Job Discussion Forums

[AmorFati]

I am applying for ECC in a week, and I am just wondering how easy it is to find people to teach private lessons in a cafe or whatever. I see ECC pays 252,000 yen a month, which is about 29,000 dollars a year for only 30 hours a week, which in turn is about a ridiculously good 40 dollars an hour.

Regardless, I don't think it will be enough. I'll need to pick up some extra work for 10-20 hours a week. Do I have any options other than teaching, perhaps, that aren't against the law?

[Glenski]

Get a second job (bartending, perhaps?) if you can.

Otherwise, private lessons would be the easiest route. How easy it is to get them depends on a multitude of factors. Your location, amount of advertising, method of advertising, your fees, your personality, your teaching ability, etc.

Advertise any way you can (flyers, business cards, word of mouth, pay for an ad, register for online sites like findateacher.com, etc.). My biggest piece of advice on private lessons is to treat it like a business, and that means going in with a well-thought out plan.

252,000 yen/month is pretty standard here. It would help to know where you live and how much rent you pay and what you have to pay (if anything) in outstanding loans back home, because roughly half of that salary should be going to basic necessities, leaving you with the other half for luxuries. Shouldn't be all that hard to live on if you are moderately careful with your money and have no serious outstanding debts.

[Nabby Adams]

I hope your English is better than your math

It is nowhere near $40 an hour.

Of course as you don't state what $ it is you are referring to it could either mean that you must be American as no one else is so culturally blinkered or that your math is not as bad and you are from Malaysia.

Tis all light hearted fun.

Privates are getting harder to find in my experience and when you do get hold of them don't seem to be as satisfying as they once were. I just put an add up in Osaka for 3000 an hour and haven't has as much as a nibble.

[AmorFati]

Ah, yes... I'm so used to thinking about "amount per check" that I divided the amount of money by 60 hours worked instead of 120 (as I get paid every two weeks in my current job).

That would make a difference... meaning its closer to 20 dollars an hour, which is still fine to me.

[David W]

Your problem is that to get privtes you need contacts and contacts take time to build up. Your best source of privtes is probably from other teachers that are leaving. I'd give it some time at ECC first, the schedule may be tougher and busier than you expect.

[Apsara]

I agree that contacts are important for reliable students in particular. Most of the private students I have ever taught were passed on to me by other teachers or are friends of Japanese friends who asked me on their behalf. Students met through online agencies seem much more likely to be fickle and cancel lessons at the last moment, suddenly disappear etc.

I had actually stopped teaching privates, but I had a rash of people ask me to teach them at the end of last year. Most people want private lessons on evenings or weekends though, and I would like to have some free time at least at those times- I already work several evenings and part of the weekend at my main jobs, so I turned them all down but one, who is paying me �4000 an hour plus train fare to teach her at her apartment- I used to do cafe lessons, but didn't want to do that anymore.

You might find as well that you don't want to give up all your free evenings and weekends, and students that want lessons at other times are few and far between.

[Caliroll]

As others have said there is a good chance you can find private lessons with a little legwork and initiative. Depending on where you are living you might have people asking you on the street for lessons.

I don't really know a lot about ECC, or other eikaiwa schools, but I think the hours would overlap with prime time private work that mostly fall in the evenings.

Besides, would you really want to give up great free time activities like these while in Japan?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK3lCD2okq0

[AmorFati]

Bartending sounds reasonably okay. I would like to do that after work on a few nights; I'd imagine I coud meet and talk to some interesting people.

[Apsara]

Before you look at any bartending jobs, make sure your visa category allows you to do that- I'm not so sure that bartending falls within the description of activities permitted under the Specialist in Humanities and International Services visa, which you would most likely be on. For activities outside those designated by your visa you theoretically need permission from Immigration.

[anne_o]

Hello.......
I've been here for almost a year and just got a few good private lessons. Two came from a woman who was studying at university here and got a job, so she needed to find someone to take over her lessons. She put an ad in the English language magazine here in Tokyo and I responded.
It's funny.....she said that out of the 26 people who responded, mine was the only one she answered. Many responses were really weird....one woman sent wedding pictures of her and her new Japanese husband....why?? Others came from non-native speakers and people who have been here for a long time and view themselves as something special......
Anyway, both jobs pay really well, and she told me that she never does a private lesson for less than 5,000 and hour, which is actually near what I expect to charge myself. It's just a waste of time for me to do anything for less.
You won't have many problems finding students if you charge 2,500.......there's a few web-sites you can put your profile on. I get a lot of responses from findstudents.net.
I feel like waiting a year to get some good lessons, and getting settled in to life here, rather than taking all of the crap that's out there was worth it!
Good Luck!!

[fat_chris]