help, help, help please !

[Anonymous]

Hi . . . I hope somebody can help me out here . . . I'm planning on coming to Japan early 2002, and I want to know is it better to sign a contract with a school before I leave, or should I just turn up and then start looking? . . . The main reason I ask this is - I taught English in Taiwan for many years, and the teachers who signed contracts overseas before they arrived always ended up "getting screwed" . . . of course, they didn't realize this until they arrived in the country . . . they made about half what the locally employed foreign teachers made, as well as having to teach all the classes nobody else wanted (early mornings, weekends etc) . . . Suffice to say, as soon as these teachers finished their one-year contracts, they would be gone to find much better paying work (I can't recall a single teacher in 8 years ever signing a second contract) . . . Is it the same situation in Japan? . . . I have a post-grad certificate in applied linguistics, many years experience and excellent references, so what are my chances of just rocking up in Tokyo and finding a good job (ie. well paying) within a reasonably short time-frame (say a few weeks) . . . I know there are many of you out there who are very familiar with this situation, so any info you can send my way will be greatly appreciated . . . Thanks in advance . . . Darren Volker

*** I also plan to live / work in Chiba, so if anyone knows of any good schools there, I'd be real happy to hear from you

*** I have an interview in a couple of weeks with GEOS . . . Any comments?

[George]

I did the interview with GEOS. They have 300 schools throughout Japan and they don't guarantee where you will be located. Basically ,they ask you to sign the contract before they place you. So if you are interested in teaching in Chiba, this might not be the best bet.