What Teaching English in Japan was REALLY Like

NOTIFICATION SQUAD: I realise teaching English in Japan is a popular topic and I’d like to try and answer as many of your questions as I can in the comments below; whether it’s about the JET programme, teaching in general, the work environment etc, fire away and I’ll try to answer as many as I can when I wake up tomorrow morning and down a gallon of coffee! For now though folks, enjoy the video.
- Vip De Big.

Little did Chris know that the tea stain on his JET application is what got him the position. The surefire way to know he was an authentic Brit.

Not sure if you will read this or not... you have thousands of comments to read on so many videos and this one is not recent... but as a teacher of more than 25 years I wanted to tell you that you DID make a difference. I am sure that your students still talk about you to this day as the "fun" teacher. I was impressed with how you were unhappy with the subpar materials that were provided to you and you created your own and that shows drive and imagination. You may or may not be aware of this but you are STILL a teacher. I have learned so much from you about Japan. You present it in such a casual fun way that you are enjoyable to watch. I had planned a trip to Japan with my daughter for 2 weeks, landing in Nagoya but alas, Japan was closed. But, in the meantime, I will continue to watch as many of your videos as I can before we go... in... whenever that is. Kudos for stepping out of the classroom and living your dream life as a TheXvidr. Few do, it's a huge step but watching you has inspired me to create my own channel as well. I only hope to be half a successful as you. Keep up the amazing work! Sincerely, Rob

Those kids are so sweet and caring. Imagine that, they genuinely felt sorry that their teacher didn't become James Bond, and they tried to encourage him to not give up his dream.

his application be like :
"so what was ur biggest culture shock?"
"so i went to dubai, SAND, LOTS OF SAND"
"ur fuckin hired"

It’s the exact opposite when it comes to raising hands in Germany. Since about half of your grade is lesson participation, we’d often have arguments over who had already been called twice, or who had to fix his overall grade due to a bad exam. And nobody laughed when someone got something wrong, because there were cases, where no one knew what was correct. Once our math teacher asked us to explain something and nobody dared to try that at first. After some provocation, one boy decided to try his luck and explained what he could. When he was done, the teacher asked “Do you agree with his answer?” And everyone was like “Yeah, yeah, totally”, than the teacher went “Great! This means you’re all morons, because what he was talking was complete bs!”. XD

I've been teaching in Japan about ten years now. Don't underestimate the impact you can have on your kids regarding their enjoyment of English. I ran into one of my kids that I taught for three years who'd just graduated college a few months ago. She asked if I was still playing harmonica, and said that one of her favorite things was singing songs as I played them on the harmonica. She's working at a job using English now, and says it's because "English was fun with you" that sort of thing makes all the bad aspects of the job just fade away.

My first years in junior high, they learned the phrase "snap your fingers". Well, suffice to say, they didn't realize they had to change "your" and so i spent a good portion of the day reading papers that said "I can snap your fingers". horrifying but also a great laugh

The stigma during school is so true. In Asia, people rarely asks question and expected to do well with zero mistakes. On the other hand, in UK, US and Aus, it’s encouraged to asks questions and mistakes are part of learning.

I taught Survival ESL to Indochinese refugees (bound for the US, Canada and Australia) from 1988 to 1991. One of my students wrote to me a couple of years later: "I always remember you in my brain." Tears of joy, that brought me.

Honestly english teachers in non english speaking countries have that kind of charm and fun no other teacher has. Our english teacher used to give us chocolates as rewards for getting everything right, would make up lots of fun games for us to learn english, and encourage us to speak our minds no matter how awkward or bad our english was. Truly blessed

Chris, this has really inspired me. If someone with an application that rubbish can get in, then I'll probably make principle by week 2.

" Pls be stomach... much more healthy in the future " that killed me 😂😂

"I hate sand. It's coarse, rough, irritating, and it gets everywhere."

The gifts the students gave him are so cute and emotional. This really motivates me to improve at english and to maybe even become an english teacher.

One day, one of his students will grow up, and wrote a manga about him and maybe will get an anime after.

When a Japanese person has better English handwriting than you

Hey Chris, I was an ALT in Japan for a few years as well. As it turns out, we actually appear to have been in the same batch (2012)!
Your experiences as an ALT are incredibly similar to mine and your perspective about teaching in Japan perfectly reflect how I feel about it as well. Thanks for reminding me of some wonderful memories! Being an ALT definitely changed my life and I cherished every single minute that I was there.
Always enjoy watching your vids! Keep it up!

