The JET Programme - school problems

Question: Have you had any problems with your school?

Responses...

JTOs refuse to negotiate/liase with ALT re. lesson planning
Meetings only in Japanese
School office forbids me from driving, even though I know they cannot do that
Non-existent discipline policies

Total lack of communication
Lack of classes
Lack of inclusion in school events like sports day i.e absolutely no role whatsoever

When I was a prefectural ALT, I went to a Bad School twice a week. Kids were hanging off the lights, leaping out of windows and actually offering bodily harm to myself and the other teachers. I once saw the little shits pull a chair out from under the kyoto-sensei!

None of the teachers would do anything. In fact, after I was pelted by rubber bands in one class, all the teacher did was smile and ask if they were elementary students! The only reason he reacted at all was that I got hit in the eye.

Communication problems. Basically, they kept me out of the loop of important events and what was expected of me at the schools. Then they would complain to the BOE that I was not doing what they wanted or did not care about my job.

I have also had instances of teachers ridiculing me during the lessons in Japanese in front of shoogakko students. Some of the comments were racially motivated. I believe this is completely unacceptable behaviour, but the BOE did nothing about it when I talked about it to them.

Teaching classes without a Japanese teacher in the room (only in the elementary school, because of the principal.)

i think my teachers seem to be making the best of a situation they didn't ask for, namely having a foreign teacher there, messing up their schedule. sometimes I feel like a liability, like people are babysitting me when they would rather be somewhere else.

In regards to the staff, very minor. Simple miscommunications that are bound to happen when you are speaking in a foreign language. All misunderstanding with the staff have been sorted out.

As for the students, I work at a non-academic high school. Needless to say my students are interesting and sometimes very hard to control. But this is the case with students like this all over the world. It takes patience and knowing where to draw the line.

1. My supervisor calls up my doctor, and then gossips with the other teachers about my medical condition. He also spreads rumors about my personal life. He's also confronted me about what i do on my vacation time!(Nothing illegal or immoral).

2. I work at a school that has another JET. We are forced to teach many classes with each other (plus a Japanese teacher.) It so happens that the other JET is a person who dominates all classes, and does not allow me to fully participate. She has also done things like read my personal journal and 'forgotten' to mention important info she was to convey to me. Let's just say we hate each other. The school is aware of this fact; despite it, they insist on putting us 'both' in charge of projects. I do the work but my counterpart takes all the credit. I've also been handed bills which actually were addressed to her, and repeatedly called by her name by our supervisor (although we look nothing alike and are from different countries.) Essentially, the school treats us as we are the same entity in two separate bodies- in fact, we are more often referred to as 'the JET' rather than by our names. This creates confusion as to who did what. I think two JET's in one school is a bad ide!
a- our predecestors hated each other as well, i am told. And when we joined the program, it was not mentioned that there's the possiblity of working with another JET, so no one is prepared to deal with this issue.

3. After arriving, it was announced to me that my apartment cost 70,000yen a month... And as a result, the key money and agent's fee and deposit (all of which i had to pay out of my own pocket) totaled 210,000yen. I was also told that i would not get paid for 3 weeks, but i had to pay these fees immediately. I did not have that kind of money. My school expressed a lack of concern, and told me it was my problem. Finally, i had to take out a loan!

Paying the most rent for the littlest oldest apartments in our prefecture. Well, at least we did pay the most rent.
But all in all, the BOE was great. But I am transfering to the prefectural level, because at the highschool in my town the JET gets all school holidays off too, summer vacation and stuff, but where I am now we have to sit on our butts at the kyoikuinkai.
Not bad at all when I hear other JET's stories, I know I have it pretty decent!

I will not go into specific problems because problems happen anywhere. That is, I beleive that JET participants who complain about their respecive situations would also probably have problems back home. Indeed, some have never worked in a real job back home and therefore have no idea how to deal with problems in the workplace. Who ever heard of a job that came with no problems -- deal with it.

Some teachers would leave the room after I came in. Others would tell the students that English class was not really important they could participate if they wanted. If not then they could just put their heads down on their desks.
Had a fight break out in the middle of my class. Had a student through his school slippers at the blackboard.
The teacher did nothing.
Most teachers tend to ignore the AET when she's in the teachers room.

I`ve had the teacher not show up to teach a class, leaving me to spontaneously come up with a lesson for students with very low english ability. I have also frequently not been made aware of schedule changes and other changes in duties, by the same teacher.

Problems were with administration--the usual car, vacation, clarification of duties as an AET, etc. Nothing that made the experience terrible. Usually I had my way--of course insight into the Japanese culture and sucessful lobbying and powerful allies helped. I could also speak Japanese (but hey, I knew nothing when I started JET).

I did have a major disagreement with an English teacher because she could not speak English well and constantly embarassed me in front of the students. We had a big fight and I didn't team-teach with her for a month. Eventually the students coerced me to work with her and the other English teachers used this fight to coerce her into getting along. She was having problems getting along with the rest of the English staff and were quite amused when the "foreigner" put her in her place.

Teachers keeping secrets, not being upfront, truthful. The tatamae and honne thing.

Punk students with FU attitudes

One English teacher - contributed very little to the class, made it essential for me to translate all my own instructions for the kids (the early JHS years). Did nothing to discipline the children during my lessons.

Nothing major, I haven't experienced harassment or anything like that the way that some people have. The problems I have had mostly revolved around miscommunication (either my teachers don't tell me when something special is going on or else I ask them about something and they're clueless). Like I said, nothing major but it can be frustrating and annoying sometimes.

In 2-1 class last year, this one girl and I didn't get along. We both were in the wrong and we both ended up saying "I am sorry." We are friends now.

Mostly non-responsive laconic teachers or non-responsive, badly behaved students. Once, a horrid personality clash with my "supervising" teacher. That was the worst and my supervisor at the Board of Education got to hear about it, but I didn't really expect her to be able to do anything. She was very good about listening, though, and offering advice.

same old same old, being ignored, not being told when lessons were cancelled, being given the same lesson plan for 6 months which was........ repeat after ALT until page is memorised.

One difficult kid always tries to hit me in the face, but he does this to everyone. Having to pull to kids out to the front of the class and have them sit on chairs in the corner because they were fighting and the teacher ignoring this. Being groped by kids.

I teach 7 schools a different JHS almost every day. One of my schools suddenly made me completely in charge of the lessons on a Monday with no hint as what she wants taught theoretically great but with no guidance on subject or level very stressful and hard work for me as I am not a qualified teacher and I have only one resource book.

