Job Discussion Forums

[Big John Stud]

TK4Lakers wrote:

You're description for an ALT seemed rather vague. And you stay till 9pm? Wow, I hope you're getting overtime for that. Because I think if any teacher has to stay that late, either they are extremely inefficient, don't know how to delegate, or don't have a life outside of the school. Japan is an image conscious society, and I see teachers always trying to look like they are working hard, and when they are running around, they try to look like they are working even harder. But I don't agree with how most teachers (at my JHS) stay until 9pm, sometimes even later. I understand bukatsu (club sports) takes up a lot of the afternoon time, but still....teachers should be able to get their stuff done earlier. One of the new teachers told me too that the teachers feel the need to 'serve,' kind of similar to the Bushido code of the old samurais, so if they leave early they will looked down upon. This is one of the reasons why I favor American work society over Japan's...but maybe this can be another thread.

I don't always stay until 9 p.m. just during certain times of the year like preparing for sport's day, singing contest mid and final exams and so on.

You are right about image. Some teachers will stay late acting life they are busy just to make a good impression. When a teacher leaves earlier the other teachers say in Japanese, "You must be tired for working hard!"

Over all though, I prefer Japan's work society way over the U.S. We all know the meaning of the saying, "Going postal!"

[TokyoLiz]

I've been a public school ALT on the JET Program, and also worked as an Oral Communication teacher/senior high ALT for a private school.

There are so many different situations you might find yourself in. As a public school ALT on JET I was never really solo; either the Japanese English teacher and I prepped and taught the lesson together, or at least someone, HR teacher or Japanese English teacher, was present while I was leading the class.

As a private school OC/ALT, I taught OC solo to half the class while my fellow OC teacher did the same, often from the exact same lesson plan, and I team-taught with senior high English teachers, prepping the lessons together, and playing a role in the lessons, doing some marking, but not the testing.

I participated in some after school activities, but rarely past my contracted time, and I attended some weekend events. Infrequently, I would stay an extra hour or two to help with speech contest prep or the like.

Such is the variety of ALT life.

[fluffyhamster]

Outside of the JET Program(me), life as an ALT is generally getting worse. Chances are you'll either a) wind up as a public high school ALT "dispatched" through any one of numerous equally shady (profit-driven, money-grubbing) recruiters (and thus be scraping by each month on low wages, made lower by not being paid for your first two months, and then again for any two months following whichever month(s) are 'not paid' e.g. August, all of which means you will be racking up debts that need paying back, further reducing your salary) or b) land yourself a job at a supposedly "prestigious" private high school where there'll sure work you to death for the extra 50-70,000 yen you'll be well and truly earning (e.g. 'In our school of 600+ students, you will be the only full-time ALT, with teaching responsibilities amounting to 25+ lessons per week, "English Arena" chatspace after school every day for an hour, planning and testing responsibilities for the 3 whole grades etc etc etc etc etc'. Um, sorry, thanks but no thanks! You should maybe think of hiring a few more full-time teachers...).

I'm not saying that rewarding jobs (at least in the financial sense) aren't out there, but in the public sphere there seem to be fewer and fewer BOEs who see the obvious sense in having reasonably content ALTs working for them (e.g. many BOEs don't want to pay a month's salary until at least two months have passed and the first month's timesheet, reports etc been submitted in full - 'What?!' they say. 'Change the timesheet so that its submission and the resulting pay can be processed and made to directly coincide with the city's payday?! No, sorry, it can't be done...and even though we should know full well the hardships that this will place on our ALTs, we still somehow expect them to be at their schools every day, and never to be absent, or act up etc, even if they can't afford to pay for their transportation costs let alone food, medical expenses etc.').

Now before anyone says 'If you expect to be treated professionally, then you shouldn't even consider being an ALT and working for vermin', it'd be well to consider that saving up for that glossy MA or PhD has also been getting harder and harder over the past decade+, and even if we could all afford to leave ALTing completely behind us, the way that even some university staff are nowadays being treated doesn't always make getting higher qualifications seem a recoupable expense (at least, not in/for those wanting to have a long(er)-term career in ELT here in Japan). ALTs aren't fully qualified "teachers", to be sure, but there are some who do deserve (not "deserve"!) what little they do earn (compared to some of the incompetent, workshy JTEs around).

If however you came to Japan aeons ago and have consequently got more than a little saved up (enough to give you options), or have Japanese language or other skills with which to potentially ply other trades, then ALTing for a year or two could be just the sort of change of pace you're looking for (not sure how it would look on a CV though).