Every year all JETs gather for either a Mid-Year Seminar for Assistant Language Teachers or a Mid-Year Conference for Coordinators of International Relations. Every MYS is different as it is planned independently in every prefecture. I've been to three MYS now, and each has been dramatically different.
I arrived bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to my first MYS, motivated to get more specific training than I had received from the Tokyo Orientation (be happy!) and the Prefectural Orientation (you don't have to know Japanese to live in Japan). Unfortunately, I was disappointed. There were long speeches covering material that had already been covered in the previous two orientations and the workshops devolved into venting and anecdotes. On the last day, we were given an incredibly condescending scare lecture about drinking and driving where we, grown adults living in a foreign country, were treated like naughty teenagers who had to be scolded preemptively because some JETs in a different prefecture had broken the law. I left determined to do research on my own and learn from my Japanese coworkers since I apparently wasn't going to get professional support from MYS.
Last year's seminar was a pleasant surprise. The number of workshops had been halved, from 15 to 8, and there were more workshops being led by Japanese Teachers of English. The workshops focused more on specifics, such as how to teach better classes, how to raise certain skill levels, how to communicate with Japanese Teachers of English even if you aren't fluent in Japanese and they aren't fluent in English, and more. When workshops started to go off-track things were quickly brought back on topic. The previous year's never-ending stream of anecdotes was dammed, and concrete discussion of ideas and solutions flourished. The speeches lacked the characteristic tone of condescension that the previous year's speeches had held. I left that seminar with pages and pages of notes, and when I got back to the island I immediately began sharing the new activities and ideas around. I couldn't wait for the next MYS.
This year's seminar was quite different. First of all, it had a much narrower focus, specifically on lesson planning, with only three workshops. Now, for those reading who are not ALTs (Assistant Language Teacher), let me make this clear; the average Junior High School or Elementary School ALT never plans lessons. An ALT may be able to suggest activities or have some say in a class, but it's not the rule by any means. As one of my JTEs said, "You go to too many schools! If you were here every day then I'd ask you to plan lessons, but you're only here four days a month if we're lucky." The lesson plan focus got tighter and tighter to the point of excluding lesson planning outside of the school. As I was the leader of a workshop I asked the organizer of the MYS if I could do my workshop on lesson planning for eikaiwa classes, the English conversation classes that most ALTs do outside of working hours. I was told that I must stay within the Junior High School textbook, and as the organizer had had to plan an elective English course in JHS once in three years I had to do a workshop based on planning lessons in Junior High School.
The seminar was, as expected, disappointing. Only one speech was actually geared towards all ALTs as opposed to the Senior High School ALTs and JTEs exclusively. The materials I had requested for my workshop over a month before (an overhead projector and a CD player) were not provided. The organizer interrupted me after my workshop had already started to tell me this and foist the blame onto third parties without offering any solutions or taking responsibility. Throughout the seminar the organizer continued to behave in an unprofessional manner. The most notable example was when he made the L for Loser gesture to his forehead when another JET was making a speech and got slightly muddled.
The thing is, I've always been happy to be placed where I am. This is a prefecture filled to the brim with talented ALTs who strive to be professional, represent their countries in a positive way, and help our students learn and enjoy English. I am disappointed that our one chance a year to take advantage of all the ideas that that community can offer was strangled by this restrictive Lesson Plan focus. Mostly, I feel sorry for the first year ALTs. The only experience they've had with MYS is one of unprofessional behavior, misinformation, and lack of clear communication. Instead of raising the bar it left the bar in the back room by accident. I sincerely hope that next year brings the return of the "good" variety of seminar, where we can take away more than we brought with us.
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