Dealing with negative co-workers.

[Staticnz]

Hey minna san, what's up.

I'm an ALT in Kushiro, I been here for half a year now. Reasonable thus far, there's ups and downs, sometimes it is hard dealing with an isolated gaijin and always being treated like you're stupid, but my overall experience more positive than negative.

Recently however I've gotten tired of this huge wall between me and students. I do my classes and the students always respond positively and enjoy themselves. However after that I'm just back to the staff room and the students wander around in curiosity, I've tried going to some clubs but the teachers are always so completely uncaring about my coming, so it was hard to get the motivation to go much. There's an English club here but it is totally shoot. No one comes or cares, it isn't even official...just a waste of time.

Therefore I decided to mix things up and I'm designing a super detailed and exciting lesson, where first the students get to listen to my self written songs, then eat food from New Zealand (my country), then learn about the country through photos, a big map I have with lots of information in English and Japanese, and conversation. Finally I will ask them to teach me about their favorite things, like music, films, anime, manga, in a book I have for the purpose of their teaching me something about Japan.

Overall easy, fun, simple, enjoyable.

However one thing I'm dealing is the overwhelming negativity of my co workers since bringing it up. I talked to who I thought might be the most responsive teacher, and he agreed to let me use his class, a big victory. Then he asked for fliers, which I gave him.

It seems though that he's very negative about it anyways. The whole time I talk to him about it he's wincing and going ohhh, hmmmm, ahhh, I don't think students would like that, maybe no students will come, maybe students are busy, maybe you can't do that. So he's helping me but goddamned so negative about it.

Then the other English teachers I talked to spent the whole time coming up with excuses. He even said 'how will we cook all this food?'. I was like, GODDAMN, I'M COOKING THE FOOD, NOT YOU. Then he said, what is the point of this? Well I guess if true cultural exchange is not the point of JET, why does this programme even exist? Why the hell am I here? Another English teacher threw a few thousand excuses at me too, the students might not like this, not like that.

Is this just Japan or what? People who are usually genuinely totally enthusiastic and good to work with turning to total witches the moment I try anything slightly different.

The teacher whose class I'm using said he told the students about my event. I asked him about the result. He said 'sou sou', 'mama'. In other words none of them wanted to come. However I'm sure he said, 'tim wants to have an event...where he'll force you to speak English, make you learn boring crap, and then give you a root canal and punch you in the face seventeen times'. Yeah I'd want to go to that too.

My final conclusion is I have to talk to students myself. I'm going to prepare a presentation about the event and then force the teachers to let me do it for the students. Then after sugar coating things I'll bring the sign up sheet and get them to fill it out. If they don't I'll tell them to come to the staff room.

What is with this institution wide reluctance of folks to let you try anything that isn't set in concrete in your job description? No one ever wants me to do anything that isn't exactly what the Board of Education says I'm for. It means this job is not a real job at the end of the day.

What's your experience folks?

[Siyris]

I feel your frustrations and pain. It really REALLY sucks to have your JTE shoot down ideas, or hum and haw over something you KNOW will work well.

I've found that, at least at my JHS, taking things little steps at a time has worked pretty well. I thought it was important to get phonics and conversations classes into the mix... my JTE when I first brought it up said something along the lines of 'well that would be nice, but we don't have time' and 'that's too hard for the students'. So I kept pestering her about it for a couple of months. Now, she lets me give a spelling quiz once a week (more spelling than phonics, but next step is to bring in actual phonics in april). As for the conversation class, I had to wait until we came across a page in the book that was just hugely idiotic and stupid for a 'let's chat' day... so instead with the third years I made a discussion about movies that was class wide (easy in my school as there are only 7 third years). She didn't like it, but we had all of 5 minutes before class started so she agreed... it was fantastic. the kids liked it, they did amazingly well, they were thrilled to be able to use English in their own sentences for communication and not based on the book... and my JTE realized "hey wow... the ALT was right... they CAN do it."
The next time I didn't have to fight so hard.

Find small changes you can make, and be persistent... if they say no this time, make a smaller project and bother them again... and again and again and again and again.
I hope that helps?

[Staticnz]

Yeah, I think one pretty rough aspect of being the only Gaijin around is the assumptions people make about you, particularly concerning your job and motivations.

