Among the major benefits of being a teacher in a foreign country are the opportunities it provides for meeting and speaking with the “natives”. Over my “career” in Japan, I’ve interacted with a broad spectrum of students: from 2 year-old children (and younger) to people in t ...

By Mark Lavers Early in my teaching career in Japan, I remember a student prefacing a statement with “we Japanese think”. I was shocked that someone would have the audacity to say that they spoke for all Japanese, without someone else suggesting that they should speak for th ...

“Where you stand depends on where you sit.” Nelson Mandela Japan is changing. Maybe its not as fast as some would wish (or in the right direction), and maybe not for the “right” reasons, but there’s an undercurrent of change. Some of the changes started 20 years ago, the ...