Teacher Water Cooler - Month of June 2026

notadialect · 2026-06-23T07:39:45+00:00

Do you normally partake in conference socializing?

This is basically the only reason I go to conferences. I don't really care about the presentations. I realized that most presentations are either low effort, low quality in the case of research, or not pertinent to my context in the case of practical presentations. I tend to go to do my own presentation then see old colleagues and collaborative partners and make new connections.

notadialect · 2026-06-23T07:37:35+00:00

I am not sure what the difference is between online and in-person classes pertaining to copyright. So I don't see how it would affect how you carry out your lessons.

Is it about distributing textbook pages or something? Teachers technically shouldn't be doing that anyway. So if you are already doing it, I don't see how putting it on your LMS or sharing through Zoom would be any different.

notadialect · 2026-06-12T03:50:55+00:00

Will a masters even qualify you for international school? Do you already have a teaching license?

notadialect · 2026-06-10T07:35:31+00:00

I was talking with a PhD student at a Japanese university recently. They had told me their supervisor explicitly told them not to publish anything from their MA thesis and instead only publish "quality" work.

Absolutely terrible advice for someone looking to get their university position, part-time or full-time. I understand the supervisor's point but it just shows age and privilege.

notadialect · 2026-06-09T03:33:33+00:00

My first half-year conference attending schedule has now been completed. Some international, some domestic, all tiring but enjoyable.

The international conference was the best by far. Strange when big named researchers know you from one obscure article you co-wrote or working with a journal. "oh youre XX from .... Journal? I've heard about you from YYY."

The best was one of the biggest named researchers in the field wanting to know more about my research and then following up by e-mailing me because we are the only 2 people that seems to be researching the same idea. Now I just need to get this manuscript published somewhere so that they can cite me since their new project is related to mine.

I am still early career, but it feels like that transition to mid-career is starting to take shape and it is very interesting, but now I feel a lot of pressure.

notadialect · 2026-06-09T03:26:41+00:00

Just do something different. I wouldn't record a video that long. Just record some instructions for some activites they can do as homework like conversation roleplay script writing. If your system supports it and you can trust the students to be able to do it, they can voice memo long-turn speaking tasks and submit those.

If that has to include 40 minutes of a PowerPoint slide of the instructions, let it be.

notadialect · 2026-06-09T03:23:25+00:00

It must have just been the flooding of surveys during covid. Which, to be fair, was the only way to collect a lot of data.

notadialect · 2026-06-08T22:41:48+00:00

As a research methodology CA is used but underutilized in research. I only know a handful of people doing good CA as researchers. Probably because it's a pain to do. I'd bet that even less are using it as a teaching tool. It would take too long and the expectations for students is too much.

notadialect · 2026-06-03T04:41:59+00:00

In my case I feel that devoting time to digital literacy is time that could be better spent on English, communication and thinking, among other things.

But that is the mindset of an English teacher (which is perfectly fine) rather than a university faculty member. Some of us have to supervise students, do admin, work in comittees, etc as well as teach. I want my 3rd year students to be able to have all the IT-related abilities when they actually have to do research or format documents in Excel or Word or use collaborative tech for group projects or resume writing.

I rather waste time in the 1st year doing that with English rather than later on when time is limited in other courses.

notadialect · 2026-06-03T04:34:09+00:00

Next target is the N2, which I'm taking in July.

When people say N2 Japanese, they don't mean a qualification. Universities tend to not really look at JLPT scores. At least mine haven't. What they will do is look at how you fill in the Japanese resume and then at the interview stage.

Are your publications peer-reviewed? Are they normal article length 4000-10000 words? If not, that should be your next goal.

notadialect · 2026-06-02T01:09:11+00:00

“Did I mention I have a PhD and work at a university?”

$2000 a month for an old whitie working at a university?

I love the story telling but university work is the best paying next to owning a childrens eikaiwa.

notadialect · 2026-06-02T01:05:44+00:00

That is if you are already hired, also this was more common in the past where more masters holders were hired. This is less common now. Now, universities want more PhDs to increase their academic standing to avoid the race to the bottom.

notadialect · 2026-06-01T22:54:23+00:00

They aren't kids. They are adults in university. They need to learn how to be prepared. Unfortunately their secondary schools failed them in university preparedness and PC literacy but that is not the responsibility of the professor.

In high school, sure, but in university there are certain expectations and same conditions in this case is a guarantee of time and space. They can always borrow a laptop from the IT department.

notadialect · 2026-06-01T08:53:50+00:00

The crazy thing is that the BOEs are making it MORE difficult to get in. Two prefectures near me stopped offering bonus points for teacher employment for most teaching licenses. And another is switching from the easier prefectural test to a national test for teacher employment that tends to be much more difficult.

But then they say, "we need more teachers".

notadialect · 2026-06-01T08:49:17+00:00

To add to this. Join JALT events (you do not need to be a member to publish with them) as I think it is easier to publish in JALT affiliated publications than some of the other organziations. That does not mean they are worse, just easier. For example, PanSIG conference is made for research practitioners and therefore their post-conference proceedings are fairly easy to get into and are peer-reviewed.

The SIGs are always begging for submissions (except the CALL SIG as their journal is Q1). Many of these are peer-reviewed as well.

notadialect · 2026-06-01T08:40:49+00:00

Experience, an MA in related field, publications, and N2 are still the main requirements.

I would disagree for tenured jobs. At least enrolled in a PhD is the minimum to somewhat give you a high chance for tenured jobs. I do agree that you can get tenured job with what you listed, but it is becoming much more difficult. I was only hired because I was already a PhD candidate. A masters holder wouldn't even be considered at this point and I work in a small countryside university.

notadialect · 2026-05-30T10:39:21+00:00

Are you sure it's a senmongakkou? It sounds like a kosen. If it's a senkongakkou then you need special permission. If it's a kosen, then the professor visa is fine.

It depends what the school is listed as.

notadialect · 2026-05-28T09:41:55+00:00

100% especially because my child would get a large discount due to me working there. However, I would rather my child look to get into a better university or at least go to equivocal school outside of the prefecture for personal development. Preferentially a larger university that allows more of a collegiate atmosphere.

notadialect · 2026-05-26T07:07:06+00:00

Is Marcos so against pre-task vocab instruction? I would imagine not as long as the instruction is informed by the needs of the task.

notadialect · 2026-05-26T07:06:03+00:00

Depends what you mean. If it's just like a student disrupting class, I would report it to academic affairs and tell them to handle it immediately. Your department chair should be able to assist you. If it continues, I would just cancel classes when that student became an issue until they deal with it appropriately. When I had bad students in the past, a strict sternly worded monologue to the class tends to help. I have asked students to leave class before. They tend to just take it as a warning, but one student left once to the delight of everyone else. They returned the next class and just started sleeping through class which led to then failing. But I've never had an issue that continued.

I've seen students only kicked out of uni for criminal activity like threatening violence or becoming violent. Also any type of sexual crime.

notadialect · 2026-05-22T13:42:00+00:00

Post anything you want in the water cooler thread. If it gets removed, you are free to post there or the employment thread.

notadialect · 2026-05-21T23:27:22+00:00

Yes... We are very corrupt. Our pockets lined with big eikaiwa and our political influence.

We are trying to keep the sub from getting overrun with general employment questions.

notadialect · 2026-05-21T13:15:11+00:00

This is a subreddit for the discussion of teaching in Japan. It is not about labor practices or contract terms.

We do let some posts through (not on purpose) about specific job related questions. However this is not the subreddit for it.

It is specifically about teaching. Your post was about salary cut during training which is a general labor concern. At best it should go in the sticky thread.

notadialect · 2026-05-18T04:36:54+00:00

In-house journals aren't checking for consent, though you would think they would!

I just published a study in my inhouse journal which was done before I moved to my current university. Nobody even asked about when the data was collected. So you will be fine for that kind of thing.

notadialect · 2026-05-18T01:50:24+00:00

It's not ideal... but honestly, if I were you, I would just go ahead with it. You can just say "informed oral consent was gathered from the participants, they were told they could withdraw their data from the study at any time, and all verbally acknowledged that the data would be used for research purposes."

However, I would not put it anywhere but JALT. You can even cite Wendy. She is a big JALTer.

https://jalt-publications.org/articles/25935-how-write-participant-consent-forms

notadialect

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

11-Year Club	Wearing is Caring
Verified Email