Savings per month

[Chriselle 158]

We manage to sock away a few yen here and there and investments are rolling over as we speak so doing OK. I guess if we were a little more frugal we could bank my entire ALT salary but then life would suck and I'd have no free time.

[634-maru 4]

I'm very pleased if I can save 100,000 yen whilst still having a normal fun lifestyle.

 

When I first came here, my wage was 300,000 yen but pretty much everything seemed to be paid for me and was taken out a lot. I was saving over 200K some months!

Ah those were the days, being treated so specially.

[Chriselle 158]

Yes...I was a JETty way back in the hay day of big wages and being treated like a rock star. Paid off my rather substantial student loans in those 3 years with still lots of play money left over. Good times they were for sure.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

What do AETs/JETs get now? Is it still 300,000 yen wherever you are?

 

JET's do, but ALT's thru dispatch companies don't. I've seen it as low as 180k and up to the JET level. Generally it's average at 250k

[grungy-gonads 54]

I always thought it was pretty wild how JETs in the middle of nowhere got the same as those in big expensive cities.

They were laughing.

Even know a few people who got a return ticket back home each summer!

[grungy-gonads 54]

And.... it always seemed to be the inaka ones who got all these extras as well!

[Chriselle 158]

I was the first JET ever in the inaka city of Rumoi up in Hokkaido. Right at the tail end of the bubble when the cash was still flowing freely...and I was extremely well looked after. Serious...rock star status.

[MagSeven 40]

The salary for first year JET Programme ALTs has been reduced as of this year, but they get a payrise going into their 2nd and 3rd years, so it more or less balances out. I think its an incentive to keep them on for a few years, as the initial flights/training/setup costs must be huge for the local board of education.

 

I'm mates with one of the guys currently in Rumoi, Chriselle. He seems to be looked after pretty well.

[Chriselle 158]

Hey, that's cool. I imagine there have been quite a few since my time. That was 18 years ago now......WOW...time flies.

[ippy 66]

What do AETs/JETs get now? Is it still 300,000 yen wherever you are?

 

JET's do, but ALT's thru dispatch companies don't. I've seen it as low as 180k and up to the JET level. Generally it's average at 250k

if it was average at 250,000 id probably still be in japan. The average is plummeting. When i first left JET in 2008 the average was around 240. This might seem odd to the interac folks, but remember, pro rata started with you guys. I dunno if all were, but every one i looked at had clauses for lower pay in august and december/jan. Then came companies like mine, and they drove salaries way through the floor around saitama. But they werent yet done, because companies like heart (who won a lot of contracts over my company when i was in korea so it didnt affect me) told people i know they could keep their jobs, they just had to work for 160,000/month now instead of the kingly 220,000-240,000 they were getting.

 

And then you factor in the pro rata contracts which are now no longer 60% salary clauses, but in fact zero salary outside term times (oh yeah, and no paid vacation, no sick leave, and punitive clauses that state if you take a day off FOR WHATEVER REASON, you lose the salary on that day PLUS your completion bonus (10,000 yen). Not to mention the other 'fines' they can give you for tardiness or poor performance. I never got those because im a good little ALT soldier. But they exist. And they are in teh contracts.

 

It was looking at the jobs in March that really made me think **** this. Only really AtoZ seemed to offer a decent package. And i genuinely liked them for that. You got 240,000 no pro rata and subsidized teacher housing came with the position. Its a pity it didnt work out, but when i interviewed with them i reeked of desperation because i was in pure panic mode. I knew what the market was like, id checked the listings. I wanted nagano, i wanted as little set up as possible. And i wanted a fair salary for my years of experience. So i was over the top and got knocked back. Sometimes fate conspires against you like that and turns you into a maniac. Im sure ill be the same if i dont have a job lined up for korea by the end of my tefl course. But aside interac (which was nonetheless a step backwards, the alternatives were genuinely tough. Salaries are coming down and worse, more and more jobs are being advertised with a daily/hourly wage. It doesnt take a genius to see that this is the next logical step. Unless youre speaking the language and can get direct hire, youre on a hiding to nothing to be honest.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

The best dispatch company is Sagan Speak, 300k no bullshit. Straight up salary every month. Another good company is Iware, 290 a month, every month.

 

Interac and their bloodsucking ilk are killing jobs over here....I hate them and Im beavering away to rid myself of these parasite gigs

[Chriselle 158]

+1 TubbyB

[ippy 66]

Ive never heard of either of those guys. Im gonna research them though, i cant imagine these are just standard ALT gigs, and if they are, id be shocked that theyre actually paying a decent wage and havent been gazzumped by companies like mine offering alts at 100,000 yen less. Even if my shower were to cream off the same profit as those two, theyd still be quids in (not only 100,000 yen a month less on the ALT but also on pro rata where theyll get to bargain almost 2 months of our salary from term vacations for the contract).

