Hello everyone!
I am 21(F) and have recently moved to Japan. I applied to an International preschool in Tokyo which had great reviews and seemed a great image online. I have recently graduated a top university but not an early education major. (for context, although I’ve volunteered in education)
I applied for an internship, and after a 30 min interview I got an offer for 18 hours a week. I asked if it was paid as I need to finance my stay here, and they said yes. I later found out it’s paid 50,000 a month…(no pay first two weeks and no transportation help). As I can’t survive on that, I asked if it’s possible to transition to a teaching position after two months (so they can monitor my professionalism at work). They said yes and we scheduled to meet today to go over details before I start.
When I got there today:
first the principal said the internship would be with 5 year olds and the only open teaching position is with two year olds and it’s quite a different curriculum. Which made me wonder why the internship would be relevant.
He also extended the two months by two weeks-mid Dec. but I realized that is right before vacation, so that would extend me starting as a teacher until Jan(he extended without telling me why, I had to ask)
He told me I could do a teachers assistant job and not part time teacher which he said before over email. This only requires HS degree. He said it pays 100 YEN AN HOUR. I thought I had to clean my ears out? He also would want me to work 8hours in teaching=800 yen a day.That’s less than my transportation cost!
I am so shocked by this! I of course didn’t go through with it. I was wondering if others have experience being offered such low pay, or if I was probably being taken advantage of (or they attempted to?)
Thanks for listening! Any comments are super interesting/helpful 🙂
3 comments
Assuming this is not a troll post, go directly to the labor board, do not pass go, do not collect your ï¿¥800 per day.
He must have misspoke, minimum wage is roughly anywhere between 790 and 1100 yen depending on where you live. Get the contract in writing so there’s no room for miscommunication. If he’s truly offering you 100 yen an hour and outs it down in writing, you can report him to the labor board while you look for a decent paying job elsewhere.
It’s very much illegal, but at the same time, I wouldn’t put it past certain employers.