Job Discussion Forums

JwardBound · Joined: 16 Sep 2010 Posts: 2

I know you'll tell me to do a search, but my Aeon vs Interac search didn't turn up much. Besides, that info. is old. I am wondering what things are like for teachers who are actively working at these places in September 2010. Let me know.

Bread · Joined: 24 May 2009 Posts: 318

These are two entirely different sorts of companies. At Aeon you'll have to entertain bored housewives who have no interest in actually learning English and get complained about by children's mothers because their children aren't fluent in English even though they study diligently for one hour a week by running around screaming and trying to stab each other with pencils.

At Interac you will work in a public school, where you will be forced every day to pay for and eat a foul-smelling mix of vegetables and broth and week-old meat. Also you will have to eat yours cold, while everyone else in the school has a hot one. If it's elementary, you will teach a class every period without a break (everyone else will have a break or two) and will be expectedly to jump around and wave your arms spastically in the hopes of garnering some attention from the ADD-riddled students. If it's a middle school, you will be expected to sit quietly at your desk for 50% of the day without doing anything entertaining and to stand in the front of a classroom silently and occasionally read from a textbook for the other 50%.

Hope this helps!

southofreality · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Posts: 579 Location: Tokyo

The probability of being placed in a more rural location is larger with Interac.

The only one that can place you in the middle of nowhere (where you'll need a car to get by) is Interac.

TokyoLiz · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1548 Location: Tokyo, Japan

Bread, you have a future as the Japanese Dickens! You aptly describe these two institutions in Japan!

Aeon, like all eikaiwas, have offices close to train stations and transportation hubs to be convenient to customers. Interac was almost entirely an ALT placement company for public elementary, junior and and, less frequently, senior high schools.

Some Interac placements are as far from civilization as possible while still being in Japan.

Rezz · Joined: 26 May 2009 Posts: 95

marley'sghost · Joined: 04 Oct 2010 Posts: 255

I'm currently working for Inter-ack, in the JHS situation so colorfully described. Interac is not any better or worse than any of the other dispatch companies. Some branches are nightmarish I hear. Mine is totally hands off. They are simply too busy to actually "manage" their AETs. I have almost no contact with the office, they e-mail me some schedules and leave me to my own devices.
I have never worked for the big eikaiwas. One big difference I see between AET work and eikaiwa is the hours. Eikaiwa you will be working evenings and weekends. AETs M-F 9 to 5 ish. Most AETs will have less lessons a day, but with 35+ students ranging from the brilliant, to the aforementioned pencils stabbers.
Mostly it's a choice of work culture. AETs are at "school". If you can do "school" you can do the job. If you can do the job, they will leave you alone to study or write illuminating posts on ESL forums. And once you get used to school lunch it's great. (Curry rice today, yeah!)