Job Discussion Forums

guest of Japan · Joined: 28 Feb 2003 Posts: 1601 Location: Japan

Joh Taylor, I'm afraid I'm not in agreement with you. Almost every teacher I know works around 40 hours a week.

As for saving money, if you have a job of similar salary in a Western country you will probably save much more if you live the same lifestyle. Taxes may me less in Japan, but everything else is not. I also find it pretty impossible to believe that someone earning a salary of 250,000 yen a month in Japan can save half their salary.

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

cornishmuppet · Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Posts: 642 Location: Nagano, Japan

Interesting stuff.

I'm afraid I'm with Jon on this. I pay just 33k a month rent, which is very, very cheap, though I live in a box where I can practically touch walls from the centre of the room. After tax/bills deductions, inc phone/insurance I take home about 190k. Half of this goes home, and I live on 80-90k quite easily, including buying a few bits and bobs, and getting a bit drunk on the weekends. I usually fit in a weekend travelling in another city, or even two if I'm tight as hell with food money, etc.

When I have a holiday coming up, I simply don't send anything home. Unfortunately, as has been said above, eikawa teachers get holiday that almost completely coincides with national holidays like Golden Week. I had four days there and wanted to go to Beijing. The cheapest I could find was 110k for a return flight, so I stayed in Japan and went down to Fukuoka by internal flight and then back by bus/train. It cost me a small fortune.

The day before Golden week started, on the same website I found, the flights to Beijing started from 30k. Quite a difference. Ferries, for example, are even cheaper, but these are pretty useless when you have tiny little holidays. If I had three weeks, for example, I wouldn't send any money home for a couple of months before hand, get a ferry over to China and have a wander about, stay in youth hostels, that kind of thing. The rest of Asia isn't as expensive as Japan but when you don't have time/money to get there you have a problem.

I think I may have lost my point a little, but before I came to Japan I worked in a bank for three years and saved nothing out of my salary. In Europe I saved nothing, though earned enough to travel around (while starving in the process), while I saw Japan as my last hope to pay off some debts from university, while experiencing a culture greater than as a simple tourist.

I work very hard in my job and it is extremely wearying. I don't hate teaching but I certainly don't love it either, and it is quick to become monotonous in Japan where to me, teaching is just an endless wheel, slowly revolving. I worked 35 hours a week in the bank and had five weeks paid holiday plus national holidays, while here I work around 45 and get 20 days paid, and nothing unpaid.

Jon Taylor · Joined: 09 Mar 2005 Posts: 238 Location: Tokyo

Hey cornish,

My advice to you is to keep on searching for a new job.

There are so many good positions available in the Chiba area where i'm located that are paying a bare minimum of 250,000.

Overtime is often available and despite what others say, a 40 hour week is not required. I know many foreigners and don't know of any that have to work such hours.

Most tend to teach 3-4 hours a day. Out of these hours is your time.

On the subject of holidays, yes, I agree that travel is expensive but many positions offer 5 weeks of PAID vacation.

All I can say regarding the other posts I have read is that the majority of you have had little fortune in finding a position with good hours and holiday and my advice to anyone wrking 40 hours is to seek alternative employment.

I came to Japan to see a little of the world, explore and have fun. My job comes second in my life and I would never consider working a 40 hour week.........not in this job. Let's face it, for most it isn't a career, mererly a different experience from anything you can have back at home.

Teaching can be stressful and directors realise this. 40 hours of stress !!!

No way, thankyou.....

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Perhaps we need to do a poll to see who is closer to the truth. I'm not up for one, but from the looks of things there are almost an equal number of people on both sides of this issue. Let me add a few (final?) comments.

I deal with facts and supportable numbers. Majority rules if there is no bottom line. That is, "majority" means average. I don't believe that the average eikaiwa worker pays a mere 33,000 yen/month in rent. I figure it is closer to 50,000-80,000 depending on city vs. rural location. (Heck, even I got free rent when I worked at my first eikaiwa job, but you don't see me flaunting that freebie as the norm!) So, cornishmuppet, your figure, in my opinion, is out of bounds for this discussion.

Also, you wrote:

SEndrigo · Joined: 28 Apr 2004 Posts: 437

Jon,

Here is where you are wrong: NO full-time teaching job will require only 3-4 hours of work a day (notice I said working hours, not teaching hours)

That's called PART-TIME. You might be talking about part-time jobs, but to my knowledge (and everyone else's), full-time teaching jobs here require at least 35-40 hours of work per week.

And regarding vacation time, you're also wrong, since neither AEON, nor NOVA, Berlitz, GEOS, etc. give you 5 weeks vacation time.

ECC tends to give more time off than the others but as far as travelling is concerned it's still not as sweet a deal as working in Europe, in which most countries give you at least 4-5 weeks paid holiday, free health insurance, etc.

