Job Discussion Forums

aboylikedave · Joined: 25 Jun 2004 Posts: 6 Location: London

I am applying to Ekinaiwas from England - and would much rather teach adults than children. Nothing personal kiddies and I'm sure it would be lovely but I have no experience in it so would have a steeper learning curve. Do any schools (or contracts) tend to have a higher proportion of adults than another, or is it the case that they all have classes for both and it's a matter of the sign up levels at the particular shcool? Do any schools have adult/child only teaching contracts?

lajzar · Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Posts: 647 Location: Saitama-ken, Japan

Teaching children is the big growth sector in eikaiwa at the moment. It is highly unlikely that you'll find a job that involves zero teaching time with children, unless you either a) work at a university, or b) work as an in-house company teacher at a corporation.

Willy_In_Japan · Joined: 20 Jul 2004 Posts: 329

Indeed. English Conversation schools are actively pursuing young students. In fact, when I was at GEOS, we had a GEOS kids teacher come in every thursday to teach a group of children. Our school actually started to compete with ourselves and sign up children classes to my schedule. The manager was trying her best to fill up the schedule. When I left, the new teacher had 8 adult classes on thursday to look forward to, and 8 adult classes on Saturday. It was only a matter of time until the schedule had 38 or so classes a week, and the manager wanted a bunch of those to be kids classes.

Most all GEOS schools were being groomed to accept childrens lessons. We all had to attend childrens training. It involves hand puppets and singing. For example you have to sing "hello! Hello! Hello! How are you? Im Fine! Im Fine! I hope that you are too!" Its not so fun once you start into it, but once you get going, its not so bad.

madeira · Joined: 13 Jun 2004 Posts: 182 Location: Oppama

Some people can handle kids classes... But I couldn`t. Not mixed in with adult classes in an 8-9 class/day schedule. The kids make a mess and drain a lot of your energy. IF it was ONLY kids all day, maybe that would be OK.

Going from TPR activities and flash card games to discussions on the economy with a 2 minute break... Sorry. Too tough for me. Never mind the crayons and drawings all over the place. Doesn`t look professional. Business suits are not usually designed with a lot of movement in mind, and eikaiwa floors are often pretty tough on your knees....

Now, some kids classes are wonderful, and you`ll probably have lots of returnees, who basically need a REAL teacher, not eikaiwa... and you`ll do fine with them, probably...

Anyways, rambling rant over for now... Try to get into a school that has its own kids school nearby. Otherwise, get ready for PUPPET ACTION!