The Conversation Schools

The World Famous Ei-kai-Wa

    "YES!!! A No Show!" every eikaiwa teacher

Ei-kai-wa

*For posts similar to this, see Teaching Jobs in Japan

A no-show is when a student that has already paid for and scheduled a lesson mysteriously doesn't show up for it. It's the greatest chunk of unexpected free-time you'll ever have in Japan. After 15 minutes the lesson is cancelled and you are free to go smoke a few cigarettes and sneak a chu-hi.

For those of you that don't know, an Ei-kai-wa (lit. English Conversation) is the general term used for any of the millions of English conversation schools in Japan. If run correctly, they can be very effective. Unfortunately, most are not usually run very well, so everyone, including the owner, winds up hating it. Teachers are worked to the bone for low pay, so they don't try hard and don't give a rats ass most of the time.

Working at an English conversation school in Japan has its advantages and disadvantages for a teacher:

Advantages:

1. Steady work and steady pay (albeit low).
2. Students try hard, are appreciative and well-behaved.
3. Adequate air-conditioning and heat (this should not be taken lightly in Japan).
4. Occasional no-shows.
5. Some freedom in how you run a lesson.
6. Showing up hungover or still drunk is expected.
7. Extremely, and I do mean EXTREMELY difficult to get fired.
8. Can be fun, sometimes.
9. Guys get to wear a shirt and tie - gals can wear just about anything.

Disadvantages

1. Shit hours and shifts, late nights and weekends.
2. You have to smell bad breath.
3. You have to work with Pod People and Charisma Men.
4. Brutal daily lesson schedule (you are way too busy and have no prep time)
5. Lame lesson topics, grammar points and vocabulary lists that you must adhere to.
6. Terrible lesson materials such as texts and manuals.
7. Shitty daily wage for the amount of BS you have to put up with.
8. The Supervisor
9. Having to pretend that you love your job and living in Japan.
10. No raises, no national holidays off.
11. No bonus of any kind.
12. Unpaid training.

Yep, it's a job that most people, except the Pods wind up hating. It's not unlike any other job in that respect, I guess.

The big joke about the eikaiwa is that they present themselves to the Japanese public as having the best trained teachers and yadda, yadda, yadda. But, most people who go to Japan to teach English are just out of college and have absolutely zero experience in teaching. They also usually have absolutely no desire to teach. Anyway, here are a couple of pics that sum up the joke to me...............


Would you like to learn from a professional? Or maybe a Charisma Man?

Come and learn English from me! I'm cool! I'm Charisma Man!

Charisma Man

Do you have a question about Japan or a topic that you are interested in that you haven't found on this blog? If so, please tell me about it in a comment. I will get a post up about it as soon as possible. Thanks for reading!!