Being the non-Japanese teacher can sometimes be a problem especially when it comes to authority in the class room. It sometimes feels like it's ok for the students to be disrespectful to the ALT and to the class in general and can get away with it cuz the ALT's command of the language doesn't enable her/him to say anything to the student.

- It's not always good enough to "invite" the ALT to extra-curricular school activities if the ALT doesn't have a role or at least Know what is going on. Give your ALT a purpose other than standing around gathering wool.

- The JTE has to understand that the ALT has an acutal productive purpose in the classroom. Cutting the T-T classes because the JTE is "behind" schedule isn't fair to the students or the ALT.

- If something is going on with the ALT, personally, please don't broadcast personal information all over the school. Privacy is important. Students, especially, don't need to know everything the ALT discusses with you or asks you for help with.

- Sometimes I'm asked to give money for something and explained what it is for in very rapid Japanese and it's a pain. I realize I have to pay bills but I would like to know what they're for. It's a curtesy thing.

I was teaching at a JHS during my first year. I really had problems with supervisor. He was difficult to work with and their were personality clashes. We tried to fix our working relationship. Other teachers had problems with him too. He was terrible. He didn't really help me with living situation, being ripped off by my predecessor, and didn't really listen to me when I condemned having him hit the students while team-teaching. I asked for a different supervisor, but nothing has happened. I eventually transferred schools.

As for my current school, the only problem I had was when my school called my doctor without notifying me. I heard the news from my doctor. Talk about confidentiality.

NO PROBLEMS AT ALL.

If I saw a problem coming, I made sure that I took the initiative to solve the problems pre-emptively.

lack of an english program, lack of support for changing my housing situation

lack of communication with teachers, and discipline issues with students - they were violent on occasions, although not towards me.

Teachers are not trained. They often use bad educational practices. Some are just not interested in doing a good job others don't know how.

I was saddled with a teacher who was a total incompetent - it wasn't that I just didn't like her or she was a bit of a crap team teacher - she really couldn't teach at all (for six hours a week!). It took me an hour and a half to teach her to play bingo. She didn't know the difference between things you should tell students as a group and things that should be explained to some students individually; things that should be written on the board (and how to write them) and things that should be pointed out on the worksheet; and she couldn't give an explanation in English or Japanese for shit. She frequently can't understand me when I speak and I frequently can't understand what she's saying because her English is so wrong and twisted; so we can't communicate during a class. She has a habit of walking away from me when I'm in the middle of explaining what the class has to do. None of my students knew what to do in class, the confidence and trust I had built up wit!
h them over the previous months evaporated and we started to have severe disclipline problems in the classes concerned. My working hours ballooned until I was staying back until 7 every night dealing with her bullshit.
Only when I complained to the kencho was anything done about it. This consisted of putting other Japanese teachers into the classes to observe, since nothing was actually wrong until a Japanese person had seen it go wrong. I still have to teach with this woman, even after an incident where I started to cry in class and had to leave. I cried for a full hour after walking out. One week after this, I still have no undertaking that I will not have to teach with this woman after the summer break. Nor has she been taken off any classes, even though it is now well known that she is the worst teacher ever invented. My supervisor and head of department were fully apprised of the problems I was having with her from the beginning, and did little to help me until the copies of the complaint to the kencho arrived on their desks.

Petty shit mostly.
1. Some teachers refuse to acknowledge me even though I make the effort to say hi.
2. Several times, I've been left out of school events such as school trips and marathon. More than likely just because they forgot about me.
3. Teachers refusing to do any work for class. Leaving everything up to me.
4. The school is currently jerking me around about summer time. Last summer I didn't come in at all, and I assume it will be the same this summer. I wanted to take a summer Japanese course, and asked permission. They denied permission for no good reason.

Poor communication with some teachers.
One teacher treating me like a student, recorrecting the essays that I have to mark, marking with red pen the tests she asks me to make and so on..

Addressing some issues - not sure of the best way to address some issues with Supervisor.

One teacher I work with has treated me with only the barest minimum of respect for two years. I'm a pretty accepting kind of person, but I finally blew my top a couple of weeks ago. You'd be surprised how much good the odd occasional burst of barely contained fury can do when solving problems. But note, this works best (with Japanese) if displayed only on rare occasions.

My problem was my BOE. I live in a small town with small minds enough said!

two general problems:
indifference by my school to my needs, There is VERY little concern given to my promblems or expectatons. I can't stress enough that my school has NOT mistreated me for the sake of mistreating me. It is simply that every time I need help, it takes AGES for it to happen. example, I live in a rural area. I need a car. I asked for help finding one THE FIRST DAY I got to Japan, then at least once a week after that for 6 months. Finally I found one on my own by accident. No one seems to appreciate how difficult life here can be for a foreigner. They need some sensitivity training or something.

second problem, job satisfaction. My position and the potential for me to do good work here is not just undervalued, it is ignored as policy. I am given a class period each week with every class to teach them WHATEVER I choose, though this is fun, it is far from the best use of the class's time.I have asked the other English teachers to tell me in advance, what it is that they do in thier classes,so that I can use my classes to supliment thiers, but they simply refuse to bother with me. I'm at a loss. The students and the teachers DO NOT want me here, I'm a waste of everyone's time...

Lack of communication - some teachers unwilling to discuss or even participate in team teaching.

Lack of respect.

No aims given.

Don`t get to see any results in the students ability, feel like all the effort i`ve made has been a waste

First, I had a no shower in my apartment, only an old fashion tub that would take 30-45 mins to heat up the water. And when the box that heated the water broke, I was blamed for it and it took the school/supervisor 6 weeks to get it fixed. I was not compensated for having to go to the gym to shower and everyday when I complained, it went on sympathetic yet deaf ears. The people were nice enough but nothing was done to correct the situation in a timely fashion.

Discipline problems
Average of 6 hours teaching a week
Being generally ignored and not being informed of school events.

i have never been invited to any enkais at 2 of my school and the one i went to at my 3rd school was almost an after thought to invite me. i feel completely discluded (unincluded???) and am constantly ignored. teachers treat me as if since my hair isn't black, i couldn't possibly speak any japanese, so they don't bother to talk to me.

Treated as an outsider, not as staff.

Problems are ignored.

Sexually harassed.

Bullied.

