So I have reached another learning plateau where no matter how hard I study I don't feel like I am making any progress. Before I took a break and I think it made it much worse. What are your ideas for over coming the Intermediate/advanced learning Plateaus? I feel that having this community is one of the best ways to overcome it.
I am living in Yamanashi-ken and am married to a Japanese woman and yet I don't feel like I am advancing. I feel like I have reached a point where my Japanese is good enough for what I need it for today but not if I were to go into business or change my occupation.
Ya I am an English teacher. While I only speak Japanese at home and watch TV in Japanese with my wife I don't feel like I can advance. I have tons of textbooks for N2 and N1 along with tons of Japanese grammar books for Japanese nationals but I am never in a situation that calls for me to use them so I forget them and just use a lesser point that has the same meaning.
Hmm. I got really lucky with my work - after doing ALT work for several years, I found a (high) school that was interested in a licensed teacher. I still only teach English (and homeroom classes), but the paperwork/student guidance/teachers meetings have really created a need to understand more Japanese, where those roles were passed by me when I was an ALT. I'm not sure if you are looking to stay here for several years or more, and it's by no means a quick solution, but I guess I'm saying there are much more Japanese intensive jobs within the English teaching world. I didn't exactly study all the new teacher Japanese, but it definitely worked its way in there naturally.
Without being in a business atmosphere, I imagine it will be hard to advance too much further with more formal Japanese. I'm hoping some of our other members can comment on outside of work activities that lend to a higher need (and therefore, higher chance for acquiring) of Japanese.
Thanks for the info. When you say licensed teacher were you licensed in your home country or are you licensed here in Japan? I am an ALT now but I have a masters in teaching Biological Science K-12. From your experience would there be any jobs I could find with that background?
Hmm - I had zero teaching experience back in the States, although I did pick up my CELTA at some point down the line.
I received a 臨時免許 from the prefectural board of education, something that is done through the school you are at (it is not something, as best as I understand, something you can ask for on your own. All the paperwork we sent in was done through the school).
Now, I teach English, so I unfortunately cannot comment on other subjects - I would surmise that outside of international schools, you aren't going to find much traction with non-English subjects. If you are interested in teaching English more seriously (possible home room responsibilities, be in charge of class curriculum/testing, etc.), then I would say it is possible, but hard to find. Again, either international schools or high schools that have global/English/international "courses" would be the most likely to be interested in such a thing.
I'm in a rather...conservative prefecture, educationally, so I was told that I was the first foreigner to receive a license at the high school level, but I know there are even other teachers like me on renshuu (as small as it is), so it definitely happens. If you're here for the long haul, then even if takes a few years of working towards that, it could definitely be worth looking into.
I'm sorry, I'm just reading this now, this perspective may well be being shared well past the point it is useful! My experience of learning Japanese has been through a lot of formal tuition bounded by periods of having to use the language intensively but for short periods (a couple of weeks here or there). I have a few friends who do similar work and when we compared notes, those that studied something else in Japanese but apart from language really improved very quickly. One of my friends was studying law and took a semester at a Japanese university, that really improved her Japanese!! So, my suggestion is to maybe study something else in Japanese but not language itself. If you enjoy the subject anyway, doing it in Japanese may well be worthwhile!
