AEON
From Eikaiwa Wiki
AEON (taken from the Greek word for "eternity") one of the Big Four eikaiwa or English conversation schoolschains. It was founded in 1973 by Kiyoshi Aki, who is still company president as of 2011. AEON's corportate headquarters are in Okayama, which is also home to the teacher training center for AEON West Japan. There are over 300 AEON branch schools throughout Japan.
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[edit] Interviewing at AEON
- For more information, read one persons account of the AEON interview
- Read a Debate about AEON (from 2001)
AEON recruits teachers year-round from offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, Toronto, London and Sydney. AEON conducts regular recruitment interviews in other major cities in the United States, Canada, Australia, and United Kingdom. AEON does two interviews. The first (group) interview will probably be held the same day as the recruiting session. The second, if they call you back, will be held later.
Be prepared to be quizzed on things they went over at the previous interview. list back your duties. oh not just teaching, lobby talk, interviewing, self study, cleaning, etc, etc, etc. why do you want to go to japan, how long are you going to stay in japan, what are you going to do after japan. They then give you something to teach and leave you alone to prepare for it. they then come back and pretend to be students - fairly awful.
get them talking, keep your cool, keep it going for the time duration, keep smiling, be friendly, happy, energetic. They're probably ask what you think you did good, and bad, and give you advice. obviously listen and thank them and say you understand and it's good advice. Dress conservative, in a tie, smile, be on time, be energetic. that is really the overwhelming majority of it.
"Lobby Talk" role play - after doing 2 surprise lessons (the aforementioned one for adults and one for children with only 3 minutes to prepare for), AEON usually places a lot of emphasis on chatting up the students while they wait for their classes. You might be expected to suddenly be told "Let's role play. I am a student, you are a new teacher here. Go". For some, this is by far the most difficult part of the interview they give no clues as to what kind of student they might be. You might feel like you are doing street nampa on a baa-chan. Just smile, smile, smile and you will do fine here though.
[edit] Employment at AEON
Under the current renewal system, after the first year you are guaranteed a 10,000 yen/month raise (this used to be 20,000 yen/month). On the third year (or third contract) raises are "performance evaluated" which means ranges between 0 - 10,000 yen.
[edit] AEON has three types of schools
Known as types "A", "B", and "C". "A" schools accept only adult students, defined as people of high school age or older. "B" schools accept both adult and child students. "C" schools accept only child students.
[edit] Health Insurance
To AEON's credit, they enroll teacher in Japanese Social Insurance system called Shakai Hoken (National Health Insurance), providing both health and pension insurance. The comprehensive health insurance includes coverage of pre-existing conditions, optical and dental care. Most eikaiwa tailor working hours to just under the 3/4 of full time and sell private travel insurance to their staff which provides much less coverage than Shakai Hoken. About 17% of your salary will be deducted to cover your share of that.
[edit] AEON & GEOS Shared History
AEON is the current name for one half of an older company. The original company was AMVIC, meaning AMbition and VICtory. This company was founded by college roommates Kiyoshi Aki and Tsuneo Kusunoki. The company split in the eighties as the partners developed different visions of the company's future. Mr. Aki went on to create AEON focusing on language learning in Japan, while Mr. Kusunoki created GEOS, focusing on global language learning; one of AEON's biggest competitors.
AEON is not affiliated with the Aeon Group, a major Japanese retail and financial services corporation.
The J-POP artist Angela Aki happens to be Kiyoshi Aki's daughter.
[edit] Corporate Information
- AEON East Japan, Inc. is the regional headquarters for the educational and business operations in the eastern section of the country. AEON East Japan's headquarters is located in Tokyo.
- AEON Central Japan, Inc. is the regional headquarters for the educational and business operations in the central section of the country. AEON Central Japan's headquarters is located in Nagoya.
- AEON West Japan, Inc. is the regional headquarters for the educational and business operations in the western section of the country. AEON West Japan's headquarters is located in Okayama.
