Job Discussion Forums

RobCooper · Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Posts: 9

Hello, I suppose this is a very general email, and yes I have done searches, but lets just say nothing quite filled all my questions.

I'd like to teach in Japan, preferably Tokyo, but only because I don't know any better as yet. Background - I'm CELTA'd with two years experience.

But here's what seems to be the catch I want to teach adults - and all the jobs going seem to be kids or mainly kids - am I looking at the wrong country entirely or just looking in the wrong places?

Oh yeah, and I'm a primadonna so want to do my own planning and so on not teaching someone else's lessons. Is this likely to cause problems?

Also - for job searching upon arrival - what are the best sources for ads/information? Looking likely will be arriving mid/late February.

Apologies in advance for any repetition but with the sheer volume of posts its just easier this way....

Thanks

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

RobCooper · Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Posts: 9

Ok - the life history - 27, British and with a (3 year) BA in totally unrelated Geography.

BenJ · Joined: 11 May 2003 Posts: 209 Location: Nagoya

Nova is adults (kids are an option), Westgate is adults... ECC is both kids and adults. Don't know about the other big schools.

I've been looking for work around Nagoya for about 3 months now from Japan, and the pickings are mightly slim if you don't want to teach kids - to the point of non-existent I'd say. I've seen just one job that was only adults around here and that was for a Pharmaceuticals company. As far as I can tell, you'd have to go with Nova or Westgate or learn to love the little critters.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

shmooj · Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 1758 Location: Seoul, ROK

april · Joined: 07 May 2003 Posts: 83 Location: Australia

BuddhaRhubarb · Joined: 22 Jan 2004 Posts: 14

the skinny on kids at Aeon(if you are thinking of the big schools to get yourself to Japan) is that all the schools going towards a mix of kids and adults, like most of schools in Japan...
so if you chose Aeon, most likely you would have to teach some kids...

I've been at aeon for 18 mos and i havent yet taught a regular kids class, but demo'd lessons and i will be starting in april...

before i came here i was told i wouldnt be teaching kids at all...

but things change, contracts change (my first resigning: they told me of the oncoming rush of children conveniently after i signed on the dotted line) that said, you simply have to be flexible, much more flexible than those you work for in japan. and patient. i am and things are fine.

easyasabc · Joined: 13 Jul 2003 Posts: 179 Location: Japan

[quote="shmooj... but then I haven't lived in the UK since 1998 so someone may have more accurate details.[/quote]
I went to visit a friend in London last year because I was thinking of moving there to work and when I saw the prices of rent for apartments it really put me off.
Here's an example. My friend was sharing a 3BR apartment with friends because although she wanted to, she couldn't afford to live alone. The place she lived was fairly close to the city (about 15 minutes by train) but her apt was nowhere near the station (so not convenient), a really sh*tty old place that used to be local gov't housing but has been very basically renovated, rattly old pipes and taps in the bathroom etc, not cool at all ....... the rent price in yen??????

Aprox 260,000 a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NO THANKS

cafebleu · Joined: 10 Feb 2003 Posts: 404

I agree with Schmooj and easyasabc about London rental prices. A kind of madness has set into the London rental accommodation scene, especially if you compare prices that you pay here with those you were paying in London. You DO get extorted for rent there.

On the other hand, there are laws governing the behaviour of landlords and rental agents that reflect a fair mentality politically and socially. I can`t say I have ever found these kinds of laws in Japan. Sorry, but Japan`s bias towards land/house owners belongs in a 19th century novel by Charles D (if I say his surname I get censored automatically!).

However, one of the things I couldn`t help but notice when I went to Tokyo for a trip was the fact that it really looks like one, long slum. Social commentators in the west who take camera crews around poor parts of London, European cities, and cities in the USA really have no idea of how those places usually look good compared to the jerrybuilt shacks and filthy looking, half or three quarters completed, or unrepaired housing in Tokyo and its endless suburbs.

I have been to ghetto areas in New York where the public housing that is regularly decried as being sub-standard looks somewhat up-market compared to the housing for usual (not poor) families and individuals in Japan.

I have to say, too, that London offers beautiful parks, scenic areas and any number of free or cheap activities if you familiarise yourself with the printed information available or if you are a native such as myself. Tokyo seems to have little to offer in that way, instead being a mess of everything put everywhere with no concern for any kind of planning (what is that?), with ugly and sub-standard constructions the norm.

RobCooper · Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Posts: 9

Thanks for all the comments and help...

In a bizarre closing the circle kind of way, with regard to London there's no way I'd consider a teaching job in London - the money simply isnt competetive or feasible for having any kind of life. I've been working outside of teaching for the last couple of years, and to live half-decently in London you need to be looking at minimum 20k a year - thats a lot of hours on a basic teaching salary judging by UK based posts Ive seen.

Admittedly its part of the reason for getting out - I can't face returning to my old job so its back to teaching for me.... hopefully I can eke out a living in Japan (have no illusions about making my fortune, worry not) but time will tell....

Cheers for your help.

shmooj · Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 1758 Location: Seoul, ROK

Sherri · Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2004 11:52 pm Post subject:

While London has its problems (and I did live there for 10 years--south of the river where crime was a big problem), I do miss the beauty of the architecture in London compared to the scrappy buildings that pass for a city in Tokyo. Cafebleu is right, it does look like a slum and some parts are downright slumlike. I don't think it is fair to compare with slums in a developing country like India (and yes I spent almost a year there). The standards of housing is shocking here. It's not even that cold in the winter but people are freezing indoors because of the lack of insulation. People in my neighbourhood in Tokyo have outside walls of about 2 cms. I watched as my neighbour refurbished his house across the street from me. They knocked down the front facing wall (made of some kind of mud-like stuff and straw--really!) and nailed up plywood to cover it. I thought they were using the plywood for security until they could build the real wall, but no that was the wall, they just covered it with some cheap vinyl-type cladding the width of paper and that was it. Some people around here have sides of their houses covered with corrugated iron. We live in a house, which is not that old, but every time a car or truck goes by the entire house shakes.

The general lack of planning, the ugly concrete buildings with no character, poor construction make Tokyo a very ugly place to live overall--but it is still a lot of fun.
Sherri