Job Discussion Forums

[markosonlines]

Chiba teachers, ALT's and ESL gurus

I'm planning to move to Chiba to start work from April. I want to work for a Highschool or JHS. However, I still haven't chosen who for. Actually I still haven't even started looking, hence this post.

Firstly I'm a native 28yo Aussie with a 4 yr degree, 20 months ESL experience (and counting) here and in South Korea (Why does everyone bag S. Korea I loved it there ) I figure I'm qualified for most HS and JHS jobs though please inform me if I'm wrong.I would happilly balance two part-time roles, ie HS/eikaiwa so to make some cash, or alternatively a f/t Highschool position.

Q1: Can anyone recommend schools, including eikaiwas where positive, experiences are to be had. My idea of positive experience is something like: limited work, good pay, vacations, reasonable staff.

Q2: When should I start sending out the cv's and setting up interviews. I want to get in a bit early, before they hit the newspapers and the ESL sites etc. Would it be worthwhile to start in the next month or two or should I wait until later? When do HS/JHS's do their recruiting drives anyway?

Any advice appreciated

Markos

[chinagirl]

M,

You seem to be somewhat qualified for some Jr. High/High school jobs as an ALT . Since you do not say that you are certified as a public school teacher in Australia and you only have a year and 8 months of teaching experience in Korea, you would most likely get started working in Japan at an eikawa and work from there. With the exception of JET (usually the deadline is in December, I think, for the following fall) most of the ads for ALT's say that they want people who are already residing in Japan. Check out Interac and such other organizations.

I would suggest that you apply to one of the many eikawas in Chiba-ken and maybe try to move into the Jr. High/High setting after obtaining a bit more experience. As far as being a teacher in a jr. high/high school setting as the sole teacher in the classroom with *all* of the repsonsibility, if your only teaching experience and credentials is what you listed, I don't think that you have much chance of getting hired in Japan. Try working there a bit first.

I'm sure that Glenski and Paul could enlighten you more on the subject.

Chiba is a nice area to work. Close to the airport and Tokyo, easy to get in and out of the country. I enjoyed my time there. You can PM me and I'd be happy to send you the name of the eikawa where I worked. Good luck.

[Glenski]

To me, you seem qualified for HS jobs, but the trick is in finding them. Most of the time you simply need a contact, an inside person. But, keep your eyes on the usual web sites and on The Japan Times Monday edition. They begin advertising about six months in advance, but the biggest flurry of ads comes out in March because that's when a lot of the teachers change jobs and give notice at the last minute. School terms begin in April.

If you don't mind my asking, what exactly did you mean when you wrote that a positive experience means "limited work, good pay, vacations"? I mean, do you expect good pay for limited work?? I don't think you'll find that anywhere in the world. And, if you land a FT job at a high school, there's a difference between private and public school. See my other thread for that. Basically, private schools will have you working way into the night.

In order to balance a couple of PT jobs, you will still need to get one of them to sponsor a visa, and that's not as likely as with a FT position.

[markosonlines]

Thanks for your replies,

Chinagirl, I'm currently in Japan working in an eikawa in Ise until the end of March. I'm not a certified teacher in Australia so I figure an ALT position would be my card. I'd love to know where you worked, assuming your experience there was positive

Glenski, by good pay for limited work I don't mean charity, just a nice deal. By limited work I should have emphasised limited hours rather than effort. I'm here to teach, not to have paid conversations which, strangely, is all some of my adult students want.

I met a guy from Chiba who was getting Y140,000/month for two half days and a full day at a JHS, and he balanced this with 15 or so evening classes at an eikawa. All up he was making around Y300,000 and still had some free time for himself. His visa came through the JHS. This is what I mean of good pay for limited work and what I'm hoping to line up. I don't want to wait until March to do so either.

Again thanks for your replies. More would be welcomed

Markos

[Glenski]

markosonlines,

Thanks for the clarification.

I work with 2 part-timers at my high school, and one has crammed all 15 or 16 of his classes into 3 days of the week, leaving him the other 4 to take on other work. The high school PT work grosses at about 200,000 yen/month.

They are both on spousal visas (how about your friend?), but I would add the visa caution to you. If you can line up such PT work, someone has to sponsor your visa unless you are married to a Japanese or hold a working holiday visa. Not that many places do with just a PT schedule, so beware.