Do not advise - Account Manager bei Real Communication Solution: Mitarbeiterbewertung

-Interaction with local culture, community. -You gain insight into the Japanese public education system and experience teaching in a team-teaching format. -you have an opportunity to share your cultural background (provided that students and teachers are receptive enough) -they assist you with housing but don't subsidize

-you are caught in the middle of bidding wars between the BOE and the agency, meaning job security is very unstable. You may not have work in the following year if RCS loses out on a contract -you are a contract worker at the mercy of the agency and BOE and have no autonomy; at times you may be underutilized and just asked to read lines of a paper see: English monkey -RCS contracts are full of negative reinforcement that aim to punish and not reward -RCS also takes a cut of your monthly salary for as long as you work there and all they do is set you up with a meeting -jobs are situated mainly in saitama and rural areas which sometimes means a car is necessary (which RCS won't compensate you for) -some contract schools can house some of the most rebellious, inattentive, indifferent students ever (especially middle school) meaning that getting students evenly remotely interested in English is a chore -no workshops or professional development to improve or hone teaching skills -aside from an odd phone call, you never hear from management so why continue taking a cut of the ALT's monthly salary

Working at public school can provide alot of down time which could be good or bad. In my case it allowed me to work on my own projects away from home. Will help with japan related problems if promoted to. In general teachers at the public schools are friendly and welcoming.

Extremely low pay. Local School boards decide your ALTs pay, and dispatch companies like RCS take a percentage of this. This results in very low pay for the ALT, almost so low it makes it incredibly difficult to live in a city like Tokyo. Also sick days are not allowed, and if one is taken even providing you call RCS a day before, they will deduct that days pay, plus your monthly bonus. Rushed training didn't prepare me or other teachers for what teaching at a public school was really like. Also they don't cover transportation costs, which can really add up over a week. Finaly if the school you are dispatched to is a low level school, be prepared to deal with some of the worst unmotivated yankee like students in Japan. Students sleeping in class, mouthing off to the teacher, and all around disrespect even during a fun and exciting lesson.