 

At the end of it i just felt like i was busting my ass trying to stay where i was. And where i was was 40,000 yen/month savings which is about half of what i was saving in korea notwithstanding full yearly salaries, no punitive clauses, free housing, 1 month contract completion bonus, paid vacation, paid sick leave, negligible tax, negligible income deductions on national health due to the school paying most of it, and no desk warming on breaks. The only problem was that i hadnt prepped the documents because i was sure id done enough to keep the contract. Silly me. Otherwise it would have been a no brainer.

 

ETA: I should really apologise for the moaning. Im not gonna stop mind you, but i still feel utterly aggrieved by it all

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Ive never heard of either of those guys. Im gonna research them though, i cant imagine these are just standard ALT gigs, and if they are, id be shocked that theyre actually paying a decent wage and havent been gazzumped by companies like mine offering alts at 100,000 yen less. Even if my shower were to cream off the same profit as those two, theyd still be quids in (not only 100,000 yen a month less on the ALT but also on pro rata where theyll get to bargain almost 2 months of our salary from term vacations for the contract).

 

At the end of it i just felt like i was busting my ass trying to stay where i was. And where i was was 40,000 yen/month savings which is about half of what i was saving in korea notwithstanding full yearly salaries, no punitive clauses, free housing, 1 month contract completion bonus, paid vacation, paid sick leave, negligible tax, negligible income deductions on national health due to the school paying most of it, and no desk warming on breaks. The only problem was that i hadnt prepped the documents because i was sure id done enough to keep the contract. Silly me. Otherwise it would have been a no brainer.

 

ETA: I should really apologise for the moaning. Im not gonna stop mind you, but i still feel utterly aggrieved by it all

 

yes they are, they are standard alt gigs. I worked for Iware and I have a few mates who work for Sagan Speak. They tend to be contracted with private High schools, not the Public ones as they have been taken and strangled by devil spawn like Interac

[grungy-gonads 54]

 

Has the need for actual teaching qualifications seen any change in the last 10-20 years?

[Thundercat 60]

Wow. Reading that makes me really happy about the job I have.

[pie-eater 207]

Can't you guys get tons more doing private lessons? Or is that 'market' less than it was previously?

 

Working hard for less than 250,000 yen sounds like a very raw deal indeed.

I realise that some (no-one on here of course) probably aren't exactly 'working hard', but...

[HighlyTrainedNovaTeacher 2]

Well I got my high level of training at Nova.

[ippy 66]

 

Has the need for actual teaching qualifications seen any change in the last 10-20 years?

Not in Japan. It was always about "internationalization" though. It has in Korea, but thats because Korea cant decide if it hates foreigners more than it hates Japan. Epik only exists because they thought Japan was stealing a run on it. But teachers unions hate foreign teachers because we arent teachers and we get better rights than them. Fair enough So at one and the same time they dont want Japan to have something they dont, but they dont really want foreign teachers so the barriers get raised routinely to make it that much harder for ESLers to teach in Korea. Busan for example has completely swhut down its middle school and high school ESL programs. and also demanded every teacher there be certified with a TEFL over 100 hours with at least a 60 hour in class component AND 1 year experience in the classroom. The rest of the country also insists upon the 100 hour TEFL but its a bit murkier about the in class component with a 20 hour being stated but not actually enforced (according to the people over at daves esl). In truth the TEFL probably wont go that far in Korea, the PS jobs are being curtailed (seoul (SMOE) usually follows gepik and after a couple of years the rest fo teh country follows suit), but Hagwons still set their own policies. And with the cut in contact hours with native speakers, you can bet your ass that business in Hagwons over the next couple of years will be booming. Which means a bit fo a return to the wild west days of yore no doubt and a bit more of a teachers market. I mean, people will probably come to korea on teh back of a government sponsored programme like EPIK... but to go there off yoru own back into a job where you have no control over your visa into a crap shoot? Well thats going to take a particularly determined individual. Probably bad news for Japan though since korea has probably been eating up the asia-philes with its explosion in the public consciousness over teh past few years.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

The short answer to that, GG, is no. With crap companies like Interac making a race to the bottom, it's unlikely to change. No real teacher in their right mind would stoop to work for such shitty conditions. It's frustrating, I've recently seen adverts for ALT's in asahikawa, direct hire, with salary of 305 + benefits. Sapporo has started down the Intercrap route so Im currently getting paid peanuts.

[JA2340 16]

Hey, Tubby, Hope you like peanuts, then!

[Tubby Beaver 209]

I have no choice

[JA2340 16]

P'raps keep them for a while and sell to the peanut butter makers?

 

Sorry, that was crass - but???

[Tubby Beaver 209]

I make my own peanut butter

[JA2340 16]

With the contents of your pay packet? WOW!