What Teaching English in Japan was REALLY Like
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2020
- Having taught English in Japan for 3 years with 2,000 hours of classroom experience, I take a look at the highs and lows that come with the job, including my most awkward moment with a student.
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NOTIFICATION SQUAD: I realise teaching English in Japan is a popular topic and I’d like to try and answer as many of your questions as I can in the comments below; whether it’s about the JET programme, teaching in general, the work environment etc, fire away and I’ll try to answer as many as I can when I wake up tomorrow morning and down a gallon of coffee! For now though folks, enjoy the video.
- Vip De Big.
Would you recommend teaching in Japan as a way to experience the country? Or would it be better to just visit on vacation?
Hello. So how do you feel today ?
Chris I love your videos and is it okay if you can make a video and r videos on easiest way to learn Japanese, I’m planning on movin to Japan... PLEEEEES
How stomach much more healthy are you planning to be in the future?
Is it true that working in japan is very different from UK, like I understood some people dont even take a break (talking about the legal days, to have a break)
"I was a great english teacher"
Students English Grammar: please be stomach much more
no doubt because while chris gets one hour per week, the japanese english teacher gets them another 4 hours a week. the most underrated problem in teaching english in japan is how large the counter-effort against how you're trying to teach is. every hour you spend trying to make them pronounce well, someone else is spending 4 hours making it worse again. no matter how many times you can get students to correctly pronounce "bird", by next week they're back to "bard".
@@satoau1 even if you spent 4 hours a week with them that wouldn't be enough for them to speak english well enoug, i studied english in highschool as my third language, wehad like 12 hours a week really tried to understand it but failed horribly and couldn't really grasp^it until i started using it on the internet regularly thats like the only way to learn a language good enough is to use it regularly on your everyday life
@@youneskasdi that's kind of what i mean. it doesn't matter how many hours you do it if the teaching method is ineffective. the schools that do the best in japan don't have any extra classes of english, they just do more using english in class which means the teacher can't spend the whole time talking in japanese, which is the part most japanese teachers have trouble with - "how will they understand if i don't explain it all?"
Mercy
@@youneskasdi if they spent 12 hours a week and you didn't understand it, it's because they weren't teaching you right. They probably taught grammar and had you memorize lists of vocab words. Schools are poor at actually educating.
Chris is pretty much getting roasted by his students in broken english about his stomach.
Lol
😂😂😀
@munchkin42 🤣
why are stomack big? how do leg stand?
VIP de big
his application be like :
"so what was ur biggest culture shock?"
"so i went to dubai, SAND, LOTS OF SAND"
"ur fuckin hired"
Interviewer: "What ... is your name?"
Broad: "Broad"
Interviewer: "What... is your quest?"
Broad: "To be an English teacher?"
Interviewer: "What ... is your favorite color?"
Broad: "Red .... No, Bl..."
*Catapulted into the fiery ravine*
@@ToadstedCroaks good one my parents made my watch it very good
@@ToadstedCroaks Broad. Chris Broad.
And lots of camels and exotic cars 😂😂😂
Those kids are so sweet and caring. Imagine that, they genuinely felt sorry that their teacher didn't become James Bond, and they tried to encourage him to not give up his dream.
Lmao
The question remaining, of course, is which of his students imagined herself as his 'Bond Girl'!
I think that's because Japanese people in general don't use sarcasm in their language, thus they thought Chris was dead serious with his James Bond comment not knowing it was a joke lmao.
@@derekmills5394 Or the fact she put xxx at the end of the message lmao
I was thinking that they were sad because they thought he wanted to ACT as James Bond, not be an actual assassin haha
Little did Chris know that the tea stain on his JET application is what got him the position. The surefire way to know he was an authentic Brit.
Matcha or earl grey?
@@aa-yt7wo pg tips
@@aa-yt7wo earl grey obviously. It has to be British.
Hi Chris. BIG fan. Question for you. My wife and I were in Hiroshima last August and came across a 'Learn English' class. It looked like it was a private business that taught English. I've studied Japanese and can speak pretty well but cannot read/write(all self taught). What are the chances of getting a job teaching English at a private business versus the public educational system(which is where I assume you went using the JET). Do private businesses use JET as well? Thanks in advance.
Bo
😅😆😁😂
When a Japanese person has better English handwriting than you
Dude this is actually me haha 😂
And most non Japanese people who don't know much Japanese have better Katakana and Hiragana handwriting skills than Japanese people. It's because it's still in the "drawing' portion of their brains and not the "writing" portion where we speed it up. The better you get at the language, the worse your handwriting will get. I've seen my students' Japanese / Korean / Chinese handwriting, and it's usually awful. My Chinese teacher, too.
Mood.
Dude we had a Chinese exchange student at my school and like damn their handwriting was so beautiful!
Yea, this is pretty common. In the beginners stages of learning to write a new alphabet you are much more intentional with your writing. You move much slower and therefore make less mistakes. My Japanese teacher would always tell me I have really good handwriting when I'd do katakana, hiragana, and kanji but my English handwriting is a whole different story.
