Now Ye're Talking - to an English language teacher in Japan

Tombi! · 02-07-2015 11:15pm

My knowledge of Japan is limited to films and some reading online so most of my questions are about stereotypes.

Do kids there (as in around 7-8 onwards to secondary school age) actually study martial arts a lot or is that just "every Japanese person knows martial arts" thing?

Is video game culture/arcades really as big as I think? In a lot of shows/reading/documentaries I see huge neon lights, dance dance revolution machines, arcades and whatnot in the cities. I imagine it's a bit like any major city in Ireland, you've got your main "town" and then a bit of everything else.

I read that a lot of Japanese people, at least in major cities, love using their English. Did you find that to be the case?

Did the fact you can speak Japanese help in getting Japanese people to trust you? In terms of "the gaijin speaks Japanese, I'll be more helpful to him)?
If so, would you say it applies to people who speak little Japanese beyond a few polite phrases (as in tourists)

Are manga/anime fans viewed as odd? By "fans", I mean really hardcore into the stuff. I was told by a friend of mine that (Japanese parents, lived in England) that when he went on holidays, he noticed that a lot of them were considered oddballs, kinda like nerds but a bit more "disgust" thrown at them.

Have you ever visited a hostess bar? If so, could you describe (within the rules of course) how it was? I know you mentioned them being run by criminal gangs mostly but I've always imagined them as some sort of bar but with nice women that give you company, non sexually. Kinda like how on a night out you meet some people and hit it off.

Speaking of alcohol, is there really a large amount of alcohol abuse (not alcoholics, mind you) for low ranking white collar workers?

Sorry for the amount of questions but cheers for doing this.

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 03-07-2015 12:29am

Brutal Deluxe wrote: »

My knowledge of Japan is limited to films and some reading online so most of my questions are about stereotypes.

Do kids there (as in around 7-8 onwards to secondary school age) actually study martial arts a lot or is that just "every Japanese person knows martial arts" thing?

Is video game culture/arcades really as big as I think? In a lot of shows/reading/documentaries I see huge neon lights, dance dance revolution machines, arcades and whatnot in the cities. I imagine it's a bit like any major city in Ireland, you've got your main "town" and then a bit of everything else.

I read that a lot of Japanese people, at least in major cities, love using their English. Did you find that to be the case?

Did the fact you can speak Japanese help in getting Japanese people to trust you? In terms of "the gaijin speaks Japanese, I'll be more helpful to him)?
If so, would you say it applies to people who speak little Japanese beyond a few polite phrases (as in tourists)

Are manga/anime fans viewed as odd? By "fans", I mean really hardcore into the stuff. I was told by a friend of mine that (Japanese parents, lived in England) that when he went on holidays, he noticed that a lot of them were considered oddballs, kinda like nerds but a bit more "disgust" thrown at them.

Have you ever visited a hostess bar? If so, could you describe (within the rules of course) how it was? I know you mentioned them being run by criminal gangs mostly but I've always imagined them as some sort of bar but with nice women that give you company, non sexually. Kinda like how on a night out you meet some people and hit it off.

Speaking of alcohol, is there really a large amount of alcohol abuse (not alcoholics, mind you) for low ranking white collar workers?

Sorry for the amount of questions but cheers for doing this.

No, not every kid does martial arts. Not that many actually do, I think. Sports clubs are an integral part of school, especially after primary, and the teams are often a big deal. I know somebody who became a junior high school teacher just so he could be a table-tennis coach. Baseball is by far the most important sport, but kids play a wide range of sports. Martial arts is just one of these. I think at that age that most kids would practice martial arts ouside of school, but I'm not sure.
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I have no interest in video games/arcades, but there are definitely more of them there (proportionally) than in Ireland. Video games not that much, as so many games can be played online with friends from a home computer/console. Arcades are popular, and there's a wider range of games too - horse-racing games with actual plastic and metal horses jerking their way round a track, digital fishing games, boxing games that track your movement, very elaborate coin drop games (where one pushes another than pushes another and maybe some drop) - these will also have a digital aspect, such as one coin that drops in the right place might trigger a digital slot machine, and if it hits three 7s or fruits or whatever, the machine pumps out dozens or even hundreds more tokens. Maybe these exist everywhere, I really don't know. Lots of slot machines too. You can usually leave your tokens there until you go back again.

