Which is the best English school to work for?

[lemsip]

ALTIA (Nagoya)

In general avoid dispatch companies and working as an ALT for private companies. You are at the bottom of the food chain doing that though most teachers have to pay their rent somehow.

Is ALTIA not a dispatch company or have I got that wrong? Also, why do you think being an ALT isn't as good as solo teaching in an eikaiwa? Financially?

[KansaiBen]

Is ALTIA not a dispatch company or have I got that wrong? Also, why do you think being an ALT isn't as good as solo teaching in an eikaiwa? Financially?

Under Japanese dispatch laws the client companies e.g elementary schools, BOEs are forbidden by law from issuing orders to employees of another company. All your instruction/training must come through your employer, even if you are team teaching with a Japanese home room teacher. The Japanese JTE or home room teacher can supervise you, tell you what he wants done but in most cases there is no real joint planning unless the client school takes the views of the ALT into account when planning lessons.

This can cause problems if the Japanese teacher is uncooperative, does not know how to plan a lesson properly or has different ideas than you about how to manage and control a class. If you have a problem with a Japanese home room teacher often you can not discuss it directly with him or her but must channel communication through your employer who then contacts the client school. ALT teacher ends up feeling like meat in the sandwich.

The second issue is more financial in nature. The board of education will often try to save as much money as possible when it comes to contracting out its English classes to dispatch companies. Companies must bid each year to win contracts to provide teachers. What often happens is that dispatch companies will undercut each other to win BOE contracts, with the final contract going to the company that offers the lowest price. What this means in practice is the employer has to cut corners, cut salaries or make you work more hours for less pay. This can end up with teachers feeling exploited or getting the short end of the bargain, even if its them doing all the work. Client companies know that they can just threaten to not renew the contract, or get rid of problem teachers by asking the dispatch company to replace them with someone else. there is not a helluva lot of job security in being an ALT and you never know if you have a job/income from one contract to the next.

http://www.generalunion.org/alt/

[Mr. Ludd]

The second issue is more financial in nature. The board of education will often try to save as much money as possible when it comes to contracting out its English classes to dispatch companies. Companies must bid each year to win contracts to provide teachers. What often happens is that dispatch companies will undercut each other to win BOE contracts, with the final contract going to the company that offers the lowest price. What this means in practice is the employer has to cut corners, cut salaries or make you work more hours for less pay. This can end up with teachers feeling exploited or getting the short end of the bargain, even if its them doing all the work. Client companies know that they can just threaten to not renew the contract, or get rid of problem teachers by asking the dispatch company to replace them with someone else. there is not a helluva lot of job security in being an ALT and you never know if you have a job/income from one contract to the next.



Totally agree. With the companies falling all over each other trying to underbid each other, conditions are terrible. A company I worked for severely underbid the last one and basically let the B.O.E. call all the shots. Board Of Monkeys decided they could save tons of money by only having the ALT come in on a daily basis, too bad if there was a surprise test day or mistake in scheduling. Company, which lived in fear of not having contract renewed, went along with whatever B.O.M. said. Any complaints meant that you would not continue working with the company come March. No security at all.

[lemsip]

Thanks guys, very helpful. I worked on JET 2003/04 and had a wonderful experience, mostly due to the receptiveness of my JTEs who were happy that I wanted to try and use art/music to make lessons more interesting. In no way did I call the shots, but there was a really good relationship between my JTEs and I, which meant team teaching was fun and relaxed.

I've applied to JET again this year and just thought if I didn't get accepted I would try Interac. This has made me question my decision slightly. However, I do like the hours of an ALT and still may prefer that to working evenings and weekends etc in an eikaiwa. I want to work with children, but as this thread as a whole demonstrates, it seems that if you don't get on JET you're faced with a difficult decision as to choosing between the best of a bad bunch, so to speak.

[ieruun]

The best school would be your own school.

(I know because I'm an internet warrior)

[lemsip]

Is it 99% the case that if you go with Interac/ALTIA they'll stick you in a LeoPalace? For me that would almost be a deal breaker, just too small. Or is there a chance you may get something slightly bigger?

[Call_It_Like_Eye_See_It]

Depends!

How much money you bringing to Japan? Can you find your own guarantor? You got enough to pay for key money and the first month's rent? Then you are good to go anywhere you like!

The problem is, the dispatch companies know most green-around-the-gills newbies have no prayer of finding their own place. So they get shitted into Leo Palace. If it's too small for you, then....then....answer the questions about your situation and how badly you want to come to Japan!

[lemsip]

Like many others, I'm in the position of waiting to see if I get an interview with JET in Jan/Feb. If accepted, this would be my second time on JET (first time 2003/04) - so in a way I've been spoiled in the past, knowing how good JET accommodation can be. If I don't get accepted, I'll have to explore other options.

As for how much I want to come to Japan, I really do, and not just for a year. Last time I made the decision to return to the UK after only a one-year contract because a family member was terminally ill. Since then, I've worked my way up in advertising to become a senior writer here in the UK. However, I've always had a niggling desire to go back to Japan to work and live. After I revisited the country for one month in 2008 it solidified my decision.

