Pros
The kids were great, and some teachers were very enthusiastic about English. The games were very practical and I felt the kids learned a great deal from the experience. I enjoyed going to the schools and learning their culture.
Cons
The management team at GLAD was perfunctory. The salaries were often late, or given out piecemeal. I got pretty tired of their soapy apologies and the fact that they blamed their problems on the teachers. Their attiutude was passive at best. The coordinator for the Iwakuni and Tokuyama area was disgusting, and tended to be lazy. She was bad tempered and didn't seem to care about her situation. The salary was quite low, and the staff did very little to help the individual teachers. I was perfectly willing to work over-time, without pay, and I was very sorry I didn't receive and recognition for that. Also, the staff and the school board seemed rather petty and small minded when it came to cultural differences. They simply could not grasp the fact that there were different cultures in this world of ours. I was sorry I put so much effort into the lessons and holiday decorations and had nothing but contempt to show for it. The teachers at the schools tended to be stingy.