how has teaching with a private company been for your mental health?

11 comments

1. Japan won’t fix your mental health problems, it will shine a spotlight on them. What company you decide to use to get here will have no effect on that.

2. Could go in a few different ways. For me moving here helped to get away from easy access to certain nightlife and other things back home that weren’t good for me. But it wasn’t a silver bullet, had some big problems in the first few years.

   A lot of people I know worked at such companies, and they seem to miss those days in a way. But most say that after a while it gets to be a drag.

   For me, the work wasn’t great, but I’ve worked in all kinds of shit jobs before and I can cope with that for a while. Plus, I enjoyed meeting all kinds of Japanese people and kind of enjoyed the chaos for a while. Eventually it gets old though.

   Just be aware that the economic conditions and all of that tha seem to be going to hell back home, there are definte signs of that here, and the general vibe isn’t too good at the moment. The whole industry looks like it’s on yet another downslide.

   So I wouldn’t expect it to be an easy escape.

3. It depends upon your needs.

   Hi, I’ve been a direct hire city eigo no sensei for 5 years. I’ll probably do it forever.

   Why? I had a rough time in America and no support. I was able to turn that all around by moving here. I’m married, no debt. No kids. Wife works too.

   JET has the worst workload for the pay, but much like college you have built in networking. It’s also probably the only way you garunteed friendships as it’s mostly college kids.

   Dispatch has the worst pay, but the lightest workload. Show up. Do the job. Go home.

   Direct Hire is without dispute, the best of the eigo no sensei gigs. Best pay, most flexible time off, etc. etc.

   Most people go direct hire, by working a dispatch contract first, so they can get over here and look to jump ship.

   My wife had just finished her art degree and the school admin screwed up her JET paperwork. For that reason, she went dispatch. The only thing that sucked about working for the dispatch was the pay. The placement was fine, the support was there, everyone was professional, etc. etc. That company lost the contract to the city and since we liked the city, we stayed and are both direct hires for them now. I feel a great sense of fulfilment doing what I do, and living where I live. It is a modest life I am in control of, where I have more money than I need.

   It’s less about how much you make, and more about if the portions you have are enough to go where you need them to go.

   – I am diagnosed with depression.
   – I had PTSD from very real domestic abuse when I dated someone as a musician. I think it’s safe to say I came out of that a couple years ago.

   I have no idea what you need for your mental health. I’m not you.

   I’m also not here to win. Only to help you with info because that’s what you asked me for. I wish you luck in making the best decision for yourself, just like I’d wish that of anyone.

   I keep adding to this because I never really put everything together. I’m a spur of the moment type of guy, sorry for that.

   The people who have the biggest hangup with English teaching, are gaijin. They’re hella caught up in other people’s perception of them and usually they won’t just cop to it.

   The people who think English teaching is a shit job, clearly never did slaughterhouse labor. Food service. Hell, retail. It’s the furthest thing from a shit job. 100% not great pay, but it’s not work so much as time.

4. Teaching in Japan at a private company especially the big chains like Nova will drive you mad. They will labor you into the grave and pay you dogshit wage every month. They will do everything in their power to maximize profits at your expense. This will eat away at you overtime until there is nothing left.

   In the last 10 years wages across all teaching have gone down (this includes real teachers as well). You cannot expect anything to change but only get worse.

5. Teaching drives you crazy without being in a shitty company like Nova or Interac.

6. Some people find teaching to be easy and take right to it; other people find it draining and very difficult.

   Some people fit right in and love Japan; others find it too stifling and hate it.

   Every school has different managers, and each school has it’s own challenges.

   Since you have no idea how you will react to the culture, what the manager of your school will be like, or whether you will love or hate teaching, it’s really impossible to give you any clear advice here.

   But I will say this: if you are the type who cannot handle stress, and if your mental health will be at risk if you encounter a lot of stress, you should probably not come to Japan.

   If I were you, I’d take a nice, long vacation to check it out first, then decide if I wanted to come back here to live.

7. It depends. Most of the companies I have worked, my mental health was fine. One company I worked for it wasn’t good because I couldn’t get along with my co-workers and/or co-teacher. I haven’t worked in dispatch or eikaiwa so I can’t speak from experience. I heard the pay is almost minimum wage at some of these dispatch companies, which can affect your mental health. Some eikaiwa schools, you are more of a sales person, trying to meet quotas than an actual teacher, so that can affect your mental health. Every situation is different for every person, job, company, branch school, etc.

8. I can only speak about AEON – very long working hours, and very sales oriented. you’ll be selling as much as you’re teaching.

   And whatever you do – do NOT list mental health struggles on an application. If you run into mental health problems *say that they developed after you got there*.

   Also consider the company Westgate.

   Edit to add: honestly? Japan will more than likely make your mental health much worse.

9. To be honest, working in Japan made my mental health worse. It really depends who you end up working with. My 2nd job made me recover a lot better, but my 1st job made me cry all the time. I lost a lot of weight and missed months of my menstrual cycle due to the stress.

   My 1st boss really valued me as an employee, but she put such high expectations on me that it cracked me and if I ever failed her, she tore me to shreds. She told me she didn’t bother scolding my other coworkers because she just gave up since they never took their jobs seriously, whereas only I did, because I didn’t want to get fired and have a questionable point on my resume.

   I got great reviews from her and was offered renewals every year, but it was because I had no choice but to walk on eggshells around her and never talked back. I basically had no freedom to express my opinions and had to act like a sidekick to survive. I stayed in Japan only because of my now Japanese husband. If it weren’t for love and his support, I would’ve left Japan a long time ago.

   I’m at a much better office now, and my coworkers and new manager are great. But honestly, no matter how clean Japan is or how great the public transportation is, your mental health problems aren’t going to ease up that easily if you do not surround yourself with a good working environment. You’d come to Japan to work, not to go on a vacation. Therefore, you are expected to spend the majority of your time in Japan at work.

   There are good companies with bad branches but bad companies with possibly amazing coworkers. It’s a gamble you’re going to have to take. If you want to increase your chances of working at a more secure place where you can be taken more seriously as opposed to a disposable employee whose native language happens to be English, you should at least get a TEFL certificate. Just because we can speak English doesn’t mean we can teach it.

   Don’t take voicing opinions and being more individualistic in the States for granted. Japan is a wonderful country to visit, but working in it is an entirely different thing. Mental health issues are not as often addressed in Japanese society either, and future Japanese co-workers may not understand why you feel depressed or have anxiety, and may just resent you for it. I’ve seen this happen personally.

10. I love teaching, and my university job is great.
    On the other hand, NOVA is an incredibly awful company, with no organisation or communication and it seems like basically everyone (Japanese and foreigner) is depressed or anxious because of the shitty company and their terrible practices.

11. Moving to Japan will not fix your mental health. If anything, being alone in a foreign country will make it worse.

    Teaching will not fix your mental health. If anything, being responsible for children’s upbringing will stress you out and make it worse.

    I don’t care if that’s “not what you’re asking”, it’s what you apparently need to hear, and trying to say you don’t want to hear it is just making me think you need to hear it more.