Part one  

by Kevin Burns

"After reading what they had to say in the forums there, I almost decided to go to Korea, it is so negative. When I did ask, well what schools are good to work for?-no one answered."

--A.P., USA--commenting recently on a very popular forum about teaching English in Japan.

Many forums are too negative and distort the reality of teaching in Japan.

At one popular forum, one of the moderators dispensing advice is a university professor. He doesn't work for an Eikaiwa school. He is outside of the Eikaiwa industry. Still he is one of the 'experts' (so-called) at a very popular forum on Eikaiwa and he is telling people incorrectly how to get a job in Japan.

This professor stated that schools here won't hire you unless you are already in Japan. I almost fell off my computer chair when I read that. I thought this guy is misguiding people. In fact, most schools will hire you while you are outside of Japan. Why? They have to.

If you have a school in one of the mid to smaller cities in Japan--(which comprises most of Japan), you don't have many teachers banging on your doors to teach at your schools.

My point is that some of these so-called experts are anything but. Yet they are espousing their opinions on the internet and you are reading them, and sometimes taking them at face value.

The people who post at forums rarely post anything positive about any of the schools they work for. There must be some positive stories but you won't read them there. I think it would be a great idea to set up a forum that has a positive story only section. As this would help to redress the balance and restore some reality to the debate about is working for an eikaiwa school a good idea or not.

Have a separate forum where people can only post positive stories--just to give some balance. If your purpose is to educate people, that requires balance. Even if you are "Debunking Eikaiwa," as the LJ quote reads, surely you should alert people to some good schools to work for?

Unfortunately, I just spoke with a teacher from America-quoted above, and she felt one of the sites about teaching English in Japan was so negative that she was debating whether to even come to Japan.

If the situation were so bad here in Japan, then the forums would be doing everyone a service. But it just distorts the actual reality of teaching English here. Many of the teachers who post have had a bad experience at one school, yet in many cases still continue to teach there, and rant about it--ad nauseum at one of the forums. Can you say, "Get a life?" If it is truly so bad, why do they still work there?

You won't find the people who enjoy their jobs posting much. If they do, they will take a lot of abuse from the complainers already ensconced there, and they are too busy enjoying their lives to log on and post. Happy people don't usually rant.

Two somewhat famous webmasters did not enjoy their time at Geos. Yet I have a friend named Lee who loved Geos. He loved the fact that he had his own classroom, would brag about the fact in his animated way, and enjoyed teaching and his students. Lee doesn't post about it to my knowledge though. He is too busy enjoying his life.

At times some of the teachers seem to want to pick a fight over things so inane.

Continue on to Part Two