My first years in junior high, they learned the phrase "snap your fingers". Well, suffice to say, they didn't realize they had to change "your" and so i spent a good portion of the day reading papers that said "I can snap your fingers". horrifying but also a great laugh
This is amazing.
« I can snap your fingers »
for people who's wondering, the right way to say it is "i can snap you finger".
@@diegoferreira3444 its "i can snap my fingers" snapping someone else's fingers is horrific and a crime.
@@stuckonaslide that’s the joke
Imagine seeing your English teacher make a video on UA-cam, and in the first 30 seconds he clowns on you for “vip de big” 😭
"I was a pretty good English teacher"
*proceeds to read nothing but broken English*
Elliott meh that’s close enough
Elliott I call it engrish
Who actually speaks in proper English tho
@@ericolens3 if you need help with spanish I can help you :) greetings from Mexico
@@ericolens3 Your saying a whole Country's English is wrong. The Americans weren't the first to speak English meaning that your English is technically wrong since it differs from the original language. The original language which originated from West Germany and was brought to Britain.
Top 10 Rappers that Eminem was Afraid to Diss
#1 VIP de Big
#2 Knicker Poker G
You forgot be stomach much more
@@livingtrashbag1077 His tracks were better when he wasn't that well known tbh.
@@Oridux Bro ikr! Now his lyrics are so bad dude.
Where are the other 8?
@@duddledeedo VIP de Big occupies the first 9 spots.
I taught Survival ESL to Indochinese refugees (bound for the US, Canada and Australia) from 1988 to 1991. One of my students wrote to me a couple of years later: "I always remember you in my brain." Tears of joy, that brought me.
damn even if it was bad grammar that's still wholesome, i aspire to be someone who helps people and get remembered for that
awe thats really sweet
@@thecipher8495 Technically, it's true isn't it?
@@thecipher8495 That's not bad grammar, it's grammatically correct, just that natives don't convey the intended meaning using that particular set of words.
@@thecipher8495 0
Honestly english teachers in non english speaking countries have that kind of charm and fun no other teacher has. Our english teacher used to give us chocolates as rewards for getting everything right, would make up lots of fun games for us to learn english, and encourage us to speak our minds no matter how awkward or bad our english was. Truly blessed
*charm 😉
Giving candy to students is something some American teachers do as well
My brother taught English in Colombia. He’d tell the kids they could say whatever they want as long as they only used English words.
This guy now is probably the inspiration of a light novel and he doesn't even know it
GTC: Great Teacher Chris.
MrAstrojensen is that a GTO REFERENCE...!!!
Man kkkkk, there are BR in anywhere. I'm BR too kkkkk
@@Dont_be_Silly ahahah "russki braziletch"
More like a Hentai
“I hate sand”
You’re not the only one buddy..
*ATTENTION ATTENTION* Teenage mafia boss hates sand
Is it because it reminds you of abbacchio's death.
I, Giorno Skywalker hate drugs and sand
I hate sand. It is course, it's rough, and it gets everywhere!
@@AstinCrow thank you dear god what are these other comments! respect the classics!
The stigma during school is so true. In Asia, people rarely asks question and expected to do well with zero mistakes. On the other hand, in UK, US and Aus, it’s encouraged to asks questions and mistakes are part of learning.
I've experienced how my lecturer took his absent from teaching our class bcs i asked him a question. That's how asian teachers behave 😐
pretty similar in Central/Eastern Europe, VERY few people want to raise their hand and foreign teachers often times were kind of set aback by that
Ye that's true here in southeast Asia too
And then there's my country, Bulgaria, where you are encouraged to ask questions and participate but if you make a mistake you are going to get fucking shit on for it.
And then you get roasted here for asking questions you were encouraged to ask
“Are you aware of your own defect?”
Woah, just the one?? I’m doing way better than I thought. 😂
your very existence is a defect...
Man that sentence is one notch up from "what is your major malfunction?"
My actual thought when he said that was "which one?"
Student thinks a moment. Corrects the phrase to: "Are you aware of all of your defects?"
Teacher nods in approval.
Things Chris Broad has in common with Anakin Skywalker:
- Clubs children
- Hates sand
LivingTarget hahahahha
- Chosen One who lost the high ground
was it coarse tho
Thought the same when he said it 😂
They are one
If the UA-cam thing doesn't workout you can beatbox as VIP de BIG.
feat Knicker Poker G
New album “Like a Magic”
On a bike, for nostalgia's sake
Album name: becoming the stomach
The artist we need
It’s the exact opposite when it comes to raising hands in Germany. Since about half of your grade is lesson participation, we’d often have arguments over who had already been called twice, or who had to fix his overall grade due to a bad exam. And nobody laughed when someone got something wrong, because there were cases, where no one knew what was correct. Once our math teacher asked us to explain something and nobody dared to try that at first. After some provocation, one boy decided to try his luck and explained what he could. When he was done, the teacher asked “Do you agree with his answer?” And everyone was like “Yeah, yeah, totally”, than the teacher went “Great! This means you’re all morons, because what he was talking was complete bs!”. XD
You had a good class huh
Yeah no lmao how you describe for sure isn't the norm and its actually more like it is in Japan too. You just had a good school/class
Tbh, in my old school (in germany) that was'nt the case. It just became a thing in 11th grade... (weil Abi)
And this is what i hated about going to school in Germany... I was shy but studied a lot and had best grades on written exams and worst notes in in class because I never talked. Then other students got better overall grades than me because they were talking all the time, giving wrong answers left and right, despite bad written grades. Extrovert students really exploit this system...
