A lot of that is just that in Australia I'm a fully qualified teacher, running my own program and am rushed off my feet most days, whereas here in Japan, I'm an Assistant Language Teacher with very little planning to do, who largely waits to be called upon for English questions and demonstrations. That in itself is a big adjustment, but one I am worried will become far too easy to get used to!
Apart from that obvious difference in job description, allow me to outline the differences in school life that will most likely affect your job if you're interested in working in a Japanese school environment at some point, or are simply interested in the education system around the world.
1. Entering the School
The first thing you need to do when you come to any school in Japan is take off your shoes at the entrance, put them in a locker, and put on a pair of small, cold school slippers. If you don't want to do this each morning, then you need to bring in a pair of designated school shoes. These will then not leave the school building. You will change into them when you arrive at the school entrance and change out of them at the end of the day. That way, all of your messy "outside dirt" supposedly stays outside.
2. Dress Code
Japanese schools tend to be a lot more formal than Australian Schools, but that being said, every school is different and so it's best to dress formal on your first day and then assess what your collegues are wearing. At my school in Australia I would commonly wear black jeans or little dresses with leggings underneath. Singlets were common in Summer. In Japan however, most men where suits, and women are usually wearing smart, very modest clothes. This usually means no singlets, as showing shoulders and collarbones is generally a no-no in schools. Most schools won't allow you to show tattoos either, although the school I'm currently at does, as part of it's multicultural diversity push. I'm here to show them authentic Western culture and part of that is a relaxed attitude toward tattoos.
3. The Lessons and Behaviour Management
The lessons are very different to what we're used to in Aus. In Australia, I'm clocking up a lot of steps (usually over 10 000 a day), making sure students are on task, handing out pencils, restating the instructions to those who didn't listen the first few times, and trying to get those unmotivated students to do something... Here in Japan, despite there being 40 students in each lesson, I'm lucky to get 5000 steps. Teachers expect students to listen to and follow the instructions. I'm sure it will differ from school to school, but there's very little "telling off" or behaviour management of any kind going on at my current Japanese school. An English teacher I was working with today had set homework for the class the lesson before, and then, at the beginning of this class, asked them to get it out and discuss their answers with a partner, trying to use full sentences. I asked him if any students ever didn't do their homework, and whether he ever had to punish any students. He responded that he expected that nearly all the students would always do their homework. He does not punish the students, as he sees himself as a "facilitator of learning". He said that he is simply giving them the best chance to learn English. Most of the students are very motivated to learn English, and so he finds it better to give encouragement. This seems to be a similar approach as a lot of the teachers here. I am yet to see a reprimand. I asked if there was a detention system at this school, and there is not. Occasionally a student may be given cleaning duty, but apparently it is rarely needed. Can you imagine?
I have not seen any students get sent out of class, or students asked to stay back and talk to the teacher. Students are chatty at the beginning of classes, but the teacher usually does not tell them to be quiet. The teacher usually starts talking and the students quiet down quickly as they want to listen to the instructions so they can succeed. Classes here are very silent when doing tests and quiet work, and are chatty during discussions and activity transitions. The fact that nearly all students have this expectation that they should be doing well is something very different from a lot of my classes in Australia, especially when it comes to learning another language. Again though, there are better and worse schools in Japan, so I'd expect a range of motivation depending on the school.
Lessons here are, surprisingly, very cooperative. I say surprisingly because I did have this idea that Japanese schooling is largely rote learning, and I imagined students reciting lines and vocabulary repretitively. I guess this idea is outdated, at least in my school. English is learnt very cooperatively, with students doing large amounts of peer and group activities. I think Japan is try to move away from rote learning, and use more cooperative and critical skills. There is a lot of speaking and listening happening, as well as writing. This also surprised me as many Japanese talk of a lack of speaking skills being taught in schools. Again, I think Japanese schools have identified this as a weakness and are trying to rectify it.Most English lessons start off with a short chat time on sa chosen topic, or using chosen key words. Students also discuss, reason debate, and give different perspectives to eachother in English throuhout the lesson.
4. The Office
Japanese school offices are big open things where all the teachers are together. This is quite different to some Australian high schools which give seperate offices to different departments. Here, everyone is squished in together, everyone owning or sharing a desk. When you come into the office in the morning you say "ohayou gozaimasu"(good morning) to everyone as you come in, and as you leave, people say "o tsukaresama de" (you must be tired).
Students come into the office fairly regularly to hand things in and get help. They always say "shitsurei shimasu" as they enter (sorry for the interuption/rudeness) and they bow and say this again as they leave. It's so polite!
Teachers in the office often are employed by the prefectural board of education, rather than the school. This means that teachers are often rotated between schools at the discretion of the board. They may be at a school just one year, or as long as 10 years.
5. Transport
Most Japanese staff and students come to school by train or bike. There are no special school buses like in Aus, and there is usually very little parking at schools. If you are not familiar with the Japanese train systems, they're super convenient. Find out what the closest stop to your school is, and then chuck that into google maps.
6. Students
The students at my school are lovely. They see me as some cute foreign object, it seems, and that's fine. You'll probably have to get used to students going "kawaii" when you answer some questions or do certain things...
One big difference between the Japanese stdents here at my school and those back at my school in Australia is their preparedness, and responsibility. By second term, many of my Australians students had foregone pencil cases, instead, only bringing in a pencil, if that. Many students started the year without pencils, and by Term 3 and 4, some of my classes only had 50% of kids with even a writing implement. I'm currently in the Japanese students' last term, as their school year ends in April, and I have not seen a single student without an immaculately kept pencil case. They take pride in their possessions, and enjoy displaying cute pencil cases, cute pencils, and many students even bring folded blankets with them into class to help deal with the cold.
All students are wearing school uniform, including for girls, sailor bow ties, long socks, pleated skirt, ironed shirt, sweater and blazer. And for boys, pants, ironed shirt, tie, sweater and blazer. All students wear the same white school shoes which they change into on arrival. There are no exceptions. They are not allowed to wear make up and jewellery or die their hair. All this promotes uniformity and togetherness.
7. The Classroom
Students stay in the same class all day, with the exception of specialty classes, and teachers rotate through. This is the students class and they become like one big family. They eat in this class, clean this class, and study in this class. They even sometimes decorate this class. Within the class, they are in a seating plan. Seats are commonly individual in Japan, in vertical rows. At my school, they switch the seating plan about once a month so all students in the class must be cooperative with eachother.
8. Heating and Cooling
The staff office in the school is nice and warm. If you're sitting in here most of the day you can take off your coat and be comfortable in Winter. However, make the mistake of stepping outside the office without your coat and you may die... It's freezing. The classes are varying degrees of freezing all the way up to just warm enough. So layers are your friend.
In Summer, most Japanese schools don't have air conditioning. So with our modest clothing expectation I expect to not have a fun time in Summer.
There are so many differences between the 2 school lifestyles, I couldn't possibly list them all in one sitting. But I hope I've given you a vague idea of what to expect.
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