Amity schools

I've got an interview with Amity soon and was wondering what their reputation is like? Are they good employers or do I need to be wary? I've heard all about Nova, good and bad, but more recently, it's obviously bad.

While I'm here - same question re. Aeon.

Thanks.

I think Aeon is good school and they have good reputation. But not so many class as NOVA.

I heard Berlitz is very prestige school but heard to enter.

I study my English with NHK :D

I worked at an Amity in Saitama from 2004-2006. I thought it was pretty good. I had a great manager and cool co-workers.

Even though Amity is owned by AEON, I think they are seen as two different things. A lot of AEONs have an Amity school in them but the teachers are considered AEON teachers (and mostly due both AEON and Amity classes). There are Amity only schools and I think they're not as prevalent as AEON schools. So some things that happen at AEON don't happen at Amity and vice versa. I had a friend that worked at AEON and she seemed to do things pretty differently from me (even when it came to using different books).

Compared to AEON Amity is a little more casual. You can't wear jeans and stuff, but most anime schools have you wear slippers instead of shoes. And we celebrate Halloween (we could wear costumes if we wanted to) and Xmas. Because it's a kids school I think the atmosphere wasn't as formal as it may be at AEON. While we did have demonstration lessons we didn't have to try to sell any products for the school...that was usually the job of the manager. I had my own classroom but at some smaller schools, you may have to share your room with another teacher.

Teaching mostly children can wear you down a bit. There's a lot of songs, jumping around...you need a lot of energy. My youngest student was 6 months old. The class was for half an hour and you spend most of the time just playing with the mom and baby in saying stuff in English. I think offically the oldest students the school has are senior high school. There are some adult classes but they're not that frequent (and they're usually parents). