Hello everyone! I’ve been a long time lurker here 🥲 this is my first post and I’m hoping to get some helpful input from you guys.
I am currently a dispatch ALT and I am done with it 😂. I had an interview yesterday for a direct hire position (Tokyo BOE, part-time) and I think it went well. Any of you work for Tokyo BOE currently? I’d like to know the usual working hours weekly or monthly. I was told that it’ll depend on the schools I will teach.
I have an offer as a Kindergarten teacher for a small international school, also in Tokyo. However, the offer is a bit low, it’s 270,000 yen/ monthly but with 6 weeks paid vacation. For this position I work from 8:30-16:30 and I am expected to do everything e.g. lesson planning, PTA, hosting school events, sending newsletters, etc.
My problem is, do you think the Tokyo direct-hire position is better? Everything is up in the air right now, from the number of working hours, days, and schools to teach. I was also told that assignments can start after the golden week or as late as November 😂. The per koma compensation is kinda high at 5,500 yen.
Please help! I am confused which to choose. Tokyo BOE pays high but a bit unstable for now in terms of the number of working hours. The Kinder teacher position on the other hand I think is stable but the salary is kinda low for the job responsibilities. I really don’t know which to choose. Any advice is appreciated 🙂
Thank you!!
7 comments
They both seem kind of meh.
The Tokyo direct-hire would be desirable if it were full-time… or you knew how many hours you’d get… or you knew **when it even started**.
The kindergarten position would be worth it if you were being paid appropriately, but that’s not happening. This means it’s probably not a real international kindergarten.
Keep on hunting.
That’s almost certainly not an actual international kindergarten, and you won’t be working 8-4 if they have you for PTA and events in the contract. If you have no qualifications, direct hire ALT and eikaiwa are likely the best you can get without serious connections and experience, which will range from 200,000-250,000/mo. Direct hire will be horribly inconsistent about hours and responsibilities, and the younger you go the more your work will be about playing with the kids and “performing” English rather than teaching it.
Assuming you get both offers, it depends on what your personal goals are.
The BOE position would probably be easier and may pay more. You would be getting experience with older students but as an assistant.
The kindergarten job may keep you busy with very little planning time, if at all, including lunch where you might be very busy. This may be more of a teaching role where you would learn classroom management and time management (because you won’t have any to spare). You may be able to have basic English conversation with the students as well. Most of them are more capable of expressing themselves than the typical high school student.
Most International Kindergartens are not really international. They are a random crap shoot and usually also have an eikaiwa to run as well. They are basically day care most of the time. The stress and hardships that go with the job may not be worth 270k
Worked for an international “kindergarten” for a year in a wealthy neighborhood in Tokyo.
Never again!!!
Super spoiled kids acting like brats, parents that are just unbearable, absolutely no structure at all and so on.
Where I worked they had a stupid philosophy that you should never say no. Let the kids be creative. Which I agree with , you should encourage creativity but at that place it just ended in total chaos. No boundaries ever! It was horrible.
I might have been unlucky but I would have gone with the BoE any day of the week.
I made 290,000 a month at the kindergarten but if I would do it all over again, minimum needs to be 400,000, and that ain’t happening.
The amount of work and stress that kind of work brings is unbelievable.
Is it actually ¥5500 per koma? Or ¥5500 per lesson? Your salary will be wildly different depending on which one it actually is. ¥5500 per koma is not high at all. My school offers part timers between ¥10,000 and ¥12,000 per koma and it’s considered a relatively poor salary.
I’m with the Tokyo BOE. Its hard to say because hours for PTers tend to fluctuate a lot. You will have months where you have no work at all, and that’s not counting regular school breaks either. The amount of classes you actually teach per week is at the mercy of what the schools want and what teachers ask for. The PTers at my school are often working full time in another position.