by Anthony S. Rausch

Foreign lecturer at a national university in Japan . . . sounds promising. But like so many things Japanese, appearances can deceive and you never know how things will turn out. People wind up staying in Japan long-term for a lot of reasons: specialized research, marriage and family, fate and opportunity. There are increasing numbers of foreigners working in Japanese colleges and universities -- some permanent, some under contract. The foreign lecturer (gaikokujin kyoshi) is a contract position at a national university; a hold-over from the days when the Japanese government wanted the foreigner to come and teach a foreign language, but not stay too long. While some use the contract post as a way of getting a short-term foreign experience or as a stepping-stone to something else, many also take contracts as a means of gaining a permanent position in Japanese academia.

The foreigner's experience at a Japanese university takes on characteristics relative to many factors. Most foreigners will inevitably spend some time involved in language teaching, regardless of academic specialty. Depending on program, students and the individual, teaching a foreign language in Japan at the university level can be delightful or very tiring and trying. Some programs and curriculum are well coordinated and comprehensive; others are disorganized, with everything left to the whims of the individual instructor. Students are either highly motivated and hardworking (the minority at most places) or lazy about academics and busy at a part-time job. That noted, the language specialist finds the potential inspiring and the research opportunities limitless. But not all language teachers in Japan are language specialists; nor would that be beneficial for academia in Japan. For the social scientist like me, the constant struggle sorting out priorities can be difficult.

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