Enrich Your Teaching Career & Discover the Spirit of Japan

Japan's hospitality is somewhat legendary and it's largely embodied at Interac from the support staff all the way up to the CEO (story to follow on that one). I have lived in Japan previously and speak and read well enough that I made my way through university doing Japanese sales support and translation. That does little to change the fact that when my plane touched down I was on the other side of the world with a couple of suit cases and not much cash to my name. That's a fairly intimidating prospect.

Interac makes the transition easy though. We had someone there to meet our group and show us to the hotel we'd be staying at during orientation and in the morning we had someone to show us how to get to the office. The main office staff is a mix of native Japanese and foreigners all of whom are friendly and helpful. Even beyond the initial orientation phase some of the people in the home office kept in touch with me and a few of the others that came in with me and we would all occasionally get together to go eat or do karaoke.

The orientation itself was pretty useful. Obviously a portion of it was dedicated to administrative issues like how your health insurance works and such. That portion is not exactly a barrel of laughs but it was reasonably concise and conveyed useful and necessary information. The majority of orientation was devoted to teaching. That part is really useful if, like me at the time, you have little experience with teaching in a classroom setting. Basically it's a team of Interac's highest rated and most experienced teachers giving you a quick crash course on the cultural expectations of Japanese classroom as well as how to prepare good lesson plans and such. Again, they managed to condense a lot of useful information into a relatively short time period.

As for my actual assignment, I enjoyed it very much though I think the specifics of my assignment may be atypical. I was with Interac on a short internship contract so rather than being permanently placed at a few schools, I was placed with one of the branch offices near Chiba. While there, I had an elementary school that I taught at two days a week and spent the rest of my time working in the office doing various translation jobs. For example if any of the ALTs in the area needed to see a doctor but didn't have the language skills to handle that I would meet them at the hospital to serve as an interpreter.

Now to wrap things up, I promised a story about the CEO of the company. One day while I was working in the office we found out that the CEO was going to be in town for a surprise inspection and people were running around frantically tidying up and trying to make sure everything is in order. As you might expect, Japanese companies hold their employees to some pretty high standards (for example even the people taking your order at McDonald's are expected to practice their smile in the mirror so they can greet customers properly). As a result people were really freaking out over this inspection. Some of the Japanese employees told me horror stories about inspections at other companies where the supervisor would see some violation of company protocols and dock the branch manager a month's pay.

Needless to say I built up an image of the CEO as one scary dude in my mind. When he finally got there he and his assistant (who I assume was probably a VP or something) looked around for a bit and then had a meeting with the branch manager. I have no idea how the meeting went and I didn't ask as I didn't see that as my business. When they got out of the meeting though my manager said the CEO wanted to see me.

Oh hell, what did I do, right? Well as it turns out the CEO just wanted to take me to lunch to ask me about my experiences as an ALT and make sure I was being properly looked after and the like. He was actually a really nice guy. Anyway, the point of that story is this: Interac realizes their ALTs are critically important to the success of the company and need to be treated accordingly and that attitude starts right at the very top and proceeds all the way down to the rank and file.

I applied online, very soon after submitting the full application I was first given a basic phone interview with a very friendly woman out of the Utah Interac office, next I was given much online information to study. Then, a second phone interview was to quiz me on how much of the online information I had studied and remembered, which I passed fine. I was granted an in-person interview in Los Angeles with one of Interac's truly wonderful recruiters, Mr. Stephen Madsen. I brought my A+ game to the table and did my very best, somehow when I left there I knew that I had gotten the position! About 6 weeks later I received an email with an employment offer! It brought me to tears and I knew my life was about to change in a very big way. This was in early Spring 2013. I came to Japan in August that year and as soon as arriving in Okayama, Interac representatives were there meeting everyone with open arms and big smiles. I remember waiting by the big fountain by Okayama station alone before anybody had arrived, sort of worried. When the Interac people showed up and other future employees came one by one, I knew that I was in good hands and everything was going to be alright.

We had our one week intro training which I found very interesting and fun! Afterward, I was sent off to Maniwa City to begin my journey. Everything wet great in my schools and my Branch Manager Ryan was always just a phone call or email away. I was in contact with the office for anything I needed, and they were always there for me to send help or instructions. Even though I was a big city California boy and world traveler, I felt totally comfortable and taken care of in the middle of nowheresville, rural Japan.

