[jasonbvr]

The best way to begin teaching English in Japan may or may not be through working as an ALT. Teaching English is the easiest way to start working in Japan, but you are right Osensei there are so many ways to do that how do you know what is best.

First the three basic options you have as an entry level teacher with no experience, well four.

1) The JET Program

As I have stressed many times before JET's are ALT's. The do the same job for a little more money. There is one entry a few pages back on the differences, but the main differences will be the hiring process is longer, you are placed where they decide to place you and there is the money.

2) Private ALT's

This is what I think you were really asking about. How do I find a good ALT company to work for? You asked what I think the best is, and to that I have to answer Interac is number one as far as being an ALT. However this means their selection process is a bit more demanding. I have an interview with Interac in 2 weeks for which I will go through a 45 min questioning, personality test (what?) and make a video for them to show to prospective schools. It is a bit over the top, but there is more upward mobility in a big company like Interac. They have a school for learning English in Provo, Utah and offer the chance to move up the ladder in Japan as well. Also if successful, I will have a wider range of locations to choose from.

After Interac, there are only a handful of companies along the same size as they are in ALT staffing. Interac is simply the largest in Kanto, but I think they have one fairly big competitor in the Kansai region. When it comes to working for the other companies, they are seriously all the same it seems. The only difference being is how much they are willing to do for you as far as getting started in Japan and monthly pay. They are all trying to make money and you are really there money makers.

If you want to talk about work environment, I can't really help you there. That is because while you are employed for this company, you are working in a school. And if you do come to Japan as an ALT, you will learn very quickly that all schools are different. They all expect different things from their ALT. You won't know if you've got a good one or a bad one until you are there. To be quite honest, my school is one of the tougher ones to work for in that my classes are run and designed by me. Without experience, that was really tough in the beginning. Some of the human tape recorder types always get jealous when I tell them this, but to be honest it is not so easy to design lessons that will get your students involved and master the skills they need at the same time.

3 and 4) The Eikaiwas

Working in a conversation would be another world compared to ALT. I list them as 3 and 4 because there are two types, big and little. Big is something Aeon, Nova, Gaba, Geos and one or two others. These have curriculums. They have textbooks. Although at Gaba you are working one on one so you are not really moving a group of students from one level of ability to the next. Little are the one shop operations you can find all over Japan. Some foreign owned and operated, as in by the teacher themself, and others are owned by Japanese and staffed by foreign teachers. Then there are a few that are owned and taught by Japanese. In a small eikaiwa, you and maybe one to six other teachers are the school. You have materials, but all the planning of what needs to be taught is on your shoulders. Some of these local operations do have a head teacher who plans and designs the curriculum but maybe not.

Working in an eikaiwa has it's benefits. Smaller classes, less of a Japanese work environment (good or bad depending on how you look at it), special events at eikaiwas are holiday kids' parties versus things at public schools like sport's days and graduation, you are not the only foreigner around in most cases, you can see your students progress more where as in the case of ALT's we only see the good and the bad at English and they don't really change (good kids go to eikaiwas), and probably some other things. This is all just speculation because I have not worked in an eikaiwa. I have done part time work for them but not much.

The best amongst the biggest, looking in from the outside I will say Aeon. Better pay, that is all I can see. Gaba is also supposedly top notch but you are basically selected by your students and then you have to design a lesson to meet their needs. Aeon and Nova, you are going to be guaranteed a certain amount of work each month whereas Gaba just depends on how much work you can get.

And that's all for now. It's Saturday. I should be playing online poker, later.