@@nadiarogo4511 I consider myself rather introverted, but still did better in the participation part. It’s all about confidence
I think VIP de BIG is in relation to BIG BANG a Korean group whose fanclub is called VIP. The little crown drawing looks like the fandom lightstick. A few years ago they were really popular in Japan
i was also thinking about that XD The group also got very popular in Malaysia
Abroad: I am a good English teacher
Japanese student: *VIP de big*
Your Colors6 when you were taught english but you tried learning french on your own
@@WarringFighter lmao
FBI 😂😂😂
All I can think of is that they meant whip the pig. I don’t know why lol
Wrong it's suppose 2 B *VIP* de *BIG* !! 🎲🥂💰
First student: *calls him fat*
Me: "Adorable"
Second student: *also calls him fat*
Me: "Okay, I can see where this is going..."
Yep... need to lose the stomach
@@kakot_t3330 il8o8l8
I'm an American teacher in China. Definitely chubby. Back home people called it the dadbod, definitely told I'm fat here. xD
But why the snail with an erection for a head?
When he said that it had me lol hahaha
I'm English third language, and "billie is exciting" is pure genius! Thanks!
I actually laugh. Sir, please allow me to thank for gifting me this chuckle. Here take this like. You deserve it.
I didnt get this part. "Billy was exciting" was perfectly correct english already.
@@Anon-te6uq I think it's meant to be "Billy was excited."
Why was the “y” wrong? I’m still stuck on this.
@@Bloodeagleremains It is a joke. You think he is going to change it from 'exciting' to 'excited' but instead he changes the spelling of the name.
"Knicker poker g" is pretty close to "Knickerbocker glory", which was named after the Knickerbocker Hotel in Manhattan.
Yeah, and the other kids who laughed the kid probably got it wrong too anyway.
Knickerbocker knickerbocker number nine 💃🩲
G likes to poke a knicker from time to time. 🎵
Cees Timmerman
The New York Knicks were so called because way back in the day, they wore knickerbockers.
Jong Cees was the nickname for Dutch people when they owned New York which is where Yankees came from. A Dutch friend told me this.
Comments I wrote teacher: I'll miss you, bye
Comments in japan: you're fat, don't stomach too much
Japanese people take their health very seriously, that's kind of like a "get well soon" in Japanese culture. Only about 4% of people are considered obese in Japan.
However, in English it's an insult as it's more common to be overweight (I don't mean that as an insult) and a sign of being weaker than the average person.
Hope this helped 😊
VIP DE BIG
@@RATE.LIMITED yeah, I think he took it as a compliment, like they cared enough about his health to comment on it, and I'm sure knowing his British sense of humor that he pointed it out a lot, so it probably became like an inside joke.
he is lol
@@RATE.LIMITED not really a "get well soon", i feel it was more like a "take care and stay healthy".
I like "are you aware of your own defect?"
Good insult.
That line cracks me up
it's the fact that it's so matter-of-fact that the punch hits harder
🤣🤣🤣🤣😭😭😭😭
Well obviously that's meant to be an ice breaker on a first date. I dunno why you think it's an insult.
@@toniodivichi5749 if spoken between friends, maybe. On a first date though? i doubt anyone would think twice about being called defective to their face by someone they don't know well. So, it is both a good joke between friends, and a good insult for people you don't like.
10:25 As a Japanese, I understand this very well
thanks for sharing
Does it apply for most teachers?
@@gamegamer9523 Yes, I guess most ALT would notice the shyness of Japanese students as it's really common in Japan, especially in a classroom
VIP de Big almost made me cry of laughter. Fantastic
"it has sand. I hate sand"
Vader: See? He gets it.
Lmao
It’s coarse and rough and gets everywhere.
Lucidic Dreams this is an AA class joke in the category ‘Family friendly’, perfectly fitting this video. Here, have 85 comedy points.
That's why obi wan hid luke on tatoine, because vades hates sand
(Gets force chocked anyway)
"Why is there a tea stain on it?!"
Mate we're British it just happens.
It's the mark of honour
Well it's England innit mate?
@@seanr6206 Pfft, I drink plenty of tea up here in Scotland too mate ;)
@@Hedgehog1039 I was quoting one of his earlier videos :p
The thing that got him hired
Imagine if the girl who wrote " please be stomach much more healthy in the future"
Is watching this video right now and just is like -_-
Principal : We need your help once again.
