Job Discussion Forums

[broman]

Hi, all. I've been reading through the posts the past few days, checking out some websites, researching Japan a bit. Here's my situation.

I'm a credentialed high school teacher in the US, with about seven years of experience teaching English, and I have two BAs, one in English education (not ESL). Over ten years ago I taught at a hagwon in Korea for six months. I'm in my forties.

With these sorts of qualifications, what sort of a job could I realistically hope to find? I'd like to start in a step or two up from my previous situation in Korea.

Thanks in advance for your input and information.

[furiousmilksheikali]

If you did your English teaching experience in your home country then you could try contacting an international school.

[Glenski]

The FAQs (#4 post) will help lead to job recruiters for international schools, too.

[broman]

I'll check into those. Appreciate the response. The more I look at the posts, the more I see what a lot of info's already there for the searching. I, ahem, ran across the answer to my question there today.

[furiousmilksheikali]

[Sage]

Whatever you do do NOT become and ALT. Trust me when I say you will want to shoot yourself. If you can find a college or private high school to work at then maybe. But, as an ALT with a teaching degree - hardly.

You must trust me young one... for the sake of you own sanity.

[broman]

Even a JET ALT? I've read elsewhere on this forum that a JET's pretty desireable. They do have an age limit of forty but I emailed them and they said they'd welcome my app due to my experience. I haven't taken it further than that yet.

[Sage]

If you want to sit around all day and not allowed to do anything or go home early...

If you want to be forced to teach a class by having to follow the school approved system for teaching to elementary schools and play the happy foreigner human tape recorder for a JTE who can't teach English a tenth as well as you can...

If you want to work in places where the staff generally feel you are treated special and resent you for it while thinking you don't have any idea what you are doing...

Well, then by all means become an ALT!

"I tried to warn him but he didn't listen... and now... now.. it's too horrible to talk about!"

PS: Take the above with a grain of salt. Every position is different, even in the world of ALTs. But, with your degree, I can only imagine the grand frustration you'll be feeling working as an ALT. Go for the high school, international school, or college jobs.

[G Cthulhu]

[Sage]

He's got a teaching degree back in the US - an English Education degree no less. He doesn't want to be an ALT.

Why would anyone want to be the Assistant Language Teacher to someone who is not early as qualified as you yourself are?

[Glenski]

Some ALT positions are not as bad as people make out the majority of them to be. Depends on what the school and dispatch agency expect of you. If nothing else, you'll gain an insight into what things are like in a public school here.

Besides, in a year, you can take your work visa and go "self-sponsorship", and simply link together a bunch of PT work for more money.

[broman]

Thanks for the input and advice. I'm starting to rethink things a bit. Remembering back to when I was in Korea, the hagwon I worked for wasn't all that bad. There was a wide variety of work, including public schoools, private schools, individual tutoring, and classes at the hagwon itself. Several Korean teachers of English befriended me as well and were very kind. Of course they asked me questions about English, etc., but so what. I was introduced to a whole side of the culture, taken places, and fed frequently.

The chief problem was that I had just gotten a teaching credential and I was all set up to teach English language in a disciplined, rigorous manner. Big mistake. The other hagwon teachers had no formal training in teaching and were amenable to "edutainment" as Gelnski has called it, but not I. The hagwon housewives and haggard college students weren't up for rigorous instruction, having gotten it to excess in their regular schooling for years, and I equally didn't think I should have to teach as an entertainer. I distinctly recall resenting it. I've mellowed out a bit since then, though.

So, long story short, maybe there are things worse than starting out at a decent, smaller-size, independent eikaiwa. I wouldn't need to jump through as many hoops to get the job, if the owner rented me out as in Korea I would have the opportunity for exposure to different teaching venues, I could have a relationshoip with the owner instead of a corporation (the Korean hagwon owner was actually pretty decent to me and dispensing of fatherly advice). After a year I could decide what I wanted to do next, much better informed. In Korea, at any rate, the private schools seemed the best situation to me.

