24-year-old American lives in the Japanese countryside as an English teacher
A 24-year-old American English teacher in Japan describes her work teaching students aged 3-73 with a focus on conversation-based learning. She highlights the dramatically improved work-life balance compared to her experience in America, working only 5 hours daily with flexible teaching methods.
Summary
The speaker is an American living in Japan on a one-year humanities and English teaching visa. She teaches English to a diverse age range of students from 3 to 73 years old, focusing on communication through conversations, worksheets, and games like Uno to teach colors and numbers. Her work setup is highly convenient with her workplace being walking distance from her apartment. Her typical workday runs from 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., during which she teaches five to seven classes that are 30-40 minutes long each, conducted as one-on-one or two-on-one sessions in an appointment-based format. The mornings are free for personal activities like grocery shopping and lunch with friends, creating what feels like having two days in one. She emphasizes the excellent work-life balance in Japan, working only about 5 hours daily with an hour of break time and complete classroom flexibility, contrasting this with her American work experience where she worked 10-12 hour days, often skipped breaks, and needed multiple jobs to make ends meet financially.
Key Insights
- The teacher works with an unusually wide age range of students from 3 to 73 years old, providing experience with diverse learning needs
- She focuses on communication-based teaching methods including conversations, worksheets, and games like Uno to teach practical skills
- Her work schedule runs from 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. with five to seven classes per day, each lasting 30-40 minutes
- She describes feeling like she has 'almost two days in one' due to having free mornings for personal activities
- In America she worked 10-12 hour days often skipping breaks and needed multiple jobs to get by, whereas in Japan she supports herself on just her English teaching job
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] I'm here in Japan on a one-year work visa that is for workers in humanities and English [music] teachers. My students are ages 3 to 73 years old, so I get a full range of all kinds of learners. Our focus is on communication. So, I try to have conversations with the [music] learners. We do worksheets. We even play games like Uno to help my students learn colors and numbers. My commute to work is unbeatable. It's literally walking [0:31] distance from my apartment, so I don't even have to get in the car. In my typical work day, I'll go into work around 3:00 p.m. and I'll leave around 8:00 p.m. [music] In that time, I'll have…
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