Student Exchange Programs

The greatest challenge I will face as an ALT in Japan is communicating effectively with the school administration, co-teachers, and students. I have spent the past three years refining my communication techniques to better facilitate information exchange both within and outside of the classroom. Korean is a high context language which assumes the receiver has certain information. I am a native speaker of English which is a low context language in which very little is understood and conversation is more explicit. I believe that Japanese is also a high context language that will challenge me for many years.

When I am speaking to my superiors I engage them in a positive and respectful manner. I never frame the issue as a “ me versus you” problem; rather, I frame the issue as “we versus the problem” scenario.I am an active listener and participant in conversation with my superiors and I accept criticism and implement feedback immediately. Finally, I never take anything personal. I don’t believe in personalizing conflicts because most problems are either human error or lack of communication. Neither situation will be resolved positively by me losing my professionalism.

I currently have eight co-teachers and each one has a different teaching style and expectation for their class. Inside the classroom I am respectful and I defer to the Korean teacher. In some classes I write and execute the lesson plan without input from my co-teacher. In other classes I don’t speak but I make sure that the teacher knows I am prepared to assist in any way they deem appropriate. I feel they know the students better than I do and I can best serve the school by remaining flexible.

When I am speaking to the students I try to be as open and as accessible as possible. I am usually in my office thirty minutes prior to the start of class for general conversation. They are also encouraged to join the free adult class I run during the lunch break. I am also available after school for tutoring as well. The lesson plans I design always take into consideration their interest within the context of educational goals.