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rtm
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1003
Location: US
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 Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 5:46 am Post subject: |
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| Solar Strength wrote: |
| Also, nice to see university M.A. programs and Japanese Immigration taking into account one's experience in lieu of a B.A. degree. So there is hope for people who don't have a first degree! |
The ability to get a work visa with 3 years of full-time verifiable EFL teaching experience in lieu of a first degree is often mentioned on here. Most people without a degree who want to teach in Japan generally don't have 3 years of full-time EFL experience though, so it often doesn't apply.
Also, the common caveat is that with a glut of teachers who 1) already have a work visa, 2) have experience in Japan and 3) have a first degree, the teacher trying to get hired from abroad with 3 years of experience but no degree is at a serious disadvantage. The potential employer has to first be convinced that it is possible to get a work visa (since it's not common knowledge among employers), and then has to be willing to go through the process (which, as Sudz said, takes a while). I've always had the impression that most employers wouldn't be willing to do this when there are many other applicants who don't have these issues.
That said, I'm really glad to hear that Sudz was able to make it work out. I'd be really interested in hearing more about how the application and hiring processes went for him -- that information could be really useful for others in similar situations. |
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Sudz
Joined: 09 Aug 2004
Posts: 438
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| Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 10:23 am Post subject: |
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Solar Strength is right that employers aren't necessarily privy to the 3 year rule. SS is also correct (I'd have to assume) that many employers would not want to bother processing a work visa by any non-standard means - instead picking from one of the many teachers with a BA (or more).
In my case, I was in a lucky situation. A teacher had suddenly quit at what is now my current school, and they were desperate to find a replacement. A friend of mine working at a sister school gave me a heads up, and based on his recommendation - along with my employer's new understanding that it is possible to get a work visa based on experience - I was given the job.
While my visa did take a while to process, this was partly due to the time of the year apparently (around April, where there are tons of applications going around). Another teacher (with a BA) joined our school shortly after myself, and his work visa took a considerable amount of time as well. However, from my end, there WAS an older gentleman in immigration however who apparently provided some resistance to me getting my work visa. There were some concerns, but in the end it worked out.
Despite the 3 year route being no surefire way to getting a job, I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from trying this route, as it could very well work out depending. But yeah, those already in Japan with a work visa - and experience - are the more likely candidates. |
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Vaqueiro
Joined: 18 Jun 2008
Posts: 33
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 12:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Solar Strength wrote: |
| mitsui wrote: |
I would assume so. They just advertise on TESOL so
I thought they wanted younger American teachers. |
I think you're right. I've seen them in large groups walking around at JALT and most look to be in their mid-twenties. And yes, many are brought over directly from the U.S.
However, if you look at those who participate in the union, it seems that they may have some older teachers working there.
GU site: http://www.generalunion.org/News/1076
Looks like they've had to fight for basic shakai hokken and unemployment insurance benefits. That's terrible.
I'm told that it's just a 4 year position, at most, anyway. Non-renewable after the 4th year. |
There are some fit and attractive teachers in their 30s, but there are definitely no teachers in their mid-20s. In fact, there are quite a few instructors in their 40s-50s (and even a couple in their 60s), as the photo shows.
The contracts for new hires were recently changed for the worse as far as salaries, raises, and contract limits, and there was a battle to get unemployment insurance (won, by the way). It's still a pretty good gig, though, IMO - certainly better than the adjunct work that's becoming the norm in Japan. The free apartments are nice, the students are a lot of fun, and the department head is open-minded and very pro-teacher. |
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Solar Strength
Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 557
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
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| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 9:14 am Post subject: |
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I'm going back 3 - 4 years, they looked quite young to me and in their 20s - early 30s. What struck me as interesting also is how they moved from seminar to seminar in large packs. And then again, when the conference was over, we ran into them in Shibuya again in large packs roving from bar to bar. Still in the same groups. It reminded me of the NOVA days where teachers lived together, worked together and drank together.
But Kansai Gaidai is just a university version of eikaiwa, so it makes sense.
And also, never have your housing tied to your employer. That's not a good thing, although Kansai Gaidai tries to promote it as a bonus. Living in a fishbowl is never good, either. Everyone gets to see what time you come home and with whom, as do you, and what kind of garbage you have. It's best to keep one's work life and private life separate - never the twain shall meet is the best policy.
