Link: http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=345882&display=all

I wonder if that number takes into account JET teachers? Here's a short article about it in English. If you can read Japanese, here's another version with more details. Make of this article what you will. I somehow doubt Canadian or American teachers would fair much better. When is someone going to publish an article on the number of incompetent news reporters?



Anyway, on a somewhat unrelated note, my students this week are actually Japanese English teachers. Over the course of five years, every English teacher in Japan is being forced to attend at least once a 2 week long seminar about English teaching techniques presented by JET teachers. I think it's a little odd for fresh out of university assistant language teachers to lecture real teachers (some with 25+ years experience) about how to teach English, but I suppose at the very least it's good practice for them to speak nothing but English for two weeks. I think this seminar was mandated by the federal government as some kind of band-aid solution to Japanese school children's notoriously low English scores. I dodged a bullet last year and didn't have to participate, but I wasn't so lucky this time. I've been recruited along with Marti to help present Kamikita region's edition at Hakkouda High School. They scheduled the thing for the worst possible time, the first week in August, when the sun is at its hottest and most teachers are dreaming of getting away on vacation somewhere. Fortunately for my group we've been assigned to the only air conditioned room in the school, the computer room. So far things have been going along okay, and fortunately none of the participants seem like they would fall into the category of "incompetent".


Hakkouda High School, by the way, is nowhere near Hakkouda mountain, or any mountains for that matter. It's actually located in a small village called Tenmabayashi, not too far from Misawa. I guess they figured Hakkouda had better name recognition. That's not to say there is nothing Hakkouda related about this school. Check out what they have in the main lobby...



Cute! Apparently there are actually live ones up in the Hakkoudas somewhere. Perhaps Biffa Luke will track one down someday.