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oneokbunny
Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Posts: 11
Location: California
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 Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 4:10 am Post subject: Interac Seminars |
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Hi everyone!
I am so excited to get the notice of the seminar date for San Francisco today that I thought I would start a topic so those of us who will be attending the Seminar can talk about it ^^
Anyone else here going to the SF seminar? |
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BlackPapermoon
Joined: 12 Feb 2011
Posts: 39
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| Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 12:26 am Post subject: |
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your topic looks so lonely=(
I will be attending the seminar in Houston on the 16th of April.
I yet to get my background check yet though 
I am excited as well, but alil worried since I think a lot of people on Interac that were to leave in March/April deffered due to the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear fallout so that could mean less spots for the Fall intake=/. |
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oneokbunny
Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Posts: 11
Location: California
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| Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 2:00 am Post subject: |
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this topic is so so lonely T-T *sniff sniff* ^^
That maybe true but the training for this intake was moved to Osaka and went on as planned. I'm trying to focus on maybe there will be more openings with people who have pulled out of the March intake or decided to leave.
The address for the San Francisco date changed to another hotel that's a bit closer to me so i'm happy about that. I've been brain storming my self introduction and the lesson plan I could do. So glad I have enough time to plan it! ^^
Which option where you thinking of doing? |
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kenishi86
Joined: 07 Feb 2011
Posts: 27
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| Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 10:05 am Post subject: Interac Status? |
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| Has anyone heard anything through the vines about how Interac is holding up teacher-wise? Did they have a lot of teachers leave over the nuke "crisis?" |
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Denizen
Joined: 13 Nov 2009
Posts: 110
Location: Tohoku
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| Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2011 1:11 am Post subject: |
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This from the Interac website:
"In the 'Tohoku Region Pacific Coast Earthquake', a number of our ALTs
who work in the Tohoku, Koshinetsu and Kanto region have been affected. However, as of March 17th, we have confirmed the safety of all 1,296 ALTs who work in the affected regions.
"We would like to express our deepest appreciation for your concern.
"Based on our special provisions concerning large scale disaster, we have
just set up a temporary base camp in Yamagata city to support the ALTs
in the affected areas, and are continually pouring all our energy into
ensuring the ALTs 'safety through smooth transfer, support and both
information and physical supplies.'
"All the members of our group will continue to unite in our efforts for the
recovery of the disaster-stricken areas." |
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BlackPapermoon
Joined: 12 Feb 2011
Posts: 39
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| Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 10:10 pm Post subject: |
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Just had my interac interview seminar. I bombed my demo + introduction first time around, but was able to do it over during my personal interview. I think when I tried to introduce myself in Japanese, I just freaked out so badly when I forgot one word, and self fulfilling prophecy kicked in.
I did find it odd that they asked me during the interview if I was in a
"Long term relationship" (O.o)? At first I was thinking "did they google/facebook me?! But my stuff is private!!" Then I realized...
"young American girl going to Japan, what do you want to do now?"
SO girls don't like to travel for adventure huh? lol, boys aren't always the drive.....  |
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oneokbunny
Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Posts: 11
Location: California
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| Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 10:30 pm Post subject: |
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| blackpapermoon: where there any other girls at your interview? How many did there end up being there? I was the only girl at the SF interview ^^ |
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BlackPapermoon
Joined: 12 Feb 2011
Posts: 39
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| Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:32 pm Post subject: |
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yes I was!!
I didn't know Interac was more of a *male ALT* company.
There was supposed to be 9, but only 8 showed up, because I too thought there would be another girl when I read up on in in another forum. |
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Kionon
Joined: 12 Apr 2008
Posts: 226
Location: Kyoto, Japan and Dallas, Texas
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| Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:44 pm Post subject: |
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| BlackPapermoon wrote: |
yes I was!!
I didn't know Interac was more of a *male ALT* company.
There was supposed to be 9, but only 8 showed up, because I too thought there would be another girl when I read up on in in another forum. |
This has nothing to do with Interac. Statistically, it is generally true that any given Native English Teacher in Asia is going to be male. This is Korea, Japan, and Taiwan from my experience. I would not surprised that it would hold generally true other countries as well.
I have never worked with more than one female dispatch ALT at a time, even though I have worked with three. My best friend's wife was a JET for two years, and there were also two female JETs in my area at once two years ago.
Since I don't believe in gender inherency, I won't speculate on what "truth" this may have for "women" vs. "men," although I might lay the blame on gender roles that tend to unfairly convince women they are more risk-adverse...
Last edited by Kionon on Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:49 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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oneokbunny
Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Posts: 11
Location: California
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| Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:44 pm Post subject: |
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Yup I didn't either then during the presentation it stood out to me the demographic. only 29% are female! Hadn't noticed that before until the female recruiter pointed out that was represented in the room today.
She said there had been times that the BOE has requested a female so I'm not sure if this will be good or bad for our chances in getting in ^^
We were going to have 8-10 but it ended up being the SF 6 ^^ |
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Kionon
Joined: 12 Apr 2008
Posts: 226
Location: Kyoto, Japan and Dallas, Texas
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| Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:45 pm Post subject: |
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| oneokbunny wrote: |
Yup I didn't either then during the presentation it stood out to me the demographic. only 29% are female! Hadn't noticed that before until the female recruiter pointed out that was represented in the room today.
