Teaching English in Japan an Option For Recent Graduates
For recent grads, there are 3 roads into teaching in Japan but “eikaiwa” is the most heavily traveled road.
Teaching English Conversation in Japan “Eikaiwa” The Most Heavily 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 these schools are attempting to carry out the daunting 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 pretty much also need to speak English at native level fluency. There are some that do find teaching jobs in Japan even though English is not their first language but this is more an exception than a rule.
Although there is no minimum wage, most teachers drag in 250,000 yen a month before taxes. A typical work week will be 5 days long. 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. Vacation packages are quite similar for most schools. Expect 2 weeks of paid vacation and most national holiday off. 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.
You should expect roughly a 40 hour work week. Although each school is a little bit different, nontheless, expect 20 to 25 actual teaching hours and a few administrative or office hours. Most schools also will provide you with health insurance or subsidize it. 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. Make no mistake at the end of a typical day, you’ll know you worked. All in all when all the hours get counted, your typical teacher works about 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 have only children as students like Amity English school 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.
Most of your large chain schools will provide you with some type 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.
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