Teaching English in Japan...without going through the agencies
 

I know several RSers have taught English in various Asian countries and have had good experiences. Since I'm graduating in November (B.A. in Sociology) and I spent a supremely enjoyable summer in Japan last year, I thought I'd spent a year teaching English.

Yes, I've done a search and while there are many threads on this subject here, none are recent enough. I know of all the major companies for this but I'm wondering if I could do it without going through something like JET.

Reason being...I want to be in Tokyo. I don't want to be in some remote Tom Cruise Last Samurai area. While that is also interesting to a certain extent and I'm sure I'll spend some time in the countryside during my time there, I'd like to be in Tokyo for the first leg of this experience.

Ideas?

I had the same problem when I wanted to do it years and years ago... wanted to go so bad but could not come to terms with the JET program dumping you wherever they want and you having no control over where they placed you. Every website I read said you get jerked around like crazy without an agency... but anyway here's a message forum someone sent me to that has a lot of info, I haven't looked for years because I'm old and married now so the dream of going there died long ago, but maybe it can help you out?

http://www.eslcafe.com/

From what I gathered in the past, you should apply directly to the schools in or around Tokyo or through a local agency that will specifically post you in Tokyo.

Check out the link above. That's where I saw the postings.

First thing's first:

You wanna work public or private?

Hey! i did this in korea. private tutoring there makes around 30-40 an hour there. and by tutoring i mean conversation.. hang out in a coffee shop chat for 1.5 hours make $50! not bad. i also had one student who didnt want me to teach him anything! he'd literally show me around the city for 2 hours and pay me $60. we'd talk a lot but i didnt correct him that often he just wanted to have an english speaking friend. i also had a few kids who i had to actually teach a lil. i just went to bookstores bought simple conversational books and story books and went through them slowly.

however you need to be hooked up to get a lot of students. i have 2 cousins in korea who are university professors. they found me about half of my students. the rest of the students i got hooked up by friends in korea, family referrals, etc... i tried posting ads in apartment lobbies for a while but that got me nothing! and i had to pay to do that! you can try going around tokyo posting ads all over the place too, might work might not. theres tons of people tutoring in tokyo im sure so it might be stiff competition. when i first got to korea i didnt have work until 3-4 weeks later.. i ran out of half my money and wasnt sure if i was going to be able to stay. i ended up staying and working for 6 months.

i'd recommend tutoring for a company first (if its in tokyo), if you have no hookups. once you start tutoring with them, you'll start to learn about people who want private tutoring. i know several people in korea who ended up quitting their job at the institutions because they started getting so much private tutoring work once they built a reputation for being good. i even knew a girl who got offered a student that she didnt want to teach, so the mom asked how much an hour and the girl said $100... the mom accepted! lol

heres the shitty thing about private tutoring and why i dont recommend it. you end up spending half your day commuting. you might get 10 sessions a week (most students want two 1.5h sessions a week) which is like 2 sessions a day that you have to commute to. commuting takes like half your day up, and you have to find ways to kill time in between sessions all the time. you cant really afford to be picky about which students you take so you need to be willing to commute all around to get work. another thing is the students come and go. one week you may have 5 students the next week you may have 3. you have to make a set number of sessions when you get a student, like 20 sessions, 1.5h, for 8 weeks or something. its a constant struggle to keep finding work to replace lost work.

Quick heads up on tutoring:

Almost every nation which has a teaching visa also has restrictions.
-Getting a teaching visa = being locked to that school
-Privately tutoring or working outside of that school = loss of job and defaulting on your ticket home.

Things like that. I know that in Korea if you are tutoring, it's illegal unless you are a Korean citizen or have an F# visa (married/etc), and you CAN get deported for it.

If you are looking to work in a specific area or have specific needs, find a local teacher's agency--one that works for teachers, not for sets of schools. One that I can highly recommend is footprints; they were started by a pair of teachers who went overseas and wanted to help others. Instead of being like JET which is a method of recruitment for schools; they are more like a headhunting agency, where they match jobs and teachers.

If you're looking for some pre-overseas experience PM me, I've got some openings at the school I work at.

Thanks for the heads up, guys.

Graeme: Public or private? I don't really care...I'm not picky in this respect. I just want to do it in Tokyo.

Each has their ups and downs; some require more or less work, some give better benefits than others. Keep in mind that it's unlikely you'll be able to secure a job in your position (just graduated, no education experience, not an english major, asian) that will allow you to actually do more than break even. Think of it as a holiday in which you lose less money than you otherwise would.

If I were you, I'd head over to Footprints or any of the other teacher-centric agencies around. If you try and contact schools directly, there is nobody to call, nothing you can do except sit there and suck it up.

Yes, there are laws to protect foreign teachers, however examine the case of NOVA.

They were one of the biggest ESL schools in Japan and they collapsed 2 years ago. One employee was fired for hanging out with students. They had a policy which forbade ALL OUTSIDE CONTACT withs tudents. Ie: you see a student in a McDick's, and you have to turn around and leave. That particular woman sued them for wrongful dismissal, and she won the case....TWO YEARS AFTER SHE WENT BACK TO AUSTRALIA.

Legal protection != effective protection. Deal with an agency that deals with many schools so that you can figure things out. One of my former coworkers got a position in Korea through footprints in the area he wanted--not too far from his girlfriend. So they can work with you as far as that goes. Plus, you'll probably get more options in terms of schools than if you search for yourself.

It appears that there aren't many jobs open for Footprints in Japan, Graeme...or am I just looking in the wrong place?

I wouldn't want to go to China or Taiwan...

Has anyone gone through https://www.interacnetwork.com/