Job Discussion Forums

[tbe1981]

Hi All,

Does anyone know anything about GABA Corporation? Apparently they do computer aided stuff on a one to one basis, but that was pretty much all I could get from the website.

Any info on pay/working conditions/personal experiences etc would be greatly appreciated...!

Many thanks,

Tom.

[Doglover]

[Glenski]

And, if memory serves, they forged papers to get some of their teachers visas, so their sponsorship privileges were revoked by immigration.

[Rorschach]

They've just recently opened up in Osaka. They seem legit. I was offered a teaching position by them but I already had too many privates of my own. Also, my friend does privates with them and he apparently only pockets 1400yen for 40 minutes of work, far too low (the advertising says 2100yen per class for some reason though). I'm not sure what their fulltime positions would be like but they are very sales oriententated.

[Apsara]

I worked for Gaba for about a year and a half. When I started they had this nightmarish full time schedule where you taught from around 12.30pm to 10.40 pm or 10am to 8.30 pm weekends- 13 lessons (!!!) 3 days a week and 7 lessons (usually around 5pm to 10.40pm) 2 days a week. Needless to say few teachers lasted long on that kind of schedule.

As I didn't need sponsorship I quickly changed to the kind of "free schedule" system which I think most teachers except those involved in sales work on now- the old brutal full time schedule was done away with as far as I know. This allowed me complete freedom to choose the hours and days I worked, within the working requirements of the branch- for example: of course most teachers want to do earlier shifts, but the students want to take the later classes since they work, so the manager will only accept the first few requests for early shifts on any given day.
You submit your schedule the month before, as much or as little as you like basically.

The pay is terrible, as above something like 1400 yen per lesson. The advantage comes from the ability to choose your own schedule- lots of people I worked with were involved part time in something else and used Gaba to top up their income- some people had other eikaiwa jobs, others were professional singers/ dancers etc. One guy was also a capoeira teacher. I was starting to teach yoga classes, and due to the scheduling freedom was able to slowly cut back on the Gaba classes as my yoga classes increased, to the point where I now haven't taught English in about 2 years. This would have been difficult with any other job so was ideal for me.

Other advantages: the students are quite motivated- partly because they are paying through the nose for the lessons and partly because it's one-on-one- they have no choice but to speak! Adult students only- I'm not a kids teacher so that was good for me. Generally the environment is quite a nice one to work in- schools are nicely decorated and the Japanese staff usually have a high level of English- a huge change from Nova where I also worked quite a long time ago and where the Japanese staff could often barely communicate in English.

The company has improved a lot from its earlier days 4 years ago or so when it was known for treating teachers quite badly- the management has changed since. I went back to my old branch to visit a few weeks ago and found that a lot of the people I worked with were still there, 2 years later- the lack of turnover suggests that the situation is much better these days.

If scheduling freedom is important to you and a high salary isn't, try Gaba, if you don't mind a fixed schedule and want a decent rate of pay, definitely go elsewhere.

[guest of Japan]

I thought Aspara's post was very thoughtful.

Unless, you have some dream you are following, stay away from Gaba. That pay is horrid and they can't even sponsor visas. You can very easily get private lessons at far above that rate and still undercut the competition (don't do it you *beep*).

The absolute minimum wage in Japan is 800 yen and hour. Teaching is a lot harder than flippin' burgers or handing out flyers. Disgraceful.

[tbe1981]

Thanks guys and particularly Aspara for the highly insightful and helpful comments.

I'll definitely steer clear of GABA after finding out what they're really all about...

Cheers!

[Apsara]

I'm glad my comments were useful.

I didn't look at the link above before posting- I'm not pushing Gaba at all- there are much better places to work- but just in case anyone's thinking about working there part-time perhaps, and for the sake of balance I wanted to say that some of the information given on that page was incorrect- as far as I know facial hair is not a problem, and I knew plenty of teachers who were promoted, whether you would want all that stress I'm not sure however.

It's not really as dog-eat-dog as the link makes it sound- not at the branch I worked at anyway. 2 months' notice was not necessary. We did not have to be available at any time- as I said above there was complete freedom to choose our own schedule.

As for the non-socialisation, lack of help with taxes and delay in receiving the first full salary, that was also my experience at Nova- not limited to Gaba.

If only they would pay teachers a decent amount (they did indeed cut the pay several times in my first year there) they might actually be a reasonable company to work for.

[SEndrigo]

Regardless of what anyone here says, 1400 yen an hour is near poverty level.

What do they pay at McDonald's? Perhaps a bit less, but you don't have to wear a suit, don't have to prep lessons, and don't have to travel! And even if you did have to travel, Makudo would pay for your travel expenses. GABA doesn't !!!

If you are comfortable with working for peanuts, and driving down salaries for English teachers, go ahead.

This is related to the other post on private lessons.

Don't be a monkey!!

To be honest, I'd rather work at Shakey's than GABA. At least I'd get free pizza and salad bar.