English Teaching in Japan: Universities

Creating confident creative conversationalists with communication circles.

by Kevin Burns

"I'm happy that my thoughts and insights... help folks. Really, that's what teaching is all about...being there and encouraging students and perhaps changing their attitudes. This tends to be forgotten in all the presentations, articles, methods, etc. It is a critical thing especially for a culture like Japan that really has a lot of negative thought and also the highest rate of suicide in the world."

--a Veteran English Teacher in Japan

English teaching in Japanese universites can be the most interesting teaching you will do here. The salary is generally good for the number of hours that you actually spend working.

In my case, I teach about 28 weeks per year, but I am paid for 52! During time off, I travel, read and enjoy my hobbies.

The campus where I teach is beautiful, the meals are discounted and I have access to many campus libraries boasting not only books, but CDs, DVDs, maps, newspapers and more. I also have access to other facilities such as: the swimming pool, tennis courts and events that are all free for me as a faculty member. Yet another perk is access to great lectures on teaching and other topics.

Moreover, access to many colleagues has been invaluable for their advice and support. Their ideas about teaching have been indispensable and I have become a better teacher because of them. Pictured: Sunset over Fujisawa by Richard Baladad

The classes at universities can range from very difficult, unmotivated English learners, to extremely keen students. As long as you keep in mind what kind of student you are teaching, and adjust accordingly, you and the students will enjoy your classes. Teaching at a university can be a dream job.

However, if you are one of those teachers who must have keen, motivated students only, I would not advise teaching English in a Japanese university. Teach at a language school instead. At language schools in Japan, the students pay good money to study and are more motivated to learn. They are often more mature students, who recognize why they are studying English.

Part-time work at Japanese universities can sometimes still be acquired with a four year university degree, and many years of teaching experience. However, to get a full-time position you will need a masters or ph.d. Pictured: The corn is almost ready for harvest in Hiratsuka,by Richard Baladad

It is still extremely difficult for non-Japanese English teachers to get tenure at Japanese universities. This fact has been described in the press as academic apartheid. Despite this fact, I think teaching at a Japanese university is one of the best teaching positions you can get in Japan.

If you choose to teach part-time at a university, your obligations are few. There are few meetings to attend. There will be no committee work, so you can come, teach, then go home when you are finished. For me at least, this is the best option. I love my freedom, and I love teaching too. I feel I`m a teacher not a researcher.

I prefer to leave the research and the committee discussions to the full-timers. But if you would rather be more involved with the intricacies of the institution, and get involved with research, then full-time work may be for you.

Certainly, some people prefer being a full-time university instructor in spite of the extra obligations, and much less paid vacation time. They feel the benefits greatly outweigh the negatives.

As a full-time instructor, they of course will receive bonuses like research grant money, and a much higher salary. There are other perks too of course--in some cases: trips abroad for projects, research or other interesting opportunities.

Here is a list of good universities to teach for.

How to Teach English to Uninterested Japanese University Students

I have taught English at a Japanese university since 2006. Some of my students are highly motivated to learn, but many are not. So one of the challenges is how to motivate them?

Movie Projects for Japanese University Students

Davanshe Chauhan elaborates further on the challenges of teaching young adult learners in his well thought article.

Japanese L & R Pronunciation Difficulty

"Recall that Japanese “L” and “R” difficulty? Kuhl and scientists at Tokyo Denki University and the University of Minnesota helped develop a computer language program that pictures people speaking in “motherese,” the slow exaggeration of sounds that parents use with babies. Japanese college students who had had little exposure to spoken English underwent 12 sessions listening to exaggerated “Ls” and “Rs” while watching the computerized instructor’s face pronounce English words. Brain scans―a hair dryer-looking device called MEG, for magnetoencephalography―that measure millisecond-by-millisecond activity showed the students could better distinguish between those alien English sounds. And they pronounced them better, too, the team reported in the journal NeuroImage.

“It’s our very first, preliminary crude attempt but the gains were phenomenal,” says Kuhl."

--Associated Press

More advice on teaching English to university students here

The Dumbo Feather and communication circles.

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"Many of these places (universities) have overtly discriminatory hiring practices towards their full-time (joukin) educators/staff on the basis of extranationality, or for other reasons unrelated to professionalism. This has been going on for more than a century in Japanese academia, and applicants from overseas are advised to research Japanese institutions of higher learning very carefully before committing years of their academic careers to jobs in Japan which may not in fact have a future."

--Dave Aldwinkle (also known as Arudo Debito)

University teaching jobs available in Japan now