Admittedly anecdotal but I recall when my brother went on a school trip to Japan, him and his school mates were expected to do an embarrassing dance number akin to the Haruhi Suzumiya dance for the students of a Japanese school; I also recall folks who went to teach English in Japanese schools who were merely hired as aides to repeat what the teacher was saying but in a goofy manner. I was like “What a racist cult- oh wait we do that too”.
I remembered Ken Jeong and hearing him speak in an interview and was shocked he didn’t have that accent he puts on in his movies. I then remembered some Asian Americans who said you have to sell out deeply to be accepted in America, and if you say one thing that can be interpreted as pro-China (even calling out Japanese war crimes against China), you lose everything. We like our non-white Americans to be stereotypes and we get scared when we can’t otherize them; we’re also quick to distrust them.
Of the two I would choose the dance number. A minute of dancing to old JPOP with students, especially if they’re younger than high school, sounds cute and good actually to me. If you’re going to learn about a culture, dance seems like a great place to start. Compared to what you described for Asian actors this seems incredibly light hearted and inviting.
I can’t speak to the variable quality of being an aide, though it does sound like shit work to just repeat things. I wonder if it reflects the capability of that particular aide, a bias of the teacher, a culture of distrusting the aides, or any combination of the above.