Comments on Culture Shock at Kansai Gaidai University: Why? Because we love you. M-O-U-S-E.

Excellent website. Good work. Very useful. I will ...

2007-09-10T10:13:00.000-07:00

Excellent website. Good work. Very useful. I will bookmark!

Thanks for interesting article.

2007-08-18T18:38:00.000-07:00

Thanks for interesting article.

Great article! Thanks.

2007-08-18T13:07:00.000-07:00

Great article! Thanks.

As one of the 'dropkicks' posing as a professor at...

2007-01-19T22:52:00.000-08:00

As one of the 'dropkicks' posing as a professor at KGU, I'd like to say that your comments are insulting, patronising and ignorant, which is pretty hard to match in such a short posting. I wonder what nationality you might be?? Er, could it be American, by any chance? Sorry, now I'm starting to generalise in the same bigotted way as you... can you see the effect you're having?

"Have you MET some of the dropkicks who pose as pr...

2006-09-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

"Have you MET some of the dropkicks who pose as professors here?"

What an ignorant comment. With such a large faculty and turnover, there's no question some bad hires are made over the years. Yet I wonder if YOU'VE met most of the faculty here.

The 5-year limit kills much serious research, it's true, but the IES faculty is probably still the best team of EFL teachers in Japan. I should know; I've been around.

"The Uni wants to ensure it is not tied down to another crop of losers who saunter into class 10 minutes late, slap down a cracked plastic laminate on the overhead projector, drone on for an hour, and then scuttle back"

And how would this be any different from most tenured faculty anywhere? And anyway, for good or ill, student evaluations take care of that problem very swiftly at KGU.

im a student at university of louisville, and they...

2006-01-07T14:38:00.000-08:00

im a student at university of louisville, and they bring in chinese professors from tianjian for only 2 years! which is the minimum amount of required foreign language to graduate, but for those of us actually serious to fluently learning an Asian language (let alone any language) I find this tad counterproductive, not only for the teachers but for the students, as well.

I agree that the "5 years and you are out" policy ...

2005-12-09T02:50:00.000-08:00

I agree that the "5 years and you are out" policy is counterproductive to say the least, but I wouldn't single out KGU as it is the norm now at Japanese Universities, at least when dealing with foreign teachers. As for why they would do it outside of fiscal concerns? Have you MET some of the dropkicks who pose as professors here? Treading water for 30 years from back in the day when they would hire highschool grads who would come over to "exotic" Japan does NOT make you competent or entitled to the title "professor." The Uni wants to ensure it is not tied down to another crop of losers who saunter into class 10 minutes late, slap down a cracked plastic laminate on the overhead projector, drone on for an hour, and then scuttle back to their "office" (presuming "office" is another way of saying "on-campus housing.")

http://www.debito.org/PALE898.html#generalmessageC...

2005-07-20T02:46:00.000-07:00

http://www.debito.org/PALE898.html#generalmessage

Check it out.

They do not have to tenure any faculty after 5 yea...

2005-03-25T20:46:00.000-08:00

They do not have to tenure any faculty after 5 years, or 25 years for that matter. That sort of obligation is a moral obligation, and in general Japanese universities are favoring their financial obligations.

Also, by keeping a "revolving door" policy on foreign faculty, the university can bring in cheaper faculty every few years. And the added bonus is that the new faculty will probably have no idea of the situation. By the time they know enough to do something, they are on their way out.

Other universities operate similarly. Please check out Kanda Gaigo for a good example. They do not even offer a 5 year contract.

hey - we can't do the 5 year thing because they wo...

2004-12-07T20:37:00.000-08:00

hey - we can't do the 5 year thing because they would have to tenure us after 5. That brings with it all kinds of other complications that the U doesn't want to deal with.