It seems to me that generally people see an ALT as a niche role, which I suppose it is, and they don't want you to ever do more work than your job description (because I think they somehow feel embarrassed to make you do more than you should, the amount of times I've been told 'not to worry about it' when offering to do more, sheesh!). However, coworkers also seem to automatically assume that you don't really want to contribute too much. It seems the whole team is going about the business of being a team but there's thing called an ALT floating about in the margins, and nobody really knows what to do with them.

I hear you about the small changes and pushing forward. It looks to me like that's one of the universal messages of being an ALT...you can either do almost nothing, or something, but doing something is only going to be caused by you! That's because I think the JET programme is actually very poorly integrated into the schools. It is so glaring and obvious, and such a fatal flaw, why don't they try to work on this? Who is at the helm of this programme? I feel like the path forward to integrate JET into schools is not difficult, save for the ridiculous bureaucracy. Maybe that's what it comes down to.

[Siyris]

The problem with your thinking is that it's not the JET program.... the JET program does not, for any real purpose, exist once you come into Japan. We are simply ALTs just like any of the private ones. Some schools have better systems, some have worse.

Personally, I hate the way that English is taught in this country... it's a HORRIBLE way to instruct kids in a foreign language and it's no wonder none of them can speak English worth a damn. But that's just something I have to keep to myself when I'm at work and rant about when I'm talking to people from home, or to other ALTs. But the way that we are, or are not, integrated into the schools is at least partially on us. We also are a different sort of thing than the teachers though -- we don't have teaching licenses, we are not part of the same system as them, we do not go through the same training, and so we are a very different part of the team.
Not to sound like I'm defending the system as is -- but it's something that has to be worked through and worked around. If you want to make yourself more part of the team, stop asking if there's anything you can do to help, and instead, just start doing something to help. It might not be mentioned but it'll get noticed.

Also, if you really want to get involved more, when you teachers tell you 'no it's okay' reply with something along the lines of 'no really. I'm bored. Please let me help you.. I want to do it.' If you're forceful enough with wanting to help, they hopefully will stop turning you away.

[Tamachan87]

As far as I can tell there are two types of schools -
1. Those that care about English more than a subject
2. Those that don't

I have 6 schools plus random schools I go to every now and then. Around 2 of my regular schools actually care about English culture (ie. food we eat in the UK, differences between accents, our toilets don't plug into the wall, etc.) so they're cool with anything I do. My other schools, I'm pretty much there to help the students pass exams. The negativity just stems from the fact the teachers don't want to do any extra work even if its just organizing a room for me.

I have to agree with Siyris, though. The method of teaching a language is like nothing I've ever come across. It's just memorising stock questions with stock answers and anything that cannot be directly translated gets the "it's not important" response (re: hello vs konnichiwa vs good afternoon).

[Ninetail]

Staticnz, that's a nice idea for a lesson. I think the students in general would be interested in that, unless the teachers noticed some flaws in the detail and don't know how to explain it, so they just brought up random excuses. However, since I don't know anymore than what you wrote here, so I can't really say.

What I think you should do, if you can communicate with the students (either you know Japanese well enough or if they are always happy to talk to you), is to try to get the names of the students who might be interested. It's not so much of a sign-up sheet but an "indication of interest" form. Talk to the students during lunch break or something. You can then approach whoever is in charge and present your plans. When they say, "oh, I don't think the students will be interested in that," present them with the names of the students or a number. Also, have everything worked out so when they try to give you problems, just answer it like you know what you're doing.

Of course, this might not feasible at all if your teachers prefer you go through them to talk to the students, or if your school has some special rules. I brought this up because this is the method I used when I need to get a special lesson approved. Well, at the beginning anyways, now they just let me do whatever I want. Whatever you do, the bottom line is to make sure the lesson is going to work very very well with no chance of failure, especially if this is your first time.

On a side note, if you're absolutely sure the teacher said,

tim wants to have an event...where he'll force you to speak English, make you learn boring crap, and then give you a root canal and punch you in the face seventeen times

then you could also do the reverse when you talk to students. "Would you rather sit here and listen to the teachers teach grammar or have a fun class where you can eat food from New Zealand?"