My problems are not life-threatening or anything. The main problem with my job is that I am not taken seriously. The students have little or no incentive to participate fully in my classes (I am at a non-academic school) because my classes have little or no impact on their grades. Although I have tried time and again to get the JTEs involved in the planning process, they leave everything up to me. They consider my lessons to be OUTSIDE their curriculum, even if I create lessons using the textbook (which I hate doing because the textbooks do NOT present the English language in a logical fashion and do NOT treat English as a language used in communicating with - gasp - people).

I am consistently underused. I have created bulletin boards (which get vandalized), started my own extra-curricular activity (which I cannot conduct often due to understandable reasons), and do language exchanges with teachers. Nevertheless, I am treated like an outsider here and am not given any responsibility, no matter how many times I ask.

I am still lobbying for changes, but change comes slowly, if at all. I am trying to get the english dept. to change my schedule so that I visit fewer classes more often, so that I can actually be a part of their english learning process, not just an occasional diversion.

Sexual Harrassement from the male students, which I mentionned to the JTEs who then replied : "Yes, they are very excited boys!" which was obviously NOT helpful, and made me realize that there was no support there for me.

Crazy schedules : one school gave me a fixed schedule of 20 classes per week, which was incredibly difficult! I was sick all the time, super stressed out : it was a living hell!

Feeling isolated as I am surrounded by non English-speaking people in the staff room.

Zero discipline in the classroom.

JTEs refusing to do anything cultural (ex : X-Mas, Valentine's Day, ...) simply cause it is not in the damn book.

Some JTEs won't let me interact with the students, seeing it as a 'waste of time'.

Not getting notice about schedule changes

lack of detail concerning the job
-being ignored

i could relate with many of the comments mentioned above.

i think many problems could have been avoided if the boe had briefed each school about the nature of an alts work. however, i also think there is a serious misconception about nature of an alts work in japan. first and foremost, i believe we are here to 'promote international understanding' NOT english. i also feel that the japanese want to approach 'international understanding' on their own terms based on old (19th century) notions of 'cultural exchange.' (in response to question 12, this is the worst problem in my opinion)

in general, i believe no one is at 'fault' however, i do think that these are some of the reasons why alts are marginalized by teachers, students, boe, and towns people.

My host school which I visit once, twice and/or three times a week was not willing to ask me to class. In this academically centered high school, 5 full-time teachers and one part-time teacher asked me to join their classes on 7 different occasions. For a whole year. The problem was not this, but instead the vice-principal supported this misuse. My District Office BOE recognized this as a problem but seeming could not influence the school redirect such . THis coming year a ALT will not be posted as I was to this school, but even one year of such mis-use could be avoided by having less JET in my office if there is not enough demand for them in their prefecture.

i could relate with many of the comments mentioned above.

in general, i believe no one is at 'fault' however, i do think that these are some of the reasons why alts are marginalized by teachers, students, boe, and towns people.

ignored especially by my first supervisor who did nothing to help me
out especially when I first got here and needed it the most.

Lack of communication
minor nenkyu issues
lack of flexibility

a) Apathy

b) the passing grade being so low that no one fails and everyone moves on to the next level of English, no matter what their level or true ability is

I didn't have many problems that were worse than what you might expect-- For example, disciplining children using American techniques caused some problems, but I learned to respect their system. (It works well!)
Problems exist in your home country as well. .

Violence-students physically attacking teachers

Verbal abuse and threats-from students to teachers, myself especially

Damage of my personal property assumed to be by the students

Teachers refusing to translate threats to me from students and ignoring them

Students bullying myself, other students, and teachers

Teachers not being upfront about the violent history of some students

Reporting problems to my prefecture office and having them "too busy" to ever visit the school

Calling a "HELP" line to get "counseling" only to advise the counselor of how to approach the problem beause she said she had never dealt with something quite like the problem I had. She didn't know what to do. She was very nice, but not at all helpful.

Having my picture, home address, personal e-mail, and personal phone number put on my business cards without properly asking me. I was presented with them and only gave them to friends.

Certain students were always hiding in the school and hardly ever in class. I would see them in the halls in my off hours and often they would give me mean stares, hit the walls or doors with their fists when they walked by me, call out "katharine" (which is what they called me) from the nurses office when I walked by, or get in my way as I walked down the hall to make it difficult for me to pass.

When I was filing a police report in the principal's office the group of male students that were always harrassing me were roaming the halls and looking at me through cracked open doors as talked to the police. The school could not control these students.

At one point, a student walked up to me an said something about coming to my house when I was alone. I asked the English teacher next to me what he said and she did not translate telling me "not to worry about it".

I had a student approach my car and "get in my face" at my driver's window. While driving not far from my apartment.

These events with the students all started when I reprimanded a student for taking pictures of me in a class when it was totaly inappropriate to do so. Following my notification to the JTE of what this particular student was doing, the JTE and the student proceeded to argue and the student started physically shoving the JTE while I was teaching. The JTE held his ground and after the class, while I was walking down the hall with the JTE, the student in question was banging on the walls with his fist and glaring at me.

I doubt that I've told you everything in this questionnaire but I'm sure you can get the picture of what I was dealing with.

Generally ignored by many teachers; on arrival in Japan to an empty house I was forced to go to school -during August- rather than given time to arrange my life; told my lessons are shit when I am not a trained teacher. But things are on the up right now.

Well, every time I get sick it's a battle to the DEATH about whether I can take byokyu...I always get it in the end, I *THINK*, though I never actually see the paperwork...

What else? Well, some of the teachers have no discipline or control over their classes at ALL, and don't back me up if I try to tell the students something (like turn off your keitai, let the unpopular kid be in your group so she won't have to work alone again, etc).

I've been wanting to go to a doctor ever since I've been here and have repeatedly asked where I should go and gotten no response from my supervisor, even when I was sick. A typical exchange went like this:

Me: "I'm sick. I want to take byokyu today."
Them: "Well you have to get a doctor's note."
Me: "Well I'd like to go to the doctor but I don't know where to find one, and I don't have a car, and I'm too sick to ride my bike miles and miles."
Them: "But you can't take byokyu without a doctor's note.
Me: "But it is absolutely obvious to everyone present that I'm sick."
Them: "You just go home and we'll think about it."

So you see, I'm left wondering if I'm taking my vacation days by going home, AND I still haven't been to a doctor in the past year, because i STILL don't know where to find one.

I was physically and verbally abused by one of the teachers at my school.

