Westgate

From Eikaiwa Wiki

Contents 1 History 2 Services 3 Employment 4 Personal accounts 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Services

[edit] Employment

(From the Westgate website) The instructors for the Accredited Course must wear business attire during travel to and from work and whenever required by a school or Westgate; however, we strongly recommend bringing indoor shoes such as tennis shoes for inside of the school facilities and also some casual clothes such as sweatshirts and sportswear.

Sick Leave:

Our course is very intensive, and we guarantee that we will provide students a certain number of lessons each term. As a result, students depend on us, so instructors must be dedicated to their students. Westgate's contract with each university and junior college requires that missed lessons be made up later.

Campus Rules:

Most universities in Japan are especially conservative. Japanese culture is "by the book" with many rules about behavior and protocol. Westgate Corporation is under contract to the universities and junior colleges, through which we operate our programs, so we must strictly adhere to their rules and regulations. Some of the rules may seem unimportant. However, under our contract we are required to follow them.

Instructors are expected to follow all rules, even the ones that seem trivial or superficial from a Western cultural perspective. Observing such rules is important in order to be culturally sensitive to the Japanese.In general, instructors should assume nothing and direct all questions to Westgate personnel. Instructors are in a foreign country and they must expect to adapt their behavior to fit the expectations of the host culture. Doing so may seem unnecessary and at times even "ridiculous", but it is important to remember that such diversity is an important part of the enriching cross-cultural experience.

[edit] Personal accounts

account 1

They are OK. Nothing to shout about, but as Paul says, a three month contract means you can get out if you don't like it over here. Good points: They sort out everything for you. You teach university students (in most of the programs). No evening work. Bad points: Lesson material is poor. You may teach a lot of classes in a day, though they are only 40mins long. You see the students every day, and that can get a bit tiring after three months... Rent is high for what you get. The actual working conditions and hours will be different for everyone, it does depends where you end up.

Yes, still schools promise you everything, apartment, scooter, minimum hours...ect. Then once the contract is signed, your scooter turns to a bicycle, your city , a two bit town, your apartment to a shared room, and the Chinese favour system (can't remember the what it's called, blackmail in English) kicks in. The favour of having been given the job in the first place has you working all the hours under the sun, just to get the quota even so you can get a Saturday off.

I worked for Westgate for three months. You teach conversational English(i.e. eikiawa) to small groups (usually less than 20 students.) I never had any gaijin monitor my classes, ever. Westgate staff may monitor classes, but they will give you notice and it is not a big deal. The worst people to deal with while on campus are the "real" gaijin "teachers" (i.e. people who may or may not have an MA, pubs, etc.) and sometimes the japanese profs. Where I worked the Japanese professors were OK for the most part, as long as you stayed out of their way. Also, no Westgate teachers teach only three classes a day, or if they do it is very rare. The standard day is 5 to 7 40 minute lessons. The students will like your classes much much better than their "regular" English classes, if you show them respect and demand it from them.

A lot of teachers get 3 year visas which is pretty sweet. It is a professor's visa, which technically means you have to get a different sponsor to teach at other eikaiwas, although this is something that is almost universally overlooked. The westgate management, curriculum,etc is pretty ____, but overall if you stay under the radar it is Ok. I met a lot of cool people doing to program, both foreign and Japanese that I still keep in touch with. Keep in mind that you are not teaching "real" university classes, but then again people don't really learn languages in those kinds of classes, anyway. Westgate university program teachers have a two month 'break' between contracts in which time they are not paid for the time they are not teaching or between contracts. It seems like they look for people who will not question authority, do what they are told and are made to assuming that Japanese think like unthinking automatons who all think alike.

