Goodbye Japan, Hello Canada

Since 1999, I was an EFL teacher in Japan. After some major issues with my family in Canada, with my parents health being affected and the passing of my mother, I lost the desire to be a teacher. When you begin to not care about teaching, its time to call it a day.
Thus, I will be changing my career. As of Monday, I will be looking for work, a home, and a car.

Beginnings and Endings

I'm at a bit of a crossroads. This year has been full of personal hardships which have impacted me more than I care to admit. I have had two major personal setbacks, one the passing of my mum and the second, a change in direction in my career.
I need to seriously think about if I want to remain in Japan or return to Canada. As many visitors have noticed, I have slacked off on black powder gamming. I believe this might be a sign that all is not well. However, my son and I have jumped in headfirst into World War Two gamming.

I still have plans for some 18th century games once my holidays come up, but real life may impact this. I will need to devote more time in the search of employment to start in April 2015.

I guess I've hit a bit of a mid life crisis. However for me, its not a simple as buying a ticket and flying home. I have a wife and children to consider.
Worst case scenario is that I return home solo to set up life, then bring them over. That would be more difficult. Also, setting myself up back home would be tough as I'd need to get myself transport plus insurance. Then a half-decent job.
Oh well, it can be a bit of an adventure, just a bit of a stressful one.

Say what? Hot and Mild?!

 Take if from the Japanese to really do a doozy on using English incorrectly. How the hell can something be hot and mild!? I mean Jalapeno and cheese

Arakawa camp Kiyosato Yamanashi 2014

Kiyosato Station, Yamanashi, Japan. If you ever want to travel from Tokyo to this place, it will cost you at least 6000 yen round trip. WOW!
This town used to be really hopping. Unfortunately, several combinations have caused many of the shops around the station area to close. A drop in the population, its actually cheaper to travel outside Japan then inside! Its sad, as I counted about 12 shops which were closed, all of which were within walking distance of this station.

This type of train was what used to chug up the hills to get there. The weather was also a lot cooler up there, about a ten degree difference. Hence I'm wearing jeans and a flannel shirt in August in Japan!

Take my shot buddy, I need to get back to my students! You will find trains like these all over Japan as displays for kids to climb over and then break something.
Once again, my company was asked by Arakawa Board of Education to teach their World School Program. This year we had teachers from USA, Canada, UK, The Philippines, Australia and New Zealand

Mark from Kenya and I. We had a lot of laughs.

Mark from Kenya, Jai from Hawaii. Both these guys were great players on our training team. I didn't notice the sweat stain on my shirt.

Brian from Queens, New York. We work together in Edogawa, Tokyo this year.

We went up to Kiyosato, Yamanashi from August 21-25. I got home, went to bed for about 5 hours then cycled to school in Edogawa. Unfortunately, I lost my voice from all the excitement we had to do with the students on the trip. I'm still resting it. Hopefully, I will be able to teach my students with some more speaking, but then again, having them do most of the talking means I cut most of my work! I guess its a win win, unless they don't do any talking.

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Word Crimes

 Alright, I can relate being an ESL teacher and having to help students understand English grammar even when I don't!

Why You Should Thank A Teacher Today

 Both my parents were teachers. I became an EFL teacher overseas. There are times when I want to pack it in, but then there are times when I remember why I am a teacher!

Joyfull Honda, Japan Meat

Chikin?! Winner?!

 Canadian Moose?

double spelling error

this shot was ttaken at Keisei Funabashi station. I guess that they don't need to proff read

What English you can find in Japan

My wife took us all out to see the movie Frozen on her birthday last Sunday, March 23.


She got some M&Ms from a vending dispenser and the paper bags reads.


Sounds Good
Thank you very much for purchasing today.
This is one of our special recommendations of this shop.
Our mission is to make our customer happy with our food and say "what a so tasty!!"
Our pursuing tastiness will never stop.
We intend to offer tasty food that meets your satisfaction. All efforts are for our customers' smile!!
We are looking forward to your visit again.


Ok, rather excited bag for eating M&Ms.

Arakawa World School Camp, August 24-28, 2013

WOW, I had a pretty busy but good week!
I had to finish up the Matsudo city Junior High school English Speech contest, then I had to do a special work assignment.

Back in June, we had an invitation to volunteer for this camp, which is put on by Arakawa-ku Board of Education. It's a massive program involving 20 Assistant English Teachers (the native English speaking ones,) 12 Japanese education student teachers, 10 Japanese teachers and about 140 Grade 6 students from all over Arakawa-ku's elementary schools. The event took place at Arakawa-ku's Summer education camp in Kiyosato, Yamanashi-ken, a 3 hour bus ride from Tokyo. The place was GREAT! The accommodations were similar to a YMCA conference centre. The food was superb and our students were top notch, as were the men and women to work with.