[NiigataPAKatrina]

First of all, I want to say that I agree that ALT usage in the classroom should be improved and ALTs become more involved in planning and facilitating lesson, as well as more involved in school life in general. I believe that ALTs can take on more responsibility at their schools if the consistently show interest in doing so. However, it's not something that happens over night, you have to build trust with your schools and take baby steps.

That being said, try to look at why they might not be enthusiastic about a specific idea.

Therefore I decided to mix things up and I'm designing a super detailed and exciting lesson, where first the students get to listen to my self written songs, then eat food from New Zealand (my country), then learn about the country through photos, a big map I have with lots of information in English and Japanese, and conversation. Finally I will ask them to teach me about their favorite things, like music, films, anime, manga, in a book I have for the purpose of their teaching me something about Japan.

If I were a teacher, I would probably have the following concerns:
-If this takes up an entire class period, will my students fall behind schedule?
-If this takes place after school, what about their club activities? (Depending on your school, it might be possible to do it as a special event, but that would probably take a formal proposal written in Japanese that would have to be approved by the teachers and administrators.)
-What are the specific language-related goals of this lesson?
-What time of day would this take place? Would eating extra food prevent them from eating school lunch? If it is too late in the day, would it make them sick to eat and then practice sports without enough time to digest? What is the nutritional content of the foods? Would parents approve? What about allergies?

My point is that if teachers are being negative about something, it probably means they have concerns about it. If they are willing to discuss their concerns with you, then maybe you can work something out together. Another suggestion is to start out small- maybe just do some songs for part of a lesson, see how it goes, and build from there.

[Antonath]

I'm going to prepare a presentation about the event and then force the teachers to let me do it for the students.

There's been some fair points made and good advice given already, but I'd just like to add that if you enjoy your job as an ALT, and it certainly seems that you do, forcing the teachers to do something is highly likely to affect whether you keep your job as an ALT.

[trout501]

Staticnz, you have repeated that your JTEs are the negative ones and that they have misconceptions about you, but I'm struck by the fact that your post is essentially a long (negative) rant, and that in recounting how you advanced your ideas, you left out the part where you tried to understand your JTEs' point of view.

I won't say that that they weren't wrong in not trying to understand your point of view, just as I won't say that two wrongs make a right, but as the minority culture, you should probably make more of an effort to understand why they're shooting you down before you crucify them for their "negativity." There is no "institution-wide" conspiracy to steamroll all your ideas the moment you propose them.

[mountainboy]

No one ever wants me to do anything that isn't exactly what the Board of Education says I'm for. It means this job is not a real job at the end of the day.

You only just found out that JET isnt a real job??? Sorry, but I have to laugh...

From you post, you sound pretty arrogant. And Im sure that doesnt go down well with your co-workers. I mean, why would students want to hear you sing some your self-composed songs? Really, if they cant be bothered to talk to you outside of class, then they probably dont give a shoot about your songs.

Also, your job is to be an ALT. Regardless of what you think about the education system, or the teaching style of your JTE, it`s not really for you to question. You are probably some 22 year old fresh out of college, with no teaching experience and no degree that`s related to the job. And you want people to take you seriously?

[sakumu]

I understand your frustration. There's a lot of 'need to know only' reluctance to give full or honest information unless absolutely necessary here, which makes being rejected even more frustrating, because you don't even know why you've been rejected.

But don't let your focus get caught up in that! Is your goal to get to know your students better, or to force everyone to accept this one lesson idea? (Can you even accomplish that goal with just one lesson?) Instead of trying to fight through a mountain of honorable stonewalling, let go of your idea. Think of some other ideas. Keep going until you find something that sits well with the teachers (ie, doesn't impede their/give them more work) and gets you closer to your goal.

Good luck.

[AVN]

But don't let your focus get caught up in that! Is your goal to get to know your students better, or to force everyone to accept this one lesson idea? (Can you even accomplish that goal with just one lesson?) Instead of trying to fight through a mountain of honorable stonewalling, let go of your idea. Think of some other ideas. Keep going until you find something that sits well with the teachers (ie, doesn't impede their/give them more work) and gets you closer to your goal.

Good luck.

This is the best way to go about it. I kind of negotiate with my JTE and sometimes it takes time but we always get there, these days we get there faster and faster. He trusts me more and more. These days he has even started asking me for my opinions on his activities and ideas.