It's really no different than teaching in Tokyo (from what I've heard people talking about on these forums). Full-time tenure positions are rare and when they pop up they get more than 125 applicants. My friend was one of the one's who made it to the final interviews at CCSF back in April for one of two tenure track positions they had there. He had 7 years teaching experience, but he said on average his competition had between 10-15 years and plenty of publications/textbooks to boot. He didn't get the position. However, much like I understand you are doing in Japan, you can string together lots of part-time positions and be a freeway flier, pulling down a comfortable salary that allows you to live well. Again much like Japan, it's about making contacts at all the local schools and building your rep up. The choice part-time positions go to the known instructors; newbies wind up teaching the shifts no one else wants (7-10PM or Saturday classes).

I think I saw in another forum you quoting $80k a year from stringing together your part-time gigs. You could do it here as well if you're a seasoned teacher who would be teaching classes for which you've already prepared a curriculum in the past (so you're not spending a lot of time outside class on prep). It would be hard work no doubt--especially during grading periods--but its possible. If you're just starting out though, you're much more likely to only work about 60% of full-time--I'd figure on making between $24,000 and $34,000 a year until you solidify your contacts. You can definitely live on that in the Bay Area, just not live like a king. You'd be sharing an apartment with someone to keep costs down and probably commuting from one of the less expensive suburbs rather than living in the city proper.

Actually, maybe I should explain the part-time situation a bit. The way it works is that there are part-time pools at all the local schools. So when they have a section of a course that needs teaching and none of the full-time staff are available they look to the pool. If you're name's in the pool and you've indicated an availability to teach at the time the class is supposed to be offered, there's a chance they'll call you up. The odds of them calling you are much better if the staff has worked with you before or you've got significant experience. That's how the new teachers wind up getting stuck in courses offered at odd times--those are the courses the experienced teachers generally never accept because they are offered much more conveniently scheduled classes.

There are lots of little niche jobs you can take to supplement your income if you get in a fix. Adults schools, community education outreach programs, and other ESL environments exist. They tend to be much lower on the pay scale though. I've heard starting salaries are in the $20-30/hr range for those positions, plus you usually need a California Adult Education Credential (though it's fairly easy to obtain: take a test, fill out some paperwork). Some people (including some acquaintances of mine) are really into these jobs because they're not in it for the money but for the social outreach aspects. If that's your thing, you can pretty much be guaranteed to find a job--even full-time stuff--just because compared to college-level teaching the pay is so low and those programs are so desperate for professionals.

So yeah, to answer your question, it's competitive but there are also a ton of jobs. Your track record and who you know go a long way in determining how difficult a time you'll have getting the better positions (in terms of both pay and convenience to your schedule). However, keep in mind that all those part-time rates I listed in the previous post are starting salaries. That's what the guys and gals with the ink still drying on their MA's get. Every school I know of pays on a non-negotiable graded scale that's based on both years of teaching experience and amount of professional development done since getting your MA. So the more experience/education you have, the more you make.

You can get a good feel for the academic jobs available in CA by checking out these links:

• https://www.cccregistry.org/jobs/index.aspx
• http://www.catesol.org/jobbank.html (Although I notice this month there's a flood of non-academic positions posted... usually it's the other way around.)

account 2

I worked for them (in 1995). It was run by the Prez and a group of Mormons. They had no good materials for teaching. One teacher just played games with the students (Bingo and Hangman) and had a great time. I did some basic teaching and only got complaints. The experience really depends upon which school you are at. Some are very conservative and prefer people who look 'correct.' At other schools you can be relaxed and enjoy interacting with the students. At the time they paid for housing (worth about 80,000 yen a month) and gave a stipend of 120,000 a month. They did a one week training course in Gotemba for newbies and held a big party in Roppongi near the end of the contract. There were various other parties, but I doubt the company does any of that any more. In addition, most of the teachers were Mormon and couldn't drink, very strange when all of the Japanese were drinking.

I'd recommend staying away from them. The company is very for profit. There was a small argument between my supervisor and the President about fair pay at the end of the contract. My supervisor may have been a bit overreaching, but the president took the confrontation personally. He is old school for Japan, and I'm sure the company is still that way.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Westgate website

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