Chris: Say no more
*Chris walks towards the sunset as title credits play*
Principal: "Wait, the classroom's the other direction!"
@@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley ,,My work here is done😎" -
,,But you didnt do anything!"
@@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley Wait a damn minute.... Chris is Great Teacher Onizuka!
@@Dunkingsonn soft one gto
*spaghetti western trumpet music plays*
Can’t believe this guy went clubbing with his students, disgusting, I bet VIP de big the rapper was disappointed
Don’t know Don’t care lmao
I don't know and I don't care
Lol
I don’t even remember posting this
@@laserguidedburrito8750 😂 haha
I went to school in japan for a few months and I notice students really enjoy when the teacher is from America because they throw in types of learning that they do here in the U.S. A lot of classes in japan are pretty hard and not so much fun but with English they’re able to understand what it’s like in American classes while also having fun learning.
The tape recorder is sooo accurate. I live in a non-english speaker country (Brazil) and those audios played for learning pronunciation are quite weird.
same in russsia, even when i was in 2 grade i find those tapes very alienating and at some points even scary
Do you teach English in Brazil? I’d love to teach there but the dangers hold me back 😩
The story of a British boi who dreamt of becoming James Bond but instead became the Last Samurai of teaching English in a rural school in Japan
Kinda like gto no?
We could make a religion out of this
@@jimmyvanilla5285 no.
@@Alexander99602 what about a manga
@@zaheenabass778 ok that works
Chris: "I'll never be James Bond."
Also Chris: Survives every single assassination attempt from Risottoro.
I’m more James Bond than James Bond will ever be.
Hey Anakin! How did you like that "too much sand everywhere" line at 3:00? You don't like sand, do you.
That can't be how his name's spelt.
After eating that marmite grashopper meal I would not doubt you.
Risottoro sounds like a pasta dish.
Ryotoro is his name.
I appreciate your videos because you realistically describe situations without sugarcoating them. And at the same time, you don't come off as bitter or pretentious, as some foreign men in Japan do.
True dat
"What animal and person would you take to a desert island with you?"
"A goat"
"Vladimir Putin"
Dammit Chris I can't breathe XDDD
Are you aware of your own defect?
"I was culture-shocked by Dubai because it was hot and there's lot's of sand. And I hate sand."
Ahh, a man of culture I see!
He is definitely not Lawrence of Arabia material.
He is the slayer of the younglings
Its rough, coarse, and gets everywhere
@@catriona_drummond he was anakin of Arabia
Gentleman... welcome to Dubai
I love when they were repeating the words there’s just one dude in the back going “harubalublergh”
I was searching for this comment 😂😂👍
that’s me in spanish-
Bruh
@@youthinkimthatinnocent1373 Was me when I was learning Japanese in High School xD Honestly shoulda taken the class more seriously.
@@Alone-_0 if you learned japanese well you could enjoy anime without relying on subtitles. sorry about sounding kinda weebish
9:16 "This groundbreaking concept of having fun in the classroom", why am I laughing so much at something that is actualy pretty sad
I'm currently an ALT too in Japan. Everything he said hit close to my experience but his was probably better.
I wonder if any of his past students watch his channel now. That would be awesome.
Plot twist: All his students are actually watching this and are feeling proud of this
And going like, "The fuck is this guy saying?" in Japanese.
Great grandpa. Arent you dead.
Josuke Higashkata In my universe I never died, and also what’s up with your hair great grandson?
@@jonathanjoestar9289 Someone who finally likes my hair. It was based from the person who saved my life when I was a toddler
Josuke Higashkata Great Grandson, I didn’t exactly say I liked It
This is an entire goodbye booklet filled with fat shaming 😂
Nothing wrong with that.......
Fat shaming is a good thing, obesity on the other hand isn't.
@@mateuszsmagacz8332 wrong.
@@JiMin-hh5sd Go on then mate, list the benefits of obesity. I am open to being proved wrong.
@@mateuszsmagacz8332 It's not that obesity is a good thing, but fat shaming is not a good thing, either. You're not helping or encouraging anyone by fat shaming them. You're just hurting someone because you want to. It's a pretty shitty thing to do.
That skyfall poster almost made me cry. THats about the sweetest thing Ive ever seen in a youtube video
I planned to join JET for two years while minoring in Japanese in college, including 20 units of Japanese language alone. I got all the way to the interview panel in Los Angeles, where I interviewed in Japanese. I didn't get in and was told later by someone I trusted that they don't accept people with any Chinese heritage. A blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl that I went to school with who didn't speak a lick of Japanese got in no problem. I'm quite enjoying viewing this channel all these later and realizing that I was probably lucky to have been skipped. Nothing against the country or its people, but things work out the way they're supposed to, even if it's not as you planned.
Oh my god thats horrible , sorry that you got discriminated against. I wonder if the culture is more accepting these days as the newer generation ages.
Oh my god thats horrible , sorry that you got discriminated against. I wonder if the culture is more accepting these days as the newer generation ages.