I went there rarely but one time I won a whole load of tokens on the elaborate coin drop game - I mean buckets of tokens. I took them to the counter, but they were worthless. It was only later that I learned there is usually an 'independent' business nearby which takes in tokens and hands out cash. But, nothing to do with the arcade, you understand!
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You do get a lot of people trying to use the few words they have on you. It's fine with me - they were often happy to buy me a drink while doing so. It was only an issue if they stuck around too long/their English was really bad, and it ended up like a lesson. Some other foreigners had no tolerance for it though, which is fair enough really. There was sometimes a lot of false modesty in it too, pretending they had only a few words while trying to impress their mates/girlfriend.

I think that it probably helps them to take you more seriously - you've made an effort, and they respect that. I'm not sure if it is an issue of trust, as much as respect. Also, they can simply understand you and your position a bit better too, which can't hurt. It's quite possible that people who felt the Japanese didn't trust them when actually it just wasn't clear to people what they were trying to say, and, almost without exception, they will not ask if they don't understand.

That really applies to people living and working there - they would have very little expectation that a tourist could speak any Japanese and would be delighted to hear anything beyond the most basic set phrases. But perhaps I don't fully understand what you mean by trust.
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Although people who are not interested in manga/anime (like me!) might just class everything as manga/anime, they are incredibly varied genres and different sub-genres have their own fans and critics. Certainly, they can be viewed as a bit strange when they seem to be a bit obsessed about it (there is even a word for them, otaku, which is supposed to be pejorative, but is sometimes used proudly for self-identification). But not as much as here in Ireland, where the understanding generally is that comics and animation are for kids and what are you still interested in that for, and what's wrong with you? In Japan they're for everybody, and there isn't really any stigma attached until there seems to be an obsession. It would also depend on the content though - some of it is fairly sick, with youngish girls being sexually dominated and similar. While all the porn DVDs/images are hidden in the adult section, all the manga is out front and centre.
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I have been to a hostess bar only once. I'd only been in the country a few months, and it was a nightmare. I was out drinking and bumped into a student, who suggested we go, so we did. I ended up paying for both of us, so we got put a booth in some basement bar with two girls, one for each of us. They poured our drinks, lit my cigarettes (I smoked then) ad would have chatted flirtaciously with me, except neither of us spoke more than a few words of the other's language. It was agony,and the hour dragged on forever. Looking back on it, it must have been even worse for her, as she would have been under pressure to be a good hostess. They were probably desparate for somebody who had a few words of English to push at me. She couldn't say anything other than her name and where she was from.

I was delighted to get out of there, and never went back. But hostess bars range from places where sex acts are likely to places where the girls need to be up to speed with the latest business and political stories. In business negotiations, a trip to a hostess bar is guaranteed, and the seller will treat the buyer for the night (an incentive for them to buy from that seller). The girls' job would be to help generate a positive atmosphere beneficial to the seller, and be able to comment on the general conversation. Those places can make an absolute fortune.

In between are places where guys go to talk to somebody and enjoy the attention from girls who offer a sympathetic ear. There are also host clubs, where guys get extraordinarily well paid to sit and offer a kind ear to women who want to enjoy the attention of a handsome young man. It's all business though, once the time is up, off you go, and the next crowd come in. Generally, sex with clients is officially frowned upon though, as it's apparently bad for business. You want to keep them coming back for more I suppose.
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There is very visible alcohol abuse. Drunks, and I mean practically comatose drunks, lots of them. Again, there is a safety aspect to it - you can get plastered, fall asleep on the street, and you'll still have all your belongings with you when you wake up. Very rare to see girls like that though - mostly guys who were drinking with other guys. There are lots of drinking games which seem specifically designed to get people plastered. And as about 25% of the population lacks an enzyme that helps process alcohol, they get pissed on half a pint, or a glass of wine.

And for low-ranking workers, well, if their boss says lets go drinking, then drinking they go, and that's that. Many times I've seen a bunch of young guys sitting miserably at a table in a bar, waiting for their boss to wake up. Once he wakes up, he'll go home, and once he goes home, they can go home too.

