I have heard two very different viewpoints about Japanese universities and classes. Some people say "Oh, wow, Waseda is a really prostegious university! Attendance is really important and the teachers give a lot of reading, so make sure you plan your study time!" The other view says "Your going to Waseda? Lucky you, Japanese university is a four year vacation, a treat after passing the hellish entrance exam and before entering the mundane work world. Students never study and have huge drinking parties every night!"
I have yet to see which is really true, but I guess that the first is an outsider's view and the second is an insider's view.
But no one has mentioned much about Waseda's level of education or the professor's teaching skill, though I've heard from friends many can barely speak English.
After today's Tranlation Studies class, I'm beginning to question the "prestigiousness" of Waseda.
The professor is Toko-san and from his looks, he can't be older than 30. He usually teachers small 10 people translation classes at the larger, Japanese-speaking literature department of Waseda and does freelance translation work. I also asked him how one becomes a university professor in Japan, and he told me that you just pass an examination to get a license. No formal training.
This is his first time teaching at the SILS branch of Waseda and first time teaching in English. Even if the room hadn't been so hot from the number of people, Toko-san still would have been sweating I'm sure.
So now this young, inexperienced teacher had been assigned to teach a class of 150 students. According to the schedule, we are supposed to turn in 6 translation assignments for our total grade. With no TA to grade translation assignments and no group work, there is no way he has time to read all those papers. Also, he has so important office responsibilites to fufill (I gather that the professors and faculty here often act as staff too), he cannot be in class at the time slot (Tuesdays, 1-2:30). So he has cancelled 2 classes a month, and moved others to Wednesdays at 6:00 pm.
There is no way I want to show up at 6. I want to be home at 7 to have dinner with my host family.
No one seemed to be asking any questions directly about this HUGE issue of schedule change (how Japanese....) so I raised my hand and complained.
And the teacher asks ME how to solve the problem. I'm not the teacher here! This is an issue of responsibility that should be solved between the professor and the university, not the students. Sure, I could think of a good way to teach this class, make it a partially online class, do more group work, more projects. But that's not my job, it's his. Why is he doing office work when he has a class of teach?
Because I don't think he's very good at teaching. He strikes me as a bookwormy guy who is more interested in using students and thier assignments as research for his PhD disertation rather than teaching students how to translate.
I wonder, if this guy is a teacher now, why can't I be a teacher now too?
At least he has lessen the translation load to compensate for class size. And he won't take roll on the 6 pm Wednesday classes. That means the requirements of the class are show up the 6 times we have class on a Tuesday at 1 and hand in 2 translations, your choice.
I feel a little bad for the guy. Obviously he has been handed a situation that he couldn't say no too (very Japanese too... They don't want to say "no" to a troublesome situation for fear of making a bad situation for someone else). But the fact that there is no grading critera and no clear syllabus or any sense of preparation for this class makes me wonder if my home campus San Francisco will count it.
My biggest wonder is the educational standards of Japanese schools... I already know that the methods for teaching English here in schools is horrible; they don't teach any conversation skills, just vocabulary and grammer concepts for taking tests.
If possible, I want to become a teacher who can raise the standards of education and the standards of teacher training.
3 comments:
I hope your other teachers were a lot more like "teachers". Damn the system. In my opinion, I think I learn a lot more outside the classroom. For now, just bear with it. =)
>>Norbert
yah the bart trains ARE noisy huh? ^_^ but my sociolinguistics teacher is really good. most japanese teachers lecture, but she does a lot of group discussion, so you get to meet your classmates and hear more opinions.
>>Plum
...I really have no idea at what your trying to say... the guy was so nervous, i wouldn't say he was "cutting me down to size"... What do you mean?
i agree completely about the translation class. im soo bummed out about it. that'd be so nice if there were only 10 people. ugh! my linguistics class is really bad too, so you gave me a brilliant idea. im going to try and add your linguistics class. has your class already gone over a lot? can you help me out? haha i need a different class!!!
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