Aeon , is it worth it ?

11 comments

1. If you’re already in Japan then no. Aeon is an easy visa. Once you get to Japan, quit and find a better job.

2. I’m not too sure about the salary because they were changing it as I was leaving because they were acquired by some other big company but personally I loved my 4 years at Aeon.

   But from all the other teachers I met through my time working there it depends completely on your managers, assistant managers, and head teacher.

   My manager was on point which is why she was promoted to area chief or something. If there was ever a problem she was on it. My head teacher was also funny and supportive so I had a bunch of support from him. My coworkers were whatever. Luckily since you are teaching your own lessons even if you have so so coworkers you still have the ability to have a wonderful lessons.

   Now the lesson themselves are repetitive. One any day I could do the same exact lesson up to 5 times or even more if my private lessons lined up with the group lessons. That being said, I looked at it as a challenge. I made it a daily goal improve my teaching skills so for me it wasn’t really boring. Because of this my coworkers and supervisors trusted me so anytime there was a lesson outside of the norm such as TOIEC, TOEFL, EIKEN, or free convo I got to teach them. I even ended up making my own speech course that became part of the curriculum. So in that sense the repetitiveness of the other lessons served toward my improvement and gave my the confidence I needed to grow. Of course though there were some negatives.

   Because when it came down to it profit mattered, we did have to hand out tissues at universities, high schools, etc. Also we had yearly campaigns where we had to “recommend” extra courses to students. I sucked at these because I hate sales. The days were long. On any Saturday we had full schedules of 8 classes with 10 minutes in between to rest but most of the time there was always something to do so really we were just rushing all night. Plus, if there was a party of some kind that added an extra 3 hours to the day. It was tough but it made time fly. Sure, we had to be “Genki” all the time but really instead of being “Genki” I just looked at it as being positive and conveying a good attitude so as to help the students, my coworkers, and my self get through the day since we were all in the same boat.

   Now this was my experience. When I spoke to teachers working at other nearby schools I heard their experience was hell because of the terrible managers. Things like forcing extra lessons on them with no time to prep, forcing them to “recommend” things students didn’t need, forcing the teachers to integrate students that had no place in higher level courses which ruined the class flows. Things like this.

   Finally, luckily our school was mainly adults. Our youngest students were middle school but no elementary or babies. This saved me because I’m not a big fan of teaching kids.

   Anyway that’s my experience. Hope it helped a bit

3. I think you also got health insurance and pension.

   I think they also offered remote work at some point, not sure if that is still a thing.

   It depends of what you have and what you can get, also I guess.

4. Worth what; your sanity?

5. As with any eikaiwa, YMMV.

   ​

   I had a great time at AEON (worked there for 2 1/2 years). I worked at two different schools, the first being not well run, but my manager liked me because I had learned how to work in a Japanese system and was a generally good teacher. There was drama between other staff but I kept my head down. Second school was much better run and honestly had a great atmosphere. My manager and co-teachers were helpful and supportive, the students were engaged and hard-working, an all around great experience. I never handed out tissues at the second school since my manager saw that as nothing but a waste of money. She’d rather we prep for lessons or teach (I did at my first school though). My manager also supported my Japanese study. On the occasions we worked Sunday opens together, we’d bring snacks and she’d love to look over my textbook and quiz me. I honestly miss working with the people there.

   Then again, I had friends with absolute demons for managers, so YMMV. Some even got transferred to different schools and flourished there, so I know it was the managers, not them.

   For hours, it’s 12-9pm, 5 days a week. That worked for me because I’m a night person. I came in 15 minutes early to prep and clean. That’s actually why you have the “overtime pay”. When AU purchased AEON back in 2017/2018, they realized AEON was super in violation of overtime laws and didn’t meet AU standards. I ended up getting a 300,000 yen bonus when I left because of the minutes they counted up. Your overtime pay is meant to cover the cleaning time, though I haven’t worked there in a few years so I don’t know how they’re using it now.