The pictures I took are of the teachers and some scenery.

Viren from California and I. This was taken in the Teacher's lounge which had a soft drink and beer vending machine! Each night, after we had our meetings, we'd go here to relax and have snacks which were provided. Usually they had hot dogs or sandwiches, or instant soup. There was coffee in the mornings.

Chris from Colorado, and Martin from Michigan

There is an interesting story involving this shot, but I leave that one for Martin to tell. It involves his teenage years. Viren, Chris, Martin and I all shared the room. The accommodations provided Japanese futons, Japanese style chairs and a table.

Jessica from Philadelphia, incidentally a fellow wargammer, and Matt from Belfast, Northern Ireland. We were coming back on the bus on August 28. We went up on the same bus and came back on it.

No smorking?

Ah yes, once again, we see Japanese attempting to use English, but failing to do a spell check!

The end of the school year in Japan

Despite the weather getting warmer and the sun beginning to shine, this time of year is a bit down.
It's the end of the school year and for ALTs it can be a bit stressful as we have to potentially say farewell to all our schools.

One of my schools gave me a small send off. I got a nice bouquet of flowers.
It was hard not to cry. But things happen for a reason, so perhaps some bigger and better things are on the way.

Christmas parties in Japan, 2012

One of the situations I always find myself in at the festive season is being roped into dressing as Santa Claus.
I guess being the only white guy with with a large tummy and beard helps. Though trying to find a Santa suit which fits over said tummy can be a bit annoying. I mean, living in a country which has Sumo wrestlers, you'd think they'd have large sizes right?

This is the naughty face the kids who like to poke Santa in the tummy, or other places.

 The nice Santa face every good boy and girl sees.

Stay tuned for the next installment of Irishhighlander as Santa

Celtic culture concert in a Japanese elementary schol

So what? You've never seen a guy in a kilt before? I'm wearing my MacKenzie kilt which was originally issued to a bandsman in the 17th Pictou Highlanders during the First World War. My cap badge is that of my old unit the 78th Highlanders Rosshirebuffs, or what they became the Second Battalion Seaforth Highlanders. My shirt is and Eddie Bauer one my wife got me as a Christmas present two years ago. Nifty eh?

My Japanese co-worker, Sako-Sensei was a good sport and wanted to try on a kilt. He went out and bought his tie to match the kilt.

Getting ready to play in front of our students.

I borrowed the schools snare drum to play. All in all, it was nice afternoon of music, and definetly one to remember for the kids and teachers.

Teaching English in Japan, the return of not proofreading

Creamy powder Creap. So I guess that this jar of milk powder must be a jerk huh? It tastes alright.

Another wonderful EFL lesson in Japan

English in the Japanese classroom version 2.

Ah yes, once again, a funny vocabulary drill exercise. This year, the junior high school textbook Sunshine was revised. Each grade level has a new revised text. This article covers the Second year book.

The first unit covers the aspect of the students returning back to school after their spring holidays.

The vocabulary which the teacher used consisted of was/science/were/at home/all day/hour/anywhere/hot/Seoul/exciting/Korea/wasn’t/the Korean Folk Village/farmer/band/dance

I just find it very funny how the teacher doesn’t double check how the words are sequenced.

So as I’m going through the word list in front of the students, I read them off and find myself in a fit of giggles.

I mean Was Science at home?

Were at home all day.

Anywhere?

Hot Seoul, exciting Korea.

Korea wasn’t the Korean Folk Village.

(Really, then why the hell is the name the Korean folk village if it wasn’t Korean?)

Farmer band dance, (which to be fair, is a traditional Korean cultural music group. Not to be confused with a country hoe down in the midwest.

So the dialogue works like this.

Ms. Wood: Did you go anywhere, Yuki?

Yuki: I went to Korea with my family in early April. We visited the Korean Folk Village near Seoul.

Ms. Wood: What did you see there?

Yuki: We saw the farmer’s band dance.

Ms. Wood: Oh, did you? How was it?

Yuki: It was really good. Their music and dances were exciting.

Ms. Wood: Did you try any traditional Korean dishes?

Yuki: Yes. They were hot but really good. I enjoyed them very much.

