Teaching English in Japan - Best Company? (JET, GEOS, AEON, NOVA, ECC)?

Question

I'm graduating next year, and want to go to Japan to teach English for a year.
My freshman year I studied abroad in Japan for 2 1/2 months and loved every minute of it. I stayed in a smaller city during that time which was amazing, but this time around I want to experience the city life in Tokyo. I've heard that JET often places you in small rural communites (which I don't want), but I'm not sure if this is true or not. In your experience, what company is the best with regaurds to placing, pay, work hours (less is better), and vacation--or just in general, which are the better companies, and which ones should I avoid? Thanks!

Answer 1

The best imho are the JET program and Interac.You want to be an ALT/AET (a teacher who team-teaches together with a Japanese teacher) and you want to avoid private language schools (eikawa) at all costs. This would include NOVA, AEON, Gaba, Geos, and Berlitz. These businesses are geared to serve the customers but don't take good care of the teachers, and you will be teaching by yourself (teaching very small kids who can't speak any English in all-English just does not work sometimes!), making lesson plans, and working a stressful schedule in an office, mostly evenings (meaning, no life!).

The JET program is your best bet as a fresh grad. You have to deal with the fact that most of Japan is rural. If you join JET you'll be likely to be in suburbs or a small town. However, on JET all of your health insurance will be paid. Your transportation to and from work are covered. Your living costs can be partially or fully paid for depending on where you end up. One of my friends lived in a small village near Hiroshima for one year. In the village they had a small house especially for her, already furnished nicely. No living cost! On the JET program they are trying to give you the best impression of Japan they can, so they are very careful to make sure you are very happy during your stay here.

On the downside of that, they are very careful and selective during their screening process. They want very young grads. If you have any health problems or are on prescription medication for a reason that makes them worry you may have health problems on the job here in Japan, they won't be keen on hiring you for the job.

I currently work for Interac, not JET. I like it very much. It's a private company that provides ALT's to schools. You can live whereever you want with Interac: you tell them where you want to go and that branch will hire you. They can help you find somewhere to live (but you've got to pay for it.) Your health insurance is not paid, but transportation is. I'm very happy with this job because team-teaching with the Japanese teachers is fun and rewarding and working in a school, you get to take part in school events and holidays and that's totally fun. We get summer vacation (three weeks or so in August) off. http://www.interac.co.jp/recruit/

Please note a few things:

1. If you work in Japan, you are generally expected not to be sick. If you're the kind of person who gets sick a lot, this country will not be good for you. Taking days off for sickness is looked down upon.

2. Punctuality and formal dress are general musts. If you're late, it's a very bad thing. If you don't like dressing up... you will have problems here.

3. Kids (and grownups) will often say and do things that are odd, offensive in small ways and may cause you annoyance of culture shock. If you don't have the patience to tell yourself to just let it go, if you're too sensitive and people giggling at you, constantly openly staring at you, and stuff will make you unhappy or paranoid (like me on my worst days, haha) this sort of work is not the job I'd recommend.

That in mind, I wish you the best of luck! I say go for the JET program if it's possible for you, and enjoy a nice life in a rural area. You will have plenty of things to do and the people will be very friendly and take good care of you as their resident. You can't beat the savings you'd get by having all of the compensation a JET receives.

BTW, Tokyo is the most expensive city to live in in Japan, and I don't recommend it to someone who's just starting out here. Why not try another large city? You will need to save your money if you want to live in Tokyo. You can save quite a bit by living in Kawasaki or Machida, Tokyo's suburbs, or Nagoya, Sapporo, and Fukuoka are other large cities which are less expensive to live in, as well.

Personally I recommend Yokohama, next-door to Tokyo so you can visit anytime, Japan's second largest city, international mindset (very foreigner-friendly place), cleaner than Tokyo with lots of green spaces all over town.

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Teaching English in Japan - Best Company? (JET, GEOS, AEON, NOVA, ECC)?
I'm graduating next year, and want to go to Japan to teach English for a year.
My freshman year I studied abroad in Japan for 2 1/2 months and loved every minute of it. I stayed in a smaller city during that time which was amazing, but this time around I want to experience the city life in...

Answer 3

Nova Japan

Answer 4

Ecc Japan

Answer 5

Tokyo is the capital of Japan, and the place where over 13 million people live, making it one of the most populous cities in the world but also, a big city to visit, find out more with hotelbye . Most of the city was devastated by the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, and then again by the bombing in the WWII, however, Tokyo was able to achieve a remarkably rapid recovery both times. The main attraction of Tokyo is the Imperial Palace with its beautiful 17th-century parks surrounded by walls and moats. The palace is still in use by the Imperial family.

Answer 6

JET by far. Living in a big city wears you down. I lived 2 hours away from Tokyo so on the weekends I could go visit but during the weekdays my life was nice and peaceful.

Answer 7

JET has the best reputation and NOVA has the worst reputation. A lot of it will depend on where you are located and the staff at your local school. Good luck! I was there for 3 years and loved it.

Answer 8

Trust me on this-you are much better off on the JET program. You will make more money than any conversation school teacher and have school holidays+national holidays+days off when the Japanese teachers are hard at it in professional development or whatever. Meanwhile somebody else is slaving away at NOVA for 250000 a month. If you are on the JET program you will have the opportunity to apply to become an international relations coordinator as well.

If not JET, then try the corporate teaching companies like Interac, ITC, etc. Corporate teaching can be actually really easy going (again, you won't be teaching on Sunday morning like somebody at Nova), and obviously it's a big city thing. The big drawback is you can't go to say....Mitsubishi Denki Honsha looking like a hippy.

Answer 9

In my opinion, JET is the only way to go. Yes, you will almost certainly get placed in a smaller community, but this can actually be a good thing! I was a star in my fishing village- people would stop me and ask for my autograph all the time! When I was visiting the major cities, nobody even spared a look at me.

Also keep in mind that JET does give you a pretty generous amount of vacation time, so you would be able to travel to the city as you need to. You could also do JET for one year, and spend that time looking for another job in the city of your choice.

If you're really worried about the rural factor, my advice would be to select a mid-sized town and list that as your first choice on your JET application. Everyone and their dog will be listing Tokyo, but how about living in Matsue in Shimane prefecture? It's a big enough town to have the stuff you're probably looking for, but you would have a much better chance of being placed there. It's also in a beautiful, historically significant part of the country. I also like Hofu in Yamaguchi prefecture, which is a little smaller, but still very nice.

Answer 10

I'd recommend you go to the site below and check out some of the articles and information about teaching in Japan. Read as much as you can before you sign a contract!

Answer 11

By far, the JET program is the best and most trustworthy. The others mentioned ALL have some major down sides, especially for women. And for the shady business associations for a couple of the companies you mentioned.

Message me for details.

So, in short, I highly recommend the JET program.

Good luck to you.