A Day in the Life

John Spiri

Teacher/writer

November 2005

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 in the EAP (English for Academic Purposes) department of a Japanese university. After getting my master's degree in Elementary Education 15 years ago, I moved to Taiwan to teach English at the YMCA for one year. There I decided teaching adults was more suitable to my personality than teaching children.

What are your personal and business values? Influences?
I long to contribute to solving global problems such as poverty and war, so I'm naturally very interested in global issues. I could never stand doing theoretical research solely for academia; I need to feel my work will, or at least might, have some concrete impact in the world. I love teaching because it gives me the chance to educate, and move young people, so hopefully they will become not only skillful English speakers but concerned about the world and its problems. So like other global issues educators, I've tried to give students content that will educate them in the deeper sense of the word.

I've created a few self-published textbooks. The content is very much about global issues, narratives about children suffering from social problems in one, and narratives about people working for peace and justice in another. While I've been greatly encouraged by student comments and reactions, I haven't sold many. I'd like to see some form of them published someday.

I also have several readers that I hope to see published next year. The readers contain, like this column, interviews with people talking about their jobs. The project started with interviews published in Kansai Time Out magazine. They covered the ordinary, such as a tofu maker, fisherman, and flight attendant, as well as some extraordinary occupations: beekeeper, concert pianist, and temple abbot. Doing the interviews has been fascinating, a chance to put my Japanese to use. I then started interviewing other Asians — Thai, Malaysians, Koreans, etc. for what I call The World at Work project. The interviews at once tell personal stories while revealing economic conditions, vocational urges, and cultural differences. This winter I hope to interview in Taiwan (where I first read a magazine "Taiwanese at Work") and perhaps India.

My biggest teaching influence has easily been Tim Murphey. I love the ideas of his book Language Hungry, and have been doing Language Learning Histories for years.

What would you say are the main requirements to succeed in this field?
Liking the students and relating well to them. When teachers get bitter, or feel that students are hopeless, or the education system in Japan is counterproductive, it's probably time to pack it in. Teacher-student relationships may be particularly important in EFL teaching, so the teachers who can engage students and who enjoy being with them have the foundation for success. Of course a little theory, experience, and knowledge of techniques helps a lot as well!

Describe a typical working day.
My schedule changes day to day so it's hard to say. I will get on the computer after getting up at 7am, check email, etc. Usually I leave for work soon after, 7:30, where I prep for class until 9am. Classes are always finished by 4pm, so this year I'm usually correcting papers until 6pm because I teach Academic Writing. Very labor intensive! Thursday, for example, is a non-teaching day, so I do some sort of research or materials development during roughly the same hours. I often get another hour or two of work in from 10pm, after my two-year-old son goes to sleep, or on weekends.

Do you see yourself staying in this field or perhaps making a move in the future?
Sometimes I dream about teaching writing again to native English speakers, like I did at colleges in Vermont, or even doing NGO work if I was qualified and could truly make a difference. I very much enjoy the teaching here but sometimes miss the chance to use my native language to its full potential. That being said, I enjoy teaching English in Japan very much. I know what it's like to be dissatisfied with my career; after graduating university I worked for a few years as an accountant. I'm in deep in Japan, with a Japanese wife and family, so I'll be here for the foreseeable future.

John Spiri, from the United States, has been teaching English in Japan for nine years and currently teaches at Akita International University. His research interests include global issues in language education (GILE) as well as computer-assisted language learning (CALL). His main non-education passion is the Japanese game go. He also enjoys hiking.

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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