Hello everyone! So I am about halfway through my ALT teaching experience here in Japan and as of now, I can’t wait to do it again next year.
However, I would really like to do another year with the same school. I enjoy the teachers, the students, everything, and I think they enjoy me too. But it’s so hard to tell due to Japan’s indirect culture whether or not they’ll keep me around.
Are there any subtleties I should look out for in my school environment that tells me that I will get contracted or not?
Here’s some background about me to get an understanding:
This is my first year teaching, I am American and young (20s), I do an okay job at teaching and lesson planning (sometimes I don’t prepare enough and I mess up the lesson) but I stay Genki and positive through it all so I hope that makes up for it. I have good relationships with teachers but because I’m not good at Japanese I can’t develop more deeper relationships, but we get along none the less.
Please help me!!
12 comments
Good luck to you. Rather than looking for subtleties, you might want to find out who the person is that is in direct contact with the BOE of your city and try to let them know that you really want to keep on there. Not sure if it’s true or not, but I hear they are the ones that give a push or shove in either direction of the decision.
This is many years ago now, but I’ve told customers/students “If you are happy with my work/classes, and want to be in my class again, please let my boss know.” I was fortunate enough to have a couple of students specifically ask for me again.
It depends if your dispatch company still has the contract or they lose it. Everything else doesn’t matter if the BOE awards the contract to another dispatch company. If they still have the contract, it’s highly likely that you stay in the same school since they want to keep continuity. They only switch you out if you’ve done something to piss off the school.
It’s not really Japanese culture obscuring information or signals about whether or not you’ll stay on, it’s more so the fact that you’re assistant contracting staff placed in a support position, and the people that actually decide on your contract may not have any direct contact with you at all. Usually ALT classes and positions are low risk, non-core, and technically part-time. It could just as easily be that the school just thinks your contract is too expensive, or some teacher closer to admin has a friend that wants the position, that ends up ending your contract.
You should generally treat those positions at temporary and low investment, because that’s how most schools and admin look at them. It doesn’t really have to do with your metrics as a teacher, because nobody is even assessing those, or your relationships with teachers you work with, because they’re not usually the ones making decisions anyway.
TLDR: If you want something, just ask for it directly. You just need to figure out *who* you have to ask; but also keep in mind various “restrictions” that could get in the way.
Long version:
It depends largely on *how* you’re currently contracted to work at your school.
If you’re a direct hire, probably just speak to your principal directly.
If you are with a dispatch company, the client is the BOE, but your company would be liaising with each school directly. Figure out who is the contact person in your school with your company – it could be the vice principal, or the English tanto, or anyone else – and either speak with them directly expressing your wish to come back the next year, and/or speak to each of the teachers you work directly with, to put in a good word for you and to request for you to return the next year. At the same time, speak to your direct manager expressing the same interest. Basically, if the client requests for you to return, and you are fine with it too, your company will probably accommodate them. The fewer pieces they have to shuffle around each year, the easier it is for them.
That said, you should also keep close tabs on when the BOE contract with your company is due for tender again. If your company loses the contract for the next school year, you’ll either be out of a job, or shuffled to another BOE. Last year, some of the tender results were available as early as Oct/Nov, but the losing company did not tell their ALTs until a month before the end of their contract (late Feb) that they had no jobs for them the next school year.
As it’s only your first year, you will also want to find out more about any “restrictions” on your contract. For most hakken contracts between dispatch and BOE/schools, there is a 3 year “restriction”. Your dispatch company will shuffle you out to another school, because if they do not, there are some legal requirements for your school to direct hire you, and they usually actively keep track so that never happens. If you’re a direct hire on a fixed term contract, there is usually a five year “rule”, where after that, they must give you a “permanent” contract, which again they will avoid doing by not renewing it once they reach the stipulated time.
You’re dispatch?
Your longevity may be determined by whether the dispatch company won the bid for the coming year.
u/slowmail provided valuable info about that in this thread –
https://old.reddit.com/r/teachinginjapan/comments/ye8rh9/how_to_see_which_locations_are_contracted_to/
Next, “My dispatch company assigned me to a different school, why?”
Countless ALTs post on reddit asking why they won’t be returning to the same school. The answer is the dispatch doesn’t care. One comment, not even a complaint, from the school and you get reassigned. The BOE is the customer and you are the product. If they dislike the product’s performance, they ask for a replacement. Nobody is going to say anything to you.
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No dispatch will keep you in the same location for more than three years because the client would be required to hire or release you. The BOEs pay the dispatch companies to handle those things so they will likely move you at the end of year two even if the client likes you.
That’s the neat part.
You won’t.
If you want stability as an ALT, you’ll have to go direct-hire or private.
It depends on whether your company gets the contract for that district next year. I have friends who have hopped between two dispatch companies to keep a position at a particular school. It relies on a good relationship with both ALT companies and the school itself though.
It doesnt hurt to ask your employer about it
Unfortunately, whether you get to work at the same school again isn’t up to the school principal or teachers. When I worked for Interac, ALTs at most could only stay at a school for 2 years. It is up to the local BOE in the region. They could have just hired 1 or a few ALTs for all its schools and end up having to rotate them once in a while so that every school gets an ALT experience every some years. This also isn’t limited to ALTs. Like if one school had an extra science teacher, while another one was short of one, teachers can get rotated in that scenario. Usually public school teachers have to be ready to be transferred to any school within the prefecture on a whim.
Unless you were directly hired by that specific school, you don’t. The dispatch company could move you, or your BOE could move you if you are a JET or direct hire. You may not ever even make any contact with the people who are in charge of that decision. I sympathize with your feelings though.
Not sure if you’re a direct hire or through a company like JET, Interac etc since you didn’t say but before I became a direct hire when I was with Interac for 5 years( I left last March) the company would just send out surveys asking us if we planned on staying another year, if we wanted to stay where we are or be relocated etc. After 3 years my schools got switched around to other schools in that town just because of Japanese laws that many Japanese people themselves aren’t immune to. You can literally leave one school go to another and end up seeing someone you were just working with the previous year because they got moved as well. I was still in the same town/ with the same BOE I had been working with BUT some ALTS can get moved if a place for example desperately needs one.
It’s your first year and I don’t think they expect you to be an expert teacher or for you to be fluent in Japanese. Usually schools get this kind of information in advance. Unless you’re constantly being told you need to improve your Japanese or your co workers seem frustrated when talking to you don’t let your lack of Japanese discourage you. What matters is that you’re making efforts to communicate with everyone and be a part of the school. You could also mention to your co workers if you’re team teaching what you felt went wrong with the lesson and ask for some input. That shows you’re willing to learn as well.
In regards to moving I always knew before my schools whether or not I was staying because the person in charge of the ALTS at my BOE would flat out just tell us and would give us a mock schedule of who was going where the following year so don’t think they have all the answers. Hell I was the one who told my schools I was leaving when they would say how much they look forward to working with me next year. Usually the Japanese teachers themselves don’t know if they’re staying or going until closer to the end of the school year when the principal starts pulling them into the office and tells them.
Lastly as some of the other comments say it also depends on if your company (if you’re with one) manages to keep their contract with that BOE or if the BOE decides to go another route.