r/ALTinginJapan

Just wondering how common this is.

Hello everyone, so this is my first time teaching jhs and I just want to know how I can improve or if I’m doing some wrong.

I’ve taught only es for a while and I always have a great time. The kids are enthusiastic and I like teaching the lessons. Simple and sometimes I can be creative. This year I was given jhs assignment and I’m having trouble connecting with the students. Particularly my 3rd years. My JTE is also giving minimal support in class. Usually just standing in the corner and watching. 

Recently we had a discussion class. I prepared questions I ran by the JTE. I wanted to make sure they weren’t too difficult for their English level. I prepared worksheets and ppt so we can discuss each question as a class and prepare for group discussions. 

Overall I got very low reactions or had some students refusing to speak. My JTE gave minimal support as per usual and since it’s my first time I wasn’t sure what to expect. 

I wish my company would give us proper trainings because I just get nasty looks from that particular JTE. In fact I don’t know what we usually do during trainings but I’ve learned more observing a veteran teacher than hearing some guy ramble about teamwork. 

I’ll be leaving soon for personal reasons but I want to know for future reference what I can do to get the attention of the older students. 

I work well with the other jhs English teachers. I’m also t1 with another English teacher but usually the lessons aren’t THAT painful to get through. I just don’t get along with the previously mentioned teacher. I do get along with the art club girls though and I hide in the art room and draw with them for art club after school. Super fun! But they tell me I haven’t been doing enough haha

I know a lot of y’all like teaching jhs but why?! 

To preface, this post was made to inform the public of the power harassment that so many others (besides myself) have experienced with the ALT staff and other members of the General Education Center / Board of Education.

A compilation of documents, images, recordings, and transcripts was shared to the appropriate organizations, and that compilation satisfies the following:

1. It was created for the interest of the public; to warn incoming JETs of the aforementioned points.
2. It was made solely for the benefit of the public.
3. The facts are proven to be true or at the time of publication had reasonable grounds to be believed to be true.

No violence/doxxing/malicious acts against anyone (GEC/BoE, ALTs, etc) are condoned. Once again, this post was made for your information.

At least two of the five supervisors known as the "ALT staff," as well as their own supervisor, engage in power harassment of varying severity over the years, affecting over 40 ALTs within Kyoto City.

• Disclaimer: the fifth most recently joined ALT staff member has nothing to do with this post.

Examples of such harassment, contributed by said ALTs (some of which have been extracted from previously circulated mass complaint forms and reworded to maintain anonymity ), include but are not limited to:

A) Inappropriate and Hostile Communication (Verbal and Electronic)

• Using unwarranted harsh language, threatening tones, and a raised voice when addressing ALTs, resulting in intimidation.
• Engaging in excessive yelling during confrontations with ALTs.
• Responding to perceived issues with immediate, abrasive, and accusatory reactions, causing distress to ALTs, without verifying facts, clarifying the situation, or obtaining evidence of wrongdoing.
• Frequently suggesting that ALTs are neglecting their work duties without providing proof.
• Verbally attacking ALTs for minor mistakes or inconsequential matters.

B) Provision of Unsolicited Advice and Comments

• Offering inappropriate comments regarding ALTs' physical and mental health.
• Giving typically unhelpful or harmful instruction to ALTs who are ill, despite having no medical license.

C) Disregard for and Lack of Empathy towards ALTs undergoing difficult situations.

• Making harsh comments and persistently harasses ALTs who are experiencing hardship or are taking time off work due to disability, ongoing sickness, or mental illness.
• Being the cause of ALTs going through hardship via severe power harassment.

D) Invasion of Privacy and Unprofessional Disclosure of Private Matters

• Discussing ALTs' private matters and issues with other ALTs in the workplace during work hours.
• Contacting ALTs’ doctors and inquiring about private information without the ALTs' permission.
• Disclosing negative information and grievances about other ALT staff members to ALTs while doing nothing to fix the issue.

