This is a picture of the famous Kaminari-mon in Asakusa. An area if a lot of temples and older buildings. A popular tourist area.
Technorati Tags: Asakusa
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30Jun
Tags: Asakusa, Kaminari-mon
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30Jun
I really like the blog Let’s Japan. It’s a blog that exposes all the bullshit English teaching companies and ALT dispatch companies pull because they can. The blog posts go allll the way back to 2000. The blog authors talk about their experiences teaching English that reach in to the mid 90’s. The blog continues to this day and it covers and exposes what is happening in the English teaching world today.
They are really good writers and their posts dripping with sarcasm are hilarious. The blog also has a well developed forum and the whole site is a good source of information
Tags: Letsjapan.org
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29Jun
When you begin researching a company in the English teaching business in Japan you find there is a lot of information out there. Just like any job the more information you have the better off you will be.
Below is a compilation of links to various sites and forums talking about Interac. Interac is an ALT dispatch company and not an Eikaiwa. Assistant language teachers are sent off to various Junior High and High Schools to help the main teacher.
Not everything that you read could possibly be true but some of it must be.
In my opinion it makes for interesting reading. After you go through everything it will help you to form your own opinion about the company.
Eikaiwa Wiki - Interac - This site provides a lot of info about Interac. This site has a lot of teacher experiences all pretty much negative. The site also talks about Interac’s alleged ties to the Mormon church.
Forum discussing one teachers experience dealing with Interac
An excellent post talking about the differences between an ALT position and an Eikaiwa position.
This article talks about an Interac employee who was fired while dealing with the death of his second child. The story is so horrible it’s hard to believe.
This link leads to a thread about the same firing of an Interac employee just on the LetsJapan forum. The initial post was started by the firing victim. Looks like he posted on LetsJapan after his post on Gaijinpot were first censored and then removed outright. I really like how you can’t stop the spread of information on the internet.
This link leads to the Expat Japan forum and a thread talking about the above Interac firing. This is hands down the longest thread about this topic. The first part is relevant but a lot of it isn’t. This forum also seems to be where people banned from Gaijinpot for whatever reason seem to gather.
This is a thread that leads to a debate comparing JET VS Interac.Found a Japan Times article about Interac ALTs. There’s a guy dressed as Santa to teach his students. The article also discusses a married couples experience working through Interac. Their experience is not a good one. This article is a really good one it explains how dispatched ALTs are a cheaper alternative to JETs according to the article. Seems ALT dispatch companies serve as a third party entity that handles all the dirty work of hiring and getting rid of ALTs, something local governments don’t want to deal with. The article goes in depth in to the pitfalls of being an ALT. I think this article is a must read if you’re seriously considering becoming an ALT.
Found a another report that discusses what two former Interac employees experienced. Seems they’re experiences were reported on by NHK and used to be viewable on Youtube. The report discusses the problems they encountered from not being enrolled in the National Health Insurance plan.
Found an interesting Interac thread on ELT News makes for informative reading. Lot of information and opinions listed here.
Found a blog that summarizes all the conspiracy theories out on the web that claim Interac Japan and its parent company Selnate is just a cash cow for the Mormon Church
Finding good reviews of Interac has been difficult. The bad definitely seems to outweigh the good. There are a few who would vouch for Interac but they seem to be outnumbered.
Technorati Tags: English teaching, Japan, Interac, ALT, Eikaiwa, Mormon, Japan Times
Tags: ALT, Eikaiwa, English Teaching, expatjapan, Interac, Japan, Japan Times, Mormon, Selnate
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29Jun
I love how the internet gives us access to so much otherwise inaccessible information. Information and opinions you couldn’t otherwise get anywhere else. Information that can go a long way to protecting you from a terrible experience. Information an offending company would rather you didn’t have. Especially if you are a fresh faced University graduate.
I think forums can be a great source of information about Eikaiwa English schools/Placement Agencies such as Interac, Geos, Gaba, ECC, Berlitz, AEON. I would encourage all people thinking about English teaching to read up as much as possible before choosing.
When you cruise various forums there are a lot of complaints leveled against various Eikaiwas. Although your mileage may vary when you read the forums that are out there you can see most people end up hating Eikaiwa work. Why are there so many complaints?