I'm not sure if international schools would be for me, for various reasons that I won't bore anyone with now, unless somebody's interested.

I'm assuming that hagwons and eikaiwas are basically the same, and I don't know how valid that assumption is. I don't plan to depart to Japan for several months, so I haven't started looking seriously into eikaiwa-type job postings, but from this forum I gather I can find an eikaiwa to sponser me.

So, old hands in Japan, according to your knowledge of the country, do you find any major flaws in this approach?

[Glenski]

If you have that teaching license plus teaching experience in the USA, go for international schools. Pay and situation seems much better. Go ahead and bore us with the details on why you don't think it's for you. You seem a good match for it.

Glad to hear you've "mellowed" about edutainment in eikaiwas. It's pretty much the name of the game.

[broman]

Okay, here are the reasons. One, most international schools don't seem inside the culture, and being inside the culture is a big reason for me to go to Japan. Two, I don't think I'm right for them... I'm not a careerist teacher with all my ducks in a row. I have two credentials, but both are expired now. I have taken time off from teaching to work on other projects, including house renovations and novels. Three, my last position here at a public school ended with my resigning due to working conditions and the administration's bizarre behavior, and I'm not sure if and when I'll be ready again to jump into the formal teaching game. I could go to Japan and do some more-or-less casual teaching, have an opportunity to learn about a new culture, and also have a much-needed change for myself. Beyond that would depend on how things went.

My impression of a dispatch company is that of a subsitute teacher situation, where you're called the day of, or can progress to longer-term assignments. At this hagwon, part of my contracted teaching time was used in schools away from the hagwon, which were generally more pleasant places to work anyway. As far as a relationship with the owner, I mean that I know the person who runs the place as a human being and I can talk to him about things and I'm not subject to a bunch of faceless rules and policies from on high, something that people in the forum seem to complain about a lot with the big companies. As far as fatherly advice, he took me into his office on his own initiative to explain certain things about Korean culture, advise me on how to teach, how to act at certain schools, etc. Sometimes I took his advice, sometimes I didn't. Fatherly may be too strong a word; I was only trying to put across the notion that there was some human caring there, if for nothing else than to make sure he saved face and that his investment in me was well maintained.

Looking on the Council of International Schools (CIS) website that links to international schools in Japan, I see a few which seem mainly Japanese, which do interest me. Some are Catholic and seem like Marketing Central, which is a turn off. International Schools Services (ISS), a recruiter among other things, wants you to have at least two years' credentialed experience, but you need to have been teaching within the last year (I learned in an email to them), which I miss by a few months.

Anyway, there seems to be a variety of teaching opportunites in Japan, and I'm well advised to look into the situation thoroughly to find the best fit for my own situtation. Appreciate you helping out.

By the way, Glenski, how do you like living in Hokkaido?

[Glenski]

You don't understand what dispatch teachers are like. They are by and large ALTs, not substitute teachers, so usually they work with the Japanese teachers of English (JTEs). Their dispatch agency is supposed to provide the lesson plans, so they just go in and do the job with the JTE.

Variations exist, and most dispatch agencies are said to work illegally because of lack of a license, and there are many problems with skimmed salaries and who is really in charge of the curricula, but this much should dispel what you think you know.

You are not a career teacher. Hmm. Why are you in this game, then? If it's just to travel about and pick up some of the culture, then you are not going to do much better than what has been described, IMO. Get serious, and you will have to actually do more work for better pay.

You think an international school life is not enough immersion in the Japanese culture? Well, you will be able to interact in English with everyone there, I think, and that should actually make life easier than with other jobs. How about interacting outside of the school to expose yourself to the culture? You don't seem to be willing to go for more than one experience in public school anyway (was that back home or in Japan?), so your whole approach, if I may be so forward, seems rather narrow and wishy-washy. People can drift from low level job to low level job, or they can take the reins in their hands and make something of the situation. I suggest you re-evaluate your priorities and find out where you really want to go, then determine what it takes. If you don't like what it takes, then perhaps TEFL is not for you.