Eikaiwa

Given that we've now started work, it's probably high time we tell you all a little bit about what we're actually doing in Japan, aside from trying every possible vending machine drink known to man (the subject of a forthcoming post). So here's a brief history lesson...

It's compulsory for all Japanese school students to learn English from junior high school until the end of high school. which is usually about six years in total. However, most of this time is spent learning English grammar; it's only a study of another language in the sense that maths is another language, with rules that need to be applied in order to produce the 'correct' result. This means that most Japanese people have had hardly any English conversation practice, a situation exacerbated by Japan's high level of ethnic homogeneity. In other words, not many foreigners. Thus, you have an entire country that is awash in English language signage (and Engrish.com is always good for a few cheap laughs) but not much day to day use of the English language. Thus, there's a demand for English conversation schools, which are known as Eikaiwa gakko, or simply Eikaiwa. There are plenty of Eikaiwa around the place, but the four biggest are Nova (the largest, most prominent, and seemingly most controversial, they even have their own Arcade game!), Aeon, Geos and ECC (collectively known, somewhat unsurprisingly, as The Big Four). Sally and I are employees of ECC, which is totally absolutely the best school ever, with the most attractive teachers, conveniently located schools, and best soccer players of any of the Eikaiwa. If any of my bosses are reading this, please give me a raise.

Starting in the 1978 (the birth of the JET program), the Japanese government started promoting English language conversation, which in turn fueled the growth of private language schools, a situation that was also helped by the Japanese price asset bubble, and the remarkable growth of the Japanese economy.

To work as a teacher for an Eikaiwa, you must have a university degree (otherwise it's near impossible to obtain the relevant visa) although your degree doesn't have to be in the English or teaching fields - hence we have Sally and a coterie of other like minded Engineers, who could provide us all with clean drinking water and keep the power going, yet seem incapable of going thirty seconds without mutilating the English language. Their students get a special 'Engineer discount'.*



Students come to ECC (and presumably the other Eikaiwa's) for a number of reasons. Some are just studying English as a hobby, some need it for their jobs, some want to travel abroad (every second student has been to Hawaii and Cairns at least once), and some are forced to come by their ambitious parents. All the classes - from beginner to advanced - are English immersion experiences, which is good for me, because my functional Japanese consists of asking for 'two beers please!'. Handy in an Izakaya, somewhat useless in an English classroom. OR IS IT?

And that concludes part 1 of 'what exactly are Thom and Sally doing in Japan?'. All questions to the comments section please.



*Actual discount may not apply.