I’m guessing it’s because there is no incentive to treat you well. In general every year fresh faced University graduates come to Japan looking for a new experience and are hired for about 250,000 Yen (2500 USD) per month. Next year there will always be another crop of graduates. Out with the old and in with the new
JET seems to be the one anomaly. This Japanese government sponsored English Teaching exchange program seems to treat participants better in general when you read about people’s experiences. Again your mileage may vary
I’m going to list in this post what I think are pretty good sources of information about companies in the English teaching business in Japan. These sites are also pretty good sources of general Japan info.
Dave’ ESL Cafe - www.eslcafe.com
Japan Forum - www.japanforum.com
JREF - www.jref.com
ELT News - www.eltnews.com
Big Daikon - www.bigdaikon.com
LetsJapan - www.letsjapan.orgTechnorati Tags: Eikaiwa, English teaching
Tags: Eikaiwa, English Teaching
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28Jun
Put out metal garbage on the wrong day in Japan. Had a geezer come out all pissed off.
These old people have so little meaning left in their lives they will watch all people who drop off trash just to bitch about any small mistakes.
Any foreigner planning on coming to Japan should be aware Japanese are a pretty petty culture. Be aware minor things in your home country are obsessively watched and bitched about over here. Just the down side of living here.
Technorati Tags: garbage, Japan
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27Jun
This posting showed up on Debito.org and talks about an Interac employee who lost his job when he missed work when his baby died. Gaijinpot censored the thread talking about this as Interac is a current advertiser.
When you think about it Gaijinpot does have every right to censor items on their own site. Luckily the censoring stops there and you can’t stop the spread of information. If you can’t get the information on Gaijinpot you can get it at a variety of other sites.
Dave’s ESL Cafe - www.eslcafe.com
Japan Forum - www.japanforum.com
JREF - www.jref.com
ELT News - www.eltnews.com
Big Daikon - www.bigdaikon.com
LetsJapan - www.letsjapan.org
Technorati Tags: Debito.org, Interac
Tags: Debito, Gaijinpot Forum, Interac
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27Jun
Found an interesting posting where a forum poster compares Gaijinpot to Dave’s ESL cafe.
The poster stated, “To me, the main thing that differentiates ESL Cafe from Gaijjinpot.com is the good work that Paul H does as moderator here on the forum. Gaijinpot is full of trolls. For example, there was a thread regarding the Public Prosecutor’s investigation of Nova and near half of the thread contains a flame war between two former Interac employees.Gaijinpot hires a person to eliminate their forum for anything that might be construed as criticism against advertisers, and then it lets these flame wars continue. As well, you cannot even begin a thread on Gaijinpot that begins with a posting for a URL of a union. “
Technorati Tags: ESL Cafe, Nova, Interac
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26Jun
Found an article stating 80% of Japanese children have engaged in or been a victim of bullying. Bullying happens everywhere but Japanese bullying in schools is particularly ruthless. There are many documented cases of victims choosing suicide.
What you realize if you live in Japan is behind the phony politeness is a ruthless bully culture. This is particularly evident in Schools and Work.
If you want to summarize Japanese culture just remember Japanese culture revolves around bullying the weak and kissing ass to the strong.
Since pretty much everyone is the same race and culture anyone who is slightly different is stomped on ruthlessly.
I wonder if this bully culture exists in Chinese and Korean culture or if its a specific Japanese trait.
Technorati Tags: bullying
Tags: bullying
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26Jun
This is a photo from the top of Mount Fuji. Climbing Mount Fuji is brutal because it’s essentially a dusty volcano with no vegetation. Once you get to the top its tough to beat the view.
August 12, 2007
Technorati Tags: Mount Fuji
Tags: Mount Fuji
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25Jun
I just found a very very interesting discussion about Gaijinpot’s censorship activities on Debito.org. The discussion revolves around the censorship of posts that may be interpreted as negative about any of Gaijinpot’s advertisers such as Interac.
Who owns who?
GPlus Media owns Japan Today a site that tries to be a legitimate source for Japan related information. GPlus Media also happens to own Gaijinpot the self proclaimed best site for foreigners.
What did Gaijinpot allegedly do?
Interac fired an employee who missed work because one of their kids died. Some people posted about this in the Gaijinpot forums and the forums posts were subsequently deleted
What are the forum posters conclusions?
Gaijinpot is a sell out site that will censor negative posts about their advertisers. This is understandable since the advertising revenue is their bread and butter. It also means you can’t go to Gaijinpot to get the full scoop about Interac information and probably Gaba as Gaba is also an advertiser
Technorati Tags: Debito.org, Interac
Tags: Debito, Gaijinpot, Gaijinpot Forum, Interac
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