Any thoughts on these companies? I just did interviews for each company. Don’t know if I”ll get accepted to either of them, but I was wondering what would be the better choice.
Yaruki Switch is a buisness group. That has several teaching groups underneath it. Do you mean kids duo ? Kids duo international ? Winbe?
If it’s Kids Duo, it’s better than MOST teaching jobs. At least you get a bonus if you sign up for another year and pays slightly higher.
If for Yaruki Switch you are talking about Kids Duo, I could honestly say that the yearly bonus and the salary being a bit higher than other teaching jobs is pretty good. But in my own experience I also made many overtime work (of course paid but still) and it was pretty stressful (at least that’s how it was in the Kids Duo school I was in) But I never had any big trouble with any of my coworkers nor HR departments. They called me a few times to ask if I was adapting fine and also to ask me if I had any trouble at work.
As usually said there’s good and bad. I only gave you my experience which of course could be different from other teachers in Yaruki Switch/Kids Duo.
Kids duo can be franchised so if that’s what they offer be careful. I’ve had a horror story and heard plenty others from my friends.
I worked for KDI, one of the Yaruki Switch brands. My personal experience wasn’t great. The British teacher who trained me, told me after one week of training that I wasn’t meant to be a teacher because I frown when I am learning a new skill. I thought I would get sacked, but it turns out they say it to every member of staff after their first week of teaching in that particular centre. I imagine that it was some kind of test to see how determined I am? Unsure.
Either way, this was an indicator of a general lack of support for teachers. Management had different ideas of what to do, and when they clashed, just put all the blame on the lowly members of staff who was just following information they were given. I also noticed a lean towards punishing any member of staff who questioned policy or asked for a change. a bunch of us asked for Xmas day off and offered a solution, we’re told that they would implement the solution, next year and that we (the people who questioned the policy) would not be able to take Xmas off.
There was a culture of promoting friends or arse-lickers in general. If you want to get ahead in KDI, become friends with management and suck up to them any way you can. One member of staff did this and managed to get promoted quite a few times despite having two sexual harassment complaints against them.
I loved the job itself. My class were great, the facilities were fine, the events were awesome and most of the staff were friendly and helpful. I made some lifelong friends working there. For the most part, there is a lot of flexibility in lesson planning, you have weekly grade meetings to share ideas etc. it’s just management don’t seem to understand the concept of empathy or morals. I would have loved to stay working there if it wasn’t for them.
I’ve been working for KidsDuo for 3 years, I can answer your questions if you want.
To those that are saying it’s not “real teaching”, I say it depends on whether you are able to be a real teacher or not. You can bring your own skills and your own way to do things to the school, as long as it fits the company’s image (e.g. fun, no Japanese etc)
I worked for Kids Duo for a year and have to agree with some of the people here. The kids/classes were fine, but management was a pain to deal with over the finest of things. And if something happened out of your control, you were blamed. I had a fairly good manager at first, but they left and suddenly I was being called in to work on my off days and nothing I said was even being heard. Went to the higher ups and they basically told me to push through it because they didn’t have anyone to fill my spot. I told them I was looking for a new job and when I got one, I gave them a few months notice and they didn’t believe me. Even after I left them, they were still calling me and asking me how I did things or what to do in situations. I cut them off.
Now, after that lengthy bit of backstory (sorry), I had a friend who worked with Kids Duo for three years and enjoyed it. I think it depends on the school and like others are saying here, if it’s franchised or direct.
Best of luck to you with whatever you choose/get.
After working with a subsidiary of Yaruki Switch for about a year or two, I can definitely agree with what a lot of people have written here.
The kids were crazy but manageable.
The business felt cult-ish, where you’d have big gatherings of all the teachers, but they’d shout out teachers who made the quota that their manager bet on (my manager kept forgetting to bet even though our school double 200% in size).
Honestly, I don’t really feel like you can be a real teacher though. There isn’t a lot of freedom when it comes to the teaching material. They do mention that you can choose how you teach it, but mostly follow along with the training.
I was also instructed to try to keep kids in the system, even if they don’t have to be in the system. Some kids were well over the level that they were put into, but they force them to stay in there because of age, and you’ll have classes with kids speaking fluent English and others where they can’t even say the word “car”.
​
My personal manager was a nightmare, she tried to continuously watch my classes and wouldn’t listen to a word I said.
That is why you will see a few lifer’s in the business, but otherwise mostly people leave after a year for good reason, and it is mostly to move onto better opportunities.
Every English teaching gig is the same. High expectations, long hours, poverty-level wages and masses of power harassment. These companies continue to exist and take advantage of foreigners because people keep joining them and tricking themselves into thinking it’s a real job. The only thing English teaching is good for is seeing Japan for a few months then going home. Japan has sooo many English teaching “schools” etc and even compulsory English classes from elementary to high school. Yet, Japan has one of the worst English literacies in the world. Do yourself and others a favor, don’t choose either.
Down vote all you like. Search your feelings, you know it to be true 🙂
About a month before the start of COVID I was planning on getting out of the military so I applied at Yaruki Switch and they sent me an email asking to schedule an interview, but I never got anything after that once I gave them my availability.