Oh yeah, see the "Is AEON a Cult" thread for reference. |
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fat_chris
Joined: 10 Sep 2003
Posts: 3198
Location: Beijing
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| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 11:00 am Post subject: |
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| Solar Strength wrote: |
| And also, never have your housing tied to your employer. That's not a good thing, although Kansai Gaidai tries to promote it as a bonus. Living in a fishbowl is never good, either. Everyone gets to see what time you come home and with whom, as do you, and what kind of garbage you have. It's best to keep one's work life and private life separate - never the twain shall meet is the best policy. |
Seconded.
Warm regards,
fat_chris |
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Vaqueiro
Joined: 18 Jun 2008
Posts: 33
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 2:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Solar Strength wrote: |
I'm going back 3 - 4 years, they looked quite young to me and in their 20s - early 30s. What struck me as interesting also is how they moved from seminar to seminar in large packs. And then again, when the conference was over, we ran into them in Shibuya again in large packs roving from bar to bar. Still in the same groups. It reminded me of the NOVA days where teachers lived together, worked together and drank together.
But Kansai Gaidai is just a university version of eikaiwa, so it makes sense.
And also, never have your housing tied to your employer. That's not a good thing, although Kansai Gaidai tries to promote it as a bonus. Living in a fishbowl is never good, either. Everyone gets to see what time you come home and with whom, as do you, and what kind of garbage you have. It's best to keep one's work life and private life separate - never the twain shall meet is the best policy.
Oh yeah, see the "Is AEON a Cult" thread for reference. |
While I will give it to you that the apartment-tied-to-employer situation is quite far from ideal, it does make the transition far easier for those of us hired from overseas. I can't defend it, though, because the fishbowl quality tends to drive everyone off the property at any opportunity.
Why the snark, though? Calling KG a glorified eikaiwa and hinting at some kind of herd mentality - both completely inaccurate, by the way - really cheapens the hard work of a large, qualified staff of teachers. |
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Solar Strength
Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 557
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
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| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 5:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Vaqueiro wrote: |
| hinting at some kind of herd mentality... |
That's well put, I really thought that there was a herd mentality among the instructors at Kansai Gaidai.
Yes, it it is an eikaiwa type situation.
You guys are't professors, you're non-renewable contract English teachers.
It's what you'd call a glorified Nova. |
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Vaqueiro
Joined: 18 Jun 2008
Posts: 33
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 11:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Since you seem to know more about KG than someone who actually works there, tell me exactly why you believe the school is an "eikaiwa-type situation." Unless you're sitting behind a desk in a private office at Tokyo University, though, I'm not sure you're in a position to make comments like that. |
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mitsui
Joined: 10 Jun 2007
Posts: 1562
Location: Kawasaki
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| Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 3:20 am Post subject: |
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Well some people don`t like the pay or the housing but for me, I think I would take a job like that. It used to be 5 years, now it is just four.
In the past people might say no thanks, but for Osaka, it is a good job.
Their study abroad program is the second largest in Japan. |
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louissenn
Joined: 02 Sep 2013
Posts: 11
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| Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 12:41 am Post subject: |
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| Solar Strength wrote: |
| Vaqueiro wrote: |
| hinting at some kind of herd mentality... |
That's well put, I really thought that there was a herd mentality among the instructors at Kansai Gaidai.
Yes, it it is an eikaiwa type situation.
You guys are't professors, you're non-renewable contract English teachers.
It's what you'd call a glorified Nova. |
I used to work there a few years back, and you're right and wrong on this. At the conferences I attended with my then co-workers, there was the tendency to associate with one another. Hardly surprising since we knew each other and worked together. From my experience, this is completely normal, with the only difference being that KGU has a larger number of teachers, and will thus have more attending conferences together.
You're wrong that it's an eikaiwa situation. Eikaiwa's tend to have standardized curriculums. There is no standardization or accountability at KGU. Teachers pretty much do whatever they want, with extremely variable results. It's a complete crapshoot for the students, as they could get a teacher who shows episodes of Lost for every lesson, another who gives students fresh out of high school 20 page research papers, another who tries to sleep with as many female students as possible, or more rarely, a professional who adapts his or her teaching materials to the appropriate level for their students, and deals with them in a calm and professional manner. This could well have changed, but in my time, there was a relatively high percentage of creeps, whackjobs, and crazies, but also some very good teachers who often as not had to clear up the mess left by the aforementioned.
