Trilingual Tri-als and Tri-bulations

Sometimes learning another language can be difficult.

Proctoring the National University Entrance Examination (センター試験)

This year for the first time I have to proctor the national test high school students take to enter university. This test is being done at my school among others and requires a ridiculous amount of training and absorption of information to do correctly.

If you are a non-Japanese teacher of foreign descent, then you will probably find this a bewildering and frightening experience if you are asked to do this at all. Generally, foreign teachers are spared this task, but just in case you are like me and not spared, this post will hopefully help you sort through the piles and piles of documents you will receive outlining the procedures of the examination.

You will likely be called into a meeting that lasts all day, breaking only for lunch, where a member of the administration staff speaks in very rapid Japanese in a general way about the test, our roles, and what we can expect. It is a bit bewildering, but do your best to follow along. Thankfully, they show a helpful series of videos.

The test rules booklet is the thickness of a Sony television's operation manual and about as easy to understand. Of course the book is entirely in kanji, which I can't read well. It would take a Japanese person a week to go through this thing! Considering my dismal reading speed, I would have probably required a year or two to get through it if not for my fabulous, but crazy husband who is in love with kanji and read it for me while I took furious notes.

Here is some of that manual explained in a general fashion. The specific step-by-step procedures would be too long to fill out, but I do have a couple of Word documents with the test directions written out in English for anyone who really wants them. Leave a comment with your email address and I'll send them to you.

Unless you are a desperate foreign teacher living in Japan who can't read kanji well and who must proctor this test, then you should probably just stop reading now. Then again, this is pretty dry stuff, so if you are having trouble sleeping this might be just the thing for you.

General Information on the Test

It lasts two days and it's conducted over the weekend in January. Students must take a barrage of examinations on various subjects all day Saturday and most of Sunday. The amount of organization required to give pretty much every high school student in the country their examination on the same day is mind boggling in my opinion, but it seems to come off without a hitch for the most part. However, please be aware that TV news shows like to talk about any university where the test was flubbed or something bad happened. So, make sure you take this seriously as the "honour" of your university may be at stake.

Also, the university entrance examination is the MOST important test a student will take in their lives in Japan. It determines their future to an arguably large extent as the Japanese hiring system is still very clannish in some ways. For example, a very large number of government employees come from one or two specific universities. Getting into a high-ranked university is very important to some students. All the rules, while they might seem ridiculous or at the very least overwhelming to someone who is not used to them, are there in order to ensure fairness by making sure that every student in the country has the exact same examination conditions as far as possible. So, make sure you make an effort to do it correctly.

If you don't have a plain watch with hands (i.e. not digital) then buy one as there will probably not be a clock in your examination room. Also, it's best to avoid bringing anything with an alarm on it into the examination room.

An important consideration is that you cannot leave the room while you are proctoring. Better to be a couple of minutes late then have to hold in explosive diarrhea for 90 minutes. In other words, go to the bathroom before and stay away from coffee.

Roles

The most basic thing you should know is that there are different roles assigned to each teacher. The head proctor (HP) is in charge of making sure the examination is done smoothly, in the correct order, following the appropriate guidelines, and with clockwork precision. They give all the directions to the students out loud. Since I am not a native-speaker of the Japanese language, I was fortunate to be spared the role of HP. However, the Japanese itself is very repetitive, so it's not that difficult to get the hang of it if you are unfortunately chosen to be the HP.

Aside form the HP, there is a proctor with the role of timekeeper (TK). The TK is responsible for making sure the HP is following the test's schedule. All proctors should sink their watches so that everyone has the same time, ideally down to the second (no really). Students MUST receive the full time they are allotted and not one second less. Therefore, obviously, time must be kept to the second. It says that specifically in the manual. The HP and the TK are provided with stop watches to ensure that level of precision.

There are sometimes other helpers if there are many students in the room. Their job is to assist in distributing booklets, etc. and supervising the students.

Finally, there is the "Contact Person". As I mentioned, proctors cannot leave the examination room, so this person waits outside the room to take students to the bathroom, to receive forms from the proctors, to communicate any problems to and from the proctors, etc.

In a bit more of a Big Brother-style, the proctors are also responsible for watching the HP and making sure s/he doesn't mess up! If the HP messes up, they must commit ritual suicide with a special sword in front of all students. (not really)

While the examination proceeds, you must follow along in your manual and check off each direction that the proctor gives to the students. This is in order to make sure that all directives for the examination have been given. You will be required to cross-check with other proctors that all directives have been given, so if you can't follow along, just do your best and check-mark as many as you can.

