Working in Japan

[noobish hat]

That's not how Gaba works. You have to go in for more hours than you'll actually work (or get paid for).

[kryss]

The "training" is wholly unpaid.

You would be better off man-to-man'ing some private students from an online teacher-student connect thing. But you need to know what you're doing before doing that anyway.

[randombs]

Interesting... I read reviews and people were saying they had to sit there looking busy when they had no students

Also that's what celta is basically teaching me, unless you mean something else, like RR7?

[kryss]

You'll need practice before striking out on your own.

[hoyteamx]

Interesting... I read reviews and people were saying they had to sit there looking busy when they had no students

Also that's what celta is basically teaching me, unless you mean something else, like RR7?

I taught English but never had the CELTA. I`m thinking of doing it now as I may go abroad again in the future. Where are you doing it?

[randombs]

LanguageLink in Euston. I'm loving it so far.

As to how important it is to people who have already been teaching English, I'm not sure. In our class there are a few people who have taught English already:

- two girls who have taught English to children(one did the JET program and has been an ALT in Japan for 5-6 years teaching primary and secondary school children, the other in South America)
- one guy who taught English in Egypt for a while

and some others who have varying levels of experience. I myself have never taught anything, only some tutoring in Maths and Arabic.

[hoyteamx]

LanguageLink in Euston. I'm loving it so far.

As to how important it is to people who have already been teaching English, I'm not sure. In our class there are a few people who have taught English already:

- two girls who have taught English to children(one did the JET program and has been an ALT in Japan for 5-6 years teaching primary and secondary school children, the other in South America)
- one guy who taught English in Egypt for a while

and some others who have varying levels of experience. I myself have never taught anything, only some tutoring in Maths and Arabic.

Thanks for the info!

I first went to Japan when there were the big eikaiwa schools around. People didn't really need qualifications then. The people who stayed in Japan after the schools went bankrupt generally had no problem finding work. Actually, lots of smaller schools popped up or expanded. Not sure what the situation is now with regards to finding work though. Like with most things, experience trumps formal education (especially when its only a short course) but the CELTA is certainly an indicator of credibility.

[Ghost]

Didn't to post up a new thread to ask this, I've decided that if I can I'm going to take a gap year from uni and stay in Japan on a working holiday visa. Thing is I've already had one 9 years ago, what are chances of getting another if I applied for one? Would I likely still be on their system?

[kryss]

Can you get a 2nd one? And isn't there a maximum age limit?

[Ghost]

Officially no, you can only have one but I know of a few people that have had more than one in the past. The maximum age limit is 30, Im 29 later this month which is why Im taking a year out of uni to do it if I can before its too late.

[randombs]

Also, you have until your 31st birthday to apply, not your 30th. I asked at the embassy because I was about to turn 30 in a few weeks.

[randombs]

So I'm here

I've been wondering: let's suppose, hypothetically, that Borderlink turns out to be the crap ALT company people on the Internet seem to be saying it is. I've got my work visa and it's valid until May next year, and also my residency card. I've been reading and apparently work visas in Japan aren't tied to the company who applied for it; just that, if you leave the company, you have to find another job within three months.

Is that the case? I'm worried the schools they place me with might be all over the shop. I knew this would be the case before I arrived but now that I'm here with my gf I'm in two minds about the situation. I'll know my placement(s) during the training around the 19th and that's when I'll sign the proper employment contract so I guess that'd be the best time to make the final decision. A bunch of decent jobs have popped up as well recently and I think my resident status would put me in a better position employment-wise.

[Yakumo]

Where about are you. I don't really want to read the whole thread I checked out the last 3 pages though but no info.

I can tell you that working for a company such as Borderlink will amaze you when it comes to the bull **** they expect ALTs to put up with. Working for free because it's a good image is just one of them. Japanese do it (idiots!) so they expect us to do it as well. The thing is that it is against the law plus if you are on a year or less contract there is also a law to say how long you are legally allowed to work. You should look in to this although when putting information such as that to the ALT recruiting company will not do much good. They've heard it all before and don't give a ****.

