Job Discussion Forums

[Kimura]

I am going to be working in a small town in the Yamagata prefecture called Tsuruoka. Since I won't have the same access to English speaking Japanese people I thought I would advertise for free English lessons. Now my question is where is an appropriate place to put ads of this nature? Secondly, has anybody ever been to Tsuruoka who could give me an idea what its like?

[Speed]

I don't know how small Tsuruoka is but this is what I did in my small villages.

I posted ads for my English conversation class/group:
- In the monthly village newsletter. (Best result)
- Flyers on the village office bulletin board.
- Flyers at the local watering / eating holes that knew who I was.
- The schools that I taught at.


I charged 1,000 yen for ten lessons (one season) - extremely cheap!
More of a volunteer service for my villages than anything else.

But it's also a great way to get to know the townfolks and many become invaluable friends and contacts.


BTW,
A couple of my ex-students told me that they would be a bit suspicious of a an eikawa that was free, so I decided to charge a minimum 1,000 yen and used it to help fund the drinking party we had at the end of each season!

Good luck.

[moot point]

Why do you want to do it for free?

It's a nice gesture, but if you're good at what you do I don't think people would have qualms about providing you with some extra spending money even if this service is in the end to your advantage.

I also live in a rural area and teach private lessons, which I thoroughly doing on most part. There's one group of seniors (22 members in all) who drop whatever they want in a box. It usualy works out to about a thousand a person who attends the two-hour session.

It's up to you whether or not to accept money.

Either way, you could probably use one of the public buildings such as the local community centre, town hall, or a school to hold your lessons. As long as you're not demanding money, you should be able to easily get permission to use their facilities.

As for advertising, I agree with Speed for getting word out. Another option is to put up a poster in the local supermarket.

[Glenski]

1000 yen for TEN LESSONS??? That't not extremely cheap. That's ludicrous. Even if this was a typo and you meant 1000 yen per lesson for ten lessons, that's insane. It is a prime reason why Japanese people think they can get lessons for dirt cheap rates, when in actuality, they will pay 4-10 times that.

[Speed]

[Kimura]

Okay perhaps I should be more honest about my intentions. I actually wanted to use this as an outlet to meet Japanese people. Or the only foreigner in the city who is looking for someone to speak English to. I wanted to offer it for free because I figured it would attract alot of people. But someone else mentioned that people would be suspicious. Good point, now that I think of it I probably won't even mention money. So now that I have thrown all my chips on the table, does anybody see this as potentially bad?

[denise]

If you want to do it for free, you can advertise it as "conversation exchange" instead of English lessons. Unless your Japanese is fairly good, the majority of your conversations will be in English.

I've passed through Tsuruoka. (I live a bit further south, in Niigata-ken). It seemed to have enough of the major stores. I don't recall it being too much to look at, though. It is near the mountains, which is great if you're into winter sports, and there's a bungee jumping place probably 30 minutes away.

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[Lover]

Good advice by Denise, advertise language exchange. When I went to college in Japan, I did the same, and made a few friends. Once eventually became my boyfriend and then ex!

[Kimura]

Thank you very much for all your helpful advice. I think I will probably advertise for a language exchange. It seems to be the safest bet. Thanks again for the input.