Some teachers simply didnt want me there. I was given no information regarding classes, except on the way to the class. I had so much spare time. I wasnt given the opportunity to participate much in class

Nothing major, invasion of space. A small case of sexual harassment (It was taken care of straight away and not supported by the other teachers).

Timid JTE didn't want to talk English in front of his peers, my lack of Japanese makes that difficult for us both.

Teachers not team lesson planning with me. One end of the scale is I have to do the lesson plan and all the resources. I teach two weeks at one school and two weeks at another. Usually when I go back to my base school I have no idea where they are up to in the text book. Most teachers just tell me the page number they are up to,then expect me to have everything ready. After that they have nothing to do with me until the day of the lesson.

The other end of the scale is where I am given the lesson plan on the day of the lesson by the teacher and usually it involves me speaking for 10 mins as a human tape recorder. Then the rest of the lesson I have nothing to do as the teacher takes over and conducts everything in Japanese. So I am standing around like a game show host in Wheel of fortune with nothing to do. Also teachers are stubborn and will not listen to suggested changes in the lesson or constructive criticisms as to how the lesson could be improved. So out of a 50mins lesson, I will talk for only 10 mins.

The students are really bad. Last year one used to run in and out of the classroom during my lessons the JTE's would allow this. General bad behaviours such as talking and ignoring the JTE and ALT, yelling/screaming/pushing my JTE over and not doing what is asked of them occurs constantly at this school. Of course it is all hidden as the principal doesn't want to tarnish his reputation!

Don't take me to class
Don't talk to me
Don't discipline kids when I do go to class.

minor stuff, i.e. confusions with nenkyu, unfamiliarity with JET procedures/ideologies. but with changeovers in staff, everything changes, and this time it was for the better.

for students, just the typical "too-cool-for-school" kids that you see in every country, who don't want to learn. but that was only 2 or 3 students out of over 800, so... for the most part, they've been great.

teacher who refused to speak to me or work with me because I was a female jet and he was a male chauvanist pig.

One teacher was not interested in team teaching and planning together. His focus was on all other aspects of school life, except teaching English. He was rude an uncommunicative even though he could speak good English

Students have been rude and ill diciplined. Motivation is low (this is a technical school).

I don't know why this school has a JET

Students sexually harrassed me my first year as a JET, and the problem persisted even after I complained to my JTEs and BoE. My JTE teachers were completely passive and inactive in reinforcing any kind of discipline and student respect for their teachers, especially myself. After many complaints on my part, my BoE went to my JHS where the problems were occuring and spoke with the Principle and most of his staff. After a brief break from teaching, I continued there, only I did not continue to have lunches with my students. I would encourage everyone to make complaints as soon as ANYTHING whatsoever makes you feel uncomfortable. Do not worry about creating a "fuss"!

Not given enough work to do, I teach 10 classes a week.

My JTE after about 4 weeks was shouting at Kyoto-sensei about something that i had done or not done while i was sat at my nest in frnot of him. Later on during the year he lost his temper on 3 occasions during class despite the fact that we were doing the same classes again.

my teachers refuse to talk to me at one school ^ they won`t lesson plan, only grunt at me on the way to class. i say hello and they don@t reply. this may seem small, but believe me it gets on your nerves after a few months. they can@t speak english and won@t try

Too much disruption in the class and nothing ever done about it. basically bad teachers.

Mostly nothing to complain about. Have been made to feel part of things from the start, invited to everything. Get to plan the new sentaku classes and my opinion is constantly being asked for.

Some just don't take me seriously, like I'm an English sideshow or a toolbar on their Word program. But they are definitely the minority. Most are very, very good to me.

undisciplined students
housing
go-between-not informing me of what was happening, lack of enthusiasm for teaching English (ie they wouldn't team teach), lack of assistance with my suggestions.
Nenkyu for everything ie Dr visits, school lunch parties (although all the other staff have the same procedure)

Nobody having any time to discuss anything-unavailability
No orientation
My request for a English Dept meeting shelved
No documentation from predecessor (only a drawer full of random lesson plans) ie regarding exam eg's, syllabus etc

English teachers COMPLETELY ignoring me.. treating me like an imbecile.. just being plain rude. always giving excuses for me not going to class.. as if I would be a liablity in an English class or something.
Teachers lying to me!

Major Discipline problems. Students roaming the halls like gangs and bullying students and teachers alike. Physical and emotional outbursts with little or no rebuke. When they are rude to me, my lack of Japanese puts me at a serious disadvantage. The other teachers don't help much, and seem annoyed when I ask them to help. I have heard them say that I am a grown-up and should handle this on my own, when they think I don't understand. Team-teaching virtually ignored by the better English speakers, because they have to use constant Japanese to deal with the outbursts in class and constant disruptions by students who I seriously think may have ADD or some violent disorder.

Discriminination about being a vegetarian , but only by one prinicipal who clearly did not like foreigners

Oh, man...where do I start? Clueless and casually racist students and teachers and administrators who had no interest in getting things done. I work in a rural school that doesn't need an ALT, but they have one anyway because it "looks good." I have a Master's degree, credentials in two subjects, and a bilingual ed certificate, and the people at the Kencho cannot tell me why I was placed here. The kids steal, beat each other up, abuse everyone, have no interest in learning English (or anything else, for that matter), and think that understanding "difference" means making comments about my breasts. There are so many problems here that simply importing foreigners won't fix. It's totally artificial.

Just small ones- nothing to make me want to leave my school.

1. My supervisor changes every year, so each year, my supervisor is kind of lost about what to do. Last year, this cost me 5 days of nenkyu.

2. Teaching with a teacher that won't discipline in class forces me to take matters into my own hands- needlessly, I feel.

my problems have been with under trained, over paid jet teachers with an over inflated sense of worth

Completely unhelpful when I arrived. School did not supply me with anything in my apartment, which was bad as the first ALT for the school. The school even charged me for using one of their futons (and they wouldn't back down on it).On asking the school to lend me some money so that I could buy a phone line, I was told "No way!". After expressing that I would pay them back asap, they still said no. Supervisor was particularly bad and suspicious of me at the start. She even called me a liar for saying that ALTs can take a sick day if they are sick, without using nenkyu. I frequently had to get the BOE to back me up, which they did (thankfully), and my supervisor had to eat her words. After 10 months I have found that things have improved, and some teachers who never spoke to me before do now. I realise that is just Japanese culture, but it didn't help me at the start when i was feeling isolated. I can't say my experiences have been awful, rather that the teachers i!
n my school have been ignorant to the fact that I am a foreigner, who doesn't speak the language and does need help. The fact that I even asked my supervisor to help me with shopping (on arrival), and she told me she was too busy, was not good for my first impression of Japan. I know that I would go out of my way to help a foreigner in my country, so why couldn't they just have done a little bit to help me?

