Customer Reviews

Teaching English Japan: Finding Work, Teaching, and Living in Japan

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"Teaching English in Japan" is a very practical resource for those who wish to teach English in Japan. It is not an anecdotal book, and the writing style is more of what you would find in a textbook.

There is some excellent advice on obtaining visas, and a good introduction to the various types of English teacher positions available, from the informal "coffee shop school" to the more formal JET program. The book gives a brief glimpse of Japanese history and culture, but that is not a majority focus.

Fully half of "Teaching English in Japan" is focused on practical, specific English teaching skills. There is a good introduction to pronunciation mistakes common to Japanese learners, as well as a solid coverage of grammar and tenses that occur in English, but not Japanese. A chapter is devoted to creating lesson plans, and another chapter introduces various teaching styles and tools.

If you want to teach English, but have never done so before, this book will give you a good idea of what will be expected of you. Don't expect to memorize every lesson in the book. It is a valuable reference to pack along to Japan, and pull out again and again.

for anyone considering going to teach english in Japan this is THE BOOK to start you on your journey. very practical resource which takes you through all the steps involved, from how to get a job, info on cultural issues, plus a whole section devoted to lesson planning for the novice teacher. I can also recommend 'Make a Mil-Yen' by Don Best and 'Learning to Bow' by Bruce Feiler.

A fast read, has some helpful teaching points and very general commentary on japanese society. Seems a bit outdated too, at least my 1992 edition does. A lot of time spent covering things you could easily look up on the web. If you are going to Japan through JET, you will have heard a lot of this stuff by the time you get to Japan. Definitely check this out in a bookstore before buying, probably give it a pass.

For starters it is no way near worth $200 as listed in January 2011, unless you are family and there is some special reason for needing the book for such a fee. Secondly it is 15 years old now and the language industry in Japan is quite new now. NOVA and GEOS the two biggest schools filed for bankruptcy in the past couple of years and tenure positions at universities are impossible to consider (with a rare exception) without a PhD.

When I started teaching in Japan, 1997, you could make $2500 a month as a salary and get $500-$1500 as a monthly bonus when business was good in the language schools and you have a lot of students sign up for contracts under your name. Again - these schools are bust now. Not sure if it was a trend or the bad mismanagement of the schools as they became too money hungry while forgetting about the students.

To make a long story short - if you are going to Japan to teach TESOL it makes sense to have this book, a used $2 copy only. If you are researching the ESL industry in Japan this may shine a light on some aspect. With the internet as it is and Dave's ESL Café , books like this have become redundant - unless you are old-fashioned like me and enjoy holding a book, after all I own it : )