Oh my god thats horrible , sorry that you got discriminated against. I wonder if the culture is more accepting these days as the newer generation ages.
Oh my god thats horrible , sorry that you got discriminated against. I wonder if the culture is more accepting these days as the newer generation ages.
Oh my god thats horrible , sorry that you got discriminated against. I wonder if the culture is more accepting these days as the newer generation ages.
I've been teaching in Japan about ten years now. Don't underestimate the impact you can have on your kids regarding their enjoyment of English. I ran into one of my kids that I taught for three years who'd just graduated college a few months ago. She asked if I was still playing harmonica, and said that one of her favorite things was singing songs as I played them on the harmonica. She's working at a job using English now, and says it's because "English was fun with you" that sort of thing makes all the bad aspects of the job just fade away.
Bagledog5000 this makes me want to do this even more.
If you don't mind explaining, how has your job improved in those ten years? Are you still an ALT(assuming you beginned as an ALT)? or a normal english teacher?
If you are still an ALT, isn't the pay too little? Did you get promoted?
Thanks in advance.
Yeah I hated school and it really showed. My teachers knew but I had a couple of teachers who were understanding. They taught math and history. I now study mathematical physics and I study history during my time off. Only war history though.
@@Siterus
One improvement is more involvement of ALTs in the classroom as a general rule, it's more of a team effort now then it was back in the day. Teachers and textbooks are better as well for the most part. English is being taken more seriously, and the standards are rising as well. There are still some problems, but it is a much better education system than it was ten years back. That said, they still have a ways to go...
Pay depends on the area for ALTs, yes if you work for a dispatch company the pay is pretty low, however you can always look for a direct contract with various cities and get more money. The payoff of course is more work, usually you'll be working more hours in the summer than a regular ALT would. If you don't have debts, and live in a reasonable city, and a reasonable manner you can do okay on the top ALT salary. You won't be super rich, but you can make ends meet and go on vacation a few times a year.
The JET program is actually pretty good because your housing is paid for, so you can actually do well on the JET wages. All that said, being an ALT is not a career, it should be viewed as a stepping stone to better things.
At present I work at a university teaching English to students there, but I got the job because a visiting teacher form that university was impressed with my work teaching a class they were observing.
Teaching can be simultaneously the most frustrating and rewarding career you can ever have. I have to admit that the vast majority of my experiences have been positive teaching in Japan, and my students make that possible every day. To be honest there's good points to every level of education in Japan, elementary kids are just about as much fun as you can have, and are always thrilled to see you. Junior high kids are a little more jaded around their third year, but you can have better conversations with them and it's exciting to see them putting new knowledge to work. High school kids are even better at conversation, and you can actually help them get into colleges and further their development to a greater degree because they've been using the language longer. Look into some forums if you want to get into this line of work. I'd highly recommend the JET program if you can swing it, if not ALTIA Central and Interac are not bad companies to work for, Interac can vary depending on your home office, find out which ones have the good rep and steer for that area. Good luck folks, and please do the best you can for your students.
@@brandonhughes645 I
I can totally relate to what you said! I should have mentioned that a bad teacher can have just a great a negative impact on a student's attitude toward a subject as a good teacher can have a positive one. I always try to keep that in mind every lesson I teach.
Bondgirl must be found. That was too sweet of a thing to do. You'll really have brightened your students days.
I am the choosen one
1k like
Finding her would be his first Bond assignment.
@@phantomotion2561 Bondgirl?
I see "xxx"
I had a teacher that said you could raise your hands to answer questions correctly or hilariously. It might have just been my group but that class was immensely entertaining and everyone was engaged with the content trying to come up with the funniest slightly incorrect answer possible.
Really took the wind out of the fear of getting an answer wrong I think.
Genius.
I'm stealing this.
This is so good! Love it!
You're a great storyteller, that's what makes your videos so good. It gives a sense of "being there" as opposed to trying to imagine it based on fragmented memories and a missing narrative.
"okay, so... are you human?"
" yes"
"you're in"
The Grey large eyed man: YEesSs
Alright your in.
captcha in a nutshell
Well technically they would have to understand the question, be able to answer yes in English and then know whether in means accepted colloquially so.... good enough?
@@gibran.zidane 😂😂😂😂
"Are you aware of your own defect?"
Nothing wrong with that sentence, I'm adopting it and beginning its use.... today.
its* 😅
@@Caerulean I'm showing possession, the apostrophe stands
@@bigun89 Apostrophe for possession is only for names and not pronouns. E.g. Caerulean's comment, his comment, her comment, etc. 🙂 'it's' is the abbreviation of 'it is', like 'she's' for 'she is'.
@@Caerulean A quick google shows I'm wrong, no one ever told me. Fixed.
@@bigun89 👍👍
Because I live in a bilingual country, I studied French for 9 years: from my 5th year of elementary school to my first year of college. We would always learn from boring text books, memorizing words and repeating them, literally translate pre-written sentences etc. and I sucked at French. Until they finally changed the teaching method in my 4th year of secondary school and we started doing practical and useful things like learning about French culture, looking up French news articles, writing plays and actually performing them, doing friendly competitions with all kinds of French language skills. I learned SO MUCH during those few years and became almost fluent in French. Teachers who are teaching practical skills in class and aren't afraid to do something other than the boring old text book are incredible.
