Although there are 3 basic roads to teaching in Japan most recent graduates use to start their teaching careers, the destination in terms of salaries and working conditions are fairly similar.

Teaching in Japan  “Eikaiwa” The Most Traveled Road
“Eikaiwa” refers to the teaching of English conversation and basic grammar and believe it or not it’s a billion dollar industry in Japan. These consist of your large chain schools like ECC, Berlitz, Geos & Aeon. These organizations employ  thousands of  teachers throughout Japan and can be found in practically every single city in Japan irrespective  of size. There are literally tons of private English schools dotting the country side.  All of them carrying out the task of teaching English to the Japanese.

What You Need to Teach
In order to get a job teaching English in Japan, you will need to be a college graduate from any field – (sorry but 2 year degrees won’t cut it.You need to be a native level fluent speaker of English. Some do succeed in finding work in Japan, even though English isn’t their first language but the overwhelming majority of postions that get filled are filled by native level fluent teachers.

Most English teachers make roughly 250,000 yen per month before taxes.Most work weeks will be 5 days. Don’t expect western stuff like weekends off. The “eikawa” business whirs like a motor on weekends and someone has to teach the students right? This means that most teachers work at least one Saturday or Sunday with another weekday off.Most school’s vacation packages are remarkably similar. 2 weeks of paid vacation and a handful of national holidays off is the norm. Schools differ on which national holidays they observe but the norm is 8 to 10 per year. It’s worth noting that ECC has the best vacation package of the monster chain schools and  arguably the  fewest complaints. To see a comparison chart outlining: working conditions, salaries, perks, accommodations, vacations days and recruitment methods for Geos, ECC, Berlitz and Aeon, click here.

Expect to work close to 40 hours per week. Although each school is a little bit different, nontheless, expect 20 to 25 actual teaching hours and a few administrative or office hours.Many schools will subsidize your health insurance or pay for it out right. Typical office hours are filled by grading student work, taking class notes, preparing future lessons or just chatting with students. And (depending on the school) some teachers are expected to hand out school advertisments. No joking here folks, by the end of an average day, you’ll know you worked. When the dust settles, your typical teacher workds roughly 40 hours per week.

Huge chain schools, mentioned in the previous paragraph, all have fixed curriculums. This means you’ll be using their in house texts, tapes and other support materials for teaching. For those who don’t have a lot of teaching experience it’s a helpful in reducing stress (there already is quite a bit in adjusting to the culture and learning the language etc.Creative types will probably find it a bit stifiling.

ESL teachers typically teach all ages. Literally from a mere 5 years of age all the way up to 75. Some schools deal specifically with children  like Amity and Peppy Kids Club. Other  schools like Gaba concentrate on adults.Because of how cut-throat competitive this industry is, most schools cater ot all ages. Most teachers teach children, young professionals and some housewives.

All most all of your large chain schools will provide their respective teachers with some kind of accommodations. This is a very big help as it’s difficult to find accommodations on your own without the help of a Japanese national. And it’s definitely not cheap. But the type provided will vary, you should expect things to be half the size of what you might find in most western countries. Furnishings are usually sparse and typically will be collections of things from departing teachers.

Filed under: Reference by admin
No Comments »