| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
booty
Joined: 22 Aug 2004
Posts: 94
|
 Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 5:40 pm Post subject: A couple of questions about GEOS |
 |
|
I have just seen an ad about teaching in Japan for GEOS. Has anyone worked for them? Are they one of the big giants like AEON? Do they have boot camp style training? Are they over-anal about teaching? Is GEOS full of 21 year-olds who have just finished uni? Would they consider over 30s?
What about careers? Does the experience pay off? |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
|
| Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:37 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Well, that is certainly more than a "couple of questions"!
Has anyone worked for them? Yes. I could tell you about my friend's experiences, if you like.
]
Are they one of the big giants like AEON?
Yes, they are one of the Big Four eikaiwas.
Do they have boot camp style training?
No. I don't know what you mean by "boot camp" anyway.
Are they over-anal about teaching?
What do you mean? They are an eikaiwa, not a juku.
Is GEOS full of 21 year-olds who have just finished uni?
For the most part, most eikaiwas are. The average age of most eikaiwa teachers is in the upper 20s.
Would they consider over 30s?
Yes.
What about careers? Does the experience pay off?
Their web site, as I'm sure you have seen, says you can move out of teaching and into other sorts of careers with them, but I have not heard of anything other than just being a branch manager. From what I have learned, GEOS teachers are like most eikaiwa teachers. They last about a year, then move on to another teaching opportunity. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
|
| Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 4:35 am Post subject: Re: A couple of questions about GEOS |
|
|
| booty wrote: |
| I Are they one of the big giants like AEON? ? |
Its one of the big 4 but according to NOVA they corner about 50% of the language teaching market, the other chain schools cover the rest, as well as the small one-man band schools
| booty wrote: |
| I Do they have boot camp style training? ? |
Yes and you can join the reserve militia when you graduate. Teaching English is not the military. They dont make you cross any swing bridges or crawl through mud.
| booty wrote: |
| Are they over-anal about teaching?? |
They are a language school and you are being paid to teach English. If you have no experience or training they have to bring you up to speed on working in Japan somehow.
Some foreign managers can be a bit 'anal' becuase of a swollen ego over their job title or a taskmaster mentality or simply they feel they have to babysit people. You learn how to work with such people or you simply ignore them. You are being paid to do a job however and its described in your contract. This mission, if you should choose to accept will keep you gainfully employed for the next several years.
| booty wrote: |
I Is GEOS full of 21 year-olds who have just finished uni? Would they consider over 30s?
f? |
GEOS will interview and hire qualified candidates with a degree and you have teachers in Japan teaching in their 60's. Most are late 20's and early 30's. They do reject people so keep in mind you will have to jump through some hoops, like any other job. You have to have what the school is looking for, not just a pulse and English ability.
| booty wrote: |
I
What about careers? Does the experience pay off? |
Depending on who you talk to, very few make a long term career out of teaching at a language school. As a foreigner in japan in a big company you are a small cog in a very big machine and most foreigners here are simply windowdressing. use a job to gain experience and contacts and then leverage up into a better paying job and better conditions e.g. a high school a semongakko. GEOS is not bad as a conversation school goes but the average language teacher lasts about 2-3 years before either changing jobs or careers or going home. Dont expect any great increases in pay, yearly bonus or corporate perks that the japanese staff get.
Whether it pays off depends on what you want to get out of it and where you want to end up after three years. If you dont know where you are going you wont know whether or not you have got there at all. The benefits are what ever you want them to be.
Decide what you are looking for in a job here, what your short or long term goals are and then decide whether or GEOS can help you get there. In the short run t pays off in that you can get a paying job, pay off your loans, live in a foreign country, learn a foreign language and do something a little different than your friends back home. GEOS and NOVA etc dont owe you a job or a career though and you get out of it whatever you put into it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Willy_In_Japan
Joined: 20 Jul 2004
Posts: 329
|
| Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 5:30 am Post subject: |
|
|
I was a Sergeant in the Canadian military, and I've taught basic training.
Was GEOS training like military training? In a warped sort of way yes.
They were very concerned with your dress and deportment, (just like the military).......they had a very strict method of instruction (just like the military),.......they made us do things such as 'punch in' just to get used to doing that in Japan, and of course we had to punch in at least 10 mins.... before our 'shift' started. So in other words they had us go through administrative procedures (just like the military). They had slogans to recite (just like the military).
I wouldnt be so quick to dismiss such a comparison as ridiculous. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
|
| Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 5:52 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Willy_In_Japan wrote: |
I was a Sergeant in the Canadian military, and I've taught basic training.
Was GEOS training like military training? In a warped sort of way yes.
They were very concerned with your dress and deportment, (just like the military).......they had a very strict method of instruction (just like the military),.......they made us do things such as 'punch in' just to get used to doing that in Japan, and of course we had to punch in at least 10 mins.... before our 'shift' started. So in other words they had us go through administrative procedures (just like the military). They had slogans to recite (just like the military).
I wouldnt be so quick to dismiss such a comparison as ridiculous. |
They sound pretty much like the normal things people do when they start a new job, especially when you are just out of university and still thinking like a college student. Most companies will have some kind of 'grace' period and NOVAs probation is two months, in which time you are expected to get your act together and get with the program
Not sure if I'd call it boot camp. PS I did six weeks of military boot camp in the reserves so i know where you are coming from. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
|
| Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 7:24 am Post subject: |
|
|
May be a bit of a myth, but I heard in one of the chain schools in a demo lesson or teaching greeting of guests/students teachers would practice on life-size cardboard cutouts of 'students' and the teachers line up and bow to them.
PS. Just saw the movie Gung-Ho after a long absence. First scene is a classic, of Japanese managers who had failing records flagellating themselves and being beaten with wooden rods like they do with Buddhist monks who nod off during meditation (they used to do it on students at the Buddhist university i worked at too).
Maybe thats a bit of what NOVA needs. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
