Native English speakers, take note! The upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympics has served as an impetus for Japan to up the ante for English language instruction. This is best illustrated in how the number of Assistant Language Teaching (ALT) positions under the Japan Exchange Teaching (JET) programme in Tokyo has increased to about 300 in recent years; such positions were once as rare as a blue rose. Here, I will share four different ways that I used to teach English during my stint in the JET program so that you can make an informed decision about whether you want to teach English in Japan.[1^]

{1^]: Wrote this many years ago as a freelance writer. Unfortunately, I don't see this published anywhere. Thought I should then use it for myself since so much time has lapsed.

The allure of Japanese pop culture exerts a hold on both Japanese and foreigners alike. This certainly can be leveraged upon when you teach English in Japan. Bond with your students over a common liking for anime characters and mascots. Perhaps you will like to use the dynamic characters of the hugely influential anime, One Piece to teach students about occupations (For example, Sanji is a cook and Chopper is a doctor.) Or you can incorporate characters from popular games into your lessons. Nameko - a game about cultivating mushrooms - was the rage when I was in Japan, and I had great fun getting my students hyped up about learning as they spoke English eagerly so as to receive nameko cutouts as prizes. You can do something similar with Pokemon GO monsters since Pokemon GO has revolutionized the gaming world. Have fun enlivening your lessons with funky pop culture references!

The Japanese homeroom is enlivened with students' art projects. So scan the homeroom first thing in the morning to see if you can utilise any of their projects as props for your teaching. For instance, all elementary fifth grade form teachers in my school displayed their students' clay projects at the back of their homeroom. These fascinating clay works featured a plethora of food, so I had an inspired idea of carrying out a shopping-themed lesson that required my students to buy food from one another with fake currency. They sure got plenty of practice taking on the role of a food seller or customer and uttering appropriate service-oriented phrases! Additionally, all elementary sixth grade students would read Momotaro, a popular Japanese folk tale in English as the culmination of their English language studies in elementary school. Instead of just plainly reading aloud the dialogue, I enlisted the help of the homeroom teachers to guide my students to put on skits based on the folk tale. It was a lot of fun (and frankly, heartwarming) to listen to students use all the English words and sentences they knew!

Games are a splendid way to break the monotony of a typical lesson, and I used them to great effect in my lessons. When Japanese children move on to junior high school, they lose some of their natural exuberance and maintain a quiet facade as a sign of respect for authority. My junior high school classes were so quiet that you could hear a pin drop! Hence, to encourage them to speak English, I often divided the class into groups and assigned them interesting tasks. One lesson could focus on using a particular grammar point to solve a mystery (Japanese people love a great mystery!) whereas another lesson would involve them discussing which famous characters they ought to kick out from a sinking hot air balloon. I also liked to get my students to play my adaptation of the famous game called RISK. I would distribute a huge A3 size map of Japan and a list of questions to each group; students take turns to answer a question. If they answer it correctly, they can choose a prefecture to occupy until their classmate challenges their ownership of this prefecture. Needless to say, the concept of world domination was very appealing to my students, and they were very much engrossed in answering questions aloud so that they could win their preferred prefectures!

Due to the prevalence of manga in Japanese society, most children grow up learning how to draw amazingly well. Hence, comic strips attract students' eyeballs easily as they are composed of charismatic characters talking wittily in interesting situations. For a start, you can use iconic comic strips like Baby Blues as well as Calvin and Hobbes, erase the dialogue and encourage your students to fill in the speech balloons themselves. This stimulates them to think about language in context in an authentic way - what sorts of lines will suit the situation depicted in the comic. For higher-ability classes, you can challenge them to come up with their own comics. Be prepared to be bowled over by their realistic and delightful drawings!

English language education in Japan is highly oriented towards passing high-stakes entrance examinations, so Japanese teachers of English tend to stick to the textbook and pen-and-paper exercises. Nonetheless, there is still space for you to engage students in fun and meaningful activities. I hope you try out all four ways to enhance your teaching experience in the Land of the Rising Sun!