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kaimana
Joined: 17 Mar 2004
Posts: 18
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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 Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 3:29 pm Post subject: Looking for a Nice School...any suggestions? |
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Has anyone had an absolutely great experience with a school? Which school was it?
I'm looking for a school that doesn't exploit teachers and that pays fairly for your class and prep time (health insurance, subsidized rent and plane ticket is always a plus,too).
I would really appreciate any suggestions you have.
Thanks,
Kaimana |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 8:13 pm Post subject: |
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Good grief! You want an employer to pay your rent and airfare!? Odds are astronomical. On top of that, many places skirt the labor regulations about paying your health insurance by simply telling the government that you actually WORK only 25 hours a week (your total classroom hours), and don't include any of your prep time. Legal loophole.
Don't get your hopes up for that pie in the sky dream job. My original job paid rent and airfare up front, but not insurance. They are no longer hiring FT people anymore, so none of these benefits are available now. |
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kaimana
Joined: 17 Mar 2004
Posts: 18
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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| Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Good grief! You want an employer to pay your rent and airfare!? Odds are astronomical. On top of that, many places skirt the labor regulations about paying your health insurance by simply telling the government that you actually WORK only 25 hours a week (your total classroom hours), and don't include any of your prep time. Legal loophole.
Don't get your hopes up for that pie in the sky dream job. My original job paid rent and airfare up front, but not insurance. They are no longer hiring FT people anymore, so none of these benefits are available now.
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As I understand it, it's not such a pie in the sky dream. I've applied for an ETA position through my University (not JET or Interac) that offers just that: paid rountrip air, health insurance,paid apartment, salary of 300,000 yen/month and a one-year renewable contract. I'm setting up a Plan B though, just in case.
From the looks of it subsidized rent, health insurance, and subsidized rent can't be expected from eikawas, but I have seen job postings "offer" one or two of the aforementioned along with a fair salary.
Call me optomistic, but I'm sure that somebody has had to have had a good experience, a good salary and maybe even had a few perks at private english school in Japan.
-Kai |
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guest of Japan
Joined: 28 Feb 2003
Posts: 1601
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 9:56 pm Post subject: |
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| It is highly unlikely you will find an Eikaiwa giving all of that. This is especially so, since you are a recent university graduate. |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 11:20 pm Post subject: Re: Looking for a Nice School...any suggestions? |
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| kaimana wrote: |
I'm looking for a school that doesn't exploit teachers and that pays fairly for your class and prep time (health insurance, subsidized rent and plane ticket is always a plus,too).
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To my knowledge health insurance is only paid or provided for if you are working for a government body, or a public high school for example. As it is you are required to pay 50% of the premiums and the government the other half. Depending on income you can be paying up to 10-20,000 yen a month for your share. Private language schools avoid paying this by classifying you as part time or casual labour, and only counting your teaching hours (27 hours or less)
JET is about the only organisation that pays for airfare up front while other schools will give you a bonus once you complete your contract. its not likely they will pay up front and then have you skip out on them in 6 months.
How do you determine what 'fair' is? Although many schools will pay what teachers deem to be low wages for long hours they will also only pay what the market can bear. Pay teachers too much for lessons and they have to charge students more in tuition, leading some to stop coming for lessons.
If you have no teaching experience, no teaching qualifications when you begin work you are not worth much to the market place anyway and may in effect be 'ineffective' as a language teacher. Develop some teaching skills and experience, and then you can shop around for better paying jobs. In the meantime pay your dues and dont expect handouts from your employers.
P.S. Many 'teachers' will also try and squeeze as much from their employers without providing anything substantial in return- teachers pulling sickies, quitting their jobs without short notice and leaving students in the lurch, treating their jobs as paid vacations and paying for trips to Thailand and going sightseeing, rather than doing a professional job. |
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kaimana
Joined: 17 Mar 2004
Posts: 18
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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| Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 11:39 pm Post subject: |
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Okay, I've got that I can't expect much from an eikawa. Benefits aside, assuming I'm a non-scandalous teacher (which I am not), have you heard of any particularly good eikawas to work with. I've read tons on this forum about the bigger schools (NOVA, AEON, etc.), but there's not too much about the smaller schools.
P.S.: I'm not completely inexperienced, I got the CELTA last year in Spain and have taught at International House since.
Thanks for your replies BTW.
-Kai |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 3:32 am Post subject: |
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| kaimana wrote: |
Okay, I've got that I can't expect much from an eikawa. Benefits aside, assuming I'm a non-scandalous teacher (which I am not), have you heard of any particularly good eikawas to work with. I've read tons on this forum about the bigger schools (NOVA, AEON, etc.), but there's not too much about the smaller schools.
P.S.: I'm not completely inexperienced, I got the CELTA last year in Spain and have taught at International House since.
Thanks for your replies BTW.
-Kai |
Kai,
Murphy's law says that the more despicable and terrible a particular company appears to be the louder the whining and grizzling you will hear from the teachers on public bulletin boards. Most of the people you see complain about NOVA, GEOS etc have little in the way of experience, qualifications, a solid work ethic and its their first job working overseas.
NOVA has over 5000 teachers in 250 schools, has no trouble finding teachers despite their reputation and they cant all be miserable.
Rather than suggest the best schools, maybe its better to suggest the 'not as bad' ones or the ones with the least bad press. There is no perfect school, they all have their bad points and they are not going to please everyone. Contented people tend not to complain anyway or advertise the fact on a public forum.
If it were me starting over again I would perhaps recommend AEON or ECC. Berlitz has some teachers complaining over their pay structure (teachers are 'on call' for the company 15 hours a day but may work only 8 and may be called at any time during the day). GEOS teachers dont like the 'sales' aspect of signing up students for lessons. James English school in Tohoku has a fairly good reputation as well, and provides accomodation for teachers. I have seen some posts on schools that offer lessons for teaching kids but the names escape me (Mike's English school in Tokyo, I think).
If you are applying from overseas you are limited to the big schools anyway, and many smaller schools will not consider you unless you are already resident in Japan and have a valid work visa. |
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shmooj
Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1758
Location: Seoul, ROK
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| Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 11:46 am Post subject: |
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| kaimana wrote: |
| I've read tons on this forum about the bigger schools (NOVA, AEON, etc.), but there's not too much about the smaller schools. |
Two reasons... one is that there are billions of smaller schools.
The second reason is that, although we may have been employed there, it is unlikely that our situation will be yours even if you should land a job there.
For instance, I worked for a very small family run outfit near Nagoya. There is not a chance in a million that you would get a job there because they are not going to hire someone as young as you. Also, you would never get the great deal that I had there because you are a) unlikely to commit for 6 years and b) don't have an MA in LInguistics.
So, while I would definitely recommend working there, to do so would be to raise false hopes.
What I would say is that many of us have found that very small, family run eikaiwas with an owner who speaks fluent English (very imp. point) are usually very safe, flexible and enjoyable jobs. Though I only worked for one, that seems to be the consensus from a number on this board whose posts I have noted over the last six months.
So, check out www.ohayosensei.com and other places and look for small family run joints with only a couple of teachers if you want to try that.
But... forget the kinds of benefits and salary you are mentioning unless you have great qualifications and/or can squeeze more out of them by committing for longer. |
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