Also, I swear I had a chapter about soccer balls in Afghanistan in my French text book in high school...
Du coup tu es fluent en français maintenant ou pas?
@@Link-Link Unfortunately not anymore. I still understand most written French, and spoken French if they're not talking too fast. But my French writing and speaking skills aren't what they used to be. I haven't spoken much French since graduating college. When I was in elementary school, it was very important to be fluent in French to get a good job, but 15 years later that's been replaced by English.
@@spacebug30 ah ok yeah I understand
Hey Chris, I was an ALT in Japan for a few years as well. As it turns out, we actually appear to have been in the same batch (2012)!
Your experiences as an ALT are incredibly similar to mine and your perspective about teaching in Japan perfectly reflect how I feel about it as well. Thanks for reminding me of some wonderful memories! Being an ALT definitely changed my life and I cherished every single minute that I was there.
Always enjoy watching your vids! Keep it up!
The Dogen picture with the "I have met an American person once" was just hilarious. Great work as usual, Mr VIP de Big
Mr. Knicker Poker G
timestamp?
@@josephjagusah8668 6:35
@@MonokhromatiQ damn I thought he meant the real Dogen.
Got fired from a middle school in Taipei. The local teachers complained about the laughing and talking during my classes. That they were speaking English in conversation for the first time and enjoying it was apparently less important than...
To them its all about passing the standardized tests, conversational skills take a back seat sadly.
what school did you teach at?
You should never laugh or talk loudly in Asian cultures,it’s a sign of bad upbringing.Unfortunately this goes double if you’re a woman.I dated a girl in high school who was originally from Korea(this happened in the US) and I remember she told me how her laughing while talking on the phone with me ended with her mother basically calling her a “loose woman”.She said we had to break up and we reconnected recently.She ended up married to a guy her parents picked,dropped out of college because her mother shamed her major and is now pretty miserable.I feel guilty because I should have stood up to her parents,but knowing their culture,I know it would have only made it worse.
East Asian countries. It's different in west and south asia
@@mithrasabyss2765 Only fools worship their cultures, a true human being always put his conscience before anything else. (This is coming from a Chinese btw)
I laughed really, really hard during this, and for that, I thank you. Although I’ll likely never teach English in Japan, it was nice learning about your experience. I’m rapidly becoming a big fan of your channel.
It's awesome that you introduced those kids to the *very Western* concept of having fun in the classroom - and that making mistakes is totally fine and even an important part of learning. Hopefully some of them will go on to become teachers and fondly remember their time with you. East Asian students are consistently some of the unhappiest in the world.
I have an intresting anectode about being a large guy in japan.
My first day in Kyoto my taxi driver who picked me up at the station pointed out that I had a large stomache.
He did this by turning 180 degrees around and pointing at me and said verbatim "you have large stomache"
He then went on to elaborate that japanese people have small stomaches because of samurai genetics from many generations of eating vegtables, rice and sometimes fish but no meat.
I think he was excited to flex his english skills because he also gave a mini tour and description of everything we passed on the way to the hotel.
Honestly he was the best taxi driver I've ever had.
Now i'm wondering what comments would they make about a guy thats 1.85 and built like a viking that just came out of a eating contest in vallhalla
@@noxregall3599 They will look at you amazingly
M
Gaert anectode! I enjeyod yruo sroty :p
Thats honestly so funny. Im a chubby girl from the US and when i visited japan no one said anything like that to me. I wonder if its different for woman? I actually completely forgot japan was like this when i was physically there. I think i got lucky or maybe i had so many other things that stuck out about me no one said anything lol. All i know is everyone else in my group got "interviewed" by japanese kids for school and i never did ;^;
"Are you aware of your own defect?"
Yes, absolutely great conversation opener.
🤣🤣
Is this phrase wrong or just strange?
I'm not a native speaker also.
@@WerexZenok It's a perfectly fine sentence in my opinion. Just a bit strange.
@@WerexZenok Both :)
@@WerexZenok it is correct in term of grammar, but not your best ice breaker in a date 🤣
it's absolutely mindblowing to me that a school in an area considered rural in japan still has 1200 students. i don't even think my own high school had over 1500, which covered 6 years instead of like 3 like senior highschool does in japan. and i lived in the capital for my province which is considered fairly large for our country.
I'm in the US and my school is only ages 15-18 but there's 1800
I love all of this. You clearly were an inspirational teacher, and coworker.
" Pls be stomach... much more healthy in the future " that killed me 😂😂
Going over that line makes me assume that the student was asking him to watch his weight which is making his stomach bulge 😂
VIP de big
I think she means get thin, your stomach is too big.
😂
@@kholi9441 thankyou captain obvious
Chris, this has really inspired me. If someone with an application that rubbish can get in, then I'll probably make principle by week 2.
spelling is important...
