Onlline Learning Unattactive to Japanese...

[josiah]

i saw this on the "what does japan think" website.

very interesting, and i think from what most japanese people i have met, they would also fall into the "no" category as well.


http://whatjapanthinks.com/2008/04/01/online-english-lessons-attractive-to-one-in-four-japanese/

[JonB]

Not sure I would go with that based on their sample but still assuming it is fair that is still 40 million people - get a slice of that Peter and co and you'll be laughing all the way to the bank!

Oh - were it that easy

[Javizy]

That refers to online person-to-person lessons using a microphone, so it doesn't go to say that they wouldn't be interested in something like EnglishPod. Although like Jon said, a 300 sample size doesn't say much. Personally I wouldn't be too interested in online lessons myself, if I was going to pay I'd rather it be face-to-face.

On another note, I've always been amazed by the whole Nova thing: people get jobs just because they can speak English, regardless of their technical knowledge of either language? A good teacher needs an in-depth knowledge of both languages to explain the finer nuances in a way the student can understand. I feel sorry for all the people who have paid for such a service.

[Belton]

On another note, I've always been amazed by the whole Nova thing: people get jobs just because they can speak English, regardless of their technical knowledge of either language? A good teacher needs an in-depth knowledge of both languages to explain the finer nuances in a way the student can understand. I feel sorry for all the people who have paid for such a service.

For that matter I'm surprised that they spend so much on JET/ALT in the school system instead of improving the training of the licensed Japanese teachers to teach English. Or improve their English by sending them to America/Canada/Australia/NZ/UK over the summer break to improve their English. It might give longer term returns as you'd hope a teacher might have a 30+ year career compared to the 3 year turnover of JETs.

There's a strange thinking that being able to speak at a native level makes you able to teach. Most people I know haven't a clue how English works to enable them to begin to teach in any systematic way. And even then few would have the talent to teach. And it takes training and experience to do it well.

Improve English earlier, then the 3 to 5 year schools English might result in some ability in speaking at the end of it for the students.

On the original survey. I think you'd get even worse results polling an English speaking general audience about a. learning a language at all and b. using the Internet to pay to do it. I actually think the Japanese are ahead of the game here. I remember they set up a business just to do this sort of remote teaching in Dublin some years ago.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... i_n8695722
cheaper than flying people to Japan and subsidising their housing costs.
I actually don't see the problem if you have a good fast connection, it might even be mre convenient for the user. Add in video presentation, IM, recording of the lesson for review in your own time it could be better than a one to one classroom experience.

English teaching seems a pretty big industry in Japan.

I was also interested to see one company call the people they use instructors not teachers. A subtle difference prehaps. It sounds like they have a McDonalds-like manual for teaching English.

[kc8ufv]

I was also interested to see one company call the people they use instructors not teachers. A subtle difference prehaps. It sounds like they have a McDonalds-like manual for teaching English.

Generally, a teacher produces their own lessons/lesson plans, while an instructor may or may not. A teacher is usually a more highly respected position.

[markystar]

It sounds like they have a McDonalds-like manual for teaching English.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ ... 224zg.html

[josiah]

i think that this is really a general thing throughout asia, rather than being japan specific. you can go to korea with a degree or without on a WHV.

what i really want to know is,
why this need for mc english? wouldn't having a TESOL, CELTA or the equivalent be better for someone who has teaching experience?

[Belton]

why this need for mc english?

money, profits.

If you mac-ify the training and delivery your costs go down. (To be fair McDonalds probably didn't invent this 3 hole binder method, I think it was the US military or some military organisation)
Properly trained people can and should demand higher wages and more autonomy.

But if you pay high wages this gets passed on to customers who might not want to pay high class fees. So they'll go down the road to McEnglish juku. I think it can be hard for a potential student to judge teaching quality and what their return will be for their hard earned cash.

Maybe independent learning is best.
Maybe the Internet offers opportunities (like jPod) to those who can make use of them.
I think face to face teaching is necessary but I can't quite say why.
But I'd make decisions about attending a course in a large part based on it's cost.

I'd also come back to why the huge demand? Why can't the public school systems deliver it if it is important to the economy / country. Or is Japanese education completely privatised after middle school? Why is so much extra schooling needed in jukus for that matter.

[markystar]

I think face to face teaching is necessary but I can't quite say why.

for me i like to have the best of both worlds. the nice thing about a face-to-face teacher, for me at least, is they can adapt to your needs on the spot. and since language is all about human interaction, i think such a communicative approach is desirable.

i'll say this about the McEnglish theory... the use of the target-language only in the classroom is pretty effective. the only japanese lessons i've taken were at berlitz, one of the big 英会話 schools in japan. they actually teach all languages, and i've taken quite a few japanese lessons there -- one on one and semi-private (a small group of no more than 3 people). it was fun and allowed me to really put into practice words i was learning at japanesepod101 and on the streets and on my own. i made good progress there, but it was only a few hours a week. but because there was no english allowed (some teachers couldn't speak english), it was great! but the best progress i made was when i started seeing my current girlfriend who literally hates speaking english, so it's 100% immersion instead of a few hours a week. but that's similar to having a face-to-face teacher in a lot of ways, just more hardcore. when you can't use the "english crutch" you can improve dramatically.

face-to-face McJapanese was helpful for my japanese, so it stands to reason that McEnglish can't be 100% bad for the students.

[untmdsprt]

Since I don't have a Japanese boyfriend yet, I've found that when people get over the initial shock of me speaking Japanese, they're more than helpful when I ask them questions. I'm getting the most practice though at restaurants, but you need to have added one thing, when they ask you if you want a plastic bag to carry your items in. That would be a good lesson in itself since it's not expected.

I do wish I can find a Japanese teacher for the interaction, but I'm not wanting to start over with a new textbook. I like Jpod, and my current book Japanese for Busy people II.

Does anyone know of a classroom setting that uses this book? I'm in the Yokohama area.