They are all very nice and I have no major problems. But felt very isolated at the beginning, and confused about little things that could easily have been explained to me...like timetables/different courses in the school etc etc. I twasn't that teachers in my school were mena or ansty, I think they just have no idea how disorientating and confusing it is going to live in a country and speaking not a word of the language. And I don't blame them for this, but I do think it would be a good idea if at least one member of staff had some basic training in how to deal with the JET: in what kind of feelings/problems they might experience and how to deal with them. It is not always easy to ask: I didn't even know who my supervisor was for the whole of the first year, due to some complicated stuff in my school that no-one explained to me. One teacher said things like "ask me if you ever have any problems"..but it's easier said than done...

teaching problems. material, style, who`s doing the teaching who`s doing the watching etc...

Teachers: one particular JTE with whom I was expected to teach the majority of my classes made it quite plain that she did not want to work with an ALT the instant we met, and was difficult to work with thereafter.

All of the other JTE's were quite fine and helpful; unfortunately, this was the one assigned to teach Oral Communication.

Students: I was in a "trade school" and there was one class of senior boys in which I was grateful to make it through the hour without them breaking anything in the room. The JTE I was paired with for this class was a young female teacher without the experience/authority to handle such rowdy and belligerent boys. We just barely managed to keep order-forget teaching English!

No classes.Lack of communication

There were older teachers who were resistant to team teaching. All of the teachers realized how difficult it was for me and had a meeting and resolved the problem.

the problem was with violece against students...when i approached my JTEs about bringing this problem to the principil and BOE ...i was told not to...i did however....the kencho was amazing and helped a great deal... but it , in my opinion, led to my BOE attempting to not renew my contract...however the kencho came to my aid and to make a long story short i am to be transferred..

No large problems...just a few students who don't want to learn.Nothing wouldn't see in a western school environment.However, I think discipline in a western school system would be handled very differently.Therefore removing the problem student from the classroom.

Very small. Lack of communication. But it was solved.

racism

REfusal to give me any time in class, refusal to allow me to prepare classes. Some schools seem to think of me as a tape recorder, or as an entertainer. this is not all my schools and it is true that dialogue is improving but it has taken a year to get to this stage.

I do not have a supervisor so I never know what is happening, ever! It is terrible because I do not get a schedule so I am not sure when things are happening. Last year I had no idea that there were yearbook pictures, parents day, etc. So of course, I was never prepared for anything.

I also had to pay \400,000 for key money which I was not told about before I arrived. I do not get any of this money back! How can you not stay another year?!

Supervisor is unable to relate to me as a fellow adult. Although I realize that relationships between workers and their bosses are more strict in Japan, I wish that she would be more willing to cut me slack. It seems that she has heard horror story upon horror story from her co-workers about JETs who abuse privileges given to them.

A school in Ibaragi (about 2 years ago) had a JETer from Georgetown, Washington D.C. She spent the ENTIRE term sitting on her butt and did nothing to contribute to her classes. She never attended any of her assignments...when she did come into the school she wore her walkman the entire time...spoke nor acknowledged anyone...used the (free) internet connection to chat with her friends (for hours and hours). For 2 years the students had no chance to learn English as she almost never taught the classes she was supposed to. Meanwhile she's collecting her pay cheque on a regular basis.

The purpose for my writing this is that the individual responsible for this (apparently Japanese) did NOTHING to call her to task. The students suffered...the school suffered...the Japanese teachers directly related to her suffered and nothing was done to remove that piece of dead work from the situation.

How can JALT allow this appalling environment to exist where useless individuals are able to abuse the system and leave an embarrassing impression behind them.

By the way...she left the country with a slew of unpaid bills behind her which the school was expected to pay. I'm not sure if the school did but the unpaid companies were making it extremely uncomfortable in the meantime.

Another JETer in Inzai shi was a miserable individual with the word b*tch written on her face on a 24 hour basis.

Do you people do any research on the Jetter that you bring over here?

STUDENTS MISBEHAVING AND LAUGHING AT ME WHEN I TRY TO SPEAK JAPANESE.

TEACHERS IGNORING ME (PARTICULARLY THE MALE ONES) AND UNDERMINING MY CAPABILITIES

NONE OF THESE PROBLEMS WERE SO GREAT

being ignored by the teachers, not being told what was said at staff meetings, feeling invisible, wondering where veryone wwas to discover something important was happening
BOEprobs = yes
BOEproblems = not telling me daiku was only valid for 2 months and loosing lots of daiku, being ignored by the staff in the office and when suggesting the new alt spend less time in the office they said the alt needs to be in the office so everyone can communicate with the alt!!!!
not including me in on anything at all

Lack of communication or lesson planning with my JTE. She sometimes does not seem to take an interest in creating more interesting lessons or activities, or providing help for the slower students.

In addition, she conducts most of my "English" class in Japanese, and translates almost everything I say for the students. I can - literally - learn Japanese in my English class.

How are they supposed to learn listening skills when their teacher doesn't even use the language in class?!?!

No real problems. I'm not used as much as I should be, but I have lots of other things to do at work, so I don't mind.

minor...just things like solo classes, lack of communication. The usuals...

My students beat me for 10 months. The school refused to do anything. Finally I lost my temper and grabbed a student, and was about to beat him senseless before I realized and put him down.

My school supervisor refused to take me to see a doctor when I had an infection in my eye. Instead he told me i wasn't sick. Then, when I asked Kocho-sensei fi I could go see a doctor, the JTE said I only had 'kebyo' (a fake illness). Luckily Kocho-sensei thought that having one eye swollen shut and the other completely red, was a difficult illness to fake. So, my supervisor sent me to a clinic where no english was spoken, alone, in a snow storm on my bike, with a hand drawn map consisting of 3 lines and a few nasty reprimands about wasting his time. I was misdiagnosed, the doctor gave me the wrong medicine. To make a l ong story short, 3 doctors, 11 months and 1 trip home later, I am only now on the road to recovery.

there are many other things, but being routinely punched, kicked and slapped in class and being unable to see properly for the rest of my life top the list and render the others rather paltry in comparison.

