Interac Japan

Everyday is different. The weekly schedule is rarely adhered to and there are so many things going on in the school that I could always have someone or something to tag into. You need to be proactive, if you just sit at your desk you will never be approached, so you have to get on with things yourself. In most of my spare time I would prepare lesson plans and do prep for my Elementary school classes where I ran the whole show. Eventually the lessons you plan for Junior High School also get used by the teachers and further from that in my 2nd year I was trusted to plan for one of the 4 lessons in the week with each class.

Each class is different and although you shouldn't, you do end up having your favorite students and classes. I would spend a lot of time with the kids between lessons and after school, if I didn’t join in with club activity I would watch them practicing, invariably gravitating to the students I got on well with, but trying to build relationships with others. Lunch was always my time and I asked to eat in the staff room and not with the students, after eating I would walk around the school and meet more people.

I work in financial services now on a Japanese desk. I don’t think the job itself made any difference but learning the polite levels of Japanese meant when I interviewed for my current role, I had the base language necessary to operate in what I do. Working in a Japanese school taught me a lot about interacting with others in an environment where you have to be proactive and start things yourself. If you don’t do that you will be left alone and that impacts negatively on your development and your general feelings.

That proactive approach and also being able to ignore negative events and not get bothered by them, or bother others is the way to help yourself. I always just got on with my own business and through performance was noticed by Interac management, who promoted me steadily through the rungs.

Do it. When you get homesick, remember that in a few years time you will have had the biggest character building experience of your life and something you will remember forever.

The Japanese government is strongly pushing for expanded programs within English education. With the Tokyo Olympics coming up in 2020, the country is ready to add nearly 8,000 additional ALT positions in the next few years in an effort to allow Japanese students to speak English at the same level or better than their Chinese and Korean counterparts. This means that along with the growing ALT market, Interac will continue to expand even more than the average of over 100 positions a year since I joined in 2007.

There are many new exciting developments we are working on such as a new set of lesson plans to match the textbooks being released next year as well as a standardized phonics program. On top of that, we are completely redesigning the initial training program and allowing for additional training to be done overseas before coming to Japan as well as after the initial training is finished to give our ALTs the smoothest transition possible into their new schools.

The next five years will be very exciting for the ALT market!

I really enjoyed my experience teaching and many times when I am observing my teachers at their schools wish I could return to the position. I could speak for hours on end about the wonderful experiences I had and amazing people I met along the way. That's not to say that there were no difficulties along the way, but that should be expected when moving to a country as different as Japan is.

If I had to give one tip it would be to soak everything in and be as outgoing as possible. Even if you come to Japan with less than conversational Japanese ability, you are the one that has to make the initial move. If you do that, nearly everyone will reciprocate and include you in their lives, whether that's the staff in the schools, Japanese friends elsewhere or even the friendly man waiting at the bus stop. Japanese people tend to be a bit more shy than most westerners, especially when considering that communication has to be done in a foreign language. I can guarantee that my simple advice will make your experience in Japan much better.

Wow, well there are so many as I alluded to earlier. If I had to choose one, I would mention one of my Tokyo schools. I had the pleasure of teaching at the same school for two years, meaning I taught the same children for those two years over two grade levels. One of my fourth grade classes in my final year actually invited me back along with their homeroom teachers from the previous five years to their sixth grade pre-graduation shaonkai (thank you event).

Not only that, I was asked to make a speech to the students and parents and then again to only the parents at a separate party to thank me for my work as their English teacher. It was an emotional day and one I will never forget. I sometimes still run into my students on the train in Tokyo!

Besides bringing a fun and educational experience to the Japanese classroom, my goal as Managing Consultant and the reason I still work here is to give others the chance to have experiences similar to mine that will change not only their lives forever, but the lives of their students as well. From speaking with my ALTs, many have been able to do that and some even go on to become teacher's in the home countries. That to me is truly rewarding.