Is CELTA in Japan For Me? (1 of 2)

I assume that if you're here reading this, you probably know about CELTA - but if not, Cambridge CELTA is a certified professional development course on teaching adults. You can read all about it on the Cambridge website. I had just recently completed the course, and would like to just share my thoughts and advice on it - while it's still fresh in my head.

CELTA is available in Japan. When I was searching, I came across several schools nation-wide. But two in Kansai - specifically, Kobe city. One center offered both online and in-person courses, while the other, was all in-person (unless special circumstances called for it otherwise). I went with the latter school. While it really wasn't much different from what the other school offered, I just went with my gut feeling.

Just to get it out there, I actually did complete this course IN-PERSON.

Yes, I know. COVID19 and all. It's dangerous, and I agree. I won't make excuses for myself, but I just want to say that my 4 other classmates, my 2 tutors and I have been extremely cautious (mask, sanitizer and temperature check). And we left this course, so far, safely. I will touch upon how it was like doing CELTA during COVID19 as well, but onto that later!

This is going to be a long blog post... so I will break my post into two. If you already know you want to take CELTA and have already signed up, you can skip this post and go to the one where I talk about the course itself!

Here I will talk about mostly my thoughts of CELTA and the application process.

Should You Take This Course?

For those of you without a Master's in Education - Short answer is, yes. Absolutely.

I'm not saying this because I'm trying to promote my school or anything (notice that I'm actually NOT mentioning which center I took it at), but I think all working ELT (English Language Teaching) professionals should consider this course. Whether you're eikaiwa, ALT or private tutor, I think you can all benefit from it.

Some people take it for their own professional development, but as for me, I really don't see myself staying in the ELT field for the rest of my life - but I still wanted to take it.

This is a bit of a doosy, honestly... but even though on paper I am considered a "native English speaker", I don't really consider myself as one. I don't know how to explain it... I spoke Chinese at home and with a lot of my friends, so I always struggled with balancing both. And I kind of never really got good at either? Haha... I sucked at English grammar, and I know that the students I was teaching was suffering due to my incompetence. So I wanted to do it for my students.

So if you feel remotely the same way as me, I know this course will still absolutely benefit you in some way.

I also put it off for some time because ALT salary isn't exactly meant for you to have luxuries like professional development, so I get that this isn't going to be easy for some of you to take even if you wanted to. But if you can scrap by, I would try to take this course ASAP. I sort of regret waiting this long to do it and wished I had done it much earlier.

Those with an MEd I think probably don't need this, but since professional development is hard to come by in Japan (especially in English and in-person), it might just be a good chance to maybe refresh your memory. And perhaps a good chance to connect with other serious teachers in the field.

Getting Admitted into CELTA

(Un)fortunately, one doesn't just sign up to get into a CELTA. There is actually an interview process. At least in the school I went to, anyway.

After submitting an application online, I received an email pretty promptly to set up the in-person meeting... or interview, I guess. I had to complete a set of grammar/phonology-related questions. Questions like "where is the word stress on xyz words" and "in this xyz writing, are the underlined phrases (xyz grammar) or (abc grammar)". Things like that. I was also asked to explain why I wanted to take the course as a writing task. It was to be sent to them before the interview so your interviewer can look at (what I assume) your strengths, weaknesses and see if the candidate has enough knowledge to be a successful CELTA candidate.

I think the last point is a big one. My interviewer, who actually became one of my two tutors on the CELTA course, was very forthcoming on this point. They want all their CELTA candidates to be successful, and there is no point in admitting a candidate who they know will not do well on the course. It's a waste of time for everyone, and a waste of money for the candidate.

If you're worried about the pre-interview tasks, I say - don't.

My grammar is pretty shite, and I still managed to pass the interview with flying colors. I think if you explained yourself well, and took the time to think about the questions presented to you - then I believe you will do well. Even if you don't get the questions correct.

During the interview, I believe I had to do another short grammar and spelling test(?) on the spot? I don't remember though... After that, your interviewer will go through the pre-interview tasks and the test you just took with you. Essentially, you will know if you will be able to proceed with the course by the end, and you will find out what are some problem areas you will need to work on before the course starts. This is all to help you learn better during CELTA, and be a much more successful candidate. You'll then be left with a pre-course task - which is very similar to your pre-interview tasks. You are encouraged to complete them, but they will not be graded towards you getting your CELTA certificate or not.