A few JTES treated me as just policy. ignoring me in the hallways, in the mornings, during the day, until they needed me to assistant in the classroom.
Students-it was an isolated situation. One school had a few behavioral problems, but for the most part, the students rocked! The students attitudes largely depended on the JTES attitude toward the AET and the JTES classroom managment skills.

Teachers:
1) Ignoring me and my purpose in the Jr. High staff room when I should be working on TT plans with them, or being more productive in making lesson plans/materials.
2) Failing to notify me of schedule and class changes until the last minute or not at all, and then asking me why I didn't attend such and such.
3) Telling me that they are "too busy now, but will meet me at __ time later that day". Then, are no where to be found at ??time. Sometimes at 5pm, an hour after I could be finshed, they grab me as I walk out the door,and say "did you make a lesson plan, can you tell me what it is now?"
4) Inviting me to an enkai a few hours before it starts and then expecting me to be there.
5) Sometimes they (for reasons unknown) don't make a lesson plan with me before class starts eventhough I asked them to, then proceed by dragging me along to class so that I can read the words or sentences when they call me forward and point to it.
6) Ask me to teach a class by myself every week, and then suddenly change it to TT teaching with the JTE on the one day that our Supervisor is coming to observe the class.
7) Avoid me in the staff room, purposely, because they don't want me to ask for a meeting. All , so he/she can avoid speaking English (JTE's I'm talking about now).
STUDENTS:
Openly mock my Japanese speaking attempts while I'm teaching and trying to facilitate their understanding of English.
2) Sometimes get angry, indignant, or cry even, when I won't give up on requesting them to answer a question or perform some task during class. I believe that I discipline them more than the JTEs do, so they resent the push to be active in class.
3) ASk rude, private or inappropriate questions, and assume that such liberal questions are ok because I'm a foreigner.

Student related problems are almost exclusively centred around issues of motivation - or lack of it! For the JET programme to legitimately use government funding to employ foreign teachers, it seems to me that the school English departments have a duty to promote at least a basic curiosity in foreigners and purposeful desire to study ANY foreign language. (In a "living" sense that is & not purely for university exams!)

Students may be perfectly pleasant individuals, sometimes even pretty fun to be with in between classes... yet the perception among JET teachers at non-academic schools in particular is that a significant volume of students don`t actually crave the opportunity to learn to speak. In such cases, the JET participant can (unsurprisingly) be left wondering just why the school has even requested a foreigner for whom they are frequently obliged to shell out huge sums of money...

(This is not an issue which always correlates to the level of achievement in my opinion.)

The following comments relate not so much to the personal JET experience as the working environment in which we are placed. Working in both academic and non-academic environments, (unusually enough this is at both Junior AND Senior levels), the months spent so far have presented the opportunity to witness a rapid and unfortunately widespread decline in desire from the age of 12 up to 17 years. In part, this seems to be the result of the often punishing schedule of non-living English on their obligatory curriculum that dulls out the few remaining enthusiastic sparks that might give some lift to a class.

Frustratingly, the efforts of even the most highly motivated JET teacher are heavily thwarted by a rigid and impenetrable education system that continuously fails to recognise the benefit of rewarding achievement in "Living English." Given the national scope of The JET Programme and its prestige as a Government-backed initiative, I would feel that it is no less than essential for participants on The JET Programme to do everything in their power to make senior figures in education recognise this breakdown.

Teacher-related difficulties are normally on a case-by-case basis according to the character or behaviour of individuals. Such attributes are difficult to make the responsibility of anyone associated with managing JET... human behaviour is not exactly predictable at the best of times! However, the one call that can be made is surely for consolidation in teacher training standards. Teachers who will be knowingly partnering a foreign assistant should be obliged to bear a greater responsibility to try to integrate those classes with the "regular" non-ALT time English classes. (This places a fundamental demand upon the ALT and JTE(s) to communicate regularly and purposefully... that is to say, for more than the 30 seconds immediately before class begins when the ALT hastily endeavours to brief the elusive JTE on the goals for that day!)

The chasm that has opened up between the two in a great many schools has a danger of becoming irreparable and the result is that many students fail to perceive the ALT time as `proper teaching.` Fun it may be, but not to be taken seriously. This is a common scenario, especially among high school students whose English curriculum in Reading and Writing is wholly led by textbooks and whose Oral communication time is wholly dependent upon the "creative brainstorms" dreamed up by the solo efforts of the ALT.

This distinct lack of partnership can seriously undermine an ALT`s satisfaction with even the most friendly colleagues, especially when we may be recruited to these posts without any formal teaching experience to draw upon. I cannot be asked to name individuals that I refer to in these comments, but I would dearly love to see such teachers (compulsorily) put through their paces on training courses exclusively designed for modern language teaching. To fully emulate those courses attended by teachers from our home countries, this arguably needs the input of teacher trainers from overseas... at considerable cost I would presume. However, successfully raising international awareness among school students surely has to begin by first raising that same awareness among the teaching community.

Nothing huge: Teachers - mostly with issues of communication in terms of what our aims were for the kids, the , teaching methods, overview of the curriculum and so on and so forth.
Students: The usual - difficult kids, verging on criminal kids etc. But they were balanced with the good ones.
To give my schools credit, most of the teachers did try very hard, as did I to make things work and we did meet with some success, but there were, of course, difficulties. The main thing that Jets, especially new ones, need, is support. If they are supported properly they will be effective. If they are not, then no matter how good they are, they will flounder and not be able to be effective. If a prefectural office is shelling out a wad of cash for a JET it should at least go to the trouble of supervising them effectively. To not do is a waste of everyone's time.

I was assaulted by a teacher for ignoring the class schedule, which he said was okay for me to change. I called the Kyoiikuinkai, the Kencho and the prefectural advisors, none of whom could (would?) really do anything for me. I was transferred to another school, where things were much MUCH better, but I used some pretty harsh words in the meantime...

they dont seem to need me here. sometimes i arrive having no idea what or who i am teaching, only to be told there is not english class that day. i have to beg to get a fax about my schedule or to make a worksheet. i see my teachers go to classes without me, and i wonder why they bother having an aet. this is not at every school, but enough that i have become very ambivalent about going to work some days.

Teachers not doing what they were supposed to be doing--not planning classes, not helping me, not even talking with me.

