Job Discussion Forums

[freesolo]

am interviewing in fukuoka and wondering if anyone has opinions\experiences with Howdy school of english and Amercian Network.

any info appreciated.

[luckyloser700]

Howdy?

How-dee?

I can only ask: How-dee hell can anyone tell people, with a straight face, that he/she works at Howdy School of English?

[cafebleu]

Freesolo - I lived in Fukuoka for some time (not there now) and I know Howdy closed a couple of branches of its school during my time in Fukuoka although I never worked at Howdy.

As for American Network - it sounds like a new or newer school. Fukuoka has a great deal of small, unprofessional schools that will provide nothing in the way of secure work. I am not assuming American Network is one of those but if it is offering limited working opportunities of only a day a week or whatever, think carefully.

If you have other work and that kind of job suits your schedule, then that seems fine. However, working conditions certainly were deteriorating when I left Fukuoka and so many new schools had sprung up that were based on nothing more than exploiting teachers who were willing to work for little.

At one stage there were a fair few English teachers coming from South Korea to seek what they thought was the 'good life' in Kyushu (!). The higher number made it easier for schools to offer so little in wages and conditions in comparison to even 2 years before more teachers came to Kyushu and Fukuoka.

I know a fair bit about various individuals running most of these small schools in Fukuoka and I know what are good working practices and what are not, know the kinds of areas the schools are situated in, etc. Would you like to give a bit more info? - I could very well know who is involved in the Howdy and American Networks schools you're talking about.

[cafebleu]

Please read your inbox messages. I just sent you one and I hope it proves useful. Regards.