lol! yup...always ready accept everything and always ready to protest something.

right!!!

Teachers over here have it so much worse than they do back home. Not only do they have huge classrooms, no vacation or free time but they also have to be 2nd parents to their students, can't decide where they want to work and often only see their families on weekends.. that is when they aren't forced to work on the weekend (usually unpaid). I guess on the bright side the students at least aren't packin' heat in Japan.

I agree, but it is impossible to get fired in this country. Take me for example.

True, but that is also a bad thing for all the good teachers that are forced to work along side of other teachers that should have been fired a long time ago.. like you for example. ;)

One more thing I just thought of that sucks over here is that there are no substitute teachers.. at least not anywhere in the inaka as far as I know. One of my JTE's is going to be taking sick leave for 2 months or so, and they probably won't even get a replacement teacher since the minimum leave before they do that is 3 months! That means other teachers (myself included) will have to take over those classes instead. In Toronto, if a teacher is even gone half a day the school will find a substitute for them.

Case in point:
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/News/2004/08/18/588564.html

Funny comic but an insult to western culture. What are you a western culture reject, why paint such a despairing and contemptuous picture? My contention is that westerners would rather have the option to lead their lives as they choose to protect their civil liberties. Of course there are some who would rather choose the lifestyle of the depicted japanese businessman, well, in other words they would rather become a thoughtless bureaucratic tool. Great site.

The point is that often Japanese people are too quick to accept being skrewed over by those of higher authority, and don't stand up for themselves nearly enough. The opposite is often true of people in Western countries... especially teachers. That's not to say teachers in the west shouldn't fight for better conditions... there's just a really strident 'us vs. them' mentality that exists in the west that doesn't exist over here. While many attitudes differ from country to country, stupidity is universal.

JAMIE: "...Not only do they have huge classrooms, no vacation or free time but they also have to be 2nd parents to their students, can't decide where they want to work and often only see their families on weekends.."

funny how there's always time to 'blog' though. why work in Japan if it's so bad? I was working in China before and my hours were practically nil, plus my salary was still competitive and consistent with the local cost of living

When I say teachers in Japan, I mean real teachers.. not fake ones like me. Most teachers don't have time to blog or do much else. I have no complaints when it comes to my "job".