When I first came to Japan I was excited, ready to work and wanted to learn more about a country I have wanted to visit since I was 12 (when I began studying Japanese). However, within the first few months of working I discovered my school was not so excited to have me as a teacher. The students were rude and disrespectful. The student continuously talked during my lesson and the JTE would never help me to quiet them down. They wouldn't answer questions, even when I directed the questions at certain students. They would sit and look at their desk or roll their eyes at me. I would like to offer this example of an encounter with one of the students: after class a male student asked me if I was a virgin - of course I refused to answer the question. However, I felt it was rude and personal question. When I told my supervisor (and other English teachers) about this question they all just laughed it off. I also asked them about discipline and how I could handle talkin!
g during class and students not answering my questions. The English teachers never gave any advice for these issues.
Another incident: I only taught first year classes but one of the friendly students from a third year commercial class wanted to speak English with me. She asked me to join her for lunch in her classroom the following week. However, the next day - she came to me and told me that her classmates did not want me in their classroom and did not want to speak English with me or eat with me. I was upset and hurt but I agreed not go to her class - only because I didn't want to get so angry and tell off all of the students since I was only in my 2nd month at the high school. This time I told the head of the English department about the incident and no action was taken.
The teachers were also unfriendly and not welcoming. I would speak to teachers in the morning only to get a half attempted answer or no answer. One of the teachers who wouldn't answer was an English teacher! There was one teacher in particular who really hated me and felt like I was her "competition". We both are young and instead of trying to get along she did her best to make everyone of my days unpleasant by talking other teachers into not speaking into me (I later found out). I was very angry and upset throughout year by the treatment of my school. The principal was also like a brick wall. He wanted me to talk with him (he has excellent English) however whenever I suggest things I could do to expose students to more English or international things he replies would be "if there is room on the (board, wall, etc.). He also had an American resentment attitude (I am an American) and would bring in things that happened in WWII or other things he felt Americans did to wrong Ja!
pan. It was quit aggravating to me to be talking about Ikebana and the principal to say: "You know the Americans . . .h This next incident may give away my identity but I am to the point I don't care. The principle also had racial stereotypes. When I would go to talk with him in his office he would ask me if I like to sing and suggest I sing with the students. I told him I am not a good singer but I would play music for the students listening. He kept insisting I show my singing abilities but I kept politely telling him that I could not sing. The last straw was at the bonenkai I was sitting and enjoying my food and drink when the principal comes over and asks me if I am going to sing at Karaoke. I told him maybe but then he tells me you should sing the blues music (I am a Black American). I politely told him that not all Black Americans can sing and some can not sing the blues (that includes me). He still insisted I sing, so just to get him away from me I said I would la!
ter. Well later that night I had finished playing a round of cards with some teachers and decided to go to bed. Before I reached the door, the principal stops me and asks me to sing the blues acapella as example for the other teachers. So everyone falls silent and looks at me. I was angry and embarrassed by his comment - I told him I was tired and quickly went to bed. After that I stopped going to his office to talk with him because I felt like if he could not past the singing stereotype, then he must have other stereotypes of Black Americans. His unwillingness to have an open mind or listen to me when I told him not everyone in an ethnic group of people fit a stereotype was quite aggravating. Even at my good bye enkai he asked me if I could sing a song from my state

Many schools, many problems with different teachers. The most part was lack of original thinking, lack of ability to listen to new ideas, and failure to utilise the ALT for any lessons other than revision that involved using the same tired lessons plans (i.e. ALT talks about what he did during summer/winter/spring vacation, play "find someone who"). General lack of common sense all round. There were some teachers that were excellent, but these were few and far between. Many teachers incidentally don't know how to teach English, and worse than this, they don't themselves understand the grammar they are teaching.

sexual harrassment at Asahi chu

All teachers ignore me. Some English teachers don`t even bother to say hello to me when I visit their schools. One teacher makes fun of me in the class. No one has ever said anything negative to my face. Then, this week I was told by my supervisor that basically everybody hates me and my work. All I ever heard before was, "great ideas, sugoi, etc." or was told nothing.

Kyuushoku is brutal. It is point and laugh at the gai-jin or ignore the gai-jin time.

Tried to raise these questions with my boss. Told to return to the way I was (a good ALT) or they don`t need me. Refused to acknowledge my severe culture shock and said my job is to go the schools and sit there, even if no one talks to you. That is my job, to the gai-jin in the corner. If there is any problem, it is the foreigner@

I finally lost it last week and they had to cancel my last school visits (there were other, personal problems going on as well. If everything didn`t seem to go wrong at once I could have lasted). Now, I am wrong for basically having a severe reaction to culture shock.

The usual petty knick-knack, mickey mouse shitty little games, swindles, and lies from JTE co-workers that all those "Whiny JETs" are always complaining about. It used to upset me to no end, but I'm no longer a JET, no longer live in Oita, and no longer work as an English teacher (nor do I ever care to again), and have basically moved up and on in my career and in my life.

So, I guess I don't really care to think too much about all the shitty things that happened. Nevertheless, I did have a hard time as a JET, and fully understand why some JETs are upset. While I was a JET in Japan, I was constantly surrounded by the most narrow-minded, bigoted, predjudiced, ignorant, sometimes even violent but more often just hostile and disrespectful, intellectually mediocre people I have ever met in my life. These people totally sucked, and I was always at their mercy with no recourse whatsoever! Fuckem!

No major problems. Sometimes Im bored because I dont have enough work to do. I cant really complain about that. Also had culture shock.

The problems consist mainly of pupils' constant disturbances during class. Classroom management simply does not exist in most classes.

Also, I lack support among the English staff. Projects I create that are deemed worthy, do not get addressed to the students as important. I only receive a 30% return rate of required tasks.

I have been unable to negotiate nenkyu for after school activities which I run (E.S.S. club, dance club, cheerleading practice)

Lack of communication, i.e. not enough liaison on school events and schedule changes, etc.
Also not enough coordination for lesson planning with JTEs, mostly just have to follow what they have organised.

1. Back in September, I was invited by an English teacher at one of my island schools to spend a few nights at her apartment for the sake of preparing for their Autumn festival. Unbeknownst to me at the time, she did not have the permission of the vice-principal of her office. She had asked every parent and the B.O.E. for permission but completely circumvented the V.P. As a consequence, the V.P. stopped us both outside of her apartment and proceeded to verbally attack us both for approx. an hour. He said some extremely offensive things to me concerning my culture and gender and told me that I had no buisness being at the island outside of my work time. He also asked me if I felt safe there, and when I said yes- he told me that I shouldn't.