She said there had been times that the BOE has requested a female so I'm not sure if this will be good or bad for our chances in getting in ^^
We were going to have 8-10 but it ended up being the SF 6 ^^ |
In my experience: good. Due to your rarity, you're a hotter commodity. See my notes above. |
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kenishi86
Joined: 07 Feb 2011
Posts: 27
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| Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 6:43 am Post subject: |
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I just got back from my seminar/interview as well. I feel it went okay-ish. I didn't hit my demo as well as I liked but I feel like I got in what I wanted and felt like I hit more of the points they wanted from the demo than most of the other interviewers (2 failed to even do one of the task 4's... and instead tried to make a task 3 + 4, how well this will be looked upon I don't know). I hate the time constraint though, 6 minutes total just doesn't feel like enough time when including the 4th task and so you end up having to try and rush the first part so you have extra time. Mess up and mistakes are good though I think in demo though, if you can laugh it off and go with the flow I think it shows a lot more than a crystal perfect 80x rehearsed demo.
Anyway. I wanted to ask people and front some questions because a part of me is VERY VERY...suspicious of some of the information I got from my recruiter.
In particular, the question about the concentration of placements and contracts that Interac has, was raised. This is short hand, but this is what was told:
"Because 1-2 ALTs with a car in a rural region are capable of servicing the schools in the region, you don't really see a lot of ALTs in the rural regions. JETs primarily fill these positions. As a result, the largest concentration of Interac placements are in the suburban areas of the Kanto region, with some in the urban centers. Kansai placements are actually quite competitive and placements in Kyushuu/Shizuoka are few as well (because of rural thing)."
This slightly boggled my mind because Interac on their site said that the huge majority of Fall placements are rural. Am I being led on by the recruiter? It seems a little "too good to be true" that Kanto suburbs are highest concentration of placement according to the recruiter since I would figure the majority of people want to go to Tokyo. The Kansai thing surprised me though. Don't get me wrong, I went IN expecting rural placement; but planned to push hard for placement within 2 hours of Tokyo/Osaka, so I'm not shocked by it in any way. I just don't like to be led on so that the company keeps us instead of going with someone else like JET (which incidentally are in the process of getting their list placement).
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Also I'm curious to hear the number that showed up for interviews as well. I only had 5 at my interview. I was expecting at least 10. Its somewhat astounding that so few are picked out. I did however notice a pattern among the interview candidates, that most of us had some sort of connection to Japan instead of simple "I like the culture." 3 of us had been there before for 1month up to a year, someone was half Japanese, the other seemed the odd one out in that aspect, no connection. Also, 3 guys 2 girls at my interview. |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629
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| Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 9:31 am Post subject: Re: Interac Status? |
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| kenishi86 wrote: |
| Has anyone heard anything through the vines about how Interac is holding up teacher-wise? Did they have a lot of teachers leave over the nuke "crisis?" |
Thing is, this is happening during the changing of the school year, and hence the contracts. So, it's a bit harder to tell how many people rolled out, and how many people fled.
I'm in Chiba btw |
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Kionon
Joined: 12 Apr 2008
Posts: 226
Location: Kyoto, Japan and Dallas, Texas
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| Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:14 pm Post subject: |
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| kenishi86 wrote: |
| Anyone have any thoughts on this? |
It's garbage.
It all depends on the municipal board of education and how they run their bidding procedures. Each position can be distinct as well. In my region of rural Kansai (more than one distinct city), the public junior highs were Interac or Wishborn, the public high schools were JETs, private high schools were Wishborn.
We had a surprisingly good relationship with our BoE, so I know a bit about how the bidding process works (although someone like Glenski would probably know a whole lot more), and there's just no way of telling how a BoE will process the bids unless you how that particular BoE has faired with the programs.
From what I was told, in my city specifically Wishborn replaced the JETs in the junior high schools because of several incidents with JET teachers. The BoE stopped trusting the program. They kept the one high school JET because of pressure from the central government.
In my experience, Kyoto proper is JET central because of cultural value, seems like the program has a tight grip on positions in the city. In rural Kyoto, Hyogo, Osaka though? I'd say you are more likely to run into ALT > JET > Direct Hire, but there are plenty of each. In the time I've been in Japan, I've actually seen a significant uptick in direct hire positions, and while I'd like to say that's because of the work of unions and labor boards, the cynic in me thinks it may go down to the fact direct hire positions often start at a lower salary... |
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BlackPapermoon
Joined: 12 Feb 2011
Posts: 39
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| Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 8:40 pm Post subject: |
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| Kionon wrote: |
| BlackPapermoon wrote: |
yes I was!!
I didn't know Interac was more of a *male ALT* company.
There was supposed to be 9, but only 8 showed up, because I too thought there would be another girl when I read up on in in another forum. |
This has nothing to do with Interac. Statistically, it is generally true that any given Native English Teacher in Asia is going to be male. This is Korea, Japan, and Taiwan from my experience. I would not surprised that it would hold generally true other countries as well.
I have never worked with more than one female dispatch ALT at a time, even though I have worked with three. My best friend's wife was a JET for two years, and there were also two female JETs in my area at once two years ago.
Since I don't believe in gender inherency, I won't speculate on what "truth" this may have for "women" vs. "men," although I might lay the blame on gender roles that tend to unfairly convince women they are more risk-adverse... |
Yeah, my major was psychology, and when I took an immigration course they said studies show that men adapt better when they immigrate oppose to women ::shrugs:: ofcourse, there are exeptions to the rule. |
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