Vojera · 03-07-2015 9:01am

Are the concepts of honne and tatemae really that big a deal? If so, does it get frustrating when you know people aren't saying what they really think? And as a Westerner, do you get a reputation for being a bit "out straight" with things?

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 03-07-2015 9:34am

Vojera wrote: »

Are the concepts of honne and tatemae really that big a deal? If so, does it get frustrating when you know people aren't saying what they really think? And as a Westerner, do you get a reputation for being a bit "out straight" with things?

Yes, a big deal, although I don't always agree when the Japanese go on about as a uniquely Japanese cultural attribute (But I say nothing, because of tatemae:pac:) If I am frustrated that they aren't saying what they really think, they are equally frustrated with me for putting them in a position where the facade becomes a bit more obvious.

In a place where so many people live in such close proximity to each other, and the need to save face is so important, steps for avoiding conflict are important. But a lot of it is based on a shared cultural understanding, with things left unsaid but where the implications are clear.

But, to Mr. and Ms. Foreigner, the cultural understanding is not shared, and the implications are not clear, so Mr. and Ms. Foreigner have to be a bit more explicit than is normally the case, and get a reputation for saying things and being 'direct'.

Just as an example, if a guy asked a girl to go to a movie with him on Friday night, her answer might be "Friday night........" spoken slowly in a rising intonation, with a pause after it. Now, this is clear as day - she is saying 'no'. But to a foreigner it isn't clear as day at all, and sounds like she is still thinking about it. Instead of responding with something like 'maybe some other time', the foreign guy will just be waiting for her to answer. So she will be forced to be quite direct and say something like 'sorry, but I can't/I'm busy' and now the foreigner understands, but she feels a bit put out about having to be so blunt to the 'direct' foreigner.

I think that every culture has something like that - we all, to a fair extent, try to avoid conflict, losing face, embarrassing somebody, although the Japanese take it a bit further.

Although, an Irish engaged couple inviting a whole load of people to a wedding even though they don't really care about those people, and those people feeling obliged to go to the wedding even though they don't care really care about the couple, is pure Irish tatemae.

It is possibly linked to the uchi-soto culture of showing respect to those outside your own close circle of family/friends - this respect need not be sincere, but it works to maintain proper social harmony.

Vojera · 03-07-2015 9:49am

Thanks! I hope you don't mind if I wreck your head with more questions.

When we're hearing about things like hikikomori in the west (and the fact that such a word even exists) and the immense pressure that is on young people to succeed, to get into the best schools, etc., I imagine that stress on students is a huge problem. Did you see any attempts to tackle this issue? In your position as an educator were you ever told to look out for signs of students having a hard time with all that was expected of them?

Or even among older people, is there any attempt to deal with the stereotypical salaryman who lives only to work?

I've also heard that (like Ireland) there used to be an expectation that women would not really work once they were married. Has this mostly dissipated now?

celica00 · 03-07-2015 11:52am

Thank you so much for answering my questions earlier (and with so much information, that's so great!!)

I have more questions

1) Do they really not like tattoos on people? I heard that this is still a gang/prison thing and they are still conservative about it?

2) I suppose this questions depends if you are interested in those kind of things but did you ever get involved in the car scene over there? Visited a motor/car show etc?

3) Another car question: is it easy to rent a car there and just go and drive (except for Tokyo maybe)

4) Would you go back again to Japan considering you know now so much about their culture and how it is to live there?

5) Do Japanese people come to Ireland/Europe as well as tourists and do they ever talk about it and if they like it or not?

6) last but not least: do many people speak English in Japan? And could you casually as well start conversations like here or is this rude? (since they have many ways of being polite and not sure if talking in English is polite enough?)

Thanks again

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 03-07-2015 1:05pm

Vojera wrote: »

Thanks! I hope you don't mind if I wreck your head with more questions.

When we're hearing about things like hikikomori in the west (and the fact that such a word even exists) and the immense pressure that is on young people to succeed, to get into the best schools, etc., I imagine that stress on students is a huge problem. Did you see any attempts to tackle this issue? In your position as an educator were you ever told to look out for signs of students having a hard time with all that was expected of them?