After we had gone through these, I then told the students my experiences when I was an English teacher in Korea from 1996-99. For me, the answer to the “traditional Korean dishes” question caused many students to freak out when I told them I had eaten Dogmeat soup twice. I explained that for me it was ok, as I don’t like dogs. And it’s not like I was eating fluffy.

As well, on one of my mountain hikes, I came across some Korean shamanism. Mugyo is the Korean term which wikipedia uses the quaint term eclectic to refer to it. Nothing makes you stand up and take notice like some old lady (who would be a shaman,) standing in a mountain clearing screaming her head off while banging a gong with a pig’s leg!

Then there was the pigs head worship. This was where a pig had been slaughtered, then the head was cleaned up, and was placed on it’s own altar whereby people would stuff money notes into the pigs snout and mouth. They would then give offerings of soju. Different, but I wouldn’t say strange. When I checked wikipedia, the current policy in Korea is to try and give Korean shamans into mental health professions, or help.

Trevor and my kids

Spring vacation means I can have fun with my friends. I had my buddy come over for some wargamming, Kraft Dinner, and brownies! It's the simple comfort foods from home which we miss the most. Also, Ian wanted to show off his new NERF dart gun.

Teaching English in Japan Volume 3

A life of adventure and excitement, Teaching English as a Foreign Language

 I have been teaching English as a Foreign Language in Asia, both in South Korea and Japan. How I got into this career is an interesting story.

In the spring of 1996, I had just finished my fourth year at Saint Mary`s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. I had graduated with my BA in History in 1995. Initially, I wanted to either work with Parks Canada as a historian, or to pursue further studies in Library science. Unfortunately, I was unable to enter a library science course and was sitting down over a cold one in the Goursebrook Lounge on Saint Mary’s campus.

One of my classmates from Newfoundland was waiting the tables and I told him my tale of woe. He then informed me he was going to move to South Korea to teach English. I was surprised as he had not studied education. However, he informed me you didn’t need an education degree, just a university degree to teach English as a Second Language.

Now back in the late 1990’s the TEFL field in Halifax was limited. There were a few schools teaching English to foreign students who were studying at any one of the universities in Halifax. I went down to one school looking for any jobs overseas. At first, I was interested in Poland, but was told that the working conditions in Eastern Europe were not that great. If I was looking for a good salary, Korea was the place to go.

So, I took down the name of the Korean trading company who were operating in Halifax at the time and off I went. I had a standard interview and within a week, had a job offer and contract to sign.

And so it was, in November 1996, I left my home and native land to experience the Land of the Morning Calm.

Long flights and culture clashes.

At the age of 23, I left Nova Scotia to travel to South Korea to begin teaching English. I remember Halloween 1996 as being a night where I passed out candy to kids and was reading up on as much information about Korea as I could. I had studied East Asian and South East Asian history at university, so I had a basic grasp of what to expect from a historical perspective. This was in the time prior to the internet, so information was rather limited on what to expect in other countries.

My flight route would take me from Halifax to Toronto to Chicago to Kimpo International airport in Seoul. I had only flown once before, and that was to Denver Colorado with the 78^th Highlanders as part of their drill team for the Longs Peak Scottish-Irish festival. That trip was only about 6 hours.

My first flight to Korea went like this. Halifax to Toronto 2 hours. Layover in Pearson, 90 minutes. Flight to Chicago, one hour. Layover in Chicago, 2 hours. Flight to Seoul, 18 hours! The idea of economy class syndrome was not an issue, but my goddness, I didn`t want to fly for awhile after that.

Upon arrival in Korea, I went through customs and was wearing my first suit, designed for the -10c temp when I left Halifax. Upon arrival in Seoul, it was 15c and bright sunshine! I felt like I was melting! I was wearing a tweed blazer, wool pants and thermal underwear with wool socks! On top of the weariness I felt, I was now 12 hours ahead of the time back in Nova Scotia and the next day, having crossed the international date line somewhere over the Pacific.

My contact was the school vice owner Mr. Cho who had previously been a flight attendant for Korean Airlines. Helping me with my luggage, we got into his car my first lesson on Korea was observed.

First of all, South Korea is a small country, about the same size as Nova Scotia and PEI combined. However, the population is around thirty million, so traffic was always heavy. And the drivers wanted to go fast! Then it was my first Korean lunch which was Kimchee, a very spicy cabbage dish made of garlic and red pepper. Imagine having a propane tank explode in your mouth and that would be a hint of the spice.

I was then shown the school, which was actually a tutoring service for Korean children and adults who wanted to either study English, or improve their grades in school. I was shown my office/classroom, then taken down into the basement of the building which was a bathhouse.