I'm English third language, and "billie is exciting" is pure genius! Thanks!

"And the teachers thought i was a genius for unleashing this groundbreaking concept which is the concept of having fun in the classroom" LOL

I appreciate your videos because you realistically describe situations without sugarcoating them. And at the same time, you don't come off as bitter or pretentious, as some foreign men in Japan do.

This guy now is probably the inspiration of a light novel and he doesn't even know it

I laughed really, really hard during this, and for that, I thank you. Although I’ll likely never teach English in Japan, it was nice learning about your experience. I’m rapidly becoming a big fan of your channel.

Because I live in a bilingual country, I studied French for 9 years: from my 5th year of elementary school to my first year of college. We would always learn from boring text books, memorizing words and repeating them, literally translate pre-written sentences etc. and I sucked at French. Until they finally changed the teaching method in my 4th year of secondary school and we started doing practical and useful things like learning about French culture, looking up French news articles, writing plays and actually performing them, doing friendly competitions with all kinds of French language skills. I learned SO MUCH during those few years and became almost fluent in French. Teachers who are teaching practical skills in class and aren't afraid to do something other than the boring old text book are incredible.
Also, I swear I had a chapter about soccer balls in Afghanistan in my French text book in high school...

I went to school in japan for a few months and I notice students really enjoy when the teacher is from America because they throw in types of learning that they do here in the U.S. A lot of classes in japan are pretty hard and not so much fun but with English they’re able to understand what it’s like in American classes while also having fun learning.

you reminded me my experience. i was teaching ESL in Shenzhen, China for two years, and it was also such an incredible time! i miss it so much and miss my students greatly. I was teaching kids 3 to 7 y.o. and they were so adorable!:) and although i now doing completely different thing which i also really enjoy doing - i think those two years with those kids was the best time in my life.
*gone watching old photos and videos with wet eyes :)))

10:25 As a Japanese, I understand this very well

I planned to join JET for two years while minoring in Japanese in college, including 20 units of Japanese language alone. I got all the way to the interview panel in Los Angeles, where I interviewed in Japanese. I didn't get in and was told later by someone I trusted that they don't accept people with any Chinese heritage. A blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl that I went to school with who didn't speak a lick of Japanese got in no problem. I'm quite enjoying viewing this channel all these later and realizing that I was probably lucky to have been skipped. Nothing against the country or its people, but things work out the way they're supposed to, even if it's not as you planned.

You're a great storyteller, that's what makes your videos so good. It gives a sense of "being there" as opposed to trying to imagine it based on fragmented memories and a missing narrative.

You are hilarious 😂 I taught in Japan in 1997-1998. You brought back memories even though I was with a private company. Thanks for making me laugh.

I wish you were my teacher Chris!
I went through full compulsory education in Japan and the ALTs were always ambitious. But as you said in Japan making mistakes in front of class isn’t really a good thing. Especially in English class if nobody’s spoken English then it’s hard to get students hands up.

This is hilarious!! You've made my day!!! Thank you for giving such an accurate portrayal of English education in Japan.

I'm currently an ALT too in Japan. Everything he said hit close to my experience but his was probably better.
I wonder if any of his past students watch his channel now. That would be awesome.

This was a great clip.
Yes, as a Japanese who stayed in the US till 3rd grade, there are big differences, and English class (by a Japanese teacher) in Japan sucks.
The students should use more English only dictionaries to look up and move their hands, and do some show and tells. I hated those textbooks too.
I think you are a great person, breaking the Japanese normal lessons and bringing in live study. Cheers !

"I was a great english teacher"
Students English Grammar: please be stomach much more

been teaching Koreans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Taiwanese and Japanese for over 5 years now. but, I have never taught in a classroom full of students. usually one-on-one. but, I can feel the same way with the textbooks lol

it's absolutely mindblowing to me that a school in an area considered rural in japan still has 1200 students. i don't even think my own high school had over 1500, which covered 6 years instead of like 3 like senior highschool does in japan. and i lived in the capital for my province which is considered fairly large for our country.

Thanks so much for the stories and advice, Chris. I'm actually going to teach English in Japan next year, so I'm nervous but also excited for this experience as well!

