I teach for the AEON Amity conversation school. Basically, they were recruiting at my college. I applied, did a lesson plan, got a personal interview then boom! I`m in Japan. Here`s a little info about teaching in Japan (particularly with AEON Amity). I will point out some good things and bad things about teaching.

General AEON Amity Information:
AEON Amity s a conversation school for children`s age 1-18 (there are some classes for parents of children as well). I work 5 days a week at about 36-40 hours a week. The classes vary in size, the minimum being one student, and the most being seven. I have to dress professional, which can be annoying at times because I spend some classes on the floor or I`m running after kids. Amity provides furnished housing for its employees with a subsididized rent. The apartments can vary in size and location but I think the schools are mostly placed close or in larger cities (AEON is a business afterall...they need to be where the people are). You also get most Japanese holidays off (it doesn`t count if the holiday is one your regular days off), and some personal days off, and a week off for Obon (in August), New Year (end of December to beginning of January...you don`t get Xmas off), and Golden Week (end of April, beginning of May). AEON also hires on a monthly basis, so you can apply anytime. More infomation on AEON is on their website: http://www.aeonet.com/.

Teachin kids in Japan

The Bad
Kids can be extreming frustrating. Some of them have seriously short attention spans and will do everything but listen to you. They can be scared of you just because you look different. One of my students cries at the beginning of every class and has done so for the past 6 months that I`ve taught him. However, he never does this around the Japanese teachers though. I`ve been bitten and kicked by another student. And then there are the kids that are just disrepectful. Some of my girl students are like to use Japanese to talk about me...they have no clue that I understand quite a bit of what they`re saying though. Then there are the babies...the youngest student I have is only one year old! @_@ He`s really cute but he can`t speak Japanese! That class is supposed to be 40 minutes, but it fors more like 40 hours to me.

The Good
Some of my students are great. A few of them pick up on the lessons very easily and will even surpise me when they from time to time. I have a class with three students and they are really bright. LOL they always give me candy too. I have some bilingual students who are pretty easy to talk to, and they`re pretty active. LOL they like to give me candy and little presents on holidays. Two of my students were really shy when I first started teaching them, but now they`re always running to see me. Sometimes with the younger kids it is fun to run around and feel like a kid yourself. I make a lot of props for my students to use and since I`m an arts and crafts person anyway, I get a kick out of doing that. And finally some of the kids are just so darn cute!

The Conclusion
Kids are...well kids. Japanese kids aren`t that different from American kids. Some are cute, some are crazy, etc. you get the point. While I prefer teaching adults, I guess teaching kids isn`t all that bad.