You're right, teachers at KGU aren't professors; many are former JET program teachers with MA's, lots of overseas hires with no overseas teaching experience, a minority with PhD's. Most don't do research, and what little is produced is just run of the mill conference fodder for resume padding purposes. A contract that stipulates 10 koma a week tells you all you need to know about the priorities of KGU - teaching, not research - it's a business, and one which does not rely on academic reputation, but on extracting some of the highest tuition fees in the country by dangling the carrot of an exchange program to students who otherwise wouldn't get anywhere near the opportunity to study abroad. Pleasant though they are, KGU's students are in the main not very academically focused. Most want to work in the airline and hospitality industry. In all but name, it's a vocational college. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but there is something very wrong laboring under the pretense otherwise.
Contracts are technically renewed year on year for a maximum of five years. It was rare, despite some of the appalling standards of professionalism and teaching quality, for KGU not to renew teachers.
The on campus housing is large, but it sucks living with your co-workers. Hirakata sucks. It's a dull suburb in Osaka-fu. It pretty much takes an hour door to door to get to Osaka or Kyoto. When you live in the campus housing you don't feel as though you're in Japan, let alone Osaka.
Most teachers are in their 40s. Some in their 50s, and a few in their 60s. A couple in their 30s. Can't think of anyone I knew in their 20s.
All the negative stuff aside, it's a decent enough place if you go there with your eyes open to the reality rather than the facade. It's good for first time uni jobs in Japan, and good for those with small families because of the accommodation (awful for single folks though!). The salary is just about the lowest in terms of university pay scales, the workload is higher than anywhere I've taught since, so experienced university teachers should look elsewhere. |
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Solar Strength
Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 557
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
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| Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 10:24 am Post subject: |
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louissenn,
A very helpful review.
Thanks. |
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Solar Strength
Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 557
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
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| Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 3:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Vaqueiro wrote: |
| Unless you're sitting behind a desk in a private office at Tokyo University, though, I'm not sure you're in a position to make comments like that. |
You mean sitting behind a desk in a private office in Tokyo would give me credibility?
Oh, boy... |
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Vaqueiro
Joined: 18 Jun 2008
Posts: 33
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 2:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Solar Strength wrote: |
| Vaqueiro wrote: |
| Unless you're sitting behind a desk in a private office at Tokyo University, though, I'm not sure you're in a position to make comments like that. |
You mean sitting behind a desk in a private office in Tokyo would give me credibility?
Oh, boy... |
It would give you more credibility than the zero you have at present. |
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Vaqueiro
Joined: 18 Jun 2008
Posts: 33
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 3:48 pm Post subject: |
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There is a lot of accuracy in here, but allow me to build on your comments and update some of your information.
| louissenn wrote: |
I used to work there a few years back, and you're right and wrong on this. At the conferences I attended with my then co-workers, there was the tendency to associate with one another. Hardly surprising since we knew each other and worked together. From my experience, this is completely normal, with the only difference being that KGU has a larger number of teachers, and will thus have more attending conferences together.
You're wrong that it's an eikaiwa situation. Eikaiwa's tend to have standardized curriculums. There is no standardization or accountability at KGU. Teachers pretty much do whatever they want, with extremely variable results. It's a complete crapshoot for the students, as they could get a teacher who shows episodes of Lost for every lesson, another who gives students fresh out of high school 20 page research papers, another who tries to sleep with as many female students as possible, or more rarely, a professional who adapts his or her teaching materials to the appropriate level for their students, and deals with them in a calm and professional manner. This could well have changed, but in my time, there was a relatively high percentage of creeps, whackjobs, and crazies, but also some very good teachers who often as not had to clear up the mess left by the aforementioned.
You're right, teachers at KGU aren't professors; many are former JET program teachers with MA's, lots of overseas hires with no overseas teaching experience, a minority with PhD's. Most don't do research, and what little is produced is just run of the mill conference fodder for resume padding purposes. A contract that stipulates 10 koma a week tells you all you need to know about the priorities of KGU - teaching, not research - it's a business, and one which does not rely on academic reputation, but on extracting some of the highest tuition fees in the country by dangling the carrot of an exchange program to students who otherwise wouldn't get anywhere near the opportunity to study abroad. Pleasant though they are, KGU's students are in the main not very academically focused. Most want to work in the airline and hospitality industry. In all but name, it's a vocational college. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but there is something very wrong laboring under the pretense otherwise.
