Job Discussion Forums

[zorro]

wonder what was edited by paladin????

anyway i'm 13. and this is the last post for me on this thread. sorry to disappoint you team, but its getting a bit boring.

and shmooj. congrats really on winning the play-off. it was after all an ex west ham player who guided you to victory.

[mkhulu]

i worked for westgate a year ago

they will do EVERYTHING they promise in the contract, right down to refunding you the 10 yen you use to open a bank account.

apartments are very very good

teaching is mundane but easy to prep

like others say, location is everything - but you dont get to choose. i was lucky. i got tokyo but a short commute - 40 min each way. you could get up to 90 min each way and that can be murder.

all in all, its only 3 months and i had a ball.

[tangledude]

hi, i also have some qu's about westgate.

someone remarked that they took seven classes a day, of which only one was conversational. i was under the impression that classes were predominantly conversational. Is this a variable between universities?

I only have experience in conversational teaching, and that was five years ago. It was great fun and preparing lessons was simple. but what am i to expect from a non-conversational class? grammar? textbooks?

Do the students have other english teachers?
How long is the training and how useful was it?

cheers, tgl

[PAULH]

[PAULH]

[BenJ]

Westgate is an eikawa job, albeit at a university - you teach the same lesson repeatedly although you may have a couple of different levels and therefore teach 2 lessons repeatedly. It is not comparable to a university course as Paul said - the classes are small (12 max) and the students are paying extra and attending your class outside of their regular classes (i.e. they are keen mostly). The classes are conversation-oriented but you can do pretty much what you like if the studetns don't mind. The main thing is finding the balance between keeping you sane and keeping the students happy. Conversation works well as it means you can minimise your own talking and sit back and just butt in occasionally.

The extra conversation class as mentioned is a free period where any student can turn up to chat with you. Depends on the university, you might get heaps arriving and actually need to have something prepared in the event they all stare at you (and yes I understand "free conversation" should be free, but it simply doesn't work in Japan in my experience), or you might have it similar to me where only one or perhaps two students ever turn up.

The students only have you as a teacher. They might go to another teacher's conversation period though.

The training was non-existent - a couple of hours showing you the "westgate way". Basically you are hired as an experienced teacher. There is a curriculum provided and a textbook, but both are pretty light-weight. Lots of room to do your own thing, or if you couldn't be bothered that day, just as the curriculum suggests.

Any other questions, feel free to ask and perhaps we can turn this thread back to what its title suggests.

[tangledude]

Cheers Ben and Paul, finally some conclusive information about what Westgate teaching actually involves. Pretty much all good news. Time to sharpen up. Roll on the interview. Anyone have any interview tips or horror stories?

[chitownesl]

Does Westgate take into consideration location preference of a new employee for the 3 month University program?? I was told that they can't know which city I'll be placed until right about the time I'm about to go.

-Rick