Dancing bear, A.K.A. Genki

For those not in the know.
Genki, is a Japanese term which translates roughly into "High voltage" It is used in reference to people who are highly active and animated. As a English Teacher your going to be told that you need to be Genki.

Now that being said, if there is one term you would use to explain me, it is not "High Energy" Maybe Animated but certainly not high-energy. I can be charming, authoritative, intellectual and funny but for the most part I don't go into high-energy. Throughout my first few months of teaching English my only criticism by my peers and fellow teachers was that I wasn't high Genki enough.

Now why is it important to be Genki? Two fold, #1 they expect it of you to keep the interest of the students. #2 they expect it of you because... your a Giajin, It's simply a stereo-type. So much so that my Japanese co-workers constantly thought I was actually British. (Because of this and my love for long sleeved shirts and suit vests)

We in the ALT group refer to this stereo type as. "Dancing bears" but on the up side, I can say this. After a while the Japanese English Teachers I worked with got over it. Or rather my personality grew on them enough that they understood that my lack of near manic energy was not a problem. If anything I was told by some of them that it helped that I could keep children attention while not having them super hyped up.

And it seamed to be much less of a problem with Jr. High and High School students.
The down side is that, if you cant convince them that it is important... its going to be a sticking point.
To the extent that it caused one of my co-workers no end of trouble.
Now it does not hurt if you actually like your job, and enjoy the time you spend with your children. If that is the case then for the most part your going to do fine.

My schools. (Where you will be teaching)

So one of the questions you're going to ask yourself and your prospective employer is where am I going to be teaching. If you like me are going to be teaching in Japan I can give you a short list of like leaves and then some advice overall. The short list of likeliness is that you're going to be teaching elementary and junior high, you will very likely have multiple schools between five and 10 is pretty standard resource and tell. And you're most likely going to be teaching in a more rural area, thus some say the reports in the city it's just much more likely that you'll be put in a rural area your first year or so.

Using myself as an example I taught at six elementary schools one junior high after one of the teachers in my area had to return home I taught at a kindergarten through high school private school. The elementary schools run a once every two-week rotation and the junior high and private school from Monday and Friday.

ESL Traning

Appone arrival in Japan I underwent training for two weeks with my company about what would be expected of a ALT. The simple and cynical answer is 'dancing bear' wile that is incorrect its also more correct then what your company will tell you.

But the bottom line is I was expected to teach at 1 school a day, about 3 classes a day. Alternate between six elementary schools. (3 each week) one middle high school. And once private girls school.

Over all it was pretty simple, seeing that the school board provided us with books. 'Hi Friends!' for Elementary. And 'Sunshine' for Middle School.

Arrival in Japan.

My arrival in Japan happened after a 16 hour flight, which for the most part wasn't all that bad. Landed at Narita International airport and took a train over to Hanita. From there I caught a bus to the bullet train station and then shot down to Okayama.

Once I got there I found that my company did in fact... Forget about me, It wasn't so bad. A few calls and I actually found the hotel I was suppose to go to. Walked there sense it wasn't all that far away. Checked in and then when off to find something to eat.

Which was a adventure in and of its self.
I found a little food stand walked in and put a 500 yen piece on the counter and shrugged at old man behind the counter. After what little conversation I could manage... Which was not much he just brought me what ever he wanted to feed me. Which was actually quite nice, and filling.

Food is actually very reasonably priced in Japan.
And you can find it anywhere, and at anytime.

He also eventually figured out I was from Kentucky, gave me a free beer for that, I don't know why he was such a fan of Kentucky. but goof for me/him.

Doing your reserch on teaching english

Something I can always recommend is doing your research.
And if you are going to go thousands of miles from home for a year or more you should more then likely research everything about the place that you are going. There are a ton of resources on the internet about teaching pretty much anywhere that you can think of going.

A few good places are web sights that are for companies, even if you don't go though those companies you can get a good ideal as to what the job is going to be like there.

Doing your reserch.

The internet is a wonderful thing and should be used with care and diligence when ever you make a big choice in life, Teaching English is really no different then any other choice. There are a ton of good web sights out there that you can read, on subjects from pay, to culture to things you need to bring.

One of my rules of life is to always do your homework, this goes for companies as well, some companies have much better user comments then others, and there is normally a reason for that.

First Steps

So I have taken the first step to teaching in another country.
That is to say that I have applied for graduation from Eastern Kentucky University.
And have applied for a United States Passport at the local post office.
So in three to four weeks I will have a passport, and In four to eight weeks I will have a Diploma.

That's fine I can apply for the jobs wile waiting for the Diploma, And thanks to a pair of cosines teaching English overseas, I already have a very good lead on a company to go throw to get my first job teaching English.

The process of Getting a passport is actually pretty easy.
Fill out a form online print it out.
Get your drivers license and birth certificate.
Go to the post office and pay... 135 to 165 dollars. Depending on what you are trying to get. A passport booklet. (What most people get) Or a passport card. (Only good to cross the US/Mexican or US/Canadian Border.)

So other then being kind of pricier it was pretty easy to apply for a booklet.

If you want some more information here is the URL to the state departments sight about getting your passport. (Link)