Thank you for this video I was thinking about what I want to do with my future and always thought about going to Japan and had the idea about teaching as a job. Even if I knew I wanted to be something else I could teach for a while then move on. I never knew what to expect and this video helped give me an understanding of what it’s like.

I'm 27yo Japanese and I've started learning English for 3years😀
First, in my opinion, english classes at a school in japan is terrible unfortunately. (I mean it works for only exams at school)
Generally almost japanese thinks we don't use english in our life I think, unless when you help foreigners who's lost haha
So english class is not an enthusiastic class unfortunately(this is how I felt when I was a kid).
Also our way of learning English at the class is really bad as like you saw
(For example I've never used Hello, how are you? I'm fine thank you, and you? Lol)🤢
We'll find phrases in text books are not common, daily English and how weird it was, when we go to abroad or try to make foreign friends.
So again, the things we've learned at school is only for exams😭
And we're quite shy and don't wanna make any mistakes in front of everyone as like you said so we don't even wanna pronouns the words properly neither.
(If someone is trying to pronounce words correctly, classmates would be turned off little bit🤭)
Government should change the content of lessons for learning English.
We should stop learning useless English that we can't use it in real life.
I was a kid who could speak like only
"I like apple" "I go school" something like this😂
But I'd love to have an english class now and a teacher would be you!! Lol
(Sorry my English is still poor but thank you for reading😀)

It was great hearing about your wholesome and endearing teaching experiences! Do keep them coming :)

as I edge towards college since I'm going into it soon, I have always asked myself If I really do want to teach English there and if it is the right career option. After watching this video, it only solidified my strive to teach there even more. Even though I see living in Japan as my main goal and aspiration, teaching English sounds like a really fun profession I would like to pursue. It is interesting how most of the native English speakers see Japan as their goal and not teaching English. I currently am this way now, but after watching this video, It makes me want to live that classroom experience as an English teacher! Thank you!

I did the JET Programme about twenty years ago - it did wonders for my Japanese, but absolutely nothing for my teaching ability. I think for one-shots who visit many different schools (I had 35) you never really get to the point where you're trusted to experiment. As a now trained and experienced English teacher back in Japan and teaching at university, I can't help but feel that ALTs are almost set up to flounder and fail to meaningfully impact existing education practices. That said, individual ALTs do have an impact on individual students - I think the most powerful is when they feel they have communicated something successfully in English that wasn't scripted.

I don't know why I thought of commenting so late but I'm amazed at the fact that you thought of your own way to learn English. It's a problem in Japan that they don't practice talking so they can't really talk English after they graduate. You are a small piece in the helping of changing the system and it's amazing!

Chris is pretty much getting roasted by his students in broken english about his stomach.

I think VIP de BIG is in relation to BIG BANG a Korean group whose fanclub is called VIP. The little crown drawing looks like the fandom lightstick. A few years ago they were really popular in Japan

The tape recorder is sooo accurate. I live in a non-english speaker country (Brazil) and those audios played for learning pronunciation are quite weird.

i’m actually planning on becoming an english teacher in japan, not just because i’m interested in living there and learning the culture, but because i like to teach children, i’m interested in the japanese language myself, and i believe it could be fun.
the only problem is that i’m a rather timid person, so i feel like i would have a lot of trouble keeping the class engaged, not fumbling my words and being treated nicely by students and other coworkers.
not only that, but due to my gender identity, i feel like i might get rejected. i’m terrified of doing it, but i’m also very passionate about it. idk what i should do to make it go smoothly for me..

The very first day of class I tell the students "I want you to fail" - which always gets crazy looks... but when I explain that failing is where you learn (I use video games as an example) they calm down. Unfortunately, in this Covid world... they are all back in the cave, many refusing to even try... it's so frustrating as a teacher.

i was an english teacher in greece -i am of greek origin- and i loved the fact the fact that i was not the "dracula type" of teacher but rather the one in the classroom that tried to inspire them in their lives and made them fell comfortable around me, which resulted to so many heartwarming gifts from their part. the interaction was amazing.

When you mentioned how Japanese people try not to make mistakes, I thought back to my piano teacher
She was Japanese, and always told me “No mistakes!!” Every time I played the piano and made one. She is very passionate about playing piano, but I always wondered why she was so strict..

