What makes a good teacher? It depends on who you ask
When considering your role as a teacher it is best to think about what your students and employer want, and don't forget to take cultural differences into account.
Waxing philosophical in English class with 'Thinking Experiments'
If you've ever taught English at a Japanese school, you'll likely be familiar with a certain kind of silence — pervasive and tinged with teenage ennui. Authors Alexander Dutson and James Hill want to recommend breaking the ice with philosophy. Their book, "Thinking Experiments," presents ...
Trying out a lesson on traditional notions of gender
I teach a class of 38 at Hamamatsu Higashi Senior High School in Shizuoka Prefecture, and earlier this month I tried out a gender-themed lesson from Alexander Dutson and James Hill's "Thinking Experiments." The class I teach emphasizes essay writing and comprises students who aim ...
Indian women in Japan struggle to find their niche
After following their husbands to Japan, educated Indian women face obstacles tracking down work that matches their qualifications.
Fukuoka's 'guest teachers' of English outstay their welcome
Job insecurity, excessive secrecy and legal curbs on dispatch teachers come under the spotlight as 120 teachers lose their classes.
Some readers' responses to recent stories on the Community pages.
Springtime in Japan brings the sadness of the eikaiwa exodus
Budding English skills built up over years at conversation school can wither as junior high school clubs take over students' lives.
Education in Japan in 2016: new solutions and age-old problems, from teaching English to bullying
With schools well into their final term and the university academic year already winding down it's time to reflect on the most significant events in Japanese education this past year.
The issues that grabbed you or got your goat in the Year of the Sheep
Readers praise and pan Community articles from the past 12 months.
'Don't sell your soul for a Japanese man'
Having overcome isolation and a loss of self-confidence in Japan, one American mother now finds herself doling out advice to women seeking Asian men.
'MacDonald's,' the first English school in Japan, was its teacher's prison
The first unofficial English school in Japan was "founded" in the late fall of 1848 in a prison cell in Nagasaki.
Learning English requires a different approach
If the most important goal is to teach Japanese students how to speak the kind of everyday English used in the corporate world, then it's imperative that teachers provide them with frequent practice doing precisely that.
