Eikawa, loved or loathed?
The eikawa in Japan is many young people's way into Japan, they often support visas and give you a small (tiny) apartment to teach English to Japanese children for full time money on a part time contract with a premise of ``Getting paid to travel around Japan``.
Sounds amazing!
But is it really how it sounds? The answer is no but also yes. Allow me to elaborate, for the yes answer your visa is sponsored, you get a tiny apartment, full time money for working 4 hours a day and you travel around Japan. But the real answer is no, why? again let me elaborate but in more depth.
Of course, every company in the world sells itself as the best in its sector, and the English staff at eikawas know how to sell it. It does sound amazing, but as someone who went through the eikawa system (visa and house obtained pre eikawa) I can tell you that it's the most toxic way to find work in Japan. For many young westerners it might not be too bad, they don't have to stay if it doesn't work out, they have no friends or family here so it's no issue.
I began with the application and was called less than 2 hours later for an interview, I thought they were impressed with something on my CV but couldn't quite work out what it was. The interview wasn't too bad, they quickly accepted me and sent an email full of company information and training that I need to undergo, ``Staff say it's more like a Bootcamp because of how intense it is`` it read at one point, so what happened? well, upon arrival in Nagoya I was ushered into my accommodation, which they charged me for, the room was a traditional Japanese room, except it wasn't, it was dirty, and I mean dirty, food splashed on the walls behind the cooker, the doors were worn, the shower/bath was mucky as was the toilet. I complained at the end of day one to our trainer about my tv turning itself on and off all day and night along my toilet that flushed for a full day ``Nothing to do with us, we just rent the rent the building`` was the answer, not quite what I was hoping for. Oh, and the building was named after the company owners, basically they didn't want to fix anything and spend money.
After two days I was sent in a small group to Osaka, which I was really hoping for. The group in Nagoya was mainly Filipinas, all of which struggled with English, that gives confidence to the parents right? The training was a lot more intense in that we had to travel around an hour before walking around 30–40 minutes to a classroom for each training session. The trainer was in a word, pompous, often bragging about her achievements in the company, obviously nobody cared but we humoured her. The training was ridiculous, even the observation classes we underwent had nothing to do with what was taught to us in training. The teachers we observed taught us different, one group member said one teacher he had was going outside and smoking or playing with his phone during class!!! apparently these were all professionals, they must have been backup and the real ones were off on holiday. One of my teachers I observed had issues with the iPad we had to use for hybrid classes, she went on to completely ignore the two kids that actually turned up, the amused themselves with school games, not in English, the 50-minute class was essentially over before she got back to them. I was told to NEVER interfere, I really wanted to.
So, onto the traveling side of it, I read a blog by an American girl who boasted about working here and how she was able to spend her weekends shopping with friends, her days before going to class to enjoy museums, historical sites and the rich culture, clearly paid to write such a puff piece. You really have to work here to understand that that's near impossible. My mornings were spent preparing to leave, early afternoon was traveling and getting to the classroom to prep for classes, I worked 6 days a week and spent around 8 hours either working or traveling. My Sundays were for rest, but as me and my wife were planning our wedding, there was no rest, but of course I'm not complaining about that. Traveling was essentially awful; you do get to see the beautiful countryside but it's the work that will fill you with dread and disappointment. One class I had was a 30-minute walk from the train station, down a long country lane, I was nearly hit 3 times in broad daylight. Another class was so far away they had to put me in a hotel, the place smelt of fish, which to be fair it was a fishing town, but not much else going on.
The classes themselves, let me tell you this, most Japanese kids that I taught did what I told them to, because they want to learn English, the others are there for fun only, no English just to run around. the parents are full of pride that there kids are getting these (incredibly expensive) classes from a native speaker. In terms of getting help from anyone in the group was next to zero, the area manager was as useful as a hammer in making a cake.
The classrooms, they were rundown and not looked after, asbestos ridden, the carpets had dirt from 10 years ago rubbed in them, pins fell onto the floor from the Japanese teachers class the week before, the toilets hadn't been cleaned (large poo left in one upon my arrival) and in general they stank. One of the largest companies didn't really care, or maybe the Japanese owners do care it's just the foreign staff underneath blocking any form of cleanliness and forward-thinking teaching.
In conclusion, my area hadn't been fully staffed in the 10 years the area manager has been in charge (now I know why), it's better to find a job in a local, private owned eikawa, one that cares about the kids and how the best way to teach them is and they are willing to take on board ideas. This company, like many others do not care about staff, children, classrooms or anything else. They are glorified after school day-care centres. Well, I enjoyed the junior classes, they were full of questions and had dreams of studying abroad, I feel bad for them.
This is my experience, but from my research many people agree. I saw a comment about eikawas recently, it said ``When they give you your visa, run and don't look back``
