Job Discussion Forums

[PAULH]

[quote="Mr. Ishihara"]

[nomadder]

Well I've now seen 200,000 a month but it does include sharing an old house in the country. How low can it go?

[shmooj]

Well, the more pertinent question is really "How low can "we" go?" where the we refers to those who teach English in Japan.

If someone is willing to take a job at 200,000 then why should an employer bother to give them 250,000? This will drive the market down. It is a case of demand and supply. If teachers would only accept 280,000 to work in Japan, that would be the minimum wage. Can you imagine the impact on this country if all workers in the EFL business in Japan made that decision? It would be catastrophic.

But while teaching English in Japan remains a less than serious form of EFL, the prices will continue to go down and there will always be college graduates steeped in loans who are desperate and willing to be paid for it.

[shmooj]

I should also add the knock-on effect of that in this vicious cycle. While more and more are willing to work at Mickey Mouse English for 200,000 a month, those who have the skills and training to command a higher salary will find themselves unmarketable.

Rats will leave this sinking ship in time. Those who remain will have to live with the fact that they are being undervalued by their employers.

[Wolf]

[shmooj]

While what you say has an element of truth to it Wolf, you are presenting this argument with one important presupposition. THat is that the Japanese actually use or need to use their salary to live on. This is patently not so when you get to know a few people well here. They have savings, they have money from relatives, they have a little put by...

Of course, people teaching EFL are usually coming here dependent entirely on the salary with huge startup costs usually, flights home, and loans to pay off.

So, there is a difference here.

Also, you should compare the salary of a Japanese person who has worked thirty five years at a company with someone who has worked the same length of time at an eikaiwa to make your comparison really work.

Of course, we know, that in doing so (laying aside the important fact that this is well nigh impossible to do so anyway), the whole argument will go to pieces. Therein lies the rub for us here. Try as hard as we professionally can, we are sold short somewhere along the line. This means we can either not bother and still get paid the same anyway, or bother and then find it difficult to find rewarding work or work that we feel pays us in accord with our qualifications and experience.

This latter scenario is what will cause (is causing?) a brain drain from EFL in Japan.

[Glenski]

[Mike L.]

It's true many schools are looking for youngish teachers but that doesn't close the market to "older" teachers, no way!

We, a dispatching company, had one lady in her late 60's teaching at one school.

That being said if there's no bonus, no private pension and private healthcare (70% is not a good deal) I'm not sure too many "older" teachers would be willing to teach at such schools as they usually have more experience etc...

Also I don't understand why anyone of any age would work for 200,000 yen a month.

Some dispatching companies don't pay sallaries year round so when summer roles around you're out of a job.

IF SOMEONE HERE WORKS IN A PLACE LIKE THAT I'D LIKE TO KNOW WHY? WHAT ARE THINKING?

Regardles the boom days of "teaching English" are about done here anyways.

Sure if your crafty you can still do well, but without a pension bonuses and decent government services, shoddy housing, do you really want to make teaching English in Japan, especially eikaiwa, a career?

[ScottishMike]

Compared to salariman, I think EFL teacers are often underpaid, yes we don`t have to work the overtime, but I often wonder if they "Have" to work the overtime.

"how are you doing today? > so tired, I worked until midnight last night.. Really?, what was a salesman doing at midnight? Who was buying? Oh no-one, but my boss was there, I had to stay and look busy.."

Actual conversation, of course, I can`t but wonder if the boss is also just there to look busy...

I know there are costs involved, but really, I think there should be more focus on teaching and less on profit. Maybe a little more sharing the wealth too

SNIP>> before rant begins

[PAULH]

[ScottishMike]

Perhaps,

Maybe it`s me but Japan doesn`t seem to value employees (not only talking about schools here).

At home its so easy to find a company that does pay proportional to what you actually do. Here it seems to be, yeah, come in, don`t screw up get some money, the boss keeps most of the profit.

[ScottishMike]

[PAULH]

[ScottishMike]

[quote="PAULH
The guy doing FA in the office is the one who carries all the risk, mortgages his house so he can can get a loan from the bank, has to find money to pay salaries every month, pay rent for the building, pay for advertising, develop a marketing plan and business that students will hand over hard cash for and then live with the prospect that the whole thing may collapse on him. thats why the boss is the boss, he duplicates his time and effort a thousand fold rather than exchange his time for yen , like we do.
[/quote]

No, that would be his boss`s boss`s boss. This guy really does, do nothing..

My guess is that you`ve been the boss at some point then!

M

[PAULH]