Interview

Steven Gershon

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On Japan

ELT: What brought you to Japan?
SG: A job. I had taught for two years in China (1982-84) and then did an MA in Applied Linguistics in Britain (Reading University). Having just completed my MA, I was offered a job for the summer teaching foreign students on the Reading University pre-sessional program. It was during that time (1985) that the head of the Foreign Language Center of Tokai University came to Reading to recruit teachers. I was interested in returning to Asia and so I interviewed for a teaching job. I got the job and the rest, as they say, is history.

What advice would you give to prospective teachers thinking of teaching in Japan?
* Don't expect a (good) job to fall into your lap immediately upon arrival. The competition is stiff these days and there are a lot of well-qualified teachers in Japan.
* Remember that although the salaries are generally high compared to back home, the cost of living is also high.
* Come with minimal expectations about the diligent, hardworking, educated Japanese students you've heard or read about.
* Get involved with a local JALT chapter in order to network, learn more about the profession here and upgrade your skills.
* Talk with lots of seemingly happy teachers and find out what they do in their classrooms that work.
* Avoid teachers who are here only for the money and should have gone home ages ago. They'll drain your psyche.
* When things go wrong and you blame your students for their inability to speak or understand the simplest of English utterances, remember...how much Spanish or French could you speak after all those years of lessons in junior and senior high school?

How does the working in the Japanese university system compare with those of other countries you have worked in?
The only other university systems I have worked in have been in China, Britain and France, so I am not an expert. However, in my limited experience, I have found that institutional structures are in many ways similar, with only slight cultural variations: there is a clear professorial pecking order, work loads are not always divided evenly, tenure is often awarded or refused based on less than transparent criteria, departments can be very protective of their turf, educational innovations tend to be a long time in discussion before implementation, the most eminent researchers and professors are not always the best teachers, students do want to learn something of value and are willing to work within reasonable limits to accomplish their goals, most teachers are more than willing to go out of their way to help motivated students make the most of their time and study.

On Japanese Students

It is generally acknowledged that the level of English proficiency among Japanese -- despite the amount of money spent on EFL in the country -- is below average compared to other countries. What are your views on this?
This is a tough one to answer without descending into gross generalizations. It is true that Japanese TOEFL scores are on average lower than in other developed countries as well as other Asian countries. This is probably due to the fact that more low-level Japanese learners take the TOEFL test as a matter of course than in other countries. This skews the national average to be sure. However, it's also true that certain conditions here in Japan -- cultural, social, educational -- may serve to inhibit learners from attaining a proficiency level more in sync with the number of hours/energy/money they spend on the study of English.

There seems to be a certain cultural ambivalence about foreign language study in general which often translates into governmental and institutional indecision. Teachers are often inadequately trained and overworked; students are often bundled into huge, anonymous, multi-leveled classes that have no chance of success whatsoever--no matter who the teacher might be; the topics, texts and exponents taught and tested often bear no resemblance to that which might be useful or interesting to the learners. Nonetheless, in my thirteen years here, I have also had a large number of excellent students who have attained a good solid proficiency level.

How do you compare Japanese students with those of other nationalities you have taught?
Once again, a blanket generalization is dangerous and misleading. However, it's probably fair to say that in my experience Japanese students, compared to others I have taught, do tend to be... more reticent to speak up in class, less likely to volunteer opinions in open discussion, less eager to shed the comfort of rote memorization for the risk of error, more likely to use Japanese instead of English in class when unsupervised on task. These 'tendencies', however, are not 'problems', as far as I'm concerned. They are simply fluid and changeable realities that I must consider when I am writing materials and structuring activities for my own classroom.

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