Or even among older people, is there any attempt to deal with the stereotypical salaryman who lives only to work?

I've also heard that (like Ireland) there used to be an expectation that women would not really work once they were married. Has this mostly dissipated now?

Yeah, there is huge pressure on a lot of children. To get into a good company on a well-paying job, you want to have graduated from one of a small number of of good universities. To get into these universities, you either take a horribly difficult entrance exam, or you go to the associated high school that feeds directly into them, no exam needed. To get into the high school you need to get into the associated junior high school, and so on, and younger it goes still.

I don't want to simplify what I'm sure is a complex condition, but yes, hikikomori is often an extreme reaction to that kind of social pressure.

Like many things, i think the Japanese government wants to be seen to be tacking the problem as much as it actually wants to tackle the problem. If the government can point to a report it commissioned, and a 5-point plan it created, then it has covered its ass in terms of criticism. Like many things, it's viewed as a family issue, to be resolved (or just hidden) within the family.

The university I worked at was not a very high standard - if we compare it to CAO applications, it would often be the lowest/last on the list. The last resort. (That would be true of all the faculties apart from the education faculty - the university had a reputation for producing good teachers, especially at junior high school level).

So those students were not really all that stressed - they had, to a certain extent, already missed the boat. Any expectations that might have been weighing on their shoulders had, for the most part, been lifted. There were students who struggled to do the work/felt under pressure, but not of the kind I mentioned earlier.

The stereotypical salaryman who lives only to work is still admired (and hopefully emulated) by a fair swathe of the population. Producing more workers with similar attributes is important to keep the economy going. Raising children and running a household is very much the woman's job, so he should do his job and go to work.

In recent years, economic realities have brought about some changes, but it is still generally true to say that the other side of this is that if you do get a job, the company will pay you reasonably well for life. You have a job for life. You have a decent pension after you retire. Mortgages are way lower than Ireland. If you are willing to join the salaryman rat-race, you may not get rich, but you wont, for the most part, have any serious financial worries in life. That is quite a motivating factor.

When i worked in a language school, I heard plenty of housewives say that they dreaded their husband's retirement as they had gotten so used to him being out of the house basically all the time, and didn't know what they would do with him around so much.

No, I wouldn't say it has dissipated that much. A man's job is still to go out and work and provide money for the family, and the woman's job is to raise the family. That would still be far more entrenched than in Ireland. The idea of a stay-at-home dad and working mother could bring real embarrassment, or even shame, to the husband and his side of the family.

There was a book I flicked through in a book shop a few years ago. It was a collection of editorials, or columns, or something, from a well-known magazine or newspaper or something like that. One of the pieces was about a man who worked 7 days a week, leaving home at 5.30 and returning home after 11 every single night. In it, when he talked about his hopes for the future, one of them was that he would see his kids awake more often. It was absolutely heartbreaking.

eviltwin · 03-07-2015 1:21pm

My 18 yr old is a huge fan of all things Japanese and wants to go backpacking for a year, she speaks the language well enough but like most students wouldn't have much money or many skills....is she mad to even consider it?

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 03-07-2015 1:28pm

celica00 wrote: »

Thank you so much for answering my questions earlier (and with so much information, that's so great!!)

I have more questions

1) Do they really not like tattoos on people? I heard that this is still a gang/prison thing and they are still conservative about it?

2) I suppose this questions depends if you are interested in those kind of things but did you ever get involved in the car scene over there? Visited a motor/car show etc?

3) Another car question: is it easy to rent a car there and just go and drive (except for Tokyo maybe)

4) Would you go back again to Japan considering you know now so much about their culture and how it is to live there?

5) Do Japanese people come to Ireland/Europe as well as tourists and do they ever talk about it and if they like it or not?

6) last but not least: do many people speak English in Japan? And could you casually as well start conversations like here or is this rude? (since they have many ways of being polite and not sure if talking in English is polite enough?)

Thanks again

(1) Tattoos are a statement of who you are (gang member, etc) or just a statement of general toughness. More recently, they are kind of a sign of a rebellious nature - rebelling against the social norm that you should not have one. Yeah, people are fairly conservative about them, and getting one would be a source of real disagreement in a family.

In lots of places you'll be forbidden entry if one is visible (especially if you don't make much of an attempt to hide it). This could go for Japanese and foreigners alike. In public baths and hot springs this is often strictly enforced.

(2) I have no interest in cars (this AMA seems to be me saying I have no interest in a lot of stuff!) so I can't really comment on that, sorry. Those places/events exist, and there are loads of people interested in them. I know nothing about them though.

(3) Yes, it is possible to rent a car even on an international license, and Japan is a fairly easy place to drive around in,even in Tokyo. Places are generally well sign-posted and in English too. Outside the cities, there may be a bit less in English, but it will still be easy if you just compare the kanji on your (hopefully bilingual) map to the kanji on the road signs. Roads are excellent all over the place. Most motorways have tolls. Bear in mind though that the train system is so amazing that most people, even on weekend getaways, tend to use the train. Also, there will be traffic jams in and out of major towns/cities at peak times.

(4) There is every chance we will go back there in the future. It will all depend on where I can get a good job, and that is obviously one place where my experience will be an advantage.

(5) The Japanese love travelling. Love it. They tend to do it in package tours a lot - 40 or 50 people together with a guide, rather than strike out by themselves, although this is more true of older people than younger. If there is an actual list of the most common foreign destinations for Japanese tourists, then I'd guess that Hawaii, Australia, California (especially San Diego for some reason), Paris, England, Guam, Korea would be somewhere on the list.

Ireland doesn't feature high on that list at all. Most people think it is part of England, or simply do not have any idea where it is. There are of course some who do -maybe through interest in music, literature, or similar. I worked at a school in Matsumoto for a period of time, and on my first day a student came racing over to me, so excited to meet somebody from the land of Sharon Shannon.

Generally, people will have positive things to say about their foreign trips, but those to say mainland USA or England will usually have them complaining about the bland food and poor transport.

(6) No,very few people speak English in Japan. It's not like Malaysia or Singapore where most people leaving school can have a conversation, even if it is quite basic. In Japan, very few people can do even that. You could try and strike up a conversation in English, and they might want to join in, but simply not have the language level to do it. I don't think it has much to do with politeness though.

I actually think that for some people who can speak English, they view it as a way to escape temporarily the social norms of Japanese and say what they actually feel like saying. The 'outsider' status of most English teachers helps also - we won't be popping up elsewhere in their lives. The example I mentioned in an earlier post about the women who said they feard their husbands' retirements - there is no way they would have had the freedom to say this to anybody except the closest of friends, and their English teacher, with whom their relationship is kind of 'outside' the rest of their life.

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 03-07-2015 1:42pm

eviltwin wrote: »

My 18 yr old is a huge fan of all things Japanese and wants to go backpacking for a year, she speaks the language well enough but like most students wouldn't have much money or many skills....is she mad to even consider it?

Not mad at all. It's a great idea, and I'm sure she'd love it. As well as speaking the language, Japan is a good and safe place to do this.

She'll need proof of a certain amount of money to get a working holiday visa, something like 4 grand, so the embassy knows she won't go broke there.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it's possible to just arrive, get a place at a cheap hostel, and look for bits of work here and there. She would be close to the bottom rung of the ladder, but there is always work for English language teachers - I provided a link earlier in the thread. If she wants to work a bit here and there, something like a 120-hour TEFL course before she leaves would help her up the ladder a bit, but at 18, I'm not sure if she would qualify.

Of course, she could get the working holiday visa and just not work at all, and just go backpacking. I don't know what kind of cash you'd need for a year of that though.

Or she could just go on a holiday, and if it is under 90 days she doesn't even need a visa - it is also technically possible to have this extended at an immigration centre so that it doubles to 6 months in total, but I do not know if it is merely a formality or not.

Links234 · 03-07-2015 2:05pm

I'm an English language teacher, AMA wrote: »

get a place at a cheap hostel

^ Just to add to this, hostels in Japan are amazing. I had a fantastic time staying in hostels and they are nicer than a lot of hotels in other countries. I thought it's worth mentioning, because people have an idea of hostels being not particularly nice places, but the ones in Japan are pretty different.

fricatus · 03-07-2015 2:25pm

Thank you very much Sensei for answering all these questions! I spent three weeks at a Japanese language school in Tokyo myself about seven years ago, staying with a family in Setagaya, and I absolutely loved it.

Hopefully I'll get to go back in the next few years, maybe bring my son when he's of an age to appreciate it (it's a great place for kids apparently).

Meanwhile it's great to read your impressions of the place. I can identify with a lot of it, particularly the brilliant train system and absolute lack of rough scumbag types. The food there is wonderful, but I did find that I missed the holy trinity of coffee, milk and pastry, and had to visit Starbucks every few days to scratch that particular itch.

One question: I was lucky enough that there were no earthquakes while I was there, however there was that huge one that caused the tsunami, and since then there have been a good few fairly big ones centred down the east coast of Honshu from the north down to Tokyo. The lady in whose home I stayed said the big one was the scariest one she'd ever experienced, and the whole family, while fine, had been scattered all over the city and unable to get in touch for hours. What have your experiences of earthquakes been like?

ancapailldorcha · 03-07-2015 2:46pm

Links234 wrote: »

^ Just to add to this, hostels in Japan are amazing. I had a fantastic time staying in hostels and they are nicer than a lot of hotels in other countries. I thought it's worth mentioning, because people have an idea of hostels being not particularly nice places, but the ones in Japan are pretty different.

+1. We stayed in a Ryoshan in Tokyo and it was amazing! We were a group of 4 in a 5-person room and they only charged us for 4!

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 03-07-2015 4:05pm

fricatus wrote: »

One question: I was lucky enough that there were no earthquakes while I was there, however there was that huge one that caused the tsunami, and since then there have been a good few fairly big ones centred down the east coast of Honshu from the north down to Tokyo. The lady in whose home I stayed said the big one was the scariest one she'd ever experienced, and the whole family, while fine, had been scattered all over the city and unable to get in touch for hours. What have your experiences of earthquakes been like?

I wasn't in the country for the March 11th earthquake. I was due to fly to japan with my family about 10 days later. In the end I moved by myself and my family arrived about 6 weeks later.

I have never experienced one that really scared me. The two that I remember best are:

One that happened at about 5am. It woke me up and remember lying in bed thinking 'Maybe it's time to get out of the apartment, I'll have to if it gets a bit stronger' but in the end, I didn't even get out of bed.

The other was one that wasn't so strong, but went on for a long long time. I was in a class with three students, and when it started, the three of them looked at me, waiting to see my response. (There is a rule that if there is a strong earthquake you should open the doors as soon as possible so that if the wall gets damaged/buckled, you won't be trapped in the room behind a door that can't open) I decided I wasn't going to be the one to give in and rush to the door, so I just looked back at them, and eventually one of them jumped up to open the door.

The extremely simplistic rule of thumb is 'side to side shaking is no problem, but if you are bouncing up and down, get out right away.'

Kids get training in what to do, and there are specific zones designated as evacuation centres, and roads designated as priority roads in the event of an emergency. They are about as well prepared as they can be (which isn't much at all if the quake is big enough). It seems like everywhere you go, though, the locals love to tell you just how many years a big earthquake is overdue in their town/area.

If you watch the first three or four minutes of this video, you'll get an idea of the March 11th earthquake and aftermath (skip to about 0.35):

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 03-07-2015 4:06pm

Coincidentally, there is a BBC article today about Japan, highlighting the suicide rate, social pressures, decreasing job stability, and hikikomori.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-33362387

RobertFoster · 04-07-2015 10:12pm

Thanks for the interesting AMA.

Are there any common questions or misconceptions about Ireland/the West that you've noticed? Is there a cultural aspect to your classes, or are they purely language orientated?

Similarly, had you any preconceptions about Japan or the people that turned out to be false once you'd started living there?

How's the sense of humour, or are things strictly formal and polite among colleagues/students?

Are your wife and kids enjoying their time here, or is their list of things they miss about Japan longer than yours?

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 05-07-2015 10:52pm

RobertFoster wrote: »

Thanks for the interesting AMA.

Are there any common questions or misconceptions about Ireland/the West that you've noticed? Is there a cultural aspect to your classes, or are they purely language orientated?

Similarly, had you any preconceptions about Japan or the people that turned out to be false once you'd started living there?