On the other hand, I had a Japanese friend who worked for KidsUp and she seemed to have a good experience.
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Yaruki Switch is a buisness group. That has several teaching groups underneath it. Do you mean kids duo ? Kids duo international ? Winbe?
If it’s Kids Duo, it’s better than MOST teaching jobs. At least you get a bonus if you sign up for another year and pays slightly higher.
If for Yaruki Switch you are talking about Kids Duo, I could honestly say that the yearly bonus and the salary being a bit higher than other teaching jobs is pretty good. But in my own experience I also made many overtime work (of course paid but still) and it was pretty stressful (at least that’s how it was in the Kids Duo school I was in)
But I never had any big trouble with any of my coworkers nor HR departments. They called me a few times to ask if I was adapting fine and also to ask me if I had any trouble at work.
As usually said there’s good and bad. I only gave you my experience which of course could be different from other teachers in Yaruki Switch/Kids Duo.
Kids duo can be franchised so if that’s what they offer be careful. I’ve had a horror story and heard plenty others from my friends.
I worked for KDI, one of the Yaruki Switch brands. My personal experience wasn’t great. The British teacher who trained me, told me after one week of training that I wasn’t meant to be a teacher because I frown when I am learning a new skill. I thought I would get sacked, but it turns out they say it to every member of staff after their first week of teaching in that particular centre. I imagine that it was some kind of test to see how determined I am? Unsure.
Either way, this was an indicator of a general lack of support for teachers. Management had different ideas of what to do, and when they clashed, just put all the blame on the lowly members of staff who was just following information they were given. I also noticed a lean towards punishing any member of staff who questioned policy or asked for a change. a bunch of us asked for Xmas day off and offered a solution, we’re told that they would implement the solution, next year and that we (the people who questioned the policy) would not be able to take Xmas off.
There was a culture of promoting friends or arse-lickers in general. If you want to get ahead in KDI, become friends with management and suck up to them any way you can. One member of staff did this and managed to get promoted quite a few times despite having two sexual harassment complaints against them.
I loved the job itself. My class were great, the facilities were fine, the events were awesome and most of the staff were friendly and helpful. I made some lifelong friends working there. For the most part, there is a lot of flexibility in lesson planning, you have weekly grade meetings to share ideas etc. it’s just management don’t seem to understand the concept of empathy or morals. I would have loved to stay working there if it wasn’t for them.
I’ve been working for KidsDuo for 3 years, I can answer your questions if you want.
To those that are saying it’s not “real teaching”, I say it depends on whether you are able to be a real teacher or not. You can bring your own skills and your own way to do things to the school, as long as it fits the company’s image (e.g. fun, no Japanese etc)
I worked for Kids Duo for a year and have to agree with some of the people here. The kids/classes were fine, but management was a pain to deal with over the finest of things. And if something happened out of your control, you were blamed. I had a fairly good manager at first, but they left and suddenly I was being called in to work on my off days and nothing I said was even being heard. Went to the higher ups and they basically told me to push through it because they didn’t have anyone to fill my spot. I told them I was looking for a new job and when I got one, I gave them a few months notice and they didn’t believe me. Even after I left them, they were still calling me and asking me how I did things or what to do in situations. I cut them off.
Now, after that lengthy bit of backstory (sorry), I had a friend who worked with Kids Duo for three years and enjoyed it. I think it depends on the school and like others are saying here, if it’s franchised or direct.
Best of luck to you with whatever you choose/get.
After working with a subsidiary of Yaruki Switch for about a year or two, I can definitely agree with what a lot of people have written here.
The kids were crazy but manageable.
The business felt cult-ish, where you’d have big gatherings of all the teachers, but they’d shout out teachers who made the quota that their manager bet on (my manager kept forgetting to bet even though our school double 200% in size).
Honestly, I don’t really feel like you can be a real teacher though. There isn’t a lot of freedom when it comes to the teaching material. They do mention that you can choose how you teach it, but mostly follow along with the training.
I was also instructed to try to keep kids in the system, even if they don’t have to be in the system.
Some kids were well over the level that they were put into, but they force them to stay in there because of age, and you’ll have classes with kids speaking fluent English and others where they can’t even say the word “car”.
​
My personal manager was a nightmare, she tried to continuously watch my classes and wouldn’t listen to a word I said.
That is why you will see a few lifer’s in the business, but otherwise mostly people leave after a year for good reason, and it is mostly to move onto better opportunities.
Every English teaching gig is the same.
High expectations, long hours, poverty-level wages and masses of power harassment. These companies continue to exist and take advantage of foreigners because people keep joining them and tricking themselves into thinking it’s a real job.
The only thing English teaching is good for is seeing Japan for a few months then going home.
Japan has sooo many English teaching “schools” etc and even compulsory English classes from elementary to high school. Yet, Japan has one of the worst English literacies in the world.
Do yourself and others a favor, don’t choose either.
Down vote all you like. Search your feelings, you know it to be true 🙂
About a month before the start of COVID I was planning on getting out of the military so I applied at Yaruki Switch and they sent me an email asking to schedule an interview, but I never got anything after that once I gave them my availability.
On the other hand, I had a Japanese friend who worked for KidsUp and she seemed to have a good experience.