Job Discussion Forums

[Prince Frog]

Hello everyone,

I am wondering if any of the experienced teachers out there could outline in detail their schedule during a typical work week. Specifically, I am trying to understand the most effecient way to organize a work week while maximizing the time for private lessons.

If any of you could relate some of your private lesson experiences, giving details on how you arranged your schedule, the number of private lessons you were/are scheduling, as well as typical pay, I would be very appreciative.

I am thinking of coming over and I am trying to understand how I could best economize my time to make the most money.

Thanks!

-Prince Frog

[guest of Japan]

Your post comes across like you think that just by being in Japan money is going to fall in your lap. It won't. Private lessons take a long time and collect, and keeping them is another matter.

If you are very successful at getting them you can probably maintain 6 to 10 lessons a week and still get a day off. But don't assume this will happen.

Pay standard is now about 3000 yen an hour for a single student.

[nomadder]

Would it be about 5000 for 2?

[Glenski]

Well, to tell you my schedule now, you'd probably die. I work from 8 to 7pm Monday to Friday. If lucky, I can go home at 6 or 6:30 (those times are the times I leave the building, not arrive home; add half an hour to that). Plus, I work every other Saturday from 8 to mid-afternoon, sometimes longer. That is for a private high school job.

What I think you are really after is this -- an eikaiwa teacher's schedule. When I worked at a conversation school, I worked Monday to Friday only. My first classes were always about 1 or 1:30, and I finished at 9pm. Between those hours, I might have had 2 classes or 5, and there was always an hour for dinner. In my eikaiwa, I was allowed to leave the building for anything I liked (some places only let you leave for your meal). I never had time to squeeze in a private lesson because I was always planning my lessons in the office, but I did take advantage of being able to leave the office (for shopping or miscellaneous stuff). My coworker had a language exchange twice a week, plus one or two private lessons of his own.

In another work situation, I had a dozen private lessons (almost all after 5pm, Monday to Friday; some were on Saturday), and from 8 to 4 I worked at a high school with 2 to 5 lessons a day (and no chance of leaving the building until 4).

My private lessons varied from 1 person to 7 at a time. Housewives interested in learning a bit of chatting language for travel, office people wanting to improve their grammar, scientists hoping to learn how to make presentations, etc. My rate of pay was a sliding scale -- 4000 yen/hour for one person classes, and less money per person as the class size grew (to a certain limit). People paid a month in advance. If they missed a class, no refunds because I was always ready for class. I also asked for 1000 yen each class for transportation, so the larger the class that day, the less each person had to pay for this. I taught in homes, coffee shops, and offices. The traveling from site to site after a long day at the high school was pretty tiring, especially when I also tried to manage taking care of my pregnant wife.

[Jizzo T. Clown]

When I was working for NOVA in Osaka, I had Sundays and Mondays off. Of course, I really preferred to use those days to socialize and relax, but I had two consecutive groups every Monday night at a Japanese-owned private language school held in someone's apartment; which lasted from 6-9. Factor in the travel time (around 30 min each way), and it wasn't really something I looked forward to every week.

But the extra 40,000 at the first of every month came in very handy, especially since I was on a Nova salary!

So my schedule was something like 3-11 Tuesday through Saturday, and three hours Monday nights, which left me with plenty of time for other pursuits.



btw, I heard about that gig from a fellow Novite who was about to leave the country. I guess sometimes the good part-time jobs aren't advertised.

[Stosskraft]

I have been here 6 months and I am now just starting to get the ball rolling with my private lessons. Fortunately I am in the position, of turning down some requests, as I don't want to work in Sundays or Saturday mornings.

I think the pay is a private issue, but I will say that I do give a free trial lesson only 30 min, and I adjust the price depending on the number of students. I only have 1 lesson with 5 students, and it is geared as a "English conversation" lesson . I hold this lesson in a near by coffee shop, and I give the owner a small "kickback?" of the lesson fee's as he actively recruited my most of my students.

For private lessons I believe that networking and word of month as your best tools.

[TokyoLiz]

To the OP,

I wouldn't count on coming to Japan and teaching private lessons exclusively. It's a long hard road to get enough students to make a living. I'd say go with what Glenski says - go eikaiwa and supplement your income with private students.

Last year, I was working a 0800-1600 high school job, one business class Thursday nights, and Saturday morning children's class. The schedule was far too busy with the amount of other stuff I do (my own studies, on which I spend 6-10 hours a week).

I thought about doing all private lessons, or a combination of part time plus privates, but it's risky and difficult - you become your own boss, advertiser/PR, staff and accountant. Heaven help you if you get sick.

The other thing that dissuaded me from going part time/private was the dent it would make in my own studies and social life. I think that, in order to really benefit from being in Japan, it's important to strike a balance between work and personal stuff and cultural pursuits. Sure, you can come here a year and make some money, but it's not the land of the rising yen anymore. It takes time and money to get set up, find privates and recoup your initial costs before you save anything. I'm taking it slower (3 years so far) and have made a life here.

[Glenski]

[Zzonkmiles]

I work Monday through Friday from 8:30 to 5:45 with national holidays off. I wake up at 6:30 and am usually home at about 6:30--definitely no later than 7:00. I don't teach private lessons. I've been curious about offering private lessons from time to time, but in the end, I never go through with it. Why?

For me, the money is not as important to me as my own free time. While that extra 5000 or 10,000 yen a week sounds nice, you can't put a price on being able to come home from work, take off your necktie, and just be able to relax for the rest of the evening. I don't want to spend the extra 30 minutes to an hour each way traveling to the cafe or student's house. And I'm not so big on inviting students to my own apartment to teach them either. I don't want to have to deal with the hassle of students asking for cheaper rates, multilevel students who insist on studying together, dealing with people who insist on stretching a 60 minute lesson into a 70 minute one, and making my own advertisements.

And besides, my time away from work is my time to enjoy Japan, study Japanese, and meet my friends. I teach enough English at work, so the last thing I want to do when I get home is teach more English. I didn't come here simply to teach or to get lots of money. When I return home, I want to say there was more to my Japan experience than teaching for 12 hours a day, three days a week.

I think privates could be nice as a supplementary income (your beer money, for example), but if you have to have this income just to break even, then I think the bigger problem would be that you're spending too much money in other areas, such as on clubbing, dining out, renting an unaffordable apartment, or at the bar.

[Prince Frog]

[Prince Frog]

Thanks everyone for your help and information. I will think over what you have said.

Prince Frog