For recent grads, there are 3 roads into teaching in Japan but “eikaiwa” is the most heavily traveled road.

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
You need a 4 year degree from an University to get a job. (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.

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. 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. Something worth noting is that ECC English school has the best vacation of all the large chain schools. 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. Most office hours get filled by preparing lessons, talking with students and taking class notes. Furthermore, teachers are sometimes expected to hand fliers as well. 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. Those with little teaching experience often like these teaching conditios becasue it reduces stress and makes the headache of lesson planning go away.Creative types will probably find it a bit stifiling.

ESL teachers typically teach all ages. Literally from 5 to 75 year olds. 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.

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