Job Discussion Forums

[lila_bet]

hey guys, I have a skype interview with Matty's English school on Sunday and am not sure exactly how great of a school this is. I've found a few testimonials about it but not much. Does anyone know about it? or have any other suggestions for nursery schools to apply to? I've been sending out my resume to a few different ones but am not having a ton of luck finding them. I'm still in the US and not picky at all about location, just the age I would teach....had a bad run in JH last time I taught in Japan and want to go with a younger group of students this time.

[yu256279]

Hi there,

I worked for Matty's for a year. It is run by a kooky old couple. Their teaching method is rigid and their "training" VIDEOS (as in VHS) are from what appear to be the late 80s or early 90s.

Their teaching method consists of you repeating whole sentences and then breaking down problem words that many Japanese people have difficulty with. For example, if your target sentence is "It's a fish." you would literally have to force your students to repeat the sentence with you and back to you about 5-10 times and then focus on pronouncing f. The "method" gets old real fast and the kids do lose interest.

Your day starts at 10 and can go as late as 8pm depending on the number of classes that you have. You are given a car to get to your various classrooms (there is no central building) and the time that you commute to the classrooms is NOT included in your working hours. So, be warned about that. Some classrooms can take about 30 - 40 mins to get to.

If you're willing to act like a robot then it will be a perfect job for you. The retention rate is quite low. They hire lots of part time "teachers" from the nearby naval base.

The good thing about the job though is that the accommodations are great and it's cheap. You get to live in a HUGE house (by Japanese standards), you're only an hour or so outside of Tokyo, the beaches are quite spectacular in the summer (though quite crowded) and the neighborhood is quite lovely as well.

If you're looking to teach in a real school then I would look into interac. They are currently hiring people from overseas who hold at least a BA to work as ALTs. Your options open up even more if you have a teaching degree/licence from your home country.

Good luck.

[lila_bet]

im mostly interested in teaching the hoikuen and youchien ages...i know they say its primarily young children, but has classes of previous students who may be older. How often are the older classes?