Job Discussion Forums

[JimDunlop2]

The rumors are common. Both on forums like this and among gaijin at the local pub... People who don't work full-time for any one eikaiwa but hold several part-time jobs, including teaching privates.

As I will be finishing my full-time (year) contract at the end of March, and as the eikaiwa I am working for will not be renewing my contract (that's a whole new post all on its own) and as I have not yet been able to secure a new full-time position (I restrict myself to the region where I currently live for a number of reasons) I am looking for the following info:

Can anyone give me their personal experiences with multiple part-time jobs? Is it possible (as the rumors go) to earn the same amount of money as with a single full-time eikaiwa job (Y250,000)? How difficult was this to accomplish for you? What kinds of places did you work for? (Were they eikaiwas? Something else?) What kind of hours did you find yourself working? Where do you live? (I'd like to hear from some people outside of Tokyo too, as that is a completely different animal). Also, how much per hour do you charge your privates? How many privates do you have? How did you get them?

Please post your part-time experiences here.... Or, PM me if you wish.

Thanks everyone!

Sorry for all the questions!

[Glenski]

Jim,

Yes, it is very easy to surpass the 250,000 yen/month mark with multiple PT jobs. I know a few people making double that, or more. You are going to find that people take on a multitude of work experiences, from teaching university, to high school, to eikaiwa, to business classes, to private lessons. There is no "norm". Of those I know, they work practically any hours, any days, and the ones who make in excess of 500,000 yen/month seem to work 6-7 days a week (even if it's only a couple of hours per day).

How difficult this is to accomplish depends on location, timing, experience, contacts, and personal initiative. Again, no norm.

A colleague of mine here in Sapporo made 350,000 or more ONLY on private lessons. He got started by using classroom contacts from his eikaiwa (and those students' friends). He had been working at the eikaiwa for 3 years previously, and in about 2-3 months, he worked himself up to that salary. Sometimes he worked as late at 9pm, while other times he started class as early as 10am. He never worked Saturday or Sunday and was off from Friday morning to Monday evening. He had about 15 classes a week.

I supplemented a part-time job with private lessons that pretty much earned an equivalent salary. That is, 50% of my income came from PT work, 50% came from private lessons. I had about 10 private lessons at that time and took in about 180,000-190,000 yen from them. Sometimes I had only one student; sometimes I had a group with as many as 6 people.

What you charge private lessons may vary, too. Many charge a straight per person per lesson fee, usually 3000-4000 yen. Many operate on a sliding scale that lowers this fee per student as the class size grows. This gives incentive for the students to recruit more members.

The down sides of private lessons (if you think they are nothing except wondrous things to have):
1. None are stable. People will quit on you with no notice.
2. People will try to pay the least amount. You have to keep things businesslike, no matter who the student is. This applies to your friend's friend or to the little old lady with a charming grandson that wants lessons.
3. You have no paid vacation time.
4. You have no paid insurance or pension plan.
5. You will get tired of traveling so much. Even if you hold lessons in your home, you will/should offer it presentable (ie, clean and tidy). This may run against your personal attitude.
6. You still have to make lesson plans.
7. You will have to deal with students who forget to bring payment.
8. You have to decide how you want to raise your rates.
9. In regards to item 1, it is entirely up to YOU to find more students most of the time.
10. People with vastly different levels of fluency often want to study together. You have to deal with that somehow, whether trying to teach them, or telling them it's not possible.
11. If you teach in public places like cafes, you have to deal with loud patrons, smoke, and interruptions, not to mention late students making you late for your next lesson.

[Brooks]

One fellow I work with does that. He works six days a week.
He works four jobs and has privates. I think he makes as much as me but he`s getting older (over 50) so the fact that he isn`t paying into the pension system means he has to save.

It must have been a little hard for him to decide where to live. He lives roughly between his main two jobs. He also works at a university in Chiba.
Got that job through contacts.
He lives in Kanagawa so that is pretty far. He teaches writing in Chiba, so that means a lot of grading.
He gets tired and is envious of my job. But he never got a M.A. and is married with two kids, so he is stuck.

But he still managed to send one of his sons to an expensive private school in Australia.

