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Tutor Mark Feeley 's Column

Why do I live and teach IELTS in Japan?

Nov 27, 2024

So why have I been living in Japan and teaching IELTS for over 25 years? A simple answer is, I'd always wanted to travel and see different countries. Upstairs in my grandmothers's house was a room full of souvenirs from different countries, as my grandfather and uncles had been seamen and travelled the world. One souvenir which I clearly remember, was a Japanese flag, from the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. These souvenirs sparked my imagination and a dream to travel.

It wasn't until I was in my late 20's that I took the opportunity to become an English teacher, arriving in Japan after several years teaching in Turkiye and France. I thought I'd stay in Japan for a year and then move on, but then I met my wife, had kids and the rest is history, so they say. Through an international running club, I also discovered the mountains and trail running and that really hooked me. My wife was also into hiking so I began to spend a lot of time in the mountains.

Making the decision to live long term in Japan meant learning the language. I studied French at school and hated it, as all we did was conjugate verbs. It might seem strange therefore to come to Japan and try to learn an even harder language. However, I studied for a Master's Degree at Sheffield University and had a teacher who made it feel easy.

That is what I like to do when I teach English and I love it when students tell me much they enjoy learning with me, and how easy it seems.

So, why do I teach IELTS? IELTS is a high stakes exam and a lot of students are under pressure to achieve high scores, so there are definitely easier types of teaching out there. Acutally, l started teaching IELTS by chance when I was teaching for the British Council. I was scheduled to teach an IELTS course and had some crash training sessions with a couple of senior teachers. After that, I found I really enjoyed teaching the IELTS courses because the students are usually highly motivated and have clear goals to achieve.

That was probably back around 2004 and I think since then I have taught IELTS courses every week. When the Tohoku earthquake struck in 2011, I was actually marking IELTS essays, and struggled into work the next day to teach an IELTS course.

As a result of my teaching experience, I have become very familiar with the test and the challenges students face when studying for the test. Many of my IELTS students have full-time jobs, work long hours, and have dreams of living and studying abroad, much like a younger me, really.

As I live and work in Japan, and have balanced working long hours with studying a language, I understand their situation and feel their pain. That motivates me to work closely with my students and try to coach the best performance out of them, so they can achieve their target scores.

If you are trying to achieve a high score in the IELTS exam and need some support and extra motivation, please send me a message and let me know how I can help you.

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