Concerning the timing of the examinations, you should know the following for each exam. All the times below, except number 1, are written in your manual and you should bring your manual to every test. Verify:

1. When and where your proctoring group members will gather before the examination to double-check their materials and to get any information about test conditions (E.g. if a student is ill, if the local trains, buses aren't running, etc). This is in a place called 本部 (honbu). It varies from university to university so ask a colleague.
2. The start and end times of the examination.
3. The start, end, and duration of the answering portion of the test (i.e. the part of the test where the students are writing down their answers and not the explanation part of the test).
4. All the examinations have a cut-off time after which, late students are not allowed to take the test. Find out your lateness limit.


Below are some useful vocabulary. If you can't read basic kanji at the very least, you shouldn't be proctoring this examination. Tell your colleague that you cannot proctor at this time. Personally, I can’t read kanji that well (I'm maybe somewhere around 漢検 level N３) so there were a few words that I was unsure of how to pronounce, or only knew a different way of expressing. The list below is not exhaustive by any means, but it is the very minimum that you must memorize.

- A student taking the examinations is called a 受験者 (じゅけんしゃ)
- A proctor is called a 監督者 (かんとくしゃ)
- The head quarters of the test in your school, where you collect your materials, and who you report any problems to is called 本部 (ほんぶ)
- The booklet that has the test questions in it is called the 問題冊子 (もんだいさっし)
- Their answer sheet where the students fill in their choices is called a 解答用紙 (かいとうようし)
- The word "directive" is used all the time. It's 指示 (しじ)
- Lateness limit after which students cannot enter 遅刻限度 (じこくげんど)
- Beginning of test answering period 解答開始 (かいとうかいし)
- End of test answering period 解答終了 (かいとうしゅうりょう)
- Distribution 配付 (はいふ)
- Collection 回収 (かいしゅう)

Each examination has its own directives to follow. Most of them are fairly similar, so once you have done one test, you can do the others without much trouble. However, the listening examination is different from the others mainly because once the test has begun, the proctors cannot speak and therefore, they must use a couple of forms that students point to in case of trouble.

Written Test Forms

There are about a half-a-dozen forms, but usually the head proctor fills them out and deals with them. The names of the most common forms that non-head proctors have to know are:
- “Test-taker condition survey form” (A and B versions) 受験状況調査票 (じゅけんじょうきょうちょうさひょう) Regular proctors only have to worry about B because at some point during each test (varies with test) you need to send Form B to the test headquarters (本部).
- “Improper behaviour notification document” 不正行為通告書 (ふせいこういつうこくしょ) Also called a yellow card. This is to indicate to students that they are cheating or doing something else so wrong that they must stop their test immediately and leave. There is a white version of this that is only a warning.
- “Booklet distribution order confirmation paper” 問題冊子等配付確認表 (もんだいさっしとうはいふかくにんひょう). Your head proctor will probably fill this out.

Listening Test Forms

Once the test explanation is over and the answering period has begun, you cannot talk to students, nor they to you, out loud in case the noise interferes with other students' examinations. Because of this, there is a somewhat complicated rigmarole of forms to deal with.

If a student raises their hand during the “absolutely no-talky” time, you show them the “trouble confirmation form”. トラブル確認票 (とらぶるかくにんひょう). They will circle their problem.
After they have circled their problem, you must respond using the “communication memo” 連絡メモ (れんらくめも). You can choose from the various selections that are already there or write your own response by hand. There are various procedures to follow depending on the problem and it would take too long to write them all out here. However, the central test authority gives out a handy video that you can watch. Even if you don’t understand the Japanese, you can still get an idea of how to behave in a listening test and respond to any problems that might come up.

The students have personal listening devices called IC Players. If these IC Players malfunction, you need to exchange them and fill out some forms. If they malfunction before the answering time has begun, just swap them and fill out “the machine collection survey form” 回収機器調査票 (かいしゅうききちょうさひょう). However, the real pain in the bum is if they malfunction during the "no-talky" answering period. Find out the problem using the “trouble form” above and then you have to give the student three forms. The first is the “incident processing form” 事故処理票 (じこしょりひょう), the second is the “re-take examination confirmation form” 再開確認票 (さいかいかくにんひょう), and finally, the same as above the “machine collection survey form”.

There’s a lot more to know, but the above information is the basic knowledge that will help you have an idea of your role as a proctor for the central examination.

Good luck!

The DOs and DON'Ts of Working in Japan

This guide mainly applies in an educational context, but can be extrapolated for almost all Japanese workplace environments. It's full of generalities of course and mainly applies to a workplace that consists of mostly Japanese employees. If your workplace is very international, then this guide might not apply.

1) Never Say Die
Don't take sick leave, and don't take vacations. Stay late at work often, and talk to your co-workers about how tired you are. Also, participate in everything optional (i.e. sports festivals, school festivals, speeches given by VIPs that you can't understand, etc). Yes, it will involve giving up your weekends and evenings, but participating in events and activities in your workplace show that you are committed to your job.