[chixdiggit]

Both my girlfriend and I work at a high school and an Eikaiwa. One is part-time the other full-time. We work about 30-35 hours a week Monday to Friday and pull in about 450,000 each. We have summers off(paid from high school, unpaid from Eikaiwa) and March and December off as well, from high school. Mind you it took a while to sort this out and I'm quitting my Eikaiwa gig soon for something that involves less children.
There are numerous ways to make more than 250,000 yen without a full-time job. I use that term loosely as some full-time jobs like ours only require 20-30 hours a week, enabling one to supplement that income easily. We don't live in Tokyo but we're close enough to have access to more jobs than an extremely rural area would. Good luck with the job search Jim and don't settle for anything less than what you want(assuming you can afford to).
Cheers,
Chix

[JimDunlop2]

Thanks for the responses folks....

Especially Glenski -- that was quite comprehensive. Thanks!

[capper]

For the past year, I have had one main f/t job. Since the hours are minimal 9-3 on Mon. and Tues. and 9-1:35 Wed. to Fri, and since I live on the outskirts of Tokyo, it allows me to do a lot of extra work. My base job earns me about 375,000 per month at a high school. With all of my other work, for the past year I have been earning around 650,000 per month (give or take 20,000 yen). In fact, since I recently started a new p/t position (with a guaranteed monthly salary like my hs job), I have been earning over 750,000 per month since January. I have often been working 7 days a week, although I do get holidays as well and some days I am done at 1:35pm and free for the remainder of the day. Even with my high salary, I am ditching the hs job for ALL p/t work. It will free up more time for me and my salary will stay about the same -- maybe even go up some in the future.

The way I see it, unless you have a really enjoyable full-time job and/or you have your health insurance and retirement looked after, there is really no incentive to having a full-time job. And also, most of the full-time jobs we are talking about are only one-year contracts anyway. So you really don't have any greater security either. If you work a handful of p/t jobs, then if one ends, you can grab another. Or you can enjoy your free time!

[capper]

One more thing to add to Glenski's post. Yes, private students are good if you can get some good ones who pay a lot. No tax, you (or your student is your only boss), etc... However, as Glenski stated, privates are a pain. You cannot rely on them. They are always looking for cheap cheap cheap. They cancel, they quit, they get too busy... Etc... It can become a huge pain. When ever you want to take time off, you have to cancel on them. It may be a so-so supplement if you are just doing it a couple of nights a week. But trying to make a living on privates is the most unstable way there is.

[krell]

[capper]

Other things to consider... If you work at a company, chances are that you will get a 2-hour class or possibly even 3 or 4 classes in a row. They could range from 1 hour to 2 hours or more. So if you have 2 100-min. classes in an evening that pay 4000 yen per hour or more (which is quite common although my classes generally pay at least 4500 per hour), at the very least you'll earn 13,333 yen before taxes + your cost of transportation to and from the lesson. In order to make that kind of money with private students on your own, you will likely need 3 students in a row, each for 1 hour or more, and each paying you at least 4500 per hour. Then you have to deal with the location issue. If you have all 3 coming to your apartment or house one after the other, great! The chances of being able to set all that up week after week, at the same time having all of these students pay at least 4500 per hour, are about as good as having a snowstorm in Tokyo in July. Good luck. Now, some people who have been here for a while are able to put together a nice string of privates. But it's not as easy as it might appear. I had some privates over the past year and dropped them all for more company classes. Even though they paid slightly more and it was tax-free, it wasn't worth the aggravation. Don't forget that with privates you are usually expected to prepare a lesson of some sort while often with TOEFL and TOEIC, you can simply show up and use the textbook. And finally, with all those people that are agreeing to teach privates for 3000 yen per hour or less, it brings the whole market down and makes it more and more difficult to locate students that will pay more (ie) 5000/hour or more. I hear stories of some teachers getting 10,000 per hour or more for privates... Unless it's a group class you are teaching, somebody is being taken to the cleaners bigtime... Anyone care to disagree or agree?

[Glenski]

capper,

Just wanted to clarify a couple of things.