[Namisuke]

My final conclusion is I have to talk to students myself. I'm going to prepare a presentation about the event and then force the teachers to let me do it for the students. Then after sugar coating things I'll bring the sign up sheet and get them to fill it out. If they don't I'll tell them to come to the staff room.

Sometimes we have to take a look at things one more time to see if it really is a good idea or not. I have an idea be shot down, but it deserved to be. If I had pushed the idea, I would have found that the JTE was right, and it also would have tainted our relationship. Doing the lesson in the staff room in front of all of the teachers after you were told not to do it is a huge slap in the face, and you should expect to deal with the consequences of that. Also, there could be some technical aspects of your lesson that the teacher simply can't deal with, such as eating in class (which usually is not allowed) and having an unclear lesson plan (what are the outcomes?). One idea isn't worth the trouble. Maybe try taking one of those ideas, make clear objectives for it (state what the kids will learn that they don't already know [in English language and culture]), and then go with that. What will they learn from listening to your music? What will they learn about eating some food? What will they learn from teaching you about Japan? I know it sucks to have an idea you are passionate about get shot down, but it might be a reality check that you need to go back to the drawing board.

[Lianwen]

Adding some of my own input on this. I like to joke I `bully` my teachers into letting me do a lesson that I want, but most of the time, it`s me proposing something and having to make compromises.

For your cultural lesson, maybe you can break it up and ask to maybe be allowed to do a 5 minute listening exercise by giving a speech about your country. Depending on the level of English, you might be able to make a picture board for the classroom on your country and can have at the start of the class a speaking warm-up by answering 2-3 kids questions about your country based on pictures.

The only time I am allowed to fully `take-over` a lesson with something about my hometown/exchange/something else that`s fun but deviates away from the textbook, is when we are ahead in the text book.

As for food...at one of my schools I am always giving the kids candy. I probably shouldn`t be doing it as often as I do....but I usually use American candy as rewards for review games or let them exchange a complete review worksheet that they did outside of class for a piece. My school was a bit iffy on it, but said that it`d be okay if I gave it to them during school lunch, and only school lunch. I also let the school see the nutritional information for the food/candy I bring in, and alert them well in advance. You might be able to reach a compromise with your schools on cooking and bringing something in for the children if you can show them the ingrediant list, cook it yourself (probably at home, too) and it`s something small that can be served as a school lunch treat.

Another one of my schools, I alerted almost a month ago that I would like to bring girl scout cookies in as a treat for the last class of the year. They said that would be okay and the JTE and I have been moving through the text at a pace so we have time to explain the cookies, and not just jump into the review game.

So, uh, I would try to start as small as you can - speeches, maybe a warm-up game involving your country, or other small things that don`t take up too much time. Then you might be able to move on to more complex activities, even if you have to still make compromises.

[sillysocks]

No one ever wants me to do anything that isn't exactly what the Board of Education says I'm for. It means this job is not a real job at the end of the day.

You only just found out that JET isnt a real job??? Sorry, but I have to laugh...

From you post, you sound pretty arrogant. And Im sure that doesnt go down well with your co-workers. I mean, why would students want to hear you sing some your self-composed songs? Really, if they cant be bothered to talk to you outside of class, then they probably dont give a shoot about your songs.

Also, your job is to be an ALT. Regardless of what you think about the education system, or the teaching style of your JTE, it`s not really for you to question. You are probably some 22 year old fresh out of college, with no teaching experience and no degree that`s related to the job. And you want people to take you seriously?

Ah the best part of forums, arrogent people accusing others of being arrogent. I love when people slam down the 'you`re fresh outta college and don't know nothin' card and actually don't know the person in question. In fact people who find this job the most frustrating are those with relevant qualifications (ie teaching degrees).

Maybe you were not paying attention in the orientation but JET is about internationalization more than anything else. Giving students an opportunity to learn more about your country, and even your music is an excellent idea. My friend was here recently and she came to my school to perform (she plays the banjo). At first teachers didn't think it was a good idea, but then I asked the right person and BAM we were in business. The teachers and the students loved it, it was a great experience for everyone involved. Letting your students experience something totally new and interesting is often the hardest thing to do, as often teachers don't want to stray away the norm.

So yes, keep trying to connect with your students staticnz.