   Other places might have fewer hours, but you have to be careful. They may try to get out of covering your insurance (which will double or triple how much YOU have to pay, btw). They also might schedule you throughout an 8-9 hour block, but you’re “free” for an hour in-between where you can’t do anything because the time is so short. Just some things to be wary of.

   Whether or not you enjoy the eikaiwa boils down to two things: The coworkers (you can’t control) and the attitude you bring. I was interested in the language teaching field and I received great advice. Take 1-2 years in an Eikaiwa to figure out if you can hack it in Japan. Can you deal with Japanese office politics? Do you know what kind of teacher you want to be? What’s your favorite age group to teach? When I viewed Eikaiwa as a testing ground for me, it was much easier to brush off the trials of english teaching here.

6. It never is. Seriously, none of them ever are.

7. In order to have an idea of what your net salary will, deduct 20%. So based on what you say, you will pocket about 220.000¥.

8. Hi,

   A couple of people have chimed in already with detailed experiences of work at Aeon, so I’ll just respond to the salary question. Yes, you’ll be paid 275000 regardless of if you work overtime or not. Overtime is not obligatory, but there is certainly pressure to work it, regularly. It’s likely you’ll also receive significant bonuses on top of that when you meet a certain number of lessons/sell a certain amount of stuff.

   Wether this is all worth it or not has been discussed elsewhere, and largely depends on your own experience. If you take the job, best of luck!

9. Okay, my dude,

   I literally just finished working there last week.
   It really depends on the location and how familiar with Japanese and Japan you are. It’s overall a good stepping stone but it is by no means a job worth keeping excessively. I was there close to 3years and to be honest overall it’s not terrible but also the system is not unified or uniform across each school. Most of the foreign teachers will be given much more work than the Japanese teachers. They are also required to teach a wider range of language levels which. Yes you will be required to do overtime but sometimes when you have a lot of grading and paperwork even that won’t be enough. It is better than many eikaiwas though. If you have more questions just dm me. I’d b happy to share more of what to expect.

   Good luck!

10. Just to add my 2 cents, a bit late in the game. I worked there for two years and basically liked it. This was a long time ago (2001-2003) so my info is probably way outdated by now but I like typing so I’m going to write about it anyway.

    I never had to do any real sales work. This was a huge contrast with GEOS, where I had spent a year working prior to being hired at AEON. At that place there was a ton of pressure to do sales work, so working at AEON was a refreshing change in that regard.

    I never had to hand out tissue or anything like that either. Mainly the job was just teaching and helping out around the office with miscellaneous stuff as needed, nothing particularly hard or anything.

    That salary sounds about right. I got a raise in my second year so I think I was making around 280 or 290 thousand a month when I left (funny how Japan’s deflation works, I was making that 20 years ago and its basically the same now).

    If you are young and not married, then its a good place to work for a year or two, maybe 3. No more than that though. There is no room for advancement, you have to live in one of those crummy Leo Palaces, and the 12to 9 schedule makes family life impossible if you want to have kids or anything. But its a great place to bide your time before getting on with all of that.

11. Did you ever end up taking a job at Aeon?

    I worked at an Aeon near Yokohama a few years ago. My experience was good. I was lucky and got great coworkers and a nice manager. It all boils down to your coworkers really. As for the work, yeah it’s long. I mean the job itself is easy, but interacting with people/students can be hard at times. Stressful with the little ones when they aren’t cooperating. Did I mention the long hours? But overall, I had many good memories with my students and coworkers. They were kind and even gave me a goodbye gift.

    I’m surprised I lived through all that as I’m a very shy person but decided to challenge myself and put myself in this scary position of working with people. It really helped me grow as a person. And I would do it again if I were to relive my life. It was a way for me to get to Japan. And boy do I miss Japan. Alas, it was too much for a shy person like me so I didn’t continue to stay. I wish there was a way for me to stay in Japan without needing to work with people.

    To answer the question, it was worth it for me!