So next year all being well I will be returning to Japan, indefinitely. I would love to get on JET again primarily due to the support system and the positive experience I had before. If I don't, I will try and find work in Fukuoka maybe as that's where I lived before. I figure it may be easier to sort out accommodation etc if I have Japanese friends there to help me.

I guess I need to stop thinking about it all until I know whether I've got an interview with JET. I kind of am putting all my eggs in one basket, but I don't want to pursue other avenues until I have to. I'm just confusing myself by reading all these interac/ALTIA/eikaiwa comparison threads!

[FrostbiteFalls]

Having recently done interviews for some companies, I'm starting to see what some GPers mean when they put down eikaiwas. Language learning seems to be the last item on their agenda. Rather, the job seems to be "can you keep children entertained for a half hour after their kyoiku mamas force them to come after school?" and "can you get these children to repeat two words so we can tell their parents they're learning?"

I hope being an ALT is better than that. Even if it's just so the school has a foreigner to "show off," I feel it's less dishonest than working for an eikaiwa. The sad part is, unless I had a bankground in finance/IT, these kind of jobs are all that are out there. Can I really sell (at least, rent) my soul for being in Japan? It's what I want more than anything, and yet, I feel oddly uncomfortable...

[Effected After]

You're probably best to go back somewhere and get a skillset you can use in Japan, then come back to Japan. I know a few people who have done that, and it was definitely a good move.

[lemsip]

You're probably best to go back somewhere and get a skillset you can use in Japan, then come back to Japan. I know a few people who have done that, and it was definitely a good move.

I'd love to get back with JET, do Japanese nightclasses and reach Level 2 after a few years. Then try and move into the advertising sector which I'm in at the minute: a lot of global agencies have branches in Tokyo and Osaka that need dual English/Japanese workers. Wishful thinking at the minute though, need to get back to Japan first.

[Effected After]

That's a good plan. If you've got a skillset that can be used, and you spend a few years learning the language, it can work. Just make sure you keep on top of your skillset while you're learning Japanese. You don't want to let it slip, because five years down the line it becomes that thing you did five years back.

[FrostbiteFalls]

You're probably best to go back somewhere and get a skillset you can use in Japan, then come back to Japan. I know a few people who have done that, and it was definitely a good move.

I thought, mistakenly, that studying Japanese was the way to get to Japan. As for getting some kind of applicable skill, I would, but I've got tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt and no more money to spend on graduate school. God bless America...

[Ken44]

...

Having recently done interviews for some companies, I'm starting to see what some GPers mean when they put down eikaiwas. Language learning seems to be the last item on their agenda. Rather, the job seems to be "can you keep children entertained for a half hour after their kyoiku mamas force them to come after school?" and "can you get these children to repeat two words so we can tell their parents they're learning?"

I hope being an ALT is better than that. Even if it's just so the school has a foreigner to "show off," I feel it's less dishonest than working for an eikaiwa. The sad part is, unless I had a bankground in finance/IT, these kind of jobs are all that are out there. Can I really sell (at least, rent) my soul for being in Japan? It's what I want more than anything, and yet, I feel oddly uncomfortable...

Better get used to it if you're going to teach English here.

The job is a joke and always has been.

[Shimokitazawa]

What this means in practice is the employer has to cut corners, cut salaries or make you work more hours for less pay. This can end up with teachers feeling exploited or getting the short end of the bargain, even if its them doing all the work. Client companies know that they can just threaten to not renew the contract, or get rid of problem teachers by asking the dispatch company to replace them with someone else. there is not a helluva lot of job security in being an ALT and you never know if you have a job/income from one contract to the next.

http://www.generalunion.org/alt/

By the way, INTERAC was advertising at JALT 2011 this year. They had their advert inserted to each of the participants conference materials.

This needs to stop and JALT should reconsider having any association with INTERAC and other dispatch companies like it.

[vega12]

Sorry for the bump...
Speaking of Berlitz, is there anyone working there who can answer a question of mine? They advertise their part-time position at 13.3 hrs a week, 125,000 a month, which comes to about 2400 per hour. But this is broken down as 20 40 minute lessons. Is the actual workload associated with this 20 lessons closer to 20 hours a week? If so the actual pay-rate drops to like 1600/hour.

[ChucklingJawa]

Sorry for the bump...
Speaking of Berlitz, is there anyone working there who can answer a question of mine? They advertise their part-time position at 13.3 hrs a week, 125,000 a month, which comes to about 2400 per hour. But this is broken down as 20 40 minute lessons. Is the actual workload associated with this 20 lessons closer to 20 hours a week? If so the actual pay-rate drops to like 1600/hour.

I don't know if you have your answer already, but i will give you my 2 cents anway.

You should read the advertisement again. Does it say 13.5 TEACHING hours? Or just 13.5 hours? Chances are that it said 13.5 teaching hours. I don't have any experience with Berlitz but generally speaking a lot of companies advertise the teaching hours, so Berlitz is probably closer to the 20 hour mark in terms of you being there, active. I have no idea if they expect you to contribute in between classes though, but hopefully this bump will get a Berlitz teaching to chime in to help you out too.