E) Targeted and Discriminatory Treatment of ALTs

• Frequently sending condescending and hostile emails to ALTs with little reason.
• Exploiting ALTs' limited knowledge of certain policies and Japanese laws to unfairly impose punitive measures.
• Coercing ALTs into signing letters of resignation under threat that they cannot work unless they do so.
• Spreading damaging rumors about ALTs to others outside of the workplace, such as an exclusive party amongst favored ALTs.
• Intimidating ALTs into disassociating with certain ALTs under threat of having their work/social life hijacked.
• Enforcing unwritten policies subjectively to negatively impact specific individuals.
• Criticizing ALTs for utilizing their legally allowed paid leave.
• Discouraging and reprimanding ALTs for taking menstrual leave, despite the suggestion of punitive measures in response to its use, is illegal under Japanese law.
• Demanding ALTs use paid leave instead of menstrual leave, despite Japanese law prohibiting the restriction of an employee's right to take menstrual leave.
• Pre-emptively ruining the school workplace environment for ALTs by making damaging phone calls and emails to the school administration.

F) Manipulative Wording to third parties (ie attorneys, etc) when inquired about their Power Harassment.

• Downplaying their actions to avoid liability.
• Exaggerating or lying about ALTs' words and actions to shift the conversation away from their own behavior.
• Aiding in attempting to hide information from ALTs that is legally required to report.

Currently, the ALT community is fragmented by partial stories, fear-mongering, and isolation.

Most ALTs fear retaliation from higher-ups, therefore they rarely speak out against any unfair treatment they experience. Personally I want to say to those who have shared with me or others what they were going through, that you are brave. To the ones who are still struggling silently, there are always steps you can take as well as appropriate organizations that can make sure you are heard.

Edit: You are definitely free to interpret this post how you like. Please understand that the complaints and experiences were gathered from many ALTs rather than just myself. Also note that evidence cannot be freely handed out to the public (ie reddit) due to regulations surrounding that.

I removed a part that caused the tone of this post to sound more vindictive than informative, so my apologies on including that in the first place.

For many, this post is yet another example of what lots of ALTs have to go through. For those who had a great time with no issues, that's genuinely amazing and I hope that means your students got all what you could teach them.

i have just completed my undergrad from india. my uni partnered with heart at a job fair, and i am in the process of getting recruited. most of the paperwork is done but i am still anxious. any advice will be useful.

Anyone have a class debate where students choose a topic and spend the rest of the class discussing their options on said topic?

It's my first time in JHS, and I have some discussion topics in mind, but I'm not sure if they will get the students engaged..

Any ideas or topics that seemed to work well for yall?

Any help is appreciated

For example, I have a couple in mind.. Should school start later in the day? Should weekends be longer? Should students use tablets and ipads in school?

But I think maybe those might be a bit boring...

This is mostly a long rant.

I've been working with the same JTE at elementary school for five years now and I've been encountering a growing problem.

Aside from the fact that my JTE is in his late 60s (and all of the hearing and memory problems that accompany that) he seems to suffer from a sort of restlessness when it comes to doing things in a tried and trusted way. He is constantly tweaking things and thinking up useless additions to lesson content on the fly; bloating the lessons so we get nothing done.

Does anyone else experience this with their JTE?

This usually happens at the start of every school year and we're now at the point where we're not getting through any of the textbook content, activities or exercises.

We're spending 20 minutes on A3 'reflection sheets' that he's formatted to death so they're illegible and are impossible for the students to figure out how to write on. He's added lined paper on the back of them to practice their writing which takes far too long. We're at the point where he's getting them to write sentences that we haven’t studied because it’s taken priority and he knows how much time it will take. He's getting the kids to reflect on lessons where they haven't actually studied anything. He'll often START the lesson with the reflection sheet and justify it by saying "it takes time".

He's written up a 'rulebook' of how he wants the kids to behave and loves his creation so much that he'll spend 5-10 minutes having them read through it when one kid steps out of line.