Living in the countryside was very lonely at times but I found a nearby bus that went straight to Osaka so I would go there once every 3-4 weeks and have a very wild weekend! I could write a best selling book about my experiences in Japan (and I've only been here two years), but long story short, there are many English teaching companies in Japan but the one I would recommend most is Interac. There are so many companies that wouldn't think twice about ripping off a new employee but I have always seen Interac treat myself and others with extreme fairness. They all have big hearts and I really could not imagine being treated better by a company, especially as a newcomer to the education field.

Being in Japan has given me a chance to really dig in deep and learn about a TOTALLY different culture. I have descended completely into the world of Japanese competitive arm wrestling and it is a total rush. I may not be in Japan forever but if you're afraid of being alone or getting stranded in a foreign country, just make sure you're working for Interac because they have always got your back. If you do your job well and give what you're expected, you will always have a good time here. They are very fair.

The bad stuff: Japanese girls are only cute on the outside. They are as crazy as women anywhere else in the world so if you're coming here searching for love, pick another country. Japanese people in general have one HUGE social flaw: communication. I'm not saying don't come, just don't be surprised when people here aren't always genuine in what they will say to your face or when potential mates promise you the world and then disappear forever with no apparent cause. I have made some TRULY great Japanese friends in the strength world here and I consider most of them exceptions to this rule.

Food variety is pretty bad, there are two kinds of food in Japan: Japanese food and Japanese food. Say goodbye to steaks, real cheeseburgers, hot dogs (as you know them), pizza, philly cheese steaks... if I go on I will begin to weep.

If you're placed in a non-driving position, well, I hope you love walking! I'm a 315 lb power lifter, we do not enjoy long walks on the beach, we love sitting on a beach chair and eating meat! You will walk a LOT. In Okayama I had a company rental car (that Interac paid for! Some companies make the EMPLOYEE pay for those cars that are required for some positions, TOTALLY unfair. Interac takes the burden for that which is another proof that they are a great company).

Save your money and come try out Japan for a year! If you don't like it, you can return home with a whole new outlook on line and a priceless new set of life experiences. If you do like/love it, stay! If you never come, well, let's just say regret is one of the worst feelings in the world.

The Interac staff is very hard working but one thing I truly appreciate is how understanding and down to Earth they are. Whatever problems I've had, they have always been understanding and helpful, they have a great sense of humor too which really helps someone a little on the wild side like myself!

Look at any job website for teaching in Japan and you'll see that many companies don't provide visa support. This is a huge thing all by itself.
Some other companies promise a position and rent you a dorm room to stay in until they find you a position and also during training. If Interac says they found a place for you, then you can be assured that they'll place you. And they set me up in a hotel room for training.
They help you with getting an apartment and all the utilities connected.
This is another handful of huge hassles they help you avoid.
I remember one time the gas bill didn't come one month and the next month the gas company sent me a notice. I had no idea what to do. Certainly didn't want my gas turned off in the middle of winter. Called up the office and they took care of it really quickly.

All companies have a down side. You won't get paid for school vacation months for instance. Other than that I liked most of the people they hired to help me get set up. A couple took me out to lunch and brought me treats. I became good friends with the other ALT's.
I think Interact doesn't get enough credit for how decent they are and how much behind the scenes work they do

Had a pretty good time working for Interac. I got placed in a few good schools with a bunch of fun kids and a few troublemakers. Overall I feel like it was a year well spent. Biggest challenges were getting used to life in the school and obviously the language. Salary is good enough for living alone and other than the first month being a bit tight I was alright.

Not much to say about the management; I wasn't much in contact with managers, other than the occasional training sessions and notice e-mails, but then again when I did have issues they were usually handled fine. I got a lot out of the year but that was probably because I felt like I fit in well with the society and culture over here. Moved on to different ventures now but as an introduction to Japan I'd recommend Interac. Good way to get your foot in the door of Japan.

It started off a bit uncertain but then it picked up and got way better afterwards. I worked with 3 different branches and they were always available when I needed help.

The pay is average, if you make a budget and plan wisely, everything should go well. Just stay out of trouble and try to be friendly with the teachers at the schools. I have mostly positive experiences with this company and it is a very good way to experience Japan.

Japanese staff can be great, but western staff recently tend to be terrible.
Wages, moral and support are bad.
Got stiffed with my wages and flat when I left, and manager was less that useless.
The list of their adaquecies in never-ending. If you want to meet bad management, poor structure and moral, and find a company that makes an easy job hard- before meeting bad teachers, apply here.

Really terrible organization, they care very little about the people they place or working to place them. They will cancel your application without notice or reason, and give you a smart reply when you complain. They threaten to ban you if you put up much of a struggle. AVOID.