Thinking back, I think the pre-interview tasks are absolutely telling of whether you will succeed or not. The assignments you get on the courses very much mimics the type of questions from the pre-interview and pre-course tasks. It's almost like a preview into the course. So if you find the pre-tasks difficult and very time-consuming, you may want to reconsider and postpone it for another time.

Pre-Course Things

There's really not all that much in terms of pre-course preparation. Your CELTA center/school will email you and tell you what your next steps are: the fees, course materials and the pre-task.

Each school has their own system of payment, so I would contact your school for any questions you have regarding this. However, my school offered those who had financial difficulty to have the option of a split payment. It's slightly more expensive than the lump sum, but I think it can be helpful for those who are living paycheck to paycheck.

With course material, it's mostly just textbooks.

A brotip if you don't want to purchase the book is that there are tons of websites that have PDF versions of these books. I personally bought it because I wasn't sure in the beginning if we needed them during the seminars, but you don't really. You don't even need to bring them to class. So unless your tutors say you need to bring a book to class, I would try to look for these PDF online versions!

Depending on how your CELTA centers are, you may need to take a device with you that has internet connection. Your cellphone would obviously suffice, but if you had an ipad or a computer that can connect to wifi or data, this might be beneficial to you during the course.

My school also asked us to purchase a binder with clear sleeves to put our papers into, but I rarely even used it. My school had their own binders for us to keep the papers that they needed for evaluation. I do have it to keep papers from my seminars, but that's it.

On the next post, I'll talk more about the course itself!

Part 2: Taking the CELTA Course in Japan

[JR West Train] West Express Ginga

If you read this blog in the past at all, you'll know this panda loves me some trains.

And today, I'm super excited to get to talk about this BEAUTIFUL TRAIN with you!!

I've been following this train for awhile, and even though I couldn't get tickets to go on (it's completely through lottery only), I really wanted to see it! So this Saturday, I woke up bright and early to catch the departure of the West Express Ginga from Osaka station, to Shimonoseki (Yamaguchi prefecture).

This is the new, family-friendly luxury fleet of trains in the JR West lines. The train's debut early this year (before everything went to shit due to our favourite pandemic) was meant to connect the metropolis of Osaka and stimulate tourism in the Sa'nin region (Tottori, Matsue & Yamaguchi).

I assume that the West Express Ginga was made to substitute the Sunrise Izumo Sleeper Train from Tokyo, as it doesn't stop in Osaka station on the way to Izumo in Matsue (it does stop in Osaka on the way to Tokyo though!).

Car 1 - the Green car.

The train itself also pays homage to an early Sleeper Train fleet called GINGA, which ran its lifespan along various Tokaido routes until 2008. As you will see in the photos later, there is a second Sleeper Train it pays homage to - the Myojo. The Myojo sleeper ran between Osaka and Kumamoto until the late 80s, until it was "downgraded" into passengers and eventually taken out of the service in 1990. It was in service for a good 30 or so odd years.

The West Express Ginga also has sleeper units - cars 2, 5 and 6. Cars 2 and 5 are private bunkers that sleeps 4 people - which is what makes this train supposedly more "family-friendly". Compared to the actual luxury Sleeper between Kansai-Sa'nin, the Twilight Express Mizukaze (this train makes the Ginga look like a peasant... sorry) gears more towards couples look for an travel experience. Much like the Nanatsuboshi and the 36+3 in Kyushu, which I briefly talked about in my other blog post on trains.

Car 6 are private single sleepers. They looked pretty nice and spacious!

If you haven't guessed, Suisei was also once a Sleeper Train that ran its course in the nation. This train is full of amazing references to past trains!

The sitting area in the sleeper car 6.

The last car is the lounge car, the Yuusei, which I am ashamed to say... I'm not sure what the reference is here. If other train nerds can jump in and educate me, it would be most welcomed!!

But otherwise, that's the whole train.

Unfortunately they only allowed ticket holders to enter the train (which makes sense for many reasons - COVID19 and all), so all my phone pictures are very glary. But I hope you enjoyed them as much as me! If you're living between Yamaguchi or Osaka, this train will be stopping along the way from now until March 2021 - so you can also catch a glimpse of this train too!

Here's a really bad, calming video I tried to edit to show the train a bit more.

(please be kind - I'm trying to relearn video editing again)

Comments I Received on the Job (ALT in Japan)

I've worked as an ALT in Japan for more than 5 years now. We aren't qualified teachers in Japan by any means, which means that we often don't get the hit by angry and dissatisfied parents at all compared to our Japanese English teachers. But as we are often sent to work by another company, that company will often ask the school and the teachers you work with for comments about us. So either way, whether it's directly or indirectly (more the latter as Japanese aren't really into the whole "direct confrontation" approach), we will hear a lot of comments about the work we do.