If you work for Interac or another dispatch company, you tend to get much more time off than eikaiwas but some of it is unpaid.

Japan does not and cannot compete, except when it concerns salaries, which tend to be higher here.

However, unless you are totally cheap and never go out, it's nearly impossible to save half of your 250,000 yen salary here.

Yes, it can be done I suppose - if you never go out and eat tuna sandwiches.

I knew a guy who did that...but then again, what kind of life is that?

If you earn more than 250,000 it's possible...but we're talking about standard jobs, and that's what the standard job here pays.

We're not talking about the sort of lucrative job you seem to have, which offers you a full-time salary with only 3 or 4 hours of work and heaps of time off.

Jon Taylor · Joined: 09 Mar 2005 Posts: 238 Location: Tokyo

SEndrigo,

In respone to your post...you stated:

"Here is where you are wrong: NO full-time teaching job will require only 3-4 hours of work a day (notice I said working hours, not teaching hours)"

My contract states full-time and I work 3-4 hours per day. I have a full time teaching position which fortunately offers part time hours.

So.....your wrong there.

Also you stated:

"And regarding vacation time, you're also wrong, since neither AEON, nor NOVA, Berlitz, GEOS, etc. give you 5 weeks vacation time"

Well, i'm afraid your wrong again. Maybe the above do not offer 5 weeks paid vacation however many other organsations do. I live in an apartment block with many other foreigners and between us we work for many different companies. And guess what......we all recieve 5 weeks of paid vacation.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

From the GEOS web page:

SEndrigo · Joined: 28 Apr 2004 Posts: 437

Hey Jon,

I'm glad you gave us more details....you apparently work a part-time job with full-time pay, so you're luckier than most people who come to Japan and work for an eikaiwa.

I know people who work 20 hours a week and earn crazy money, but then again, they are part-time workers who teach a class and then leave the premises. If that's what you do, you're part-time.

And, no I am not wrong about vacation time, as I mentioned, those schools do not offer 5 weeks of paid vacation time and according to Glenski, and the company websites, I am right. Notice I left out ECC in my evaluation since I knew they offered more vacation time than other eikaiwas.

Maybe you are fortunate enough to work for a school that does give ample vacation time, but realise that most schools dont.

The fact that you live with a few foreigners who have 5 weeks vacation time, does not mean the majority of foreigners do.

SEndrigo · Joined: 28 Apr 2004 Posts: 437

Hey Glenski,

Thanks for the information from the websites....it's funny to read those, since the GEOS blurb seems to be untrue.

From what I have heard from GEOS teachers, they do not offer 4 weeks paid vacation plus all national holidays.

I have friends who work for GEOS who tell me they get 10 personal days they can take off during the year. They have some national holidays off, not all.

For example, they do not have a week off during O-bon, only 1 or 2 days.

As for ECC, that's fuzzy math...I count 5 weeks vacation (all during peak times, so you can't choose when to take time off), plus 5 personal days, and national holidays.

I don't count national holidays and paid personal days when I'm talking about paid vacation time. National holidays should be a right, not a privilege. And personal days can be used when you get sick...how is this a vacation?

I wonder if Jon Taylor he can take those 5 weeks off whenever he wants, or if he is forced to take them at peak travel times?

I also wonder if he could take four or five weeks off consecutively if he wanted to?

It seems to me that even if you do get 5 weeks off in Japan, it's not as good as getting 5 weeks off elsewhere, since you are confined to taking time off during peak travel periods where everything is 3 times more expensive.

auslestat · Joined: 27 Jun 2005 Posts: 3 Location: Australia

Am replying to this quite late, but I rarely view this site.

I have worked both for NOVA and a dispatch company (ALT). Holidays were better at the dispatch company (ALT), but pay was slightly more at NOVA - seeing as I had some late shifts and worked weekends.

As others have said, being a ALT means getting more holidays, but these are during peak season - and now as others have stated some of these are unpaid.

For an ALT (the companies I was dispatched through) you will be required to stay at the school for the 8 hours - regardless of contact hours.

It is possible to travel through NOVA - I did. One area where NOVA is Ok is shift swaps and unpaid days. I managed to take a 10 day holiday every 2 months (after my inital 4 months of drunkness), through shift swaps and an occassional unpaid day (try and work it so you work the day before you go on your holiday instead of after). An because I could choose when I would travel, I was often able to get cheap flights.

But each situation is different, and back then I though I was sitting in a bare paddock and all around me was lush grass - but it wasn't so bad, I'm just grateful I was able to travel as much as I did).

One last thing, I actual travelled less as an ALT, again because of the higher prices - I used only the main break (August) and then went overseas.