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This is one of the questions foreigners ask themselves when they come to Japan to look for work in the field of education. Which is actually better? This question and might be answered as we compare and contrast both along the way. |
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How many hours do I work? |
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An ALT works like a typical employee, which is normally 8 hours everyday while an Eikaiwa teacher can work from 1-2 hours to 12-14 hours per day depending on the lesson schedule. |
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What are the normal working hours? |
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An ALT starts the day at about 8 am and can go home at about 4:30 to 5pm while an Eikaiwa teacher has a very flexible schedule. The Eikaiwa teacher can start working from 7:30 am as the earliest and may finish the day at about 10 to 11pm. |
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How much is the salary? |
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An ALT has a fixed salary. ALTs receives the same amount whether they teach or not for as long as they stay in school. An ALT’s salary ranges from 200,000 to 250,000 thousand yen per month. An Eikaiwa teacher receives a certain amount only when they have lessons. They are paid with an average amount of 1,500-2,500 yen per lesson. So an Eikaiwa teacher may receive less than or more than the ALT’s depending on the number of lessons. |
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How many lessons do I have in a day? |
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Based on some of the ALTs, the normal number of lessons they have in a day is four 40 or 50 minutes lessons. (40 minutes for elementary and 50 minutes for Junior High School). The most number of lessons an ALT has ever had in a day was 6 lessons. This is already the busiest day an ALT has ever had. An Eikaiwa teacher on the other hand, to have 6 lessons in a day is a very quiet day. The average number of lessons for an Eikaiwa teacher is 8-12 lessons per day. |
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Who makes the lesson plans? |
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An ALT who teaches in an Elementary school most of the time makes the lesson plans, activities and prepares materials. But if they are to teach in Junior High Schools, preparation is seldom needed. For an Eikaiwa teacher, they prepare the lessons by their selves. Although books and lessons plans may be made available especially for teachers who work for big English schools, they would still need to prepare because of the varied levels of students. |
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Do I need experience to teach? |
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Experience for both ALT and an Eikaiwa position is not a real necessity. Although a little experience in dealing with children may help you as an ALT, not having any experience is not that big a thing. Japanese people would still prefer an inexperienced person who can respect their learning habits and practices than the person who has lots of experience but can’t understand the way Japanese people learn a second language.? |
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Will I be able to learn Japanese? |
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In an ALT’s working environment where the Japanese language is often used, there’s a huge chance for foreigners to learn the language. This also goes when the ALT is in the classroom. Since students would speak to ALTs in Japanese more often than English, ALTs have no choice but to blend in. Although ALTs are not allowed to speak to students in Japanese, this is sometimes neglected especially if the ALT can speak a little Japanese. While for Eikaiwa teachers, they are to speak in English for the whole duration of the lesson. Though low-level students are sometimes exempted because a little explanation in Japanese is needed, other than that, the chance of using the Japanese language is rare to never. |
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"This article didn’t actually answer the “Which is better?” question but have properly contrasted the differences between an ALT and a Private Eikaiwa teacher. There is really no correct answer to this question. It actually depends on you as to what teaching environment would suite your taste." |
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