California Language Institute

Where to even begin..

Throwaway account. This is going to be a disorganised bunch of thoughts, but bear with me if you’ve ever considered working for this company.

For anyone that doesn’t know, CLI is a small eikaiwa.

I should also state that the Japanese teachers I worked with, as well as the schools and the children were all wonderful. The the **problem is with the management**.

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First off it’s worth noting that you will be inundated with emails. **Constantly**. The most I ever received in a single day was 16, and you are expected to reply to every single one of them. This should set the tone for the entire company: micromanagement, over, and over, and over again.

If you don’t reply to every email, you get a call from the general manager at night asking to confirm you read the email. Even if you do reply, you’ll still likely receive a call, sometimes as late as 10pm. Most of the emails are pointless, as you’ll be updated multiple times a day about scheduling changes and updates for schools which *aren’t even yours*. You’re left to your own devices to put the puzzle together and figure out what you’re doing day to day.

Also your work hours are considered **part time** by the Japanese government, which means CLI doesn’t have to provide health insurance for you legally. You will pay your own health insurance.

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**Apartment:** The quality varies depending on where you’re placed, and might be **Leopalace** in some cases. My apartment was furnished and came with sundries like coffee, tea, and cleaning supplies. The fact these are provided is nice and it helps you settle in a bit, but they neglect to tell you that you’re expected to replace all the items yourself when you leave. Internet was provided, however it’s a type of mobile hotspot hooked up to a 3g tower or something. The router was bottlenecked, and consistently choked down to *0.5mbps after 6pm*. They also perform “apartment checks” at random intervals throughout your contract, giving you next to no notice, showing up at your doorstep with a cleaning checklist at 8pm at night, taking photos of your entire apartment. It felt like living in dormitories at uni.

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**Workstyle:** In reality.. you’re going to have 5+ schools, anywhere from *40 minutes* to *an hour and a half* away from your apartment. This means sometimes **3 hours** or more of travel time a day. Your morning school and afternoon school might not even be the same, increasing your travel time even more. If you stay at a school for afternoon classes, you’re expected to eat with the students, and eating in the staff room or leaving the school for lunch *is not allowed,* despite the fact you’re not paid during lunch.

Expect chaos. There is no rhythm to your week. You might wake up at 7am and get home at 9pm on a Monday. The next day you might have nothing until 2pm and get home before dinner. And all of that might change the next week, because they pull teachers from schools without a moment’s notice. Don’t expect to be given any heads up or be allowed to say goodbye to your students. They change schedules as they see fit, with favouritism, and **bully employees** a lot.

You’re also teaching lessons using materials which haven’t changed since the 90s. Imagine having to explain to a student what a **Walkman** is. No tech allowed in the classrooms either. No phones, no computers, no projectors. You’re teaching with outdated flashcards, books, and plastic fruit.

**Branch Meetings** are also a thing. I hope you enjoy meeting your manager and coworkers at a bar at **8pm** on a Monday night to discuss numbers. No? How about *leaving at 11pm,* does that sound better? And you’d better show up, or they’ll dock you 1 hour’s pay (even though you’re never told what that value is).

Training is a joke. Some people aren’t even given a week’s training before they’re thrown into teaching. If you are given time, all you do is tag along with a coworker during their day and take notes. The problem is.. that’s what *they* did for training as well. You’re expected to teach exactly as the managers do (and I mean *exactly*), but the only models you’re given for that are coworkers who were never taught by managers in the first place.

You’re left entirely alone to figure out your lessons, which you have to do outside of teaching hours since time for lesson planning is **not included** in your contracted work hours. Be prepared to spend your few waking hours after work figuring out what you’re supposed to teach tomorrow. You’re meant to piece together lessons by navigating an extremely cluttered, disorganised google drive, which has videos (some of which are 20 years old) of CLI’s version of songs. As for the lessons themselves? Figure it out.

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**Red flags:** You’re told you go to schools and teach *on behalf of* the owner, and *in their name*. I’ll let you decide what that means.

Both the owner and managers have told me on separate occasions that they falsify Glassdoor reviews.

I’ve seen aggressive bullying towards employees from both the owner and the managers on several occasions.

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tldr;

Managers harass employees, provide next to no support, and expect far too much for what’s offered.

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I know this place has been discussed many times on here (with many of the same points), and is par for the course for eikaiwas. I just wanted to give a update and let everyone know nothing has changed.

If you’re desperate for a Visa, sure..
Otherwise, avoid them at all costs.