“Are you aware of your own defect?”
Woah, just the one?? I’m doing way better than I thought. 😂

This is so entertaining , I can learn a lot from your experiences as an English teacher in Japan which I am applying for. God bless!

The story of a British boi who dreamt of becoming James Bond but instead became the Last Samurai of teaching English in a rural school in Japan

Imagine seeing your English teacher make a video on TheXvid, and in the first 30 seconds he clowns on you for “vip de big” 😭

I love all of this. You clearly were an inspirational teacher, and coworker.

Chris, this is very funny to be honest. Now I just want to be in that school and see how you actually teach the students.

This was hillarious and wholesome, sounds like you made for a fantastic teacher. Can I remember a thing my boring stuffy teachers taught me? No. The ones who made sure we had fun and enjoyed learning? Absolutely I can!

I love this channel because of the acid self-deprecating British humour versus the absurdly positive Japanese culture

I taught English in China. Some similar experiences. One semester they tried to get me to teach from a book it was awful 😣. I had a few difficult students but 90% were wonderful. I taught university and community college and kindergarten. I’d love to try it in Japan see how that is like.

I can’t imagine what it would be like to learn English as a second language.
Being from Scotland English is my first language and I when I’m learning french or Spanish at school or self teaching Japanese I imagine what it would be like to do the exact same thing but vice versa

Twisted fact: he DID eat the daughter and her mother, that's why he gained weight.

As someone who is looking to do this while I pursue manga, this video was incredibly informative

"Are you aware of your own defect?"
Nothing wrong with that sentence, I'm adopting it and beginning its use.... today.

Thanks for letting us know the culture of Japanese students in school and their learning habits. Thanks for sharing.

This should be your stand-up comedy routine- It was so funny, and I caught myself laughing out load several times! Kudos...

love this video! very down to Earth and keeping it very real and humourous haha! x

And here I applied for the 2013 JET program back when I was graduating college. Japanese teacher, who was also a JET person in his time, helped me write it all out, I had minimal language knowledge, I had also been in Japan before... didn't get picked...

I have an intresting anectode about being a large guy in japan.
My first day in Kyoto my taxi driver who picked me up at the station pointed out that I had a large stomache.
He did this by turning 180 degrees around and pointing at me and said verbatim "you have large stomache"
He then went on to elaborate that japanese people have small stomaches because of samurai genetics from many generations of eating vegtables, rice and sometimes fish but no meat.
I think he was excited to flex his english skills because he also gave a mini tour and description of everything we passed on the way to the hotel.
Honestly he was the best taxi driver I've ever had.

Hey Chris, I have a question about getting a work visa. If you have a TEFL certification but no college degree, can you still get a work visa in order to teach English?

I had a teacher that said you could raise your hands to answer questions correctly or hilariously. It might have just been my group but that class was immensely entertaining and everyone was engaged with the content trying to come up with the funniest slightly incorrect answer possible.
Really took the wind out of the fear of getting an answer wrong I think.

Wonderful video

I was reading Harry Potter with my stepdaughter who’s Thai. We each had, I thought, the same book. I was in US, she was in Thailand. Anyway we hit a sentence where I think the kids had ice cream and Dudley’s dad was one of those parents who glom their kid’s desserts. And my book said ice cream. My daughter’s said knickerbocker something or another. Anyway I’m sending her your photo of the knickerbocker glory. Too funny! Great video.

Got fired from a middle school in Taipei. The local teachers complained about the laughing and talking during my classes. That they were speaking English in conversation for the first time and enjoying it was apparently less important than...

Literally my kind of humor 🤣, great vid, just started learning Japanese and taking the 6 months challenge!!

Hilarious video. Maybe the best I've ever seen on TheXvid. The humor mixed with the valuable experience is precious. Instantly subscribed. Chris is even better than Anime Man, and that's saying something.
PS: Great content, dude. Keep up the good work and the cool british accent.

From a USA citizen who taught over five years in Asia….
I had similar experiences as yourself. Perhaps at the end I felt I was just another foreign teacher there. I did my best however.
Living in a foreign country is a real challenge. And no one can prepare another for it. Sort of like learning to swim I suppose.
Cheers and good show sir.