First of all, for those of you who are unfamiliar with Asian culture, the bathhouse is  a communal place to wash and relax in hot tubs and to wash, in a room with other people! Ok so let’s get this straight. You go into the locker room, strip down, then go take a bath in the section your gender is. If you ever felt shy about your body, this is where culture shock comes into play. Add on the fact that nothing is in English, or that no one speaks English and eh viola, you have CULTURE SHOCK! Did I also mention my boss told me my first class was at 4pm on that day? The day in which I had had no sleep for going on 36 hours without the benefit of even having a change of underware?

That night when I did settle on my futon on a heated concrete floor I made myself a vow. If I survived a month, I would stay, if I couldn’t hack it, I`d go home.

When you have a set goal, things begin to go better for you.

Later on that fall, we had another Nova Scotian join our company to teach. However, the teacher was not someone who should have left home. There are some people who can do this job, and there are others who can’t. If you do choose this career, you have to bear in mind several things.

1)     The world will not bow to what you demand life should be. The old do as the Romans do rule applies here. If a culture has existed for two thousand years without your presence, then they will not adapt for you.

2)     Understand that in certain parts of the world, gender bias, sexism and old fashioned thinking still occur. If you were brought up in an ultra-feminist lifestyle, don’t go to Asia.

3)     If you have special dietary needs, make sure you can cook, or have the ability to know where to shop for said items. One teacher I worked with was a vegetarian and was appalled at the amount of meat Koreans ate.

4)     Despite the fact that you don’t have to change who you are as a person, you will have to adapt your personality to being bombarded with personal questions, evaluated on your mannerisums and dress sense and generally be considered the local celebrity, both in negative and positive ways.

After a year in Korea, I came back to Nova Scotia. I left Seoul with an environment of 25c to arrive at Halifax in 10c weather! It was the little things that really freaked me out.

1)     The road signs were all in English, and the roads were free of traffic congestion.

2)     I sat down in a steak restaurant to order my food and couldn’t because I had to think of how to say it in Korean. Also the menu was in English and had food which I had not seen in a year.

3)     I could understand everything people said around me. I didn’t need to translate what everyone was talking about.

4)     My friends knew nothing of what I did and would never understand unless they did this themselves. I now understood how many veterans feel when they come “home”. It’s not “home” anymore, the “home” you left stayed there, you moved on and it’s like a trapped time warp. Everyone else continued on. Your life then stopped, it began anew and from this day forth, you would be set apart from everyone else.

5)     After the initial welcome home, nobody wants to hear about what life was like there. The fact is, most people will never leave their home area. You square yourself away into your life experiences and continue on.

The hardest part for me was the life decision I had to make. I grew up thinking that you had to always honor your promises, and to believe in the good of all people.

I had signed on to go back to Korea, but in the time I had left, the economy of the country failed, and I went back into a job which was not for the faint of heart. My salary was reduced as the boss said they needed to keep the school open. (This was the first cut, as the year went on, we went without our salaries for months at a time). Not everyone in the world is honest, or willing to follow the rules. My boss virtually enslaved me in his school working long hours, with insufficient pay so that I could not escape, or have the time and energy to find new work. When my contract came up for renewal, I attempted to look for a new job, only to be thwarted in my attempts by the boss scheduling a new class on my day off. This was on a Friday night with the class to begin the next morning. I also had my immigration card stolen by the boss who attempted to imprison me within my job. His thinking being, if I tried to leave the country, I would be arrested for overstaying my immigration visa and be sent to prison. Afterwards, I found out that they only would have deported me and kept me from returning to the country.

I then realized that I was now being part of a human traffic system where my boss passed me off to another company to teach classes while taking my salary. When I then told the pre-school what was happening, the staff was alarmed. I had not been consulted on this new class, but was forced to teach there. Eventually my friend seeing what was going on helped me to contact the Labor department which in the Asian way, had no enforcement powers, and could only suggest that they actually follow the law. Eventually, my friend bought me a ticket home, and I left Korea, literally screaming.

The moral of this side story being, if you are going to leave your country, make sure you know what you will be doing, and know your rights according to the laws of the country you will live and work in. NEVER trust the word of your employer until you have checked the laws.

I went back to Nova Scotia in the spring of 1999. I was suffering from mild PTSD due to the stress I had experienced in my final 6 months. It took me four months to come to terms with the fact that I had done nothing wrong. Even now close to 15 years later, I still have nightmares that I have ended up back there and am trying to get back to the life I know. It took me a further two years to get back my possessions which I had stored with my friend, while other things were stolen from me. You must know who you can trust. I grew up alot from this experience.