Contracts are technically renewed year on year for a maximum of five years. It was rare, despite some of the appalling standards of professionalism and teaching quality, for KGU not to renew teachers.
The on campus housing is large, but it sucks living with your co-workers. Hirakata sucks. It's a dull suburb in Osaka-fu. It pretty much takes an hour door to door to get to Osaka or Kyoto. When you live in the campus housing you don't feel as though you're in Japan, let alone Osaka.
Most teachers are in their 40s. Some in their 50s, and a few in their 60s. A couple in their 30s. Can't think of anyone I knew in their 20s.
All the negative stuff aside, it's a decent enough place if you go there with your eyes open to the reality rather than the facade. It's good for first time uni jobs in Japan, and good for those with small families because of the accommodation (awful for single folks though!). The salary is just about the lowest in terms of university pay scales, the workload is higher than anywhere I've taught since, so experienced university teachers should look elsewhere. |
Standardized curriculum: Formerly true, but not anymore. There are now four different English programs, and all are aiming to standardize in different ways. If one believes that standardization from the top down is a positive, this can be good, but the standardization process resulted in a split of the EFL department into a regular and an elite program, the former of which now employs a textbook with Japanese instructions in it. Additionally, the elite program is now expected to compete both with another intensive English program on campus and a new joint program established with the University of North Texas. No pressure. One of the virtues for those of us who started before this restructuring was the high level of freedom (which essentially equates to a level of trust in the teachers), but that freedom is in the process of being curtailed.
Teachers: Every teacher has an MA, and out of 53, I count 10 who are either ABDs or PhDs. The advertisement asks for "mid-career professionals", and while there are quite of a few of those, there are also several relatively new teachers. The salary does start off quite low, but the annual increases (for those of us who started before the restructured contract - see below) result in fairly sharp increases. The resume padding here is no different than any other university in Japan, and the proportion of whackjobs and chikan on staff is arguably lower than what one would find at the JALT Conference. Plenty of great people here, along with a couple of shut-in types. Your comment on the lack of quality of research is fair, but I can count the number of groundbreaking, viable presentations I've seen at JALT on a sloth's hand, so that's not something that's limited to KGU. We do get a decent research fund, but of course, with 10 koma, the focus is definitely on teaching.
Contracts: This changed for the worse last year. New hires are still on limited-term contracts, but in lieu of annual review and salary increases, they are offered a straight five-year contract with bonuses (amount unknown). The starting salary has also decreased slightly. New hires, as one can imagine, will most likely receive low-level students in the regular program who have no prayer of obtaining one of the coveted study-abroad scholarships.
Hirakata is boring. Very, very boring. So boring. I have lived in more interesting places a tenth the size. It's an industrial/working class city with a big university shoehorned into the middle of it. As has been mentioned, though, the apartments are big 2LDK jobs, and they're free with no strings. You can use the money you save to ride the bus/train the hell out of Hirakata. To build on your comment, if you have kids, and you want them to keep up their English, the apartment complex can be great, and the local elementary school is used to non-Japanese kids because of the large number that come from KGU.
Complaints aside, I do have a strong net positive impression of the job and the school, especially the students and the support staff. New teachers are met at Kansai Airport in a private van and driven to their apartments, which are clean, fully furnished, and even stocked with a couple of meals worth of food. There is an office full of English-fluent Japanese support staff who help both the NETS and the international students with the bureaucratic stuff. All of that made KGU seem like a well-oiled machine compared to the schools where I worked previously.
I like the comment about not having illusions. It's an instructor position for MAs, not a research-oriented position for PhDs. If you don't go in overestimating the "assistant professor" title you're given, and just go with the fact that you're a decently-paid, full-time instructor in a country where positions like that are disappearing by the day in favor of dispatch and adjunct work, you'll be fine. |
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mitsui
Joined: 10 Jun 2007
Posts: 1562
Location: Kawasaki
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 1:06 am Post subject: |
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I have heard good and bad things.
I heard that teachers who get good evaluations from students can get paid more.
I heard also about bad students that went to either Illinois or California. So while many students go abroad, they are not always motivated to learn English.
But compared to dispatch work, it doesn`t sound like a bad job. It does seem to be a better job for single people. |
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