Discuss the state of the teaching industry in Japan with your fellow teachers! Use this thread to discuss salary trends, companies, minor questions that don't warrant a whole post, and build a rapport with other members of the community.
Please keep discussions civilized. Mods will remove any offending posts.
by AutoModerator
9 comments
I heard the least shitty dispatch company lost a lot of contracts to Heart and Interac. I guess the race to the bottom will continue unabated.
My city was also lost to heart. My company has nothing else for me. I will have to apply with them, are they as bad as everyone claims?
The question should be what can you do with this in the future? Keep changing companies? I used to work dispatch and now I never want to go back.
With the new academic year coming up, is anyone planning to do anything fun or interesting with your curriculum?
Seiha vs AEON? I recently had Seiha sponsor my visa but the pay combined with the crappy schedule which include multiple locations with 90+ minute commutes is disheartening. AEON I know pays more but I was wondering if anyone has insight on either and it I should go ahead and apply for a position with AEON. Thank you very much.
I got hired and submited my documents today for the COE – Any ideas on the turnover time?
Contract starts May 7th but from what I saw delays are around 4-8 weeks which leaves me no time to request my Visa
So here’s one for this sub
technically it’s a lateral move, but I’m escaping eikaiwa to go back to… being an ALT. And honestly, I’m quite happy.
If I stayed in the eikaiwa, I was going to have to do more work for no increase in pay. Meanwhile, as an ALT… same pay, but more days off considering how school schedules work. And I don’t have to worry about making any damned tests.
Will universities be raising their salaries to match inflation?
**Rant incoming:**
*What is with all the ALT posts recently of “do the minimum at work, no more”.*
I’ve never seen someone progress their careers with this attitude. You are in a perfect position to skill up in some way. Whether that is by investing more in the education field by doing more or by getting qualifications in a different field.
I do editing work for a journal and research, including conferences and papers, and none of these are part of my job (I don’t even have a research day). They are all job adjacent factors which I need to progress. And I should do these for the benefit of myself and others… I mean isn’t that why we are here?
When I was an ALT, I always volunteered with test-making, test-marking, T1ing. In return, the teachers thought of me as a member of the team; they invested in my research when I was doing my MA (they don’t need to even entertain this and many don’t due to privacy issues), and they were my references for when I applied to grad school and my first university job. It is very hard to get out of those lower-paying ALT jobs with a gap-year mindset.
Every single ALT I know who has stayed long term and had a go to work – go home mindset is all still in those same positions. And everyone I know who has invested has moved up, most in education becoming ALTs at private high schools and getting special licenses, starting their own schools, working at tertiary institutes (mostly junior colleges), or getting certs and switching to IT.
It is fine, if they are happy with their compensation… but then some complain about the salary too!