How's the sense of humour, or are things strictly formal and polite among colleagues/students?

Are your wife and kids enjoying their time here, or is their list of things they miss about Japan longer than yours?

As I mentioned before about Ireland, very few people know much about it. Most misconceptions would come come confusing it with Iceland, England (even New Zealand once).

As for 'The West', yes, there are planty of misconceptions. The one on which all others are founded is that there are really only two places in the world, 'Japan' and 'The Rest', and that people from 'The Rest' will share many similarities in the way that Japanese people do.

I met Japanese people who didn't know that people living in France, and Germany, for example, have their own languages, rather than English. There seems to be an assumption that everybody eats chips everyday, that most people are aggressive, and that everywhere is dangerous. Also, people were surprised that not all Europeans they met in Japan were tall and blond.

Again, I want to point out that there is so little immigration and even tourist numbers are pretty low compared to a country like France, so apart from television, movies, etc, there is not much exposure to or education about The Rest. Still, I am not sure if I met proportionally more people with a lack of some fairly basic geographical and cultural knowledge than I have met in Ireland. You can bump into people who don't know stuff you thought everybody knew anywhere and everywhere.

Classes were mostly language-focused, although students are very often keen to learn about the culture (I think their awareness of how much there is to learn is being raised). It would be introduced informally though, in my experience, apart from classes to prepare students for a study-abroad program in a particular country, which would focus on culture and day-to-day life for obvious practical reasons.

EDIT: These days, many textbooks, and particularly those designed for the Japanese market, address this by making some of their units about specific cultural/geographical topics. It wouldn't be unusual for a textbook to have a unit about Food of the World, or something like that, with activities/projects for students to work together to research and share information about the food in a country of their choice. There might be a unit on capital cities with the same tasks also - even if it is not explicit in the textbooks, most teachers will use the unit as an opportunity to get the students learning about the wider world.

Perhaps I was naive, but I didn't expect the place to be so damn crowded. The size of the buildings, the numbers of people, everywhere. It shocked me. I expected stuff like electronics to be cheaper. I had no idea baseball was so massively popular. And I had to learn to recognise how Japanese students respond to teaching - how they express confusion, how to give feedback, how to understand when they are not happy with something. But you need to learn that in any new teaching environment.

Most of my colleagues have always been teachers from the countries where English is spoken as a mother tongue. In language schools, those colleagues were mostly young people, just out of university. It was all very relaxed and great fun - the problem was getting people to stop drinking in time to be able to get up in the morning. At university, the jobs are better, so the staff tend to be a bit older and more serious about teaching as a career. Still, the foreign teachers' table was usually the most realxed and lively one in the communal prep area.

The students' English is often so low that jokes go down a bomb - humour is something that often has a shared cultural understanding, and the students are not familiar with it at all (think of what is needed to understand 'So this blond girl walks into a library', for example). Also, punchlines often are a play on words of some kind, or perhaps reading between the lines, while the students are still struggling with the literal meaning. I would still suffer from much the same problems in a Japanese language conversation - a slightly pained expression on my face knowing there must have been a joke, but not quite getting it.

My wife and kids love it in Ireland. We just spent the day at my parents' house in the countrywide, with their dog and cat and big back garden. We went for a walk down the country lanes, found some frogs, saw an empty bird's nest made of moss, ate some wild blackberries. Stuff that is a million miles removed from Japan.

Sure, they miss stuff. My wife misses certain foods/ingredients she can't get here, and she really missed 100yen shops (I can't believe I forgot to mention these treasure troves earlier in my list of things I missed), and also laments Ireland's range and quality of restaurants. My kids mostly miss some of the friends and the zoo we used to go to pretty regularly. But they are making friends here also.

Boards.ie: Niamh · 06-07-2015 11:04am

I have learned loads of things in this AMA, I think I'll be adding Japan to my list of places I'd like to visit soon.

Thanks so much I'm an English Language Teacher, AMA, this has been really informative and interesting. I can't believe nobody asked about geisha's or tea houses (can you tell 'Memoirs of a Geisha' is one of my favourite books? :pac:)

I'm going to close this one up now, thanks for all the great questions and answers!

Now Ye're Talking - to an English language teacher in Japan

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