My name is Nathan Crocker, I’m from New Zealand, and I’ve been living in Japan for twelve years. I live in Ehime which is in the southwest of Japan on the Island of Shikoku. I’m married to a woman from Ehime and have two young daughters.
I like to write blog posts about why Japan is interesting to me. Sometimes that’s interesting local and national stuff that’s going on, sometimes cultural differences, sometimes literature. I often write about my working life teaching English, how I’ve gotten to where I am, and about how other people can come and work in Japan. I really would encourage everyone to come and work here for a year or two.
My path as an English teacher in Japan has followed (from what I can tell) a typical path for someone who starts in an English conversation school. I taught in English conversation schools (eikawa) for six years. English conversation schools are all over Japan, not just in the big cities. They are privately owned schools that teach “real life” skills and conversation, as oppose to the grammatical approach that the junior high and high schools usually take.
Read about the English language approach in junior high schools and high schools here.
I was then an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) in public Japanese elementary schools and Junior high schools for three years, although not part of the JET programme. ALTs are native speakers who work in Japanese elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools alongside the Japanese teacher. They assist the teacher with lessons, run drills and activities, and model native English conversation and pronunciation. The majority of ALTs in Japan come through the JET programme, which you can find out about here.
For the past few years I have worked at Japanese universities.
Writing
I’m an aspiring writer. Or I should say I’m a writer who is aspiring to one day be paid for it. I’ve had a few successes in getting my work published so far. I had a short story published in a literary magazine in New Zealand.
You can read that here: “Wishful Thinking” by Nathan Crocker.
I also had a short radio drama bought and produced by the national broadcaster in New Zealand, Radio New Zealand. Listen to that here: “Urge” by Nathan Crocker.
In 2010 I did a Masters in Creative Writing for Stage and Screen at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington.
Since living in Japan I’ve been a regular contributor to i-news, a magazine aimed at the international community in the city that I live. And over the past few years I’ve been a co-editor.