Job Discussion Forums

[gittelbug]

Hello! I'm Laura and I'm graduating in May (yay). I'm looking for some help/advise on finding ALT Jobs in Japan. I've applied to JET but sadly I didn't make the first cut. I have an interview with Interac at some point but beyond that i'm not too sure where to look next. I have applied to Amity although i'd much rather be an ALT. The thought of being the main English teacher really scares me.

What other places should I be looking for? Should I try and get over this fear of being the English teacher and apply for those positions as well?

Thanks for all your help and advise!!

[ShioriEigoKyoushi]

Text deleted

[fluffyhamster]

Hi Laura! If you aren't prepared to work as anything other than an AET, then the hiring opportunities (what few there are nowadays!) are going to be more limited obviously. And even AETs are expected to be reasonably knowledgeable informants if not resourceful and capable teachers sometimes. So my honest advice (and the noun is spelt with a c, by the way - not to be critical, but this is something that e.g. a JTE might notice and perhaps think less of you for) would be to be doing everything you can to prepare yourself for the possibility/eventuality of actually yourself teaching* - who knows, you might find it all quite interesting and even come to enjoy it! Anyway, being an AET can certainly be/get a bit boring.

*You can find suggestions from me and others regarding books on grammar, methodology etc by searching for 'CELTA' (with me as author, if only to help cut down on the number of resulting threads!).

[robertokun]

[Apsara]

Funny that someone thinks that teaching eikaiwa would be harder and scarier than being a ALT, because I've always thought the opposite- as an ALT you are spending at least part of the class standing at the front of the room trying to get 40 teenagers to focus and learn something, which as I've mentioned here before, sounds like my worst nightmare.

With eikaiwa it's usually a much smaller group (i.e. less than 10) of adults, most of whom actually want to be there. There are also kids' classes of course with some employers, but much smaller groups than you would get in the public school system.

[fluffyhamster]

At least with schoolkids you know what sort of crowd you're getting - a homogenous and hopefully reasonably polite group. Eikaiwa on the other hand can be a nightmare - toddlers not long out of nappies; schoolkids who'd rather be elsewhere in their own time, often crammed into the one class despite yawning age (and thus ability) gaps; pushy kyouiku mamas for the aforementioned two groups (just marry a westerner, please! But not me, OK?); eccentrics or just plain weirdoes; cabals of rude obnoxious (and unfortunately, usually ugly) spinsters who congregate for their weekly private chat (amongst themselves, not so much with you their contemptible teacher); retired, really old crones with egos so massive they'll be literally screaming at the loss of face from the slightest correction/linguistic suggestion (none of which of course does anything to improve their execrable English); "serious" students or youngish working people struggling mightily with English but who need it for future work, study and/or emigration, but who just don't seem to have the time to really succeed (and let's face it, an hour lesson once or twice a week isn't really going to help enough). I could go on, and that was just from the three months I lasted at the one Japanese eikaiwa (not a chain, but an independent and at that time obviously ailing one, so desperate for customers they'd put up with anyone and anything, apparently). I swore after that I'd never work in any sort of Japanese eikaiwa again, and stuck to AETing or highschool work ever after.

Chinese private language schools were a pleasant breeze in comparison. Motivated, able and generally polite students. But what really helped I guess was that the classes were generally appreciably larger - usually 20-30 students - with a good mix of occupations in the adult classes. Japanese eikaiwa have no option really but to pander more to (particular types of) customers, given the smaller population and thus relatively limited demand for English.

Anyway, never mind me, prattling on on my trip down memory lane!

[ShioriEigoKyoushi]

Text deleted

[Apsara]

[fluffyhamster]

Well, I was exaggerating a bit for effect (I've worked in worse places - that ghastly private high school I was whingeing about years ago). I actually didn't take any of it too personally at that eikaiwa, and tried to deal with things reasonably professionally, though I still didn't feel like exactly trying my best for those students, and had made up my mind pretty soon after arriving to leave almost as quickly (oh, and the fact that the foreign and Japanese co-owners were at each other's throats even as I arrived hadn't helped either...raised voices and heated arguments often emanating from the office and penetrating through the walls into the classrooms as one was trying to teach. Again, ah, the memories! ).

Anyway my point I guess is that a situation like that could come as a real shock to an ELT novice, and be hard even for more experienced teachers to endure for long (my colleagues there shared notes and commiserations about the schedule I'd now got that they used to have...being a man, rather than a woman like them, certainly didn't help matters with the 'Cabal' class).

That eikaiwa went through a few more teachers in rapid succession after me to teach that schedule, until they moved to better-located premises, upped the intake and diluted out the nastier students. (Which links back to my earlier comments about Chinese language school classes - sizes, mix etc).

So I reckon one has got to be prepared for the possibility of being stuck with at least the occassional difficult individual or group, in Japanese eikaiwa.

But like you say, Apsara, certainly most Japanese retirees are sweethearts and not much into the "satsujinken" of the Shinkage-ryu or whatever.

[gittelbug]

Wow can I just say the responses here are awesome!

[fluffyhamster]

[fluffyhamster]

[dove]

I agree with Apsara that standing in front of 40 teenagers trying to get them to learn is an utter nightmare (actually my biggest nightmare was standing in front of 40 Japanese university students. They gave apathy a new name). I'm a free-lancer who chooses to ONLY teach adults (privately, in company classes, part-time at a language school, and at cultural centers). I'd say that 95% of my students are motivated, want to be in class, love to have conversations (some classes beg me NOT to use the text book). The other 5% are just shy or, in the case of some business people, exhausted. My retired students are hands down the best. They have so many interesting stories. I hope with Japan's aging population, teaching retirees becomes more widespread.

[gittelbug]

[seklarwia]

I seem to remember a thread not too long ago that had some interesting anecdotes from eikawas: students complaining because their teacher wasn't genki enough, looked at their watch too much or didn't sit with the correct posture... when the students are customers who are paying quite a lot for classes, they will often be quite quick to make highly pedantic complaints like that.
And then there is discipline. Sure, you might have 40 kids in a class and you are not responsible for discipline, but as an ALT you can tell a student off and if you are working with decent JTEs, they will be on top of keeping the students in line and shutting up any chatters when they should be listening.

If you end up with rude students in an eikawa classroom, there is nothing you can do. If you tell them off, they'll complain to the school and you get stick. If you complain to the school, you'll likely be told that it's your fault for not making your classes more interesting.