Job Discussion Forums

[Zzonkmiles]

There's a lot of bashing of eikaiwa in general and of the Big 4 (NOVA, GEOS, AEON, ECC). So many English teachers in Japan seem to berate the eikaiwa world and want to bail as soon as they can for one of those "plum" or "cushy" gigs at a high school, university, or technical college. And while those jobs may pay more money than your standard 250,000 yen gig at AEON or ECC, you have an entirely different set of headaches to deal with in the English (non-eikaiwa) classroom:

1. Managing student personalities. If you work at an eikaiwa and you meet a really annoying or unpleasant student, there's a good chance that you won't have to teach that student again. This is especially true for instructors at NOVA and its Multimedia Center. However, if you have a personality problem with an actual student at your SCHOOL, you're stuck with that student for the next two or three months. And if you come down hard one one student, you risk alienating that student's friends as well who will come to his/her defense. That can make for a rather icy classroom atmosphere if you are not careful--an atmosphere far worse than having a 70-year old retired woman, a 40-year old salaryman, and a 14-year old junior high school girl in the same eikaiwa lesson.

2. Managing multi-level classes. Eikaiwas generally put their students into various skill levels, which are more or less accurate. The lessons you are supposed to teach the students are generally level-appropriate, so these classes are not too difficult to teach. However, in a college or high school classroom, you have to deal with the reality that some of your students might be at the level of false beginner while you have a handful of students who have studied abroad and could carry on a reasonably natural conversation with you. So the challenge lies in making the lesson easy enough to not overwhelm the weaker students, while also being challenging enough not to bore the more advanced ones. This is not as easy as it sounds.

3. Conducting your business in Japanese. This is a double-edged sword. At an eikaiwa, most of the staff (that deals with the teachers) can speak a reasonable level of English. Your Japanese ability might not improve if your coworkers (Japanese and foreign) are always speaking in English (let alone your students). However, you are at least able to communicate with them. But at a technical college or junior high school where you're the only foreigner (and usually the only English speaker) in the office, you are on your own as you have to handle all administrative issues in Japanese. This includes staff meetings, counseling students, advising staff, explaining make-up homework/tests, and conversing with the staff in general. Even simple things like using a copy machine that only has kanji characters can be difficult if you aren't comfortable with the language. This is good for those who are serious about studying Japanese. But sometimes it can be very, very frustrating because of misunderstandings and simply not being able to express the seriousness, complexities, or nuances of a situation in a foreign language.

4. Testing, grading, and designing materials. I must stress that this is just a normal part of teaching responsibilities. Sometimes I find myself taking my work home with me and/or putting in overtime so I can avoid working at home. Working normal business hours or having holidays off doesn't mean much if you're still working. When you have 10 classes of 20-40 students, that's a lot of preparation you have to deal with. At an eikaiwa, you NEVER take your work home with you. When you are off the clock, you are off the clock. I'm not saying it's good to be a slacker who has no responsibilities, but sometimes you simply just want a break. You can get away with sleepwalking through an eikaiwa lesson, but you can't get away with that at all during a 90-minute lesson. Serious teaching (not eikaiwa) is WORK.

This post is not a rant. People just seem to be focused on finding ways to escape eikaiwa because they think the grass is greener on the other side. They think they can make more money for less work with more prestige and more vacation time to boot. There's nothing wrong with wanting to improve your working conditions. But non-eikaiwa English-teaching is WORK--and there are HEADACHES. Before you sign the dotted line at your new gig with a month of paid holidays or whatever, keep in mind the added responsibilities you are about to take. Being blinded by yen signs and vacation time alone might land you in a pool of responsibilities and new headaches that you didn't bargain for--enough to make you long for the days of your NOVA voice room or AEON man to man lessons.[/b]

[nomadder]

I didn't work at the big 4 but I worked at one smaller chain school and one small eikaiwa and the only thing I can agree with is #3.

[PAULH]

[johanne]

Zzonkmiles makes a very good point. I worked at NOVA and other smaller eikawas and now I work at an international school. Although I make much better money now and have way better holidays I work very hard. I'm usually at school at 7:00 and back home at 6:00 and I only have a 30 minute commute. When I taught in eikawas I went to work and I came home and then went out with other eikawa teachers. I rarely taught more than 4 or 5 hours a day (except at NOVA, but there the work was so repetitive and required so little creativity that I still had lots of energy at the end of the day) The work was very easy and I was never that tired at the end of the day. As zzonkmiles says, I never took the work home with me and in fact usually had a nice time chatting with the students. I hoped they progressed but it wasn't really my sole responsibility so I didn't worry about it very much. Now, I am these kids' primary teacher and if they don't learn it's serious. I'm teaching them to read, write and learn basic numeracy skills, as well as content areas such as science and social studies, and if I do a half-ass job it makes their academic future that much more difficult. It's no longer playing English games for 1 hour a week after school with these kids, but rather teaching 6 hours a day of serious elementary school.
I love my job, so I'm very happy with the choice I've made in getting a teaching certificate so I could qualify for this type of job, but some days in my exhaustion, I look back at my eikawa days and realize how carefree they were. I especially feel this way when I'm justifying my decisions to parents who have shelled out 2,000,000 yen a year to send their child to this school and be educated by me and in many ways rightfully feel they should know why I'm doing what I am in the classroom.
So yes, zzonkmiles, I'm with you. Eikawas may not be where everyone wants to end up, but they are not the most horrible thing in the world and those so-called "plum" jobs come with responsibilities and pressures all their own.

[saloc]

I've worked in both eikaiwa and regular Junior High Schools (although not full-time) and, based on my experience, I much prefer ekaiwa work. That said, I don't agree that you are unlikely to teach an annoying student again, unless you are working in an eikaiwa school which uses a ticketing system. Tthose schools are by far the minority. Otherwise, unless the annoying student requests a move, there is a fairly good chance you will be teaching him for as long as he keeps coming to class (which could be years!). Neither do I agree that eikaiwa teachers never take work home. Yes, it is rare, but the teachers often have heavy workloads and some, who are dedicated, do take work home simply because they don't have time to prepare fully during work. If this is the case, they are probably being given too many classes to teach, but it does happen.
I'm also curious as to why you think it's easy to sleepwalk through a lesson in eikaiwa. I think a student can often tell when you are not prepared, and it's pretty hard to hide the fact when it's just you and five or so students in the room expecting to be taught (unless you are defining eikaiwa classes as free conversation classes, which most are not). Sure, you can go in unprepared, but you'll probably do a half-arsed job and couldn't you do that at public schools too? Personally, I don't see any difference in responsibility regarding teaching kids at an eikaiwa and teaching them in a regular elementary school. It is not just about games and having fun at the decent eikaiwa schools. A lot of parents really want their kids to improve, and they ae paying for it and have a right to expect it.