27. A trip back to Britain, and what it taught me about teaching English in Japan

AI-generated transcript: Hello, Patrick Sherriff here with the Staffroom, the podcast for freetalktefl.substack.com, and I just want to very briefly say I'm exhausted.I just got back from England.I came in yesterday, half past ten in the morning, into Haneda, so I don't know what time it is now.I don't know what time my body thinks it is.but I'm flagging, so I'll try and keep this short and sweet and just tell you the basics.This is all about a trip back to Britain and what it taught me about teaching English in Japan.I had a wonderful time back in England, but one of the great experiences is British inability to do anything.No, no, no.British service, shall we call it.For example, I was on the station in Leicester going to London, which is, I don't know, 100km south, going on the intercity trains.It should be a pretty straightforward thing, but of course, buying a ticket is problematic.You can't go when you want to go because it's absurdly expensive.You have to leave after 10.32 in order to get to London at 12 o'clock and then you have to leave London after 7pm otherwise you pay double or more for the ticket which is already £70 Anyway, so jumping through all those hoops and you say okay that's fine I will go at 10.32, you arrive at the station andAttention please, the 10.32 calling at St Pancras, London is 15 minutes late.We do apologise for this service.Blah blah blah blah blah.OK, you get on the train.Customers in first class, not me, but customers in first class, unfortunately the toilets are not available in first class.Please make your way through the standard class to thetoilets at the rear of the train.We do apologize for this inconvenience.East Midlands Railways is aware of the inconvenience and has ordered parts for the toilet.Can you imagine that happening in Japan?An announcement that they have ordered parts for the toilet but you can't use it and if you're in the first class you've got to walk all the way through the train through the hoi polloi to do your business inthe toilet at the back of the train.Fantastic.I could go on with examples of this.Another one, very briefly, was the Airbnb that we were staying at.It was perfectly fine, except the furniture was cheap.Very cheap, what do you call it, Ikea furniture, and it just collapsed.One of the chairs collapsed.It was always wonky, and it finally collapsed on the last day.It was worn out.we had to buy a saucepan because they hadn't done a check of all the materials that they got and we had five people staying in an Airbnb with no saucepan you know the washing machine I put my dirties in the washing machine and it half filled with water and then stopped working so I had to call the landlady who said oh I should have told you about that the washing machine doesn't workYeah, you should have done.But you have to be stoic.Stoical about all this and just see it as a funny experience.Anyway, it's quite a difference going back to England.You know, you get used to it after I was there for two weeks.And then it became quite another sort of reverse culture shock coming back to Japan and seeing everything working on time without excuse.Sometimes a little bit.was thatthings will go well for you and I think it's not unreasonable and it's expected in Japan to get the basics right.You would not tell your students, oh sorry the toilet is not working can you not use it?No, fix the toilet.I'm sorry the whiteboard has not been cleaned.It's impossible to clean it because I haven't gone to the shop and bought whiteboard cleaner.Sorry for the inconvenience.Right?You wouldn't say that.Due to a defective urn there will be no tea or coffee in this lessonIt's just absurd, isn't it?Anyway, it just made me think.Get the basics right, and everything else will go well.And it's an expected minimum to get the basics right.Show up on time for your lessons.Have a clean teaching environment.Have all your materials ready to go.Know what you're going to teach.These are the basics.Do not faff around in the lesson.Get on with it.provide value for money, and hey presto, you'll have a livelihood.I wish England would learn this simple lesson.Ho hum, that's life.Anyway, hey, have a good weekend.I'm going to recover from my journeys and get back at it next week.Okay, thanks a lot.See you next time. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit freetalktefl.substack.com