I then began to look for work back in Asia, but this time, I would go to Japan.

I felt that being a G8 country, Japan would be a much safer, and stable environment to work in. I forgot several things about working in Asia.

1)     Never take anything for granted. As an EFL teacher, you are the face of your school/company/country that you work for. If there are ever conflicts between you and your employeer, they stay that way. Never involve your students thinking they will be on your side. I once made the mistake of telling my students the fact that the company was unhappy with our performance. When faced with the loss of staff, I bluntly told my friends in an email that the company needed us more than we needed them. While this might have been true, one of the contacts forwarded this message to my bosses, who used me as a scapegoat and fired me. Looking back over the years, I can see why they did this, however, the company itself did not treat their teachers fairly, having given us insufficient training. When your boss tells you that you are not doing a good job, then comes back two days later and tries to tell you that you need to help them, you know your job is not going well.

2)     Always appear professional, act mature and try to be reasonable when dealing with problems in the work place.

3)     There are other places to work. Just make sure you learn from your mistakes and look at what kind of place you will work in.

4)     Size in a school doesn’t matter. Little small schools who are run well, will do better than large corporations. In my eleven years in Japan, two major English school chains have folded.

5)     Never think you can slack off while at work. The other teachers are watching what you are doing. Always appear to be busy.

I look back at what kind of a teacher I was in my mid 20's. I made a lot of mistakes, due to inexperience. Over the years, I have read up and begun post graduate study in the EFL field just to understand what I should be doing.

EFL in Japan volume 2

There are some days in a class that I can’t help but laugh. Some of the activities we have to use with our students can seem rather interesting considering the content we have to work with. For instance, many Japanese junior high schools use the Sunshine English course. For the second graders there is a reading section. Program 10 is entitled Her Dream Came True.

Dear Kind Person,

I’m a junior high school student in Japan. My father died of cancer this year. He wanted to travel abroad, but he couldn’t. He was a doctor and was always very busy.

I would like to send this teddy bear, Mack around the world in his place. Would you please take him with you? Then, please pass him on to another person.

Thank you,

Megumi Kasuga.

This is a beautiful story about how a teenager was able to realize her father’s dream of world travel by passing along a stuffed toy bear. Her ALT took it to his home in the states, then passed it along to other travelers. Mack made it to Sweden, Spain, The UK and Italy.

Now in class with a bunch of unmotivated 14 year olds, presenting this can get dry. The message can be lost when the teacher has to following the boring teaching method which is required by the Japanese education ministry.

The following vocabulary to be introduced was dear/person/die of/cancer/abroad/teddy bear/Mack/in his place/Would you/pass/ pass on to.

Ok, nice terms. A bit dark, so after a few classes, the teacher is drilling the students with the vocab.

I then began to crack up, when the teacher began to mix up the words.

Dear/person/would you/ die of/cancer/in his place.

Mack/pass/abroad/person/pass on to/cancer.

By this time, I’m doubled over with laughter. When the teacher looks at me and the students are laughing, I then explained to the teacher what words she had just used. She turned purple when she realized how strange it sounded. We both had a laugh, explained to the students what had happened. They then laughed.

I’m sure Dr. Kasuga would have enjoyed having some laughter as would Megumi.

My other life as a teacher

I've been an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher in Asia since 1996. I did 3 years in a Korean Hagwan from 1996-99. I survived the IMF era of 1997 in Korea. It was a major learning experience for me. Once which I hope no one has to go through.

I came to Japan in 1999 and began teaching in Ichinoseki, Iwate at an Eikawa. I learned two basic things.

1) I enjoy teaching children
2) I don't enjoy business English lessons.

I then moved down to Narita, Chiba. I learned some more things
1) I hate cockroaches
2) Never work in a school located next to a pub.

I then moved over to Yachiyo, Chiba. I learned even more things
1) I really need to work with people who know and enjoy what they are doing
2) There can be alot of paperwork

I then met my wife, went back to Canada, got married, then came back to Japan.
I then took a job in Toyama, Toyama
My next learning experience taught me other things
1) Make sure the company you take a job with is well established and can pay you.
2) Country areas of Japan are very different from the Tokyo area.
3）I still enjoy teaching children.
I began my career as an ALT Assistant Language Teacher

An ALTs job is to assist teaching English in Japanese Elementary and junior high schools. This runs the gammet of either being a live action audio player, or teaching on you own.

More to follow