Unfortunately for the direct hires and eikaiwa teachers, you have more direct contact with parents, and it is likely you're get some complaints about your work. But which job doesn't have someone somewhere making comments about you anyway? Almost none.

Here's some comments/complaints I've heard given to us ALTs on the job:

1) Not Wearing Jeans

This isn't a complaint so much as it is a... comment. When I worked for a Dispatch Company, the school would evaluate their ALTs on behalf of the Board of Education. The evaluations are given back to the Dispatch Company. I remember when I caught a glimpse of the evaluation, one of the positive comments was that "it was good that I wasn't wearing jeans to work".

Appearances and clothing can be quite important on the job. Especially during your first few weeks at a school. But it's not unusual for ALTs to be a bit more lax with their clothing once they get more comfortable at the school. I suppose in the past, an ALT got a bit... too lax? Probably wore jeans to work all the time to warrant such a comment? I wish I knew.

2) Speaking Too Fast/Too Slow

I've received comments of both sides of the spectrum. In the beginning when I started my job, I wasn't used to using more 'graded language' (my time on the CELTA course is affecting my lingo lol). It was difficult for me to "dumb down" the English, so to speak. And a teacher gently commented that I should speak more slowly in the classroom.

Now that I've been here for some day, I often get the opposite comment. I teach more higher-level students, and students often want me to speak at more "natural" speeds. But as I'm more used to speaking slowly, it's so much harder to go at natural speaking speed in the classroom. That plus just having my English deteriorate over time, it's become quite a challenge!

3) Arguing With My JTE (Co-Teacher)

At a place I worked at, we often receive evaluations from students as feedback at the end of the year. One comment I remember getting from students wrote "stop arguing with (co-teacher) in the classroom!!".

For the record, I never argued with this teacher. In fact, we probably had the best relationship in the school due to this JTE's high English level. He/she was always down to do my activities, and we both always talked through some difficult English points in the classroom for the students to get more in depth learning. But those discussions was what caused the problem.

Since the students cannot understand what we were saying as we were talking each other through the languages, students took that as "disagreements" or "arguing". Since then, this co-teacher and I always used this comment as a running joke.

4) Not Speaking Enough Japanese

As an ALT, we are specifically told and been drilled into our heads by Dispatch Company to never use Japanese in the classroom. We are here to teach English, so even if it means that we need to be swinging our arms and using only gestures to communicate along with English, we had to. Honestly, I never really followed through with it completely. I try not to use it at all if necessary, because our JTEs can usually do it for us (if necessary). But some words in Japanese just don't translate well in English, and it's just much better to say in Japanese.

However, there was one low-level high school class where parents and students complaint that my JTE and I wasn't speaking enough Japanese in the English class. I was so confused. My JTE spoke mostly in Japanese. I don't speak any Japanese in the class, but my JTE always translated what I said back to Japanese. It never made sense to either of us. It never will.

5) Don't Express Your Opinion

I received a letter from an anonymous parent (as they all are these days) complaining about my social media handles (how this parent came to stalk my SNS, I have no idea). There was a lot to unpack in that letter, but essentially, she was unhappy that I wrote an opinion about Japan in public. The opinion was about COVID19. That schools shouldn't remain open. That I was scared.

This parent tried to twist my words and wrote on the letter that I was writing a bad opinion about MY WORKPLACE. That it was shameful for a teacher to express their opinion this way.

Unfortunately, I suppose social media is still seen as somewhat of an undesirable place. It's where young people get pried on. That the internet is not meant to be used by professionals, as its not a realm for professional-use. Those who do and do it publicly, they should remain professional at all times - especially in Japan?? I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but I suppose writing opinions on the internet is seen as "not professional" for a teacher. And I think that's a real shame.

Teachers have enough stress throughout their day already. And to be told they cannot use the internet to express concern, discomfort and open up discussion is so backwards thinking. I really hope to see this improve someday.

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Anyway, I asked a bunch of you what your strange complaints were, and there are some really interesting one out there. Click on the tweet to look at all the conversations:

Come join the conversation! I don't care if you teach in Thailand or Korea, ALT or no. As long as you teach ESL and you teach in Asia - I want to hear from you!! I just put "ALT in Japan" as that's who I am.

Thanks for reading. See you all next blog!!