sublingua

The heart with a mind of its own.

(Be present.)

The mind with a heart of its own.

(It's past.)

The dream that is your waking life.

(Go there now.)

Kaisha=Company
Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2005

What to say about the interview--besides that I aced it, I mean.

Okay, there were two interviewers: Amanda, an American woman who's worked for the Kaisha for 3 1/2 yrs. and Sachiko, a Japanese woman who's been there 6 years and who speaks fluent English. They were very conservatively dressed in suits, but were wearing pants. (I was more conservatively dressed than they, and later, when I asked about pants, they said that pants were preferable because many classes were with children and you spend a lot of time on the floor in that case, so pants are better.)

Sunday was a long day, starting at 10 a.m. and ending at 6:00. Officially, the meeting began at 10:30, but they asked that we be there at 10:00, which I was. (I thought, as I heard the door squeak open behind me at 10:35, Man, just pack it in. Because when a Japanese corporation asks you to be thirty minutes early, you'd better be there forty minutes early.) There were eleven of us. I was one of two women. (The other woman, a young woman from Chicago, said during introductions that her favorite Japanese food was "California roll.") There were 9 men, one of whom left after the orientation. Three of the men had traveled to Japan. No one else had.

We had to fill out a small sheet that asked our names, phone numbers/contact information, and how long it had taken us to travel to the meeting. (Later, in the personal interview, the woman I interviewed with asked a question about my travel time, so they pay attention to all that.)

They began with an orientation to the company, and said they're weren't there to sugarcoat things. In fact, they didn't. They not only address Kaisha matters (contract stipulations, salary, dress code, etc.), they address personal and financial matters as well (the emotional ramifications of living among the Japanese, leaving your family, health considerations, and so on). They addressed how Americans--and all outsiders--are seen by the Japanese. "Even if you stay there twenty years, you will Never. Be. Japanese," Sachiko said. (I thought of the young man who, outside the interview room, had said wistfully to me, "If I could, I would be Japanese.")

After the orientation, there was a single page grammar quiz that mostly consisted in spotting errors in written work and correcting them. There was also a two page "survey" of questions like "What things will you do to prepare for moving to Japan?" and "What are three characteristics that you think Americans have that Japanese don't and why," and "What would you do in case of an emergency back home?" and "What are five duties, besides teaching, that you will have to do," and "What are three things, besides friends and family, that you will miss." It was pretty extensive, and, as evidenced by later questions in the personal interview, they do read these surveys carefully. They gave us forty minutes to fill out both sheets, then we had a lunch break.

After lunch, there was a group interview. The first part of the interview was a "group meeting." Five of us had to look at a page from a textbook and decide, as a group, how to best teach a ten minute lesson and fill out a sheet outlining our lesson plan. Of course, I grabbed the pen and started filling it out. I took control of the "meeting"--which I was later told in the personal interview was a good thing, as it showed initiative. After the lesson, we each taught a five-minute lesson that we had prepared beforehand. While others taught their lessons, the rest of the interviewees acted as students. ("We know you're native English speakers," Amanda said, "so don't try to act Japanese. Don't fake Japanese accents." (I had to wonder at the clueless interviewees who had done this.) She reminded us that it was very bad form to try to sabotage other presenters. (Again, I had to wonder about who might think this was a good idea.)) The interviewers were not only interested in how we taught, but in how we interacted with others, how we participated in groups. (One guy just pretty much should have stopped his lesson and gone home when a student, hesitated in forming a question in the past perfect tense, and the guy teaching "encouraged" him, by saying "Tick-tock," as if to remind him that he was taking too much time to think. Man, I though, your students are paying for this lesson in real life. I don't think rushing them is the right idea, considering that you work for them.) I taught a lesson about interrogatives--don't use big grammatical terms, was one criticism I got later from Sachiko--but smiled, was very professional--which Sachiko later said were the good points of my presentation--and got students to provide examples of questions that began with interrogatives. Student interaction is their selling point, and Sachiko later said that the Kaisha's goal was to have students speak 80% of the time, and the teacher speak 20% of the time. Also, giving the students lots of praise was given very high marks in the interviewers' eyes. Just being polite, friendly, professional, encouraging, etc. was what they seemed to be looking for--not teaching experience or how well you knew your stuff. ("The textbooks have answer keys for the teachers," Sachiko told me later.) But they're watching all the time, from the first mintute you enter the room, to how you interact with others on breaks, to how you shake hands. They were noting it all.

Okay, so that was the group interview. I'll tell more about the personal interview later.

retreat or surrender

More lies:
Waking Sleeping Demons II - Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011
Waking Sleeping Demons - Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011
time - Friday, May. 20, 2011
- - Wednesday, Oct. 06, 2010
The Return - Tuesday, Oct. 05, 2010

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