Watching you always feels like talking to a very good friend. So warm and exceptionally funny.

hey chris! i know im a year late to respond to this video, but i just wanted to ask the question, how old were you when you decided to teach in japan? also, how old were you when you actually did move to japan, and how you learned japanese/how old you were when you learned japanese. i am currently struggling with my career choice and feel very lost :( but i have always loved japan and the japanese culture even as a young child, and this would be something i am interested in, but just to put it into perspective, i would really appreciate your response.

The Ministry of Education and laws of the Commonwealth of Great Britian appreciate education and professional standards to my knowledge. The experience of cooperation with Japanese teachers and the oversight of the Japan Teachers Union was most likely great endeavor. The Japan Teachers Union has many strict policies for public education. However, the question of how these legal policies extend to private schools and tutor education for home schools has been an on-going "Kaizen" with public policy. Not only the Commonwealth of Great Britian, but also, all other foreign nations education systems and principal educators have participated in this mutual cause to improve the teaching work environment and standards of teaching students. You are most likely still to this day in great company of education scholars. I think your work is honest, truthful, and subjective with public policy a necessary cause for common law.

It's awesome that you introduced those kids to the *very Western* concept of having fun in the classroom - and that making mistakes is totally fine and even an important part of learning. Hopefully some of them will go on to become teachers and fondly remember their time with you. East Asian students are consistently some of the unhappiest in the world.

"What animal and person would you take to a desert island with you?"
"A goat"
"Vladimir Putin"
Dammit Chris I can't breathe XDDD

The Dogen picture with the "I have met an American person once" was just hilarious. Great work as usual, Mr VIP de Big

I receive handmade letters from my students from time to time and I must say its one of the best feeling that I ever felt.
Makes all those nights preparing and checking papers worth it :))

I taught English in Hungary for 2.5 years and enjoyed every minute of it .. worked everywhere from private lessons (ker ching), private kanguage schools, teacher training colleges and universities. Was back in the late 90s so western staff got a great deal at the time.
Remember one gimick I used was to read children’s books with my own (Irish) accent so they could imitate my accent when speaking English .. actually worked pretty well.

This was amazing, Thankyou for sharing your experiences.

10:25 "students in Japan are reluctant to raise hands"
*In my classroom in India out of 150 students not a single raises hand,when literally everyone knows the answer just so they are not hailed genius*

As descriptive as Abroad in Japan is, I'm going to have to request you rebrand your channel as VIP de BIG, you're ready to take things to the next level.

Answer C: Subtly let the teacher know it's wrong without letting the students know so the teacher can correct their own mistake and not lose face.

Can I just stop you not even A MINUTE IN and I died of laughter when you had to explain you didn’t go clubbing with underage students 😂

Lol, this sounds like every native English teacher's experience in my country (Slovakia), everything from the reluctant students, lame taperecordings, teachers that knew english grammar and theory but couldn't use it in practice. The 30% of the silent students who used this opportunity to get some sleep or just ignore the lecturer because they legit sucked at English and couldn't understand a proper sentence.

I laugh from the deepest part of my dark soul watching your videos, thank you for starting this channel. 🤍🌼🌿

I'm currently living and studying in Japan (graduating June of next year) and it feels like my only job prospect is to become an English teacher if I wanna keep living here. But like you in your first year of teaching I'm afraid I'll lack confidence and won't do a good job of being a creative and fun teacher, especially due to my more reserved nature :(

Hi! I have one question, do i have to be native English speaker to teach English in Japan? I am not a native speaker but i've learned English since i was two years old. I have all my Cambridge exams and i would like to study Japanese and English in University. Do you think its possible that i can teach in Japan?

never taught in Japan, however I did spend over 5 years teaching in China. A lot of what you mentioned in this video also rang true for me, especially the text books and the common idea that Caucasian foreigners ate naughty chinese kids for breakfast 🤣🤣🤣

I am graduating from university next spring and applying for the JET this fall! Fingers crossed 🤞🏼 it’s an experience I really would love to have

Am just glad that cup of tea was on the application before sending it! Other wise you might not be where you are today! Can you even imagine a small mistake like that costing you an entire experience! I can't! But you saying this completed the learning circle and shown you deserve to be where you are and much more. Bless you.

I love that he was able to pronounce Oregon correctly when most people in the US (outside of Oregon)can't .

Very good production quality! I laughed out loud quite a bit. Didn't expect the pick your own adventure to go there either.

Teaching English for 18 1/2 years now. I've taught all the way through university. Wouldn't trade it for the world.