I teach ESL freelance at home, so I understand when the senpais said that it is difficult to teach English to ESL learners, especially in EA countries like Japan. And this is not only applicable to primary, middle school, or high school students.
I was reminded of one incident when I did team teaching with a professor from Osaka for his pronunciation-intonation lesson with his college students. In the Philippines, I teach JHS and SHS students, and usually, I use brainteasers as an icebreaker to get the students thinking at the beginning of the lesson. My students love them, and they even compete with each other para mauna makasagot sa mga brainteasers na piniprepare ko.
Now, considering these Japanese students are already in college and studying English, it would be easy for them to get the answers, too. Or, that was what I thought. However, they stared blankly at me during class when I told them the instructions. They all needed help understanding how the brainteasers worked, so the professor asked me to tell them the answers, and I had to explain to them paanong yun ang naging answers. haha
For kids (beginner level), I always request the parents to sit with their kids when we have lessons so they can translate what I tell the kids to do. But some parents are usually at work and can't be with their kids during our classes, so I always have my best friend (google translate) help me out. wahahaha
While waiting for the results, I started learning Hiragana and Katakana and realized how my ESL students felt when they learned English. I had a few realizations. haha, It's easier for us to learn English because we basically use the same alphabet for Filipino and English. But it's challenging to learn Nihongo, mainly because we had to learn Hiragana and katakana (don't let me add Kanji yet, my head is already aching, lol). I was so ecstatic when I could finally read them, but I felt sad when I realized I didn't know what they meant (well, aside from the few words and phrases learned together with the characters). haha
So I said to myself, now I know why my students have to study every day because just like how if I stop studying even just a day of Nihongo, I will forget many of the things I learned, they would also forget what little English they have learned with me if they also stopped even just a day of learning English.
It was always fun watching videos from these ALT senpais (Teacher Macs, Teacher Ian, and Teacher Donna). The exchange of thoughts and experiences they shared in the live stream was so insightful and would definitely prepare aspiring Filipino ALTs in the future.
I'm glad I rewatched it. My views about these have changed two months after. lol
