called, and it has Japanese on one side and English on the other. Is that pretty much an identical book to the one you are talking about?

[Lemming]

Thanks for the info Ms. Nichols and Musashi! This actually makes a lot of sense. I think teacher assistant education could improve in Canada also, but we did touch on it slightly. Anyway, this does show that it really isn't the Programme's fault for many of the problems that might occur - there are a lot of outside reasons mashed together.

Not to get picky, but I'm not Musashi. I seriously doubt s/he wants credit/blame for half of what I get up to...

I agree with the sentiment that we really all do have it better than a large portion of people on the planet, but I think it's not really a black and white issue.

I do think the OP has a point that ESID is kind of a catch-all for "suck it up". I think having flexibility in your job, but just telling someone to "suck it up" every time they have an issue, big or small, is not only combative but counter-productive and makes you kind of a jerk.

"I don't like the fact I'm forced into living in this crappy apartment I have to pay a high rent for"
"suck it up"

Yeah, sorry, it sucks to just tell people to suck it up. It means you're being a jerk. Yeah, we all have problems. But the world doesn't get any better if we're all just walking around telling each other to suck it up whenever we bring it up.

That being said, it'd be nice if people had a little bit more flexibility. I can think of some things that drive me a little crazy, but overall, I feel lucky to be where I am today: I make a good salary, I live in a relatively populated area (or about a 30 minute train right away, anyway; hell, I have a train to begin with!), and I work in elementary schools where a lot of kids tend to go crazy when you just walk by their room. So yeah, I'm not going to complain too much, but when someone occassionally has a problem or two, I'm not going to just tell them to suck it up either, because I'd be happier if someone listened to me if/when I have an issue.

I've gotta say, there's a big difference between "Suck it Up" ESID and "ESID" ESID.
ESID definitely can be used as a 'suck it up', but by the same token a lot of the time ESID is given as an answer because, well, the answer actually is ESID.
JET is kind of luck of the draw to a large extent after all, for us and for our COs both.

Exactly what I was saying, and what the OP was saying, so I'm glad we agree

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

LOL!
I much prefer admitting to my errors, hugging it out, and moving on with life - especially for posters like you who give a lot of good info and help others out.

On your other note, I have a copy of the Team Teaching Pizza, or whatever it's called, and it has Japanese on one side and English on the other. Is that pretty much an identical book to the one you are talking about?

I'm not sure, having never seen any text with the word 'Pizza' in it, but at TO last year we got gien a guide in the Team-teaching seminar, which was all in English.
It struck me as kinda silly to have the book that could actually help the JTEs be all in Japanese, while the GIH (which most JTEs will never need to see) was in both English and Japanese.
But then, the Teacher's books for Hi Friends are all in Japanese alone (and pretty clearly designed for solo JTE teaching) when almost every Shogakkou ALT I know is in charge of lesson planning, so I suppose it's just another 'It's Japan' moment.

[variouscurtains]

I can't speak for the team teaching books, but the GIH is probably in English and Japanese because there are JETs who don't understand English. Mostly CIRs, I guess, so it makes sense to have Japanese. Though I feel bad for SEAs who speak neither language. Too bad CLAIR can't publish in Chinese and Korean too!

[earnyoursleep]

Nobody is making you stay here in Japan, if you don't like it leave. A flaw in program? No.

Forgive the rant, but this post made me kind of irate.

I'm going to guess that you and Bex both have placements that are somewhat redeemable. Unfortunately, this is not the case for some ALTs. Some ALTs come into placements that even the most perfect ALT in the world would not be able to countenance.

A significant number of ALTs face real problems in their placements. Sexual harassment, bullying, violence and abuse from students, little to no support in the workplace, horrendous and sometimes dangerous working conditions, overwork, ludicrous responsibilities, family issues at home, the list goes on and on. All of this whilst dealing with adapting to life in a new country, learning a new language and adjusting to markedly different cultural expectations.

All in all, this is an incredibly dismissive attitude to take towards people who have applied to the programme in good faith, and it implies that you think that employers in Japan have the right to treat foreign workers like dirt, merely because they are foreign. An incredibly dangerous road to travel down if ever there was one.

"Don't like it, leave"? This is a rather dumb thing to say. People do leave, often to the utter detriment of the programme. These people leave Japan with an absolutely no respect for Japan or Japanese culture because of the way they have been taken advantage of. In this way, the programme has failed in one of its core aims. This should not happen, and the utter lack of respect with which some ALTs are treated is unacceptable. Some ALTs who absolutely work their butts off are treated in this way, ignored and berated in equal measure for trying the best for their students and trying to make as big a difference as they can in the circumstances they find themselves in.

The amount of placements I know that have a yearly replacement of the ALT in that position is staggeringly high. Maybe instead of accepting the status quo, and saying that these people are merely fly-by-night gaijin who lack the willpower to live in the 'real Japan', the powers that be should acknowledge that real problems DO exist over here, that they SHOULD be tackled, and sometimes it is the worst possible cop out to say that "Every Situation is Different".

I'm glad you're only kind of irate. The JET forum is no place to lose your cool.

I think you are confusing workplace environment and social injustices with people not having their expectations met and wanting compensation for it.

"Sexual harassment, bullying, violence and abuse from students, little to no support in the workplace, horrendous and sometimes dangerous working conditions, overwork, ludicrous responsibilities, family issues at home"

All of these things are absolutely terrible. But I hate to break it to you but they are in fact a part of life of all countries all over the world, even your home country has this. That being said, a person shouldn't be made to go through this with no assistance. But at the same time in now way should JET be held solely responsible for their existences and made the one to make sure that every individual JET is completely content. That is why there are support systems like PAs and CIRs and CLAIR to assist JETs. JET is simply a liaison and and can't be blamed for every time an ALT lives a little too far from the city where his or her friends from study abroad are living.

The second post by word in the thread really summed it up

(2) there are always things an ALT can do to improve things for him/herself, and (3) there is no teaching exchange program that is superior to JET--period.

I think it's terrible when people break contract. I've had people in my town do it. People that I came with have left and completely forgotten about my hurting area. But I'd rather have a person who is not cut out to be here leave and have someone who really wants to be here teach these kids. The person who replaced him is a great teacher and the kids get along with him. We are ambassadors of our homelands and if we're showing up to school feeling sorry for ourselves cause we pay too much for rent or want better locations like the original poster stated, the kids will pick up on this and have a bad impression of our country.


And your ASSumption that I have a redeemable placement was surmise at best. I live in a place that was rural at best with nothing much to do and then a disastrous earthquake sent a ravaging tsunami through my town and surrounding areas killing people I've come to know and care about while it destroyed over %75 of the homes of my students and coworkers. Now we all have to deal with this and continue to trudge forward.

The sad reality is that Japan is not for everyone. People will live in different places, have different experiences and it's not the same for all JETs. All accommodations may be varied. Is that easier to swallow? Or are we going to see a thread on that next week?

I'm sorry I became mildly irate

[OdysseyOfNoises]

I have only just seen this post now, and I appreciate your response. I realise that my first post was hot-headed, and I explained myself further in reply to Bex's post. I have no intention of creating a further argument out of this now. I was merely responding to what I saw as an indifference to serious issues that ALT's face, which I realise now you did not mean. For that, I'm sorry.

Of course Japan is not for everyone - in fact, I've seen more than my fair share of cases of that, and I share your annoyance to an extent - but I misinterpreted your post as being very dismissive to people who have genuine problems in their placement. The problems that can happen in any country, as you said, and that are no doubt compounded when someone is living thousands of miles away from home.

Also, apologies for making assumptions about your placement; I shouldn't have done that.