Upon hearing what had happened, my employers- Hagi City B.O.E. did absolutely nothing. They called me into their office with a patronizing translator and proceeded to explain to me that I needed to forget about the entrire incident because the vice-prin. was drunk. It was left at that.

2. I've also had problems at my base school since I arrived with the staff and teachers. I've been skipped during lunch because the teachers forgot I was there, I've never been invited to any of the teachers partys or events and I was repeatedly not informed about photo days, bento days etc... Students have asked me to go back to America, have handed me sexual and other innapropriate drawings, and have, infront of the teachers, attempted to ridicule me. I don't blame the students so much as I blame the teachers. I have dreaded every visit to my base school.

Lack of respect/being treated like a child, lack of work, underutilization

Occasional power dynamics with co-teachers over effective ways of teaching & teaching English as well as how much responsibility I was allowed.

Lack of authority, teachers using me ONLY to read from the book and play bingo, Lack of available ways to discipline students, The position of AET not being taken seriously,

at one school there was a total lack of enthusiasm in the teachers and the students. Every endeavor seemed to be a half-assed joke. I rarely received lesson plans. When I did receive them I would often get to school and the entire class schedule would be changed and rather than using the lesson plan, the teacher would ask minutes before class if I had any ideas for class that day-completely disregarding his own plan. I often made lesson plans and brought them in. Sometime they were used, sometimes not. If i explained it to him before class, I usually had to explain it to him in class again, not because of a lack of English ability, but because he just wasn't listening.
the majority of the teachers in general did not take an interest in me or take any time to get to know me. Kyoto Sensei, Kocho Sensei, and the English teacher took a polite interest in me and attempted conversation. Other teachers, despite my Japanese ability, would take pains to avoid talking to me directly and always talked to me through the English teacher. When he politely told them that they could tell me directly in Japanese, they refused.

One of my teachers was following me around everywhere for about three months. I appealed to the principal, the prefecture and my city all to no avail. On day this damn control freak came after me. Forturnately another teacher called me where I was and told me to "Nigete" run away FAST because this psycho was coming and no one was really sure what he was going to do. I left the school that day, running, and never went back. I later received two letter from the teacher who warned me to run away telling me that I should never come back to the school because it was too dangerous. I didn't.

Lack of use

My supervisor is a bitch. She was condescending and rude to everyone who was younger/lower in ranking, and puts on a different face when speaking to the principal/VP/anyone significantly older. (I never brought this problem up formally with my employers, so they cannot be blamed for not doing anything. Although it was very stressful for me, it wasn't their fault that she was totally unstable.)

She told me that I (and ALTs in general) was a burden, and I got paid too much for what I do (she knew how much I got paid, but refused to tell me what she was paid). She would tell me that I was not special, and try to refuse me things that the principal/VP allowed me to do (like, leaving school at regular time once, when I had an important phone call that needed to be made before an overseas office was closed--it happened to be the day of monthly meeting, which I wasn't required to go to because it was after work hours, but I have always gone to be polite, and even asked permission to be absent from, though I didn't really have to.)

She had mood swings and pretends that nothing whatsoever was wrong after them. Made me look incompetent during the class when the principal/VP and other teachers came to see by going against the lesson plan that we had discussed.

She was a good teacher, but totally rigid. Because she was a good student in school, she expected all her students to be as well, and never slowed down the pace for any of the students. I gave next to no imput in our team-taught courses, she was always telling me what to do, that I'm useless, etc..

There are many more, but it would take too long to list them all.

The smae as everyone else--some bad team-teachers, some good, the backward ways of school officials, etc.

They do not engage in team teaching. I plan all the lessons, tests, etc. They sometimes come late to class. They make me come to school on cold days, even once when the electricity was out!

The thing is, I like being main teacher, but it is completely opposite of the contract. Towards the end of the year, teachers were a little disrespectful. Asking me to make tests for the next day instead of the next week.

Refusal to team teach ("we don't have time for that"), lying ("you don't have any nenkyu left," when I actually did, various mistakes with my pay, and various violations of my work contract, certain psychotic teachers who were out of control and impossible to work with

My kocho sensei is a blatant racist. She told me that I should think about getting married, as I was 28, but that I wasn't allowed to marry a Japanese person as having children together would pollute the blood of the Japanese race. I'm not allowed to stay after 4 o'clock and she once screamed at me in front of teachers and pupils because I was at school at 4.10.
Also I feel very depressed that my supervisor never has anything good to say to me, but she always criticises everything, normally very small things like wearing perfume, or using the wrong cloth, or my activity prints being photocopies on the wrong paper. Nothing major but it can be very detmotivating sometimes.

Sexual Harrassment

teachers unqualified to teach english
teachers too busy to teach effectively
students lacking motivation to learn
misbehaviour problems frequent

Everyone was nice to me when i first came but now they hardly talk to me. I tried to find out from my supervisor what happened (she used to be the best supervisor anyone could ask for) but she said nothing could change so there was no point in talking about it. I have no idea what it is. It's been 4 months now since she last talked to me. I've tried many things, asking others, asking her if she wants to eat lunch with me etc. but the answer is always that she is busy. I know that she is very busy but she has time to joke around with the other teachers. She speaks amazing English and is a little older than me. I know I should just forget about it but i can't, we used to get on so well. I always come in early and sometines stay late (when there was a speach competition i stayed until 8pm and came in on the weekends) i don't mind this if i'm helpping the students. I love the students very much and thats why i stay here.

They can't speak English, they have no interest in
English, they won't speak to me or the students
in English. No feedback on lessons. No originality.
No support.

disrespectful students, unresponsive/unwelcoming teachers

I was accused of not respecting the cultural differences in working within the Japanese education system by one of my JTLs. Im not talking about what goes on in teh classroom , or lesson planning etc. She told me off for walking in the street with an orange juice carton, forgetting to give back a pen to a Japanese teacher who ended up formelry complaining about it to the vice prinicple. Faced with this challenge of this one JTL trying to make my life a misery by spreading rumours that I had been graffiting the walls in teh city whilst drunk with other foreign friends and having girl students around at my house for drinks etc... it was crazy this woman was after my guts.. anyway I got out of the situation by complaining about it to the sympathetic ear of Mr. Katata at the BOE, who sorted evrything out for me by moving me to another school. I know how rare it may sound, but it happened, I was transferred inter-ken! and this woman has now been asked to leave the scho!
ol! excellent! The school which I was moved to were over the moon with their new ALT and hence I had an amazing final year in Japan before leaving in teh summer of 2001.