Job Discussion Forums

[Sweetsee]

What is the longest an ALT has woked full time in a private senior high school that you know of?


2 years full time Saitama, me.

7 or 8 years full time Saitama, guy I met.

Just wondering how stacked the odds are against me.

[abufletcher]

Is the question HOW LONG til burnout sets in or HOW LONG until you get sacked and replaced by a "fresh" gaijin?

[Doglover]

[Glenski]

I think the question is rather moot, considering the changing times of late. You really can't compare ALT "lifespan" from people who started 10 years ago with people who may have started a couple of years ago.

[shuize]

Regardless of when they started, who in the hell would work as an ALT for 8 years? Man, talk about a lack of ambition:

"So Mr. ALT, what are your career goals?"

"Well, as you can see, I'm pretty happy being the 'repeat after me' guy. But maybe, if I play my cards right, I can work up to taking roll for the Japanese teachers, too."

[sidjameson]

Yep have to agree. I am finishing my stint as an ALT this month. I did about 400 days over 6 years and boy am I glad it is coming to and end. I tried to explain it to a friend........it's like standing in the street counting the cars for $40 an hour. Sounds great but try doing it. The sheer lack of challenge literally makes/made me want to scream. I am now counting down the minutes till the end of my contract....1800 minutes and slowly decreasing:)

[Sweetsee]

The term ALT exists in varying capacities, in my case it equals full time teacher, now. But I was an ALT for a lot more than 8 years in public high school before. Don't see anything wrong with going from one to the other, a bit like being a butler in Bel Aire after years slogging in the hospitality industry, my first career.
Pay your dues, like any other business; eikaiwa(dishwaher), privates(busser), ALT(waiter/captain), teacher(majordomo). Why not?


And why not Glenski, why can't we?

[Glenski]

Sigh. Sweetsee, you have been teaching as an ALT in Japan for about 10 years. Think about it. Were the conditions the same when you started?

Now think. ALTs hired through dispatch agencies are getting a much different treatment now. The past couple of years of posts shows that. Dispatch agencies themselves are getting lots of bad press. Situations change.

As for JET ALTs, situations change, too. I think it used to be that a JET ALT could not stay on the program longer than 3 years, but if I remember right, in the past year or two, some have been allowed to stay on for 4 or 5 years depending on certain circumstances.

Go ahead and take your poll, but for you and anyone who reads the data, I would suggest keeping your eyes WIDE open to the realities of life as an ALT, past and present. Make sure you aren't comparing apples to oranges.

[Sweetsee]

Are you saying someone starting 10 years ago would have had more longevity than someone starting......when? And I don't get why we can't discuss it.

Anyway, who's going to watch the Super G and what about that backside method grab, duh!






Enjoy,
s

[Mark]

ALT can mean a lot of things. I work at a private senior high school and, while the Japanese teacher is in the room while I teach, they don't really do anything. I plan my lessons and try to tie them in to whatever the Japanese teacher is doing in their solo class. Or sometimes I do something completely different.

I've never done the repeat-after-me thing (except when I worked in eikaiwa, man that sucked), so I don't know what that's like, but I think it's important to remember that ALT is not really a job description.

As for longevity, I haven't met anyone who's been at it more than a couple years. Personally, I don't think it's something I would want to do for more than couple years. I just finished my first year and I plan to do one more. After that, it'll be something else.

[guest of Japan]

While my title is ALT, it doesn't have much meaning. For 1st year Oral Communication, I and another foreign teacher are completley responsible for the entire course. We are assisted by Japanese teachers. We assist the 2nd year writing teachers for their writing course in a more standard ALT way. Incidentally, I do have students repeat after me, and a suprising number of students appreciate it. No I don't do it the whole lesson.

As for longevity, I'm finishing three years doing this with the option of more, but I couldn't make a life of it, and I find it to be too unstable.

Sweetsee, I think Glenski's point is that industry changes in just the last few years seriously undermine the chances for people newer to Japan to make a life as an ALT, especially those in the public school system. People who are already ingrained in the system might find some job protection, but anyone new isn't being offered much. If you have a stable, high paying job and intend to remain in Japan, then keep it unless you are garaunteed a better position.

[abufletcher]

I've always thought of EFL more as a career than as a job. And as such I wouldn't stay in any position that wouldn't allow me the opportunity to grow as a professional and expand my skills and knowledge.

The long term goal of any teacher, including language teachers, should be to have as much control over what happens in the classroom as possible. For the novice EFL instructor that might only amount to being able to organize his or her own lesson plans and maybe having some input into the textbook used. This initial level can also include a fair bit of classroom management. Personally, I wouldn't stay more than a year or two in any job where these minimum levels of control are out of your hands.

Eventually, EFL professionals in for the long haul will want to be taking charge of the methodology within their classroom (not just the collection of techniqes they have acquires) and this usually leads to wantin to have some control over curriculum issues.

Eikaiwa jobs are useful for people who have never taught before and have never given much thought to how teaching works. It's also a foot-in-the-door to overseas living. But career-minded EFL professionals will want to get out of this corporate environment as soon as possible. ALT positions are a step-up primarily because of the transition from one-on-one or small-group teaching to formal classroom teaching. I don't know of a single serious professional who hasn't spent most of their career working in classrooms in traditional school contexts.

It sounds like some ALTs in Japanese schools are lucky enough to be given full autonomy over their classroom. But I suspect this is the exception rather than the rule. In the end, I don't think the ALT thing could be very satisfying to anyone with long-term professional asperations.

[Sweetsee]

Thanks Guest,sound advice. Now I see what Glenski was saying. Guess I go along with that except that I started two years ago, and know others hired directly recently.

Started this thread because I want to know how others cope in the long term within a money machine: are they able to overcome the alienation, accept the status quo, find their pace?


Enjoy,
s

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