A Day in the Life

Mark McBennett

Junior/Senior high school teacher; web site editor

December 2004

ELT News editor Mark McBennett, who is also a teacher, is the first subject in a new series that looks at the day-to-day working life of people in the ELT industry in Japan. If you think others would be interested in your job situation, please .

Q. First of all, can you give us a brief description of your main area of employment and how you got into this field?
I teach English conversation and writing at a private junior and senior high school in Tokyo. I came to Japan with a friend in 1989 with the intention of doing a bit of sightseeing. Money ran out and I soon found myself having to scour the Monday edition of the Japan Times for job ads. I didn't have my degree with me or even a suit for job-hunting. I survived on a job that paid cash in hand for chatting to people at a "conversation lounge" in central Tokyo. It took a month or so to find a full-time job working for a now-defunct eikaiwa chain. It wasn't a bad school in terms of learning the ropes for someone new to teaching, but the business side of things was pretty messed up. Fortunately, I started at my present school as a side job in 1991, shortly before the eikaiwa business went belly up.

Much more recently, I started working as editor of ELT News in the spring of 2002, though I'd been doing work for eigoTown and its predecessor eigoMedia on and off for several years before that. My teaching schedule is such that I have time to work on this site, though sometimes juggling the two can be difficult.

Q. What kind of people do you work with?
I'm one of a dozen or so part-time teachers at my school, most of whom are Japanese. I'm not sure how many full-time faculty members there are, but the school has about 2,000 students. I work with several different Japanese English teachers, of different ages and backgrounds. There really are huge diferences in the various teachers' abilities when it comes to communicating in English. The surprising thing is that it's not always the younger teachers who are the best or most confident when it comes to speaking. One of the teachers I work with is actually an ex-student of mine, who I taught at this school ten years before!

Q. What would you say are the main requirements to succeed in this field?
Well, obviously the knowledge and insight offered by a real teaching qualification program is invaluable. Even for people looking to get qualified after having already started teaching here in Japan, there are several options, such as long distance learning programs, that allow you to study while working full-time.

Attending the various expos and conferences that take place in most parts of Japan these days is also a great way to share experiences, pick up new ideas and just generally network and meet like-minded people. As foreigners here in Japan, isolation can be a problem for some people and these events are the perfect solution, because being happy in your life in general is a requirement for doing a good job.

I'm not sure that it's necessarily a requirement, but being able to relate to teenagers is certainly a big help. When explaining things, I find it easier and more effective if I can relate them to aspects of Japan or Japanese culture that the students are familiar with, such as sports, music, TV and so on.

Speaking Japanese, even if you don't use it often, helps too. Of course, it helps give you perspective on how the students are approaching or being frustrated by the English language. Of course, many teachers firmly believe that you should never use the students' native language in class - I find it depends on what you have to teach (you may have no control over that) and whom you're teaching with, as most foreign teachers are in team-teaching situations. If you have a partner that doesn't get involved, or is simply not really up to the job, you may find yourself having to resort to occasional Japanese explanations, just to save time. While my Japanese is far from perfect, it is a skill that my school values very highly, and it has helped make my position there far more secure.

Q. Do you see yourself staying in this field or perhaps making a move in the future?
I never foresaw a career in English teaching, I just stumbled into it. And if and when I and my family leave Japan, I don't see myself working as a teacher. So recently I've also been working in other areas, particularly Internet-related, that I see as offering more options and opportunities abroad. Fortunately my teaching schedule allows me the time to do that.

Q. Describe a typical working day.

07:00 : Get up, shower and have a quick breakfast.

08:15 : Arrive at school after a 30-minute commute by bicycle. If it's raining, I'll take the train and walk, though it actually takes longer. When looking for apartments a few years back, I settled on a place that is a bit expensive but convenient for commuting...anything to avoid the trains during the morning and evening rush hours.

08:40-09:25 : First class of the day, although Japanese teachers with their own "homeroom" classes will have started at 08:20. Classes are 45 minutes each. I teach 1st, 2nd and 3rd-year junior high school, as well as 1st and 3rd-year high school classes. All students up to 10th grade have one English conversation leson a week, as well as four or five English classes with a Japanese teacher. Junior high classes are based on conversational drills, translation and dictation practice. 1st-year senior high classes are based more or thematic lessons, using a textbook published in Japan. My 3rd-year senior high classes are traditional "yaku-doku", translation exercises done as preparation for university entrance exams. Though I team-teach with a Japanese teacher, the lessons require me to use a fair amount of Japanese to explain vocabulary or grammar points, rather than have the Japanese teacher act as an interpreter.

12:10-12:55 : Lunchtime. I usually have lunch in the cafeteria with students. I'll sometimes avoid the crowds by eating early or late if I have an opening in my schedule. Students will ocasionally come to the teachers' room to ask questions, hand in homework or just to chat in English.

- 15:30 : The last class of the day. Many students have club activities after classes, including the English Speaking Society. I also make an English-language newspaper for the school, usually once or twice a year. As much as possible, it is made up of contributions from students. Every summer, about 50 students go on a two-week homestay/study tour to Salisbury in the UK.

16:00 : Leave for home.

At my school, there is myself and one other native English speaker, and we are actually employed by an agency that acts as an intermediary. We are employed on renewable one-year contracts with the agency, though I am now in my 13th year at my school. In total, we both usually have about 20 classes per week, though it varies a little from year to year depending on the intake of new students. The 12th graders finish lessons early in January as they are taking entrance exams, so the schedule eases up a little during the last term. Also, as "tokubetsu koushi" (special instructors), we don't have to get involved in staff meetings, managing club activities, or the other commitments that are expected of full-time Japanese teachers.

I am paid a flat monthly rate depending on the number of classes per per week. I also get paid during the spring, summer and winter vacations, as well as getting a token bonus twice a year - a pretty good deal that many teachers, especially those working at public schools don't get. The agency doesn't deal with insurance or pension payments - they are left up to individual teachers - and deducts only income tax from the monthly salary. I usually try and negotiate a small pay increase from them every couple of years.

The object of this interview series is to capture a typical day in the life of people working in various English teaching-related fields. This includes teachers of students at all levels, school owners, publishers and so on. It is hoped that this will give interesting and useful insight into the various aspects of ELT for those who may be thinking of getting into teaching or making a career move.

If you think others would be interested in your job situation, please .

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