@@bmtenoch8230 as stated, if someone with a rubbish application can get in, spelling won't even be an issue.
It may help if you spelled principal right. lol. On second thought, they probably won’t notice
@@bellablue7661 idk why but I didn't even notice it was spelt incorrectly
@@oredaxmc2871 It's not spelled wrong, he just used the wrong one.
It was great hearing about your wholesome and endearing teaching experiences! Do keep them coming :)
Watching you always feels like talking to a very good friend. So warm and exceptionally funny.
I love this channel because of the acid self-deprecating British humour versus the absurdly positive Japanese culture
Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
The guy is clearly a Stewart Lee fan - his delivery and as you say self-deprecating sense of humour is uncanny.
"I hate sand. It's coarse, rough, irritating, and it gets everywhere."
It’s outrageous....
This is where the fun begins
Man of culture
Oh I get it That's that one line that Yoda said in Star Trek, classic!
Hahaha as soon as he said he hated sand I went looking for this comment
I did the JET Programme about twenty years ago - it did wonders for my Japanese, but absolutely nothing for my teaching ability. I think for one-shots who visit many different schools (I had 35) you never really get to the point where you're trusted to experiment. As a now trained and experienced English teacher back in Japan and teaching at university, I can't help but feel that ALTs are almost set up to flounder and fail to meaningfully impact existing education practices. That said, individual ALTs do have an impact on individual students - I think the most powerful is when they feel they have communicated something successfully in English that wasn't scripted.
Thanks so much for the stories and advice, Chris. I'm actually going to teach English in Japan next year, so I'm nervous but also excited for this experience as well!
How has it gone so far?
@@thecookie8163 he probably died
“They didn’t speak like real American people... I spoke to an American person... once”
(Flashes picture of Dogen)
I nearly spat out my tea.
You must be British then :)
Kenionatus OI
LMAO
As descriptive as Abroad in Japan is, I'm going to have to request you rebrand your channel as VIP de BIG, you're ready to take things to the next level.
Very Important Person Big?
@@nagisadies7967 I guess it could be 「VIPでBig」, which means "Because you are a VIP, so you can be big."
As another ex-JET who also taught high school in Sakata a few years before you arrived on the scene (I was there '93-'95), it's good to hear that nothing much changed in the interval, down to the English teachers who couldn't communicate in English.
This is amazing story. Quite a natural on comedy + story telling. Love to hear more.
So I had a brain blast, I think I've solved the mystery of "VIP de big." I think de is the prefix for un. So it's "very important less big," or in correct English "please loose weight"
It would be 大きいでVIP. (Or, 大きいで賞 in more common way) pretty much meaning you're being awarded by having a big stomach.
大きい=big, 賞=award
Please lose weight. Loose is the opposite of tight. Lose is the opposite of gain.
I buy it. "de," a prefix as in to remove a thing. "de-bone a fish" means to remove the bones. "de-big" could easily be remove the big [belly]. And it would fit perfectly with someone trying to scrounge their limited language experience for something that expresses their meaning.
Some language, like French, has adjective following the noun, eg. "the book brown". So, VIP de big is like "the big/great VIP"?
@@yliang87 I thought they called him the VIP of being Big? Like the coolest fat guy
Jet teacher exchange: "so what other cultures have you experienced?"
CHRIS: "I hate sand. it's course and rough and it gets everywhere"
I WAS LOOKING FOR THIS
First thing I thought too.
GakaMech Same!
Sounds like he went to dubai
Hey vader.
I don't know why I thought of commenting so late but I'm amazed at the fact that you thought of your own way to learn English. It's a problem in Japan that they don't practice talking so they can't really talk English after they graduate. You are a small piece in the helping of changing the system and it's amazing!
This is so entertaining , I can learn a lot from your experiences as an English teacher in Japan which I am applying for. God bless!
Chris: I hate sand
Me: I agree, It is coarse, rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere
*coarse
@@longlostwraith5106 of course
Vegard Serendahl
Coarse sand is coarse, of course
you forgot irritating
Is that you Anakin?
"When we showed the children the balls, they gave us big smiles. It was like a magic!"
Burst out in tears reading this one ngl 😂😂
Firdaus Sudirman that reminds me of a time in high school
This has nothing to do with bad English but rather a really weird way of saying something
So for some sort of idk... I think it was science? We were doing this “fun assignment” where we had to create character things (like in a arts n crafts way, 3d models)
I honestly don’t even remember what it was for or why lol
But...my teacher decided to call these things we were to create...”babies”
So what did she say? Something along the lines of “we’re making babies in class tomorrow”
That sounds so wrong 😂
Same, tbh
@@V.U.4six That's normal.
@@V.U.4six lmaoooooo
Was eating a sandwich when I read it... I'm surprised it hasn't choked me to death
Hi Chris, you are hilariously creative. Like the magazine that you and your students put together. It's an amazing project!
I could know nothing about Japan and still enjoy your vids.
You've got talent. Keep it up.