2) Don't complain.
If your situation is miserable and you hate your job, this is a tough one, but Japanese almost never complain and neither should you. If you absolutely must complain about something, make sure you speak to a Japanese co-worker and get their advice on the best way to go about doing it. Obviously you can complain about harassment and so on.

3) Retro Up!
Act like you are from an episode of Leave It To Beaver. Japanese value cheerful optimism, cooperation, friendliness, thankfulness, and a purity (i.e. sexual purity) of dress and comportment (short skirts are oddly an exception). Don't believe me? Just read their manga or watch their movies/dramas. The messages in these portrayals of society are always someone who triumphs over adversity by being cheerful, moral, and hardworking. Your role-model is now Jane Eyre. The younger generation is changing, but the younger generation isn't going to be the people interview, hiring, supervising and working together with you at the moment. It's still old-school here.

4) Ask for permission
Especially when you are starting out, you will not know the workplace culture. Make sure you ask for permission to do almost everything out of the ordinary, even if it seems harmless to you. Want to have a class outside on a nice day? Ask permission. Want to make a website for your students online? Ask permission. Want to use an unoccupied room covered in ten years of undisturbed dust? Yes, you've got it - ask permission.

5) Give away some glory
Make suggestions to your sempai. This is tough to do as it involves your sempai (co-worker above you in rank) getting credit for all your ideas, but as a junior worker it is not your place to offer constructive criticism. Once you have worked for a few years, then you can make suggestions at meetings. Until then, if you want to make a suggestion, then make it to a co-worker and ask them to suggest it for you.

The Japanese University Workplace

Some people have asked me about working in a Japanese university and what that entails. Here is a description of the kinds of working conditions you can expect in a Japanese-university workplace.

Part-time Work
Working part-time at a university in Japan is great. If you can teach more than 8 koma (90 min) a week, your pay is pretty good for not much work and little to no responsibility. The average pay for 1 koma is about 10000yen, or somewhere around 100 USD or 75 Euros. If you have at least eight of those a week, that makes for a weekly pay of 80000 yen for 12 hours of (official) at the school work. Of course there is always class prep and marking and you won't be paid for that as those hours are included in your 10000yen per koma. This puts you in an annual income of just under 4 million yen per year, which is very decent pay for Japan.

The downsides to working part-time are that you have no input into any changes in your department, nor will you generally even be consulted by the full-time teachers unless you have a close working relationship with them. This is more disadvantageous for some people than others. Some individuals really care about improving the level of education at the school, and some people care mostly for their own students. If you are the kind of person who likes to make a difference in your workplace, part-time work might be tough for you.

Finally, you don't get any benefits, bonuses, research money, and you can't apply for most grants. You will probably not have a private office, and your computer/printer may be ancient. However, the biggest negatives are that your salary will never increase and you have no job security.

Full-time Work
Just like part-time work at a university, full-time work is a mixed bag of good and bad points. The main negative is pay vs. responsibilities and work hours. You will often start off making less than a part-timer would with a lot more responsibility. You will work at least 40 hours a week. Most teachers have on average 6-7 classes per week with language teachers often having more. Beware of any institution that has you teaching more than 12 classes per week, this is an unfair course load.

The average starting salary for a full-time university teacher varies so widely it is hard to give accurate numbers. It can be as little as 250000 (equivalent to a cram school teacher), or up to 480000 yen per month. Private schools will tend to pay less than public schools and lower-ranking schools (i.e. not famous or distinguished academically) will pay even less. However, these low-ranking schools are good entry jobs and may be more lenient in their hiring practices. Maximum salaries also vary with each institution.

Full-time university teachers get all standard benefits offered including health insurance, sick leave and holidays. Your salary will increase over time and most universities give you bonuses twice yearly. Also, you may have much greater job security usually with the possibility of tenure, although this depends on your institution and if they employ discriminatory-hiring practices for foreign employees. You will often get a yearly amount of money to spend on research and trips to conferences. You will also often get subsidised housing, dependent allowance, as well as a private office.

A big difference between full-time and part-time teachers is the number of responsibilities you will have. In additional to classes, full-time teachers are in charge of committees, research rooms, and in particular, seminar students. Seminar students are students that choose to engage in research with you for the full term of their 4 years at the university and ultimately, you are often responsible for helping find employment for them when they graduate. (Obviously a big responsibility.) You may be responsible for giving intensive courses during the summer months and also for administering test on weekends. You will have to help out during open campuses, festivals, and so on. You can expect to work during all school holidays. The students may not be in class, but this does not mean vacation for you.

