Now related to teaching, of course.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
Japan here we come!
Since making our decision to take a year off and work in Japan in 2008, we have been lying low and trying to do the thing called "saving". Much harder to put into practice (not mentioning any names!).
We have been doing quite a bit of research and gaining as much information from friends who have taught in Japan. It's a very exciting experience to look forward to - fresh sushi, yummy ramen, busy and cramped living, skiing, and also the teaching (which has been described as scary to start off with, but easy and also monotonous after awhile).
Last Friday made it all the more real. We had secured ourselves interviews with ECC Japan held at the Hilton in East Melbourne. The day began at 10am with a very informative seminar conducted by a representative from the school. He is an American who had been teaching for about 3 years and has probably lived there for about 5-6 years now. After that we sat the dreaded English test. It brought back memories, long buried, of high school. Many of us were feeling quite apprehensive about it, as a pass of 70% was required to proceed to the next stage in the recruitment process.
The 45-minute time limit passed by in what felt like seconds. The grammar and technical terms (adverbs, infinitive - huh??) really stumped us all. There was much doubt and wonder as to how we could call ourselves English speakers after that!
After lunch two of the 14 hopefuls were absent, having been discreetly informed that they were not successful. We all breathed a sigh of relief - we're a step closer to Japan now.
Before we could take another breath, we were thrown right into the next stage: the teaching demonstration. Each of us were given a card with details of a topic and age group and were instructed to plan a 5-minute lesson. We were to take turns to teach the rest of the group who pretended to be children. Now this is where I started to stress....
My topic was on jungle animals (lion, monkey, elephant and snake) and I was to teach a group of 4-6 year olds how to identify each one. Anyway, that was the easy part. Creating the flashcards was the challenging part for me. My artistic skills are quite limited to stick figures, but when it comes to animals....well, you can imagine the monstrously ridiculous pictures I came up with. But everyone had really great (& funny) demos. It was heaps of fun being kids and laughing at each others silly pictures.
We then progressed on to the interview stage. Rich and I were interviewed together by the Japanese rep. He just basically confirmed our successful application and told us to get more documentation organised.
What a day! It felt a bit like Aussie Idol (or maybe The Apprentice?) walking out of the interview room, elatedly punching the air, whilst the others awaited their turns with bated breaths.....
Onward to Japan!
We have been doing quite a bit of research and gaining as much information from friends who have taught in Japan. It's a very exciting experience to look forward to - fresh sushi, yummy ramen, busy and cramped living, skiing, and also the teaching (which has been described as scary to start off with, but easy and also monotonous after awhile).
Last Friday made it all the more real. We had secured ourselves interviews with ECC Japan held at the Hilton in East Melbourne. The day began at 10am with a very informative seminar conducted by a representative from the school. He is an American who had been teaching for about 3 years and has probably lived there for about 5-6 years now. After that we sat the dreaded English test. It brought back memories, long buried, of high school. Many of us were feeling quite apprehensive about it, as a pass of 70% was required to proceed to the next stage in the recruitment process.
The 45-minute time limit passed by in what felt like seconds. The grammar and technical terms (adverbs, infinitive - huh??) really stumped us all. There was much doubt and wonder as to how we could call ourselves English speakers after that!
After lunch two of the 14 hopefuls were absent, having been discreetly informed that they were not successful. We all breathed a sigh of relief - we're a step closer to Japan now.
Before we could take another breath, we were thrown right into the next stage: the teaching demonstration. Each of us were given a card with details of a topic and age group and were instructed to plan a 5-minute lesson. We were to take turns to teach the rest of the group who pretended to be children. Now this is where I started to stress....
My topic was on jungle animals (lion, monkey, elephant and snake) and I was to teach a group of 4-6 year olds how to identify each one. Anyway, that was the easy part. Creating the flashcards was the challenging part for me. My artistic skills are quite limited to stick figures, but when it comes to animals....well, you can imagine the monstrously ridiculous pictures I came up with. But everyone had really great (& funny) demos. It was heaps of fun being kids and laughing at each others silly pictures.
We then progressed on to the interview stage. Rich and I were interviewed together by the Japanese rep. He just basically confirmed our successful application and told us to get more documentation organised.
What a day! It felt a bit like Aussie Idol (or maybe The Apprentice?) walking out of the interview room, elatedly punching the air, whilst the others awaited their turns with bated breaths.....
Onward to Japan!
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