The Paperwork Never Ends!

Posted on May 27, 2007 by Hanuman Welch

I'm sure a lot of the users on the site are either friends of English teachers or English teachers themselves. Those of you who are Englsih teachers have probably come to realize, too late in most cases, my own in particular, that life in a Japanese corporate entity is a little different than anticipated. I thought I had done a significant amount of research before my arrival here. Surprise, surprise, the reality of the situation is a little different. When I originally attended the recruitment drive on my college campus I was awash with altruistic intentions. The recruiters regaled the packed auditorium with tales of educators furthering the goals of Japanese students overseas. I was sold. I graduated and six months, as well as a fifteen hour flight, later I had arrived. I began training with my very prestigous, or so I had thought English institute. It became quickly apparent that the goal of this corporate machine was not educating those who wished to be educated, but rather, like all corporations, to make the most obscene amounts of money in the shortest amount of time. One could blame this on naivety, lack of research, or simply, the blinding allure of idealism. After completing my week long propaganda digestion session, training, I arrived at my branch school. Now at this point I was still hopeful, that by leaving the head offices big brother like influence, things would start to take shape as I had envisioned. (sigh)

Nope. If my job, like it had been advertised, was simply showing up, teaching, chatting it up with my students, and heading home at the end of the day, I would have been a happy man. But no. I can't tell you how much paper work I'm forced to ingest, memorize, then regurgitate on command. There are business meetings where the only thing discussed is money, not the progress or abilities of students, promotional campaigns, workshops, and advertising blitzes. I have now found myslef contractually obligated to become the same corporate shill that I was so desperately trying to avoid. I am, to say the very least, feeling a little misled. Had I known that the language institute, which I know begrudgingly call home, cares more about its quarterly fiscal reports than anything else, I would have never have chosen them. There are, however, some highlights to my position. These are the people. Students who are attending classes to actually broaden their cultural horizons and better themselves. These people make the hours spent inside the office bearable. I love living in this country, but man, the paper work never ends.