Job Discussion Forums

[nomadder]

Especially for Newbies.

Most have heard all the negative things attributed to eikaiwas. You may have the impression they are asylums for drunkards, the over-travelled and over-sexed.

The truth is there are many types of eikaiwas from the big chain school to the small mom and pop style places. Obviously there are also a variety of teachers working at these schools too.

The plusses of the smaller places are often that you have total curriculum control and small classes. A good boss will treat you like a valued human and not a number. You won't just be a cog in the wheel.

So don't be put off eikaiwas. The students have to pay to be there so many will try as opposed to public school where English is inflicted upon them in an outdated program in a large class with lots of bureaucracy. University is just a vacation before work for most students.

[PAULH]

[Glenski]

I agree with everything nomadder wrote. The only footnote I will make is in regard to this statement:

[nomadder]

Irregardless of the teacher (prof), the attitude of uni students is well known in Japan.

[PAULH]

[nomadder]

What is the purpose?

From what I've heard the hard work is in HS. For me university was much harder than HS and I took 2 different degrees.

I'm also not sure what you mean by Western/American values. Is America not Western or....?

[PAULH]

[malcoml]

For once I actually agree with Paulh.
A western employer, in theory expects to make money out of an employee from day one. They do this because in their opinion training a staff member is not so profitable as many western emloyees job hop for much of their career. Most western cultures value the individual.
A japanese company in generally takes a graduate and spends a lot of money and time training them, eventually even the most incompetent employee will become competent at their particular job, and that employee will likely be with that company for life. Japan is a culture of groups.
This explains why westerners don't fit well into Japanese companies, they are seen as not team players and can be refered to as selfish. On the other hand many westerners complain at working with Japanese as they find them useless at preforming any task. This is because university has not prepared them for the job, they are waiting for company training that is not coming to them in the west. They are also reluctant to take a lead or take responsibility as this is not a characteristic of a group.
Strangely enough both systems have been proven to work.

[Glenski]

[PAULH]

Now that national universities have been privatised, university teachers that once worked until their retirement are now having to reapply for their jobs after 4 or 5 years, and universities are now getting rid of a lot of deadweight by offering teachers limited contracts instead of tenure. This is happening to native Japanese teachers, not just foreigners.

Life time employment at big companies is a thing of the past, and has been since the bubble economy imploded, and several big Japanese companies have gone under because of massive debts and insolvency.

[malcoml]

[PAULH]

[Glenski]

[PAULH]

[OaklandZoo]

I know this is going off-topic, but exactly what Glenski describe happened at Seiyu just the other day when the CEO resigned because of the company's poor performance, yet still staying with the board of directors. It's not going to convince anyboy when he says he had to be responsible for the sub-par performance, if he's still with the company collecting a load of money.