[capper]

Glenski:
First, if one is fortunate enough to put together mini-classes of privates that is great. However, it is difficult enough to get one private student, yet alone a group lesson of paying students. Of course if you have a group lesson, you'll need a place to teach them. It is unlikely that you will be able to host a group regularly in your home, nor do most people care to. Then it means you will have to travel somewhere to meet them. More time and money wasted.

As far as the visa issue goes, it really doesn't make much difference. If you are already employed either p/t or f/t, you must have some kind of visa (unless you're working illegally!). I was trying to explain the reasons why private lessons are more hassle than they are worth.

Yes, if you want to solely work p/t, then you'll need a visa to do so. I have 2 years left on mine. After that time, apparently I could apply for self-sponsorship. You can either do that or you can work on the side of the f/t job that sponsors you.

Anybody who comes to Japan and has been hired legally, obviously has a visa. They are either one year or three years. If the latter, you're all set. If the former, then get it extended after one year and then tell your employer you've had a change of heart. Either way, at the very least you'll have one year to establish a solid line of p/t work to obtain self-sponsorship. In most cases that isn't too tall an order.

Not as difficult as it might appear... the visa issue I mean...

[Glenski]

[capper]

Glenski:
First, yes, I know people that have their own Eikawas in their homes too! Yes, they reserve half the house or large apartment for that purpose in a lot of cases! However, I think that's getting off topic a little from the original discussion about p/t work. It is often a f/t job when this happens -- or at least a very large extra expense with the extra room and having classes of students march in and out (especially in Tokyo with the cost of space).

Second, I have a couple of friends and know other people who have self-sponsorship. SO YES this an option here and you do NOT need an employer to sponsor you. The easiest way to do it is by meeting with an immigration lawyer and giving him your employment information. The lawyer can very easily get you your visa if you can show the ability to support yourself financially. You don't need a lawyer either as some people do it themselves. However, for 10,000 to 20,000 yen, it makes sense to let a professional with experience take care of it for you.

Third, I was in Japan for one year from April 1999 to March 2000. I had to return to my home country after the academic year in March. My employer had just renewed my original one-year visa and it was now a 3-year visa. I left Japan a couple of weeks later in the same month. Then almost 2.5 yars later when I returned to Japan, I was able to be employed with a different company on the very same visa that still had about 7 month remaining on it! Before my short 3-month contract expired, I was able to land a new longer-term position (to finish the academic year fr a teacher who left early) with another company. My visa was to expire on March 7, 2003. My responsibilities with this new company for that academic year were to finish on March 14, 2003. Therefore, the company really had no choice but to sponsor me for a new visa. I managed to get a new 3-year visa. I had only worked a single week for this company on the new visa. I could have left the job and the company and done whatever I wanted for the next 3 years! However, I decided to sign a new contract for another year with them. My contract expires this month (although my responsibilities have been over completed for over 2 weeks now. This time around, I have decided to leave the position and seek p/t work only. I have 2 more years on that visa to do as I please.

If I haven't made the "wild and crazy decision" that would grant me a spousal visa by the time my new visa expires in March 2006, and I am still in Japan, then I will likely file for self-sponsorship. This is unless I choose to take a new f/t position before that. I can assure you that I will only take a f/t position if I want the particular job. It will have nothing to do with my visa status at the time. I will obtain self-sponsorship given my circumstances. I will be able to show 3 consecutive visas (2 of them 3-year, even though I spent 2.5 of those years out of the country) and a history of good solid income. I am quite confident that it will granted unless I do something stupid to cause immigration to want me out of here...

So Glenski, yes, self-sponsorship is one way to go in terms of getting a visa. If any of you out there have obtained this type of visa, please post your circumstances here.

[Glenski]

[capper]

Glenski, very well said. Thanks. Just to add about my situation... Since I left my f/t job earlier this month, I am presently putting together a solid schedule of work for myself. I can assure that I am picking and choosing only the best-paying yet most enjoyable work I can get. I also have to do a careful job of scheduling these jobs allowing enough commuting time etc., from place to place. Generally, it is quite simple. I might work for one company during the day (morning or afternoon) and another in the evening. It really limits commuting time. The new apartment I am movng into is also in a prefect location, being within 15-20 min. on train or scooter from a majority of my work.