Sensei-tional: Confessions of English Teachers in Japan
I recently received a copy of the book Sensei-tional! Confessions of English Teachers in Japan, which has the following description on its back cover:
“The vast majority of English teachers in Japan are horny and hedonistic travellers, desperate to delay their adulthood by drinking as much as is humanly possible and shagging anything with a pulse.”
Outrageous, grotesque, and frequently hilarious, “Sensei-tional” is a collection of true tales about the misadventures of language teachers in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Rex Chesney has been teaching in Tokyo for several years and here he compiles the most jaw-dropping anecdotes he has heard from his colleagues or experienced himself. Stories of drunkenness, debauchery and ineptitude, with a cast of gangsters, stalkers, transsexuals and hyperactive five-year-olds.
When you are an English teacher in Japan, anything can happen.
As the title of his book suggests, Rex Chesney’s book is a collection of wacky and sensational stories from the eikaiwa world, with special emphasis on Nova. The English teachers in his book regularly show up to work drunk, seduce their students, pass out drunk on the subway, and commit petty crimes. Chesney also tells tales of the terrible students, employees, and cops as well.
After reading the back cover the the book and the wild generalization it made about foreign English teachers in Japan, I really wanted to hate this book. However, it’s pretty clear that the focus of this book is ridiculous comedy, and few people who buy this book would be seeking a fair or accurate picture of what life is like in Japan for most English teachers. Several of the stories are actually amusing, especially when they’ve got illustrations such as the one below:
Near the end of the book, Chesney concedes that there are some decent individuals among the English teachers in Japan, which he calls “a few good apples floating in the barrel of scum.” It seems he doesn’t consider himself one of those apples.
Sensei-tional can be found at Amazon.com