Working at a Japanese university is a prestigious job with a lot of respect and better than average pay. Therefore, your co-workers will generally be very intelligent and well-educated. It is a great work if you can get it, less busy than working as a office worker, and generally with a better working environment.

How to Get a University Teaching Position in Japan in Five (not-so-easy) Steps!

In my years of living and teaching in Japan, I've come across quite a few people who are trying to get teaching jobs at a university in Japan. Many of those teachers are good at their jobs, and many of them have impressive credentials; some even had PhDs. They often ask me how I have managed to get two university jobs, one full-time having only a bachlor's degree. Although having a master's or a phd is a good start, it won't necessarily get you an interview. So, if you are thinking of trying to get a university job, or if you have been trying unsuccessfully, this post is for you.

Step 1 - Learn Japanese
This may sound obvious, but unlike JET or a conversation school, a university is not geared towards hiring foreigners and they probably won't have an English-speaking supervisor to help you out. Bothering your rediculously busy co-workers to help you with your administrative crap is not going to endear you to them. Also, they won't be able to help you much at faculty and other meetings. You should be able to hold your own in conversations about pension, insurance, curriculum, student affairs, etc. Minimum level for this would be JLPT N3, preferrably lower N2. Reading and writing kanji is less important than being able to speak and understand. I repeat, you pretty much NEED to speak Japanese well.

Step 2 - Get Published
Most universities require you to have a minimum of 3 publications for a full-time position. Even for a part-time position, having something of yours published, anything really, is often required. So, if you have a chance to put something down in writing that will get published in a journal, book, magazine, newspaper, DO IT!!! Ideally, get published in an academic publication, but in my experience, the university staff mainly want to check their boxes with respect to applicants and if you can get that "I have published something" box checked, then you will have an easier time getting an interview, and hopefully landing the position.

Also, think back to any time you were published at school, did you submit a poem or article for the school newspaper? Have you ever won a writing competition? Every little bit helps. If you have nothing, I would suggest going to the local newspaper in your town and asking them if you could write an article for them (in Japanese of course). However, since academic publications are best, choose an area of educational interest, write something well-researched, and try to get published.

Step 3 - Get a part-time position to gain experience and save money
Almost every full-time job will require that you already have at least 2 years of teaching experience at the university level. In order to obtain this, you will need to settle for working part-time for 2~3 years. On the plus side, part-time often pays almost as well as full-time depending on how many koma (classes) you get. On the down side, it's hard to get a visa if you aren't working many hours. You may need to suppliment your part-time university work with part-time cram school or conversation-school work. If you cannot do that, working full-time teaching English to adults is the next best thing.

Save up money because you may have to travel to interviews in person. Some universities will be able to conduct interviews via video conferencing software like Skype, but most won't. Flying around for interviews can get VERY expensive, VERY quickly so be prepared.

Step 4 - Get a Master's Degree
If you don't already have at least a Master's degree, use the time you are working part-time to gain experience as time to get your Master's degree online. Yes, it's expensive, but without it you will have one hell of a time getting a full-time position. There are many online programs, some of them are total scams, so my advice to you is to make sure you get a degree from a university that also has on-site students. (i.e. students who are studying on the school grounds.) A Master's degree in English literature, ESL, and lingustics are the most sought after, but generally speaking, having any Master's degree will be sufficient for most jobs.

Step 5 - Apply, Apply, Apply (or Delay Equals Failure) A Novel By Job Hunter
Send your resumes to every and any job you can. My rule of thumb is this, if you are missing out on one criterion, apply anyway. If you are missing out on two criteria, apply if the job is particularly suited to you in some respect. More than three criteria? Forget it. You may have to send out hundreds of resumes and since this is Japan, you will have to send them by mail (costs $). Also, your resumes will often have to be in Japanese. Be prepared for this by downloading a template and asking a Japanese person to help you if you need kanji assistance.

You will need to tailor your cover letters so often you will have ten versions or more. You will have several different resumes because often universities will have their own resume template requiring you to constanly have to imput the same information over and over in different formats. You will want to die, kill HR people, and you will have to sacrifice a TON of your time, but without this constant effort, you will not succeed in finding a job.

Most job advertisements for April come out in September and resumes are usually considered in the order they are submitted, so if you are a procrastinator, prepare to be rejected. In particular, if you see an ideal job posting, jump on that opportunity asap.

Other points suggested by web-buddies are:
*Membership in an association helps. JALT is a good place to start.
*Avoid emphasizing your eikaiwa (English conversation school) background if you have one. These kinds of jobs have a (often underservedly imo) bad rep in Japan.

Here are the best sites to find university level teaching jobs in Japan. Good luck to you!
jrecin.jst.go.jp/index_e.html‎
jalt-publications.org/tlt/departments/job-info-centre/jobs