Hello all, I just wanted to put out my previous experience because there is not much information of previous employees of this school. I hope for future employees who google this company to at least have one perspective from inside the workplace.
I had worked there previously (will not say dates or how long to protect my identity) and wish to share my observations.
Discovery Language School is a very small school and all previous employees have left silently but have had similarly troubling experiences.
The work environment is highly toxic and emotionally manipulative. You will be overworked, stressed, and contacted in your time off. It is advertised very well and looks like a lot of fun but it is not true.
+The emotions of your supervisors will frequently be brought into the work place
+The lesson plans for the year are not set and disorganized among teachers
+Yelling and emotional outbursts are known to be frequent
+Threats have been known to be made against teachers: ie “your inability to teach properly will make us lose ALL our students” and such dramatic statements
Just to name a few instances of a poor work environment.
Please work somewhere else, this school will cause you extreme stress. This is on behalf of myself as a former employee and other former employees who I have spoken to.
7 comments
Sounds like ABC English
I don’t recommend there either
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Put your comments on Glassdoor, where it will reach far more people.
Thank you for sharing. I hope you are at a better company now.
Sounds like every other language school. Pretty much their business model.
Make sure you post it on Glassdoor as well
Is there any good English school experience in Japan? All I read are horror stories
[Here’s their current job listing](https://jobsinjapan.com/jobs/594716/full-time-english-teacher-for-children-at-discovery-exciting-environment-and-great-team/), I’ll go through some of the red flags using just my experience. Lost of places do similar things, so if you’re looking for a job then please consider this. Also, just because they have some of these things doesn’t mean they’re automatically bad, but it should raise some questions.
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>We’re looking for teachers who have great passion for working with children, team players
You can’t say no.
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>We expect the applicants to be truly devoted to our goals, sincere and flexible.
Be prepared to work overtime and to be asked to do tasks that weren’t described as part of your job in the contract. Both of these will often be given to you on short notice.
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>Curriculum and teaching materials are provided.
No professional autonomy. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re teaching some “system” like GrapeSEED or PLS in the kindergarten.
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>Discovery teachers are proud to see their contribution to the school’s growth through the completion of projects related to curriculum development, teacher training, and leadership.
They get to take any idea you have and call it theirs.
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>¥250000 ~¥280000 [per month]…
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>- 9.30AM to 6.30PM ( working hours with 1 hour for lunch break)
– 11.00AM to 8.00PM ( hours with 1 hour for lunch break)
40 hours a week making the same wage someone working 29.5 hours does.
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>Short after-class reports to be written for every class
They want you to self-police. It’s very unlikely that they will help any problems you bring up, but they’ll keep a record to use against you in the future.
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>Prepare and participate in seasonal events
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>Materials making & administrative duties
Again, unpaid overtime and tasks that aren’t in your job description.
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>(Note: You do not have to dress like this. Just wanted to have fun with the kids one day)
They didn’t care enough to check that the picture actually pasted properly into the job listing. I assume it’s the picture of the mermaid cosplay. “Look at how quirky we are haha”
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>Chiba prefecture is a beautiful and convenient prefecture to live in Japan, surrounded by beautiful beaches, luscious greenery, delicious food, and wonderful people, our school is only 20 minutes far from the center of Tokyo.
Tourist baiting.
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>Sponsored membership to ETJ
I don’t know what this means but [ETJ](https://ltprofessionals.com/) has some good resources so I guess we can end the post with something good.