2:51 "it's hot and theres sand. I hate sand"
Chris has Anakins spirit
I'd love to see Anakin as sarcastic as Chris.
Lmfao beat me to it.
and it gets everywhere?
@@KM-om8ch it's rough
Immediately scrolled for this, was not disappointed. Prequel memes forever.
Being American I sat there for a stupidly long amount of time trying to figure out what was wrong with "Billy was exciting". Until he changed it to Billie and I felt the need to throw tea off of a ship.
Then slap a ludicrous tax on the remaining stock on the rest of the teabags.
I also found that correction weird as it’s a name that can be spelt both ways, i for one don’t know a singly billie but know quite a few Billy’s and I’m Scottish
ARCHIE MCNICOL yeah I feel like you can spell it either way. It’s kind of a weird example
Nowadays such a rejection could easily leave tea stains on your résumé.
I was expecting for him to turn it into “billy was excited” since, y’know..names aren’t an activity or thing..but then he made it Billie lol
The writing at 9:01 is really good wow
This is hilarious!! You've made my day!!! Thank you for giving such an accurate portrayal of English education in Japan.
I wonder how sarcastic people like us are supposed to survive living in Japan tbh :P how do you manage it?
Start a UA-cam channel and vent it there
@@AbroadinJapan b r u h moment
@@AbroadinJapan K, omw to japan xD
There’s many opportunities for sarcasm, but when it’s not really understood by the targets, it feels hollow and dead. Like your average JET teacher.
@@ScibyTravels Yup. I have a very sarcastic personality. So as stupid as it sounds.... I feel like that would be a big problem
Twisted fact: he DID eat the daughter and her mother, that's why he gained weight.
Pie4Breakfast I didn’t see anything wrong. Can you point it out so I can improve as well?
@@sakarasomapa Nanoatic should have said something closer to: “he DID eat the daughter and her mother, that’s why he gained weight” or “he HAD ate the daughter and her mother, that’s why he gained weight.” Pie4breakfast should have said “Looks like you could use an English teacher” as well. Their English really wasn’t any better than the person they made fun of.
@@jyke321 Fixed thx
Nhentai, indeed lol . 🤦♂️
Just kidding.
If that part was animated and it showed a scared, kawaii obaachan, I’d be laughing worse than I am now. 🤣
This was amazing, Thankyou for sharing your experiences.
as I edge towards college since I'm going into it soon, I have always asked myself If I really do want to teach English there and if it is the right career option. After watching this video, it only solidified my strive to teach there even more. Even though I see living in Japan as my main goal and aspiration, teaching English sounds like a really fun profession I would like to pursue. It is interesting how most of the native English speakers see Japan as their goal and not teaching English. I currently am this way now, but after watching this video, It makes me want to live that classroom experience as an English teacher! Thank you!
"Are you aware of your own defect?"
Better to be selfaware than oblivious, amirite?
It's an important point. Some cultures value self-improvement, and it's polite to point out a flaw to somebody so that they have a chance to correct it. Other cultures value privacy, and it is considered extremely rude to point out a flaw that everybody else was politely ignoring. When travelling to other cultures, it is important to know which type you are in, or you may accidentally cause great offense.
Hmm, I know the intention might not be bad. But, 'defect' refers to bad goods produced by factory. Or an Error in programming code.
So 'Defect' in human being is just impolite. It is more polite to use term such as 'personal weakness' , 'disadvantage', or 'handicap'.
The worst thing is being aware of the problem but to lazy to solve it
@@ilhamrj2599 If you ask any American if they aware of their own defect, you're either going to have a person crying, or punching you in the face... (we like to pretend we are super laid back, but there are words that are 'fighting words')
Say: "Consequences"
guy1: "Consequencez"
guy2:"Conequences"
girl1: "Consequences"
guy in back of class: *"CONZECHUENZS"*
Consequences will never be the same.
guy4: arara...
@@NoedigJK471 guy5: *DIO!!*
Tox CRONAsenchuezes?
hmm wtf, I only heard male voice saying "irara.."
Wow, this is neat hearing about your experiences!
Thank you for this video I was thinking about what I want to do with my future and always thought about going to Japan and had the idea about teaching as a job. Even if I knew I wanted to be something else I could teach for a while then move on. I never knew what to expect and this video helped give me an understanding of what it’s like.
You may not have become Bond but you are Japanese Spy Man and let’s be honest that’s basically just as good
I have no Idea what that means, but agree completely
That sounds like a story to visit.
@@emu9915 it's a meme from his Twitter :)
Best comment
Seems like being an English teacher in japan is a great way to pick up young Japanese chicks
"there was a lot of sand, and i hate sand!"
he's anakin confirmed
Just as in Africa
I also hate sand but what is an anakin
I wonder if he dislikes younglings
@@Farmdafish in that case i am a kid in a man’s body. I admit I don’t act my age
anakin skywalker in japan
I can tell your an amazing teacher since just watching this video gave me best teacher vibes.
Chris, you're cool with some occasional fun bits in your video. Liked it.