Job Discussion Forums

[Philidor29]

Hello all.

I recently received an offer from this school and was hoping that someone might have some experience with them or have heard of them. The company is HQ'ed in Yokkaichi City, and the position offered is in Onojou-city.

The offer was made based solely upon the photo and resume I sent them. They have not asked for an interview or a letter of reference. The contract does not appear to have any red flags, and all the details look good.

They are offering to sponsor a visa and have requested that I send a copy of my passport and degree along with the contract and a couple of photos.

I feel pretty good about the organization. We have sent several corresponsdence emails back-and-forth, and they have been very prompt in doing so.

When I begain looking for a position in Japan, I was expecting it to be much harder. This will be my first overseas experience, and I am very excited. In that excitement I don't want to end up getting burned though. GEOS has also offered an interview, and I feel like it would be the safer, if less rewarding, option for getting a foot into Japan. If anyone has a take on this or wishes to offer advice, I would be most appreciative.

I would also like to express my appreciation for those who started and run this site. I have found it very helpful and informative as I have researched my ESL'ing options.

Thanks in advance and cheers.

[PAULH]

[bearcat]

I'll be willing to bet you didn't ask all the right questions or gather all the right info. Try asking about these things:

1. Ask what the teaching hours are and then what the working hours are. Some companies in ads state 25 hours a week. This is misleading because they leave you to assume its the working hours but in reality its the teaching hours only.

2. Ask what your schedule would be. Are you working a split shift(morning, nothing for a few hours then afternoon or evening) or straight through. Do you work 5 days a week or 6? etc etc. Are you required to be "on call" on your days off?

3. Vacation: How many weeks a year? National Holidays?

4. What kinds of classes are you teaching? At a kindergartens, conversation school, someone's home, ALT, corporate, etc etc?

5. Attire: What are you required to where while you teach? Do you have to change attire when you arrive? Do you have to wear a suit while you are doing all sorts of games and songs in the dead heat of summer to kids? etc etc

6. Conditions: Smoke free? Airconditioning? Large or small classes? Monitored on video or by staff/parents the whole lesson? Everyone sitting on the floor or in chair and tables? etc etc

7. How much prep time required? Paid for it or not? Are you required to do your prep at the school? Are you required to buy your own prep materials or make copies for things from your own pocket?

8. How much commute time to the school or company? (may be hard if you don't know where you will be living at first, so ask the average teacher's commute time) Do you commute to more than one location in a day? a week? a month?

9. Are you required to do any cleaning of classrooms, schools, toilets, trash, etc? (Don't laugh, I've known teachers that have had to clean toilets.)

10. Advertising: Are you required to stand out in front of stations or other areas handing out flyers to the school? Are those flying times in addition to your work schedule or part of it? Are you required to "market" the school or be a representative at the school at all times on your private time?

11. Are you required to attend extra activities or meetings on days off OR before or after your shift? Are you paid for it additionally or in the case of it being on a day off, are you given an alternate day off later?

12. Do they set you up with Shakkai Hoken(company copaid insurance). Do they tell you to take Traveler's Insurance?(which is basically illegal/cause you more problems if you stay long term in Japan later).

13. Do they put you in housing or let you choose your own? IF they have housing, ask to see the original rental agreement and make sure you are placed on there when you move in. If the apartment is actually owned by the comapany you work for, make sure you have a rental agreement with your name on it seperate from your work contract. This is to protect you incase they fire your etc, and attempt to throw you out the next day. By law you are given a minimum of 30 days with which to vacate. Also make sure that when you get your key, that if it is company owned place, you get the ONLY key. Teachers in some companies have had the manager waltz in when they feel like it. If you don't feel that agreement is honored, you can always buy adhesive alarms and other security precautions to protect your place and things.

14. Is travel reimbursed? If they don't then don't work for em... all are supposed to reimburse. Make sure as well they don't repay the reimbursement and "tax" it. That's illegal.

15. Are you required to transport lots of teaching materials to your schools(if you travel to more than once place). Are you required to buy and get reimbursed for materials. (Lugging 10-20 pounds of toys and game material for kids classes across 2 subway lines, a bus then a 20 minute walk in the dead of winter or summer is NOT a pleasant experience.)

16. Training: Do they have it? How many days of it before being put in a class? To give you a comparrison, ECC teachers are trained for a good week or so for their kids classes and then another week for admin stuff and adult classes.

17. Curriculum: Do they have one? Who made it and if its inhouse what are the credentials of the person who made it? (if you care about that, that is). Is it scripted(meaning you follow what the book tells you to do)? Are you just handed the material and told to sink or swim?