And then, as many of you who use One World Smiles textbooks will be familiar with, there is the dreaded Jingle Corner. What is supposed to be a 1-2 minute exercise turns into 10-15 minutes of playing in full on the slowest setting (and pausing for repetition) both of the excruciatingly long songs (chants?) that the 5th and 6th grade textbooks contain towards the beginning. The entirety of both of the ‘songs’ is just a list of words from A-Z repeated over and over. That’s it. For some reason he thinks that spending all of that time repeating the same 52 words every lesson (70 lessons a year) will improve their English and I just don’t get it. I’ve tried telling him that we need to stop with this, no other ALT using these textbooks I know does it, it wastes time and the kids are so bored… but he just gave me a very roundabout "no".

In my lessons without him I'll completely bypass this section and just have the kids say the two words (for example "A, a-a-a, actor, ant"), then maybe have them think of any other words that begin with that week's letter and leave it at that.

All of these things that he's periodically decided to start adding to his lessons are causing us to get through absolutely 0 content. The kids are no longer experiencing any learning in the classroom during his lesson. I'm left on my own to blaze through what we've failed to cover at mach speed on the following day when he's at a different school. My solo lessons now invariably have 1.5 to 2 lessons worth of content (sloppily) crammed in.

The problem is that towards the end of the year we run out of time to cover all of the content so I'm given make-up lessons sometime to the tune of 2-3 per class in a week - disrupting my ad-hoc schedule with 1st, 2nd grade and special needs classes. Of course I don't mind extra classes here and there, but for such an avoidable reason that he's created himself feels like a kick in the teeth for me.

Of course, he doesn't see it like that and thinks he's kaizen-ing, whilst stressing out and not understanding that by constantly tweaking his own system he's making everything more time consuming and difficult.

For context my JTE spoke no English when he took on the role five years ago after working as a big-wig in various 課長 and 校長 positions in the town over his career. He has no English teaching qualifications either. He effectively asked for the job as a step down before retiring, was told "here you go" and now has got way too settled.

Just curious to know who leads your classes as it sometimes feels like the 'A' in ALT is underutilized.

Nothing against JTEs/HRTs and nothing against those who prefer leading, I simply want to know what the reality is for most ALTs.

View Poll

Hi guys!

What's the best way to transfer money from your Japanese account into your home bank? I pay for everything (except my bills) with my credit card to earn points, but so far I've just been using my savings to pay my card off every month lol.

I've heard mixed things about what works best, so just wondering what has been working well for you all?

About to start work as an ALT, however we have to bring our own lunch and aren’t allowed to use the staff kitchen amenities. Does anyone know any good lunch ideas that can be safely left out for a few hours? Other than maybe peanut butter sandwiches? (that’s all I’ve got at the moment lol) Any recs for good lunch boxes also appreciated! :)

Hi! I have my phone interview with Interac soon.

When it comes to housing, you find your own place, correct? I won’t mention it in my interview, but I really want to bring my cat with me if I get the job. Essentially, it would be up to me to find a pet-friendly place and navigate the import laws, right? Anyone else an ALT who brought a pet?

Thanks!

Hello all,

I've been an Eikaiwa teacher for a year and a half now, and my current contract ends at the end of July, so I'm looking for my next job.

I've heard mixed things about being an Alt and was wondering if it's better or worse than Eikaiwa work?

My current job pays 26万円 a month, the hours are 12:30-9:30pm Tuesday - Fri and 9:30am-6:30pm on Saturdays.

While the pay is decent, the hours are quite antisocial so I've had trouble making close friends and the work can be stressful when you're alone with 6+ tired kids at 8pm who all want to be anywhere else but an Eikaiwa.

I do enjoy teaching English and getting to know the students, so I think I'd enjoy being an Alt.

What are your thoughts?

If it's a good change how do I go about finding good Alt jobs? What companies should I avoid?

How do you guys do it? Estimation of monthly spending? I am curious what program you guys are with

So I’m currently dispatch at 4 schools 2nd year in the game. If you want to go for a direct hire role, would that be expected to be in all the schools or just one? Ta

*edit: they all in the same area very close to each other

Hi! Question for people who applied/got the job as an ALT, are headshots required for CV’s? I’m getting different answers from different sources, but since I would be applying for a Japanese company, I was wondering CV requirements.