|
|
| *Travel Tips>>>Japan Travel Tips |
Teaching English in Japan - Best Company? (JET, GEOS, AEON, NOVA, ECC)? |
Travel Info I'm graduating next year, and want to go to Japan to teach English for a year. My freshman year I studied abroad in Japan for 2 1/2 months and loved every minute of it. I stayed in a smaller city during that time which was amazing, but this time around I want to experience the city life in Tokyo. I've heard that JET often places you in small rural communites (which I don't want), but I'm not sure if this is true or not. In your experience, what company is the best with regaurds to placing, pay, work hours (less is better), and vacation--or just in general, which are the better companies, and which ones should I avoid? Thanks! Travel Tips The best imho are the JET program and Interac.You want to be an ALT/AET (a teacher who team-teaches together with a Japanese teacher) and you want to avoid private language schools (eikawa) at all costs. This would include NOVA, AEON, Gaba, Geos, and Berlitz. These businesses are geared to serve the customers but don't take good care of the teachers, and you will be teaching by yourself (teaching very small kids who can't speak any English in all-English just does not work sometimes!), making lesson plans, and working a stressful schedule in an office, mostly evenings (meaning, no life!). The JET program is your best bet as a fresh grad. You have to deal with the fact that most of Japan is rural. If you join JET you'll be likely to be in suburbs or a small town. However, on JET all of your health insurance will be paid. Your transportation to and from work are covered. Your living costs can be partially or fully paid for depending on where you end up. One of my friends lived in a small village near Hiroshima for one year. In the village they had a small house especially for her, already furnished nicely. No living cost! On the JET program they are trying to give you the best impression of Japan they can, so they are very careful to make sure you are very happy during your stay here. On the downside of that, they are very careful and selective during their screening process. They want very young grads. If you have any health problems or are on prescription medication for a reason that makes them worry you may have health problems on the job here in Japan, they won't be keen on hiring you for the job. I currently work for Interac, not JET. I like it very much. It's a private company that provides ALT's to schools. You can live whereever you want with Interac: you tell them where you want to go and that branch will hire you. They can help you find somewhere to live (but you've got to pay for it.) Your health insurance is not paid, but transportation is. I'm very happy with this job because team-teaching with the Japanese teachers is fun and rewarding and working in a school, you get to take part in school events and holidays and that's totally fun. We get summer vacation (three weeks or so in August) off. http://www.interac.co.jp/recruit/... Please note a few things: 1. If you work in Japan, you are generally expected not to be sick. If you're the kind of person who gets sick a lot, this country will not be good for you. Taking days off for sickness is looked down upon. 2. Punctuality and formal dress are general musts. If you're late, it's a very bad thing. If you don't like dressing up... you will have problems here. 3. Kids (and grownups) will often say and do things that are odd, offensive in small ways and may cause you annoyance of culture shock. If you don't have the patience to tell yourself to just let it go, if you're too sensitive and people giggling at you, constantly openly staring at you, and stuff will make you unhappy or paranoid (like me on my worst days, haha) this sort of work is not the job I'd recommend. That in mind, I wish you the best of luck! I say go for the JET program if it's possible for you, and enjoy a nice life in a rural area. You will have plenty of things to do and the people will be very friendly and take good care of you as their resident. You can't beat the savings you'd get by having all of the compensation a JET receives. BTW, Tokyo is the most expensive city to live in in Japan, and I don't recommend it to someone who's just starting out here. Why not try another large city? You will need to save your money if you want to live in Tokyo. You can save quite a bit by living in Kawasaki or Machida, Tokyo's suburbs, or Nagoya, Sapporo, and Fukuoka are other large cities which are less expensive to live in, as well. Personally I recommend Yokohama, next-door to Tokyo so you can visit anytime, Japan's second largest city, international mindset (very foreigner-friendly place), cleaner than Tokyo with lots of green spaces all over town. Others well in general you should avoid any of the companies you listed. the pay is not that spectacular for one. they dont pay you on time either. it is a general practice for these companies to apply for the wrong visa and jerk you around about it incase you decide you want to quit early and take another job. but on top of that they tell you will work 35 hours a week but that amount is really 45 or more hours in location plus another 10-20 hours a week at home. if you are unlucky and out in a location with low amount of students they will send you around to recruit customers. futhermore the customers you do have start to hate the classes after the first month or so due to the companies curriculum that has them repeating the same lessons time and time again. my suggestion is to apply for the jet program and only take a job at one of those companies if you are turned down for the jet program. the jet program's pay is about 5-10 thousand dollars more per year than the salary at the average english schools salary. your work hours in the jet program are mon-fri 7 hour a day and you will actually get your vacation time with the jet program. my final point would be is you are just as likely to be placed in rural location with the jet program as you would be with a language school. if you want to know where I am coming from I am living in japan studying abroad right now. I have had several friends that worked for various english schools. they all pretty much had the same problems. on top of that there is also a social stigma for the language school teachers, they are seen as door to door salesmen of language and often refered to as nova slaves do to the harsh work conditions. the choice is your's to make but my suggestion to you would be before you just take a job with any of those language companies, apply for the jet program. it is very tough to get admission into to the program due to the benefits and good work conditions, but trust me it is worth it. By far, the JET program is the best and most trustworthy. The others mentioned ALL have some major down sides, especially for women. And for the shady business associations for a couple of the companies you mentioned. Message me for details. So, in short, I highly recommend the JET program. Good luck to you. Trust me on this-you are much better off on the JET program. You will make more money than any conversation school teacher and have school holidays+national holidays+days off when the Japanese teachers are hard at it in professional development or whatever. Meanwhile somebody else is slaving away at NOVA for 250000 a month. If you are on the JET program you will have the opportunity to apply to become an international relations coordinator as well. If not JET, then try the corporate teaching companies like Interac, ITC, etc. Corporate teaching can be actually really easy going (again, you won't be teaching on Sunday morning like somebody at Nova), and obviously it's a big city thing. The big drawback is you can't go to say....Mitsubishi Denki Honsha looking like a hippy. None of the companies you listed are particularly good. While you may not have problems with them, many people have, particularly NOVA. ECC is probably the best of the bunch you listed, but that's not saying much. These companies are all about money, and they don't really care about the people that work for them. The turnover is extremely high at these companies. The JET Programme is a... program.. run by a branch the Japanese government, not a company. :) The main goal of this program is not for you to teach English, but to help "internationalize" Japanese students. While you get treated a lot better while working for them (you'll be working in a public school), and your benefits are good, you might not be very busy, your ideas might not be appreciated, and unless you are EXTREMELY motivated, your teaching skills (or other skills, for that matter) will not improve. Many JETs complain of being a living tape recorder for the Japanese Teacher (of English) that they work with. JET does not always place you in the countryside. Even if you are placed in the countryside, JETs tend to stick together, so you'll have a support network not far away. What you should do is log onto www.gaijinpot.com and check out the jobs listed there (not all are teaching jobs). There are also many forms you can go to for advice and support. You want to go to Tokyo, right? Keep in mind that Tokyo is an EXTREMELY expensive city to live in. If you're just going to be teaching English, don't expect to save any money, don't expect to live alone (unless you live in an apartment the size of your closet back home), and don't expect to learn much Japanese. Tokyo is a great city, and it's lots of fun, but there's a lot to be said about living in a smaller city. I recommend Hiroshima, Kobe, Nagoya, Hamamatsu, or Nagano. These cities are all around a million people (well, Nagoya is about 4 mil), they're great fun, and you'll still be able pick up some Japanese, save some money, and live in a nice place. JET has the best reputation and NOVA has the worst reputation. A lot of it will depend on where you are located and the staff at your local school. Good luck! I was there for 3 years and loved it. www.gaijinpot.com |
| Tags |
| Sydney Wellington General - Australia & New Zealand China Indonesia Japan Korea Malaysia Maldives Nepal Philippines |
Travel Info Categories--Copyright/IP Policy--Contact Webmaster |