I don't want to sound like a downer but there are many bad points to being an ALT such as thick as **** Japanese homeroom teachers. God only knows how some of them became teachers. There are also many good points such as high pay for the amount of work you actually do and you do get to meet some very nice people.

[Yakumo]

please delete - double post

[Darwock]

It's a bit late for you but working as an ALT is the fastest route towards developing a massive intolerance for Japan and it's culture. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anybody fresh into the country.

I've just come out of five years as an ALT (going to work at a private kindergarten group next month for big money and proper contract) and hopefully I will never have to go back. There were two major issues with the job for me.

First is the Haken (dispatch) system in Japan. Forget any rights you think employees are supposed to have, that is a western concept. Your employer is only concerned with keeping the schools happy. I couldn't get permission to take time off when my first child was born, despite the fact all employees are entitled to 6 days paid vacation under Japanese law (but this was not written in our contract because the company did not wish us to use them). I had to threaten to quit and three days were all I could get in the end. Last summer I had a medical emergency (hole in the intestine) that needed surgery/recovery time, and they simply hired someone else. I got back in after a couple of months on the dole when another guy got fired (maybe he got sick too).

Also the Haken system is never meant to be a permanent arrangement - any employee who is dispatched to the same working environment for three years consecutively is expected to get picked up as a full time employee. To encourage this, after three years in the same contract a Haken-gaisha has to have a three month 'cool down' period where they are not allowed to dispatch any workers to that workplace.

Of course, when said employee is a foreigner a full time position is out of the question, so what this equates to for us is that we are expected to be under contract for no salary for three months of the year. This is what was expected of me this coming June/July/August and that's why I have finally escaped from ALT hell.

Borderlink are a dispatch company, but in my area Borderlink only offer three month contracts so possibly you would never be in a position to expect any perks like paid vacations or sick pay anyway.

The second issue I had was with the schools themselves. High schools and junior high schools should generally be OK, mostly you would be an assistant as per the job title and although you might have to put up with some difficult personalities it shouldn't be too stressful.

Elementary schools are a whole different kettle of fish. Typically nobody there will be able to speak English, and so you will get full responsibility for everything. I never minded this either, but you would hope in some instances that the homeroom teachers would at least help out with the lesson. I had teachers who walked out of the room as soon as I walked in (without making eye contact or saying hello) and never came back, teachers who sat down with the kids and chatted to them throughout the lesson when I was trying to talk, teachers who refused to come to the front to help me demonstrate a conversation and sent a 10 year old kid up in their place.

The problem is that you are getting a little microcosm of Japanese society as a whole, so you will encounter some teachers (and sometimes principles/vice-principles) who don't think English lessons have any place in their school. You don't see that side of things in private English tuition as everybody is paying to be there. My last placement had a clearly racist vice-principle... he would wait until I left and then call my company to complain about everything I had done that particular day. One doozy was when I bought card, colour ink and magnets to make nice flashcards at home but laminated them at the school - my company called me at the weekend to tell me the school had demanded I return the materials that I used. I speak Japanese and the school knows I do, but nobody said anything while I was there.

That's another issue with many schools, nobody will tell you anything (in English OR Japanese).

It's kind of inevitable, the job is crap so most ALTs will want to find something better and leave - the schools get used to a constant stream of new faces coming in and eventually you are not really seen as a person. I've been in my current school for 4 months and most of the teaching staff have not bothered to learn my name.

The kids are the only positive part of the job in my experience, but even then you get exposed to some of what they go through in Japanese school life and it hurts your impression of the country. Put it this way, I don't want my daughter going into a Japanese public elementary school. After kindergarten I'm taking her back home.

There ARE good ALT positions, but you probably need to get hired directly by the BOE or work in a private school. Borderlink may be crap but they are no different from Interac, Altia, Minerva, W5... whoever it may be - they are the pimps and we are the whores.