What ALT Dispatch Companies Want YOU to Believe

So, you wanted to come to Japan and you've managed to secure a job with a (dispatch) company that promised you that they would give you a placement and will send you into public schools to become an assistant language teacher (ALT) to Japanese English Teachers (JTE).

Now you're finally in Japan. Of course, the first thing your company wants you to do is to attend their orientation/training sessions. Your actual job will probably start a few days (a week, if you're lucky) after the training session is over.

The training session may take 3 days. Maybe 4.

Maybe even 5, which is essentially a whole work week. You're probably thinking it's a huge drag (it is), but at least you'll get to meet some new people who will be experiencing this for the first time too - whether it's their first time teaching, first time living in Japan, etc. Build at least a temporary support & network. So there's some plus to it.

You get to the training session.

Spoiler alert, folks - but it'll probably be information about the company you're working for, Japanese work culture, etiquette, important laws/rules (someone will most likely have a hearsay on how a guy received drugs from a friend and got arrested), etc. If you're lucky, you might actually get a run-down on how ALT differs from actual teaching, and learn to pull easy hat tricks out in an impromptu class.

And if you do, here are some things that you really should take with a grain of salt once you truly enter into the realm of ALT-ing. Listen to them, but follow them... sparingly. Because you know what? You're the one who has to deal with the school and know what's happening at the school in real time, not the dispatch company (as much as they want to believe that).

Discipline

God, please discipline the kids.

The first dispatch company I worked for REALLY rammed this down our throats at orientation to never discipline the students. Our supervisors told us to let your JTE do all the work in this regard and follow their lead (which is partly true). The reasoning they gave was that you didn't want to get in trouble with the school in case anything went wrong, as we were not licensed teachers in Japan.

Now, if you were someone who believes in corporal punishment as classroom discipline - then uh... yeah, please listen to the dispatch company and DON'T DISCIPLINE. (please)

But otherwise, you should definitely discipline.

Japan isn't exactly a place that likes conflict, so I do find that many teachers here in Japan use avoidance as "discipline" - so to speak. For example, if the whole class was sleeping or talking, the teacher would prefer to just soldier on the 50 minutes over the kids instead of losing his/her temper...

I mean, there's a bit of a middle ground here. You don't need to do nothing, but you don't need to go all the way to 100 either. As a second "teacher" in the room, you often don't need to be in the front of the room 24/7. Instead of disrupting the whole class and losing your temper on behalf of the JTE, you have a chance to go right up to the chatty kid's desk and take the conversation away from the kid. Much better to be using some English with you, then to be doing fuck all the entire class. And of course, there are other subtle ways to utilize yourself in the classroom if you feel you're not being useful in a disruptive class.

But please, don't listen to your dispatch company and be a complete tool and let the kids run all over you. Japanese teachers fully expect you to pull your weight. You don't have to be a teacher, but at least act like an adult to a room full of children.

Here's the thing though: If it happens once, maybe talk to your teacher first - it is possible there is a good reason as to why Taro is not responding well to your class. Talk about what you guys can do it if it happens again. And if it happens again, you can discipline and your teacher will be on board with you. (you always want your JTE & school to be on your side!)

One thing I do want to mention are detentions.

Japan doesn't really have a detention policy or culture here. The concept is... foreign, to them. If that method is your go-to discipline, you would 100% want to run it with your teachers first. As many students have after school activities, etc, giving after school detention may be extremely impractical.

Doable if you have a solid plan, but it may be met with some resistance.

Definitely just talk to your teacher first.