I’ve been teaching as an ALT in Japan for 4 years now and I’ve been wanting to teach in Korea and the application requires letter of recommendation. Since I’ve been in Japan for 4 years, I wanted to ask for a letter of recommendation from my co teacher or BOE supervisor in Japan.
However, my ALT company (Joytalk) says that I’m not supposed to ask my coteachers or BOE supervisor for letter of recommendation as they are our customers.
My company has never specifically seen me teach so I’m not sure if I should ask them specifically to write the recommendation letter. Also.. they’re exceptionally slow in replying emails as well so I doubt they will really write one for me.. Should I just do it under their radar and request a letter of recommendation from my coteacher/BOE supervisor? This is my first time asking for a letter of recommendation in Japan so I’m not sure what I should do. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you! 🙂
7 comments
They are your coworkers too. Just ask your coworkers and move on.
I would only ask people who are in contact with you consistently. Co-teachers and what not. The BoE reference should just be “Yes, MS2 has worked here from X to X.”
Screw your dispatch company. Ask anyone you think is suitable. You don’t need to tell your company and it’s not like everyone is going to think “we should call JoyTalk because he/she asked us to be a reference.
Every single thing a dispatch company tells you to do is for the 1 in 10,000 chance something happens. If you could be a stature that spoke English they’d hire that instead.
And what’s going to happen if you get rejected by epik? Hagwons????? Lol have you thought this through I mean seriously not being mean here? Teaching in Korea is not easy and I would seriously reconsider if you don’t get in with epik
Good luck.
Have you, as an individual, asked your company if it’s okay to ask for the recommendation letter?
If not, better to ask forgiveness than get permission.
<even if you have, are you planning to work for JoyTalk sometime in the future?>
> However, my ALT company (Joytalk) says that I’m not supposed to ask my coteachers or BOE supervisor for letter of recommendation as they are our customers.
Fuck them. Just get a teacher you’re close to and ask them casually. Alternatively, ask your company if that’s their policy!
Heck true story. I moved back to Australia and a company NEEDED somebody who was located in Australia to be my referee. I used a random ex-colleague from an eikaiwa I’d worked for ~10 years ago (who’d gotten married to an Aussie) because I NEEDED somebody (they wouldn’t accept people who were overseas). They were technically the office manager (admin side of things – didn’t supervise me) so we just put that down and went with it. TBH all the employer wanted to know was that at least 1 person in the world could confirm I wasn’t a complete dickhead. Once that had been done, they didn’t care (it was just a tick-box process).
> Title: Moving from Japan to Korea
Are there jobs that don’t require a reference? Also it’s been like 4 years… when are you gonna draw the line and leave the EFL industry? Just saying!
Yes, of course you should do it. Look after your self, be proactive.
Also, your company has never seen you teach. Oh teaching in Japan. I remember those days.