18. Classes: are you teaching mixed ages and mixed ability levels in the same class or seperate? How many per class? Parents or staff in the lessons on a frequent or every lesson? What materials are at your disposal in the class(white board, toys, tables etc)

19. Who is the longest working teacher at the company currently? How long have they been there? (This can give you an idea of turnover of people. Crappy places tend to have few to none working there past a year or two. Decent places have a more who have been longer. In the cases of really small schools, they may have only one or two teachers and you may not be able to get a firm idea of the quality of the school based on this.

20. Why is the position available? If a teacher was leaving, then why? You may not get a straight answer on this though. If they harp on talking about the last teacher in the position and in a negative way, then that should be something to be concerned about as well.

21. Can you be given a list of 3 current and 3 past teachers and contact information for those teachers. This is to see what they feel about the company. If they balk at giving you this information for any reason, be suspicious. It most likely means they have problems. If they the company is too new, then ask for the contact information of 3 current or past students of the school. If they are too new even for that, then ask for references for the company people themselves. (this might be met with alot of flack and could even make them not wish to consider you, but would you want to work for some place that wasn't comfortable with your asking these?

22. Japanese allowed to be used in the classroom? At the school at all? If not consider what the atmosphere of things are as to whether that's acceptable or not. I tend to not go with schools that do not allow the use of Japanese because in most cases its because they are "selling an image" instead of trying to teach someone English. Edutainment style attitudes in the industry are rampant. But this may not be an issue for you. If you're being sent to a kindergarten for example, you absolutely want to be able to speak Japanese since none at the kindergarten will speak English most likely. If its some conversation school with staff that speaks English, then you most likely fine with not being able to speak.

23. Are you required to do trial lessons? Are trial students placed in existing classes? Are you required to "sell" your class to a trial student?

24. Are there bonuses given? If so what are the conditions of the bonuses?

25. Is your pay deducted for lateness, sickness, or other reasons? How much (there are specific laws that detail how much can be taken. Suffice to say that they cannot exceed a certain percet of your monthly salary in total(though I can't remember the specific percent... its not much I can tell you that. There's an website in english that details it and paulh knows the link).

26. Are you required to pay for anything? Some idiotic companies make you pay for your training, or your class texts etc. Tell em to take a flying leap.

27. Are you evaluated on your performance during the year/contract? How is this carried out and what are the criterion of the evaluation? Subjective or objective?

28. Is there a "no socialization" policy? (Meaning you can be fired if you are seen spending time with students outside of the school area).

29. *VERY IMPORTANT* Make sure the information they give you MATCHES the conditions of your contract. Bait and switch techniques here are all too common. If they don't match ask why. If they don't let you take a contract home to look over and think about, be suspicious. But you can't even trust that always. They will play on your ignorance of Japanese laws and or assume you wouldn't fight them in the case of a dispute.

Those are some of the main ones I can think of off the top of my head.

It is very important to remember there are very few standards in the industry governing the conditions for teachers etc. You could use conditions at ECC and the other big 4 Conversation schools to determine whether or not another school is good/bad, but in some cases you cannot do so if the school's business models are vastly different. Thus in those cases you are better off to decide what's best for you based on your own personal interest or needs.

But don't be desperate. That's where so many people make mistakes coming here. They want to come here so badly that they accept any conditions. Once here, and they realize the conditions are/were bad, they lament their situation.

Hope this helps.

[PAULH]

This was on the Job Information Journal, with a subsequent rebuttal by the principal saying the poster did not work there.

Sounds like the school is circling the wagons and denying responsibility.

Hi all,
There is another warning about this company on this site, but I thought Id add my 2 cents --- dont go *anywhere* near this company because they will certainly screw you. I have seen that they are still advertising jobs and this makes me very worried for the people that take them up on it.

I spent a lot of time and money going to Japan and ended up with this company who treated me *awfully* and, in the end, got rid of all its foreign employees, and - you guessed it - didnt reimburse them.
All this happened about 1-2 weeks into our 1 year contract.

I ended up living in Tokyo teaching English voluntarilly in exchange for accomodation (my visa didnt come through, did it...). Living for 2 months+ in Tokyo peniless is *not* good fun

I have a degree, TESOL qualification, and 6 years commercial experience between London and NYC... so I am not easily fooled.... but these people got me *good*.

Please think deeply before taking BIG APPLE up on any offers....

Concerned # 2
2/4/01
[email protected]
Scotland
Posted: Unknown

[Philidor29]

I appreciate everybody's input.

They did send a guide of directives along with the contract dealing with some of the issues that you said I should bring up in your post, bearcat. I think advertising is part of the job description for instance, and there is a no socialization policy with students and Japanese staff. They claim to offer two weeks of paid training as well. They dealt with attire and a few other things, but they haven't really explained the structure of the classes or the position.

I would be willing to give these guys a shot if they put a visa in my hands before I arrive, but the only feedback I have found about them is negative. GEOS expressed some interest in an interview, so I think I'll pursue that avenue or possibly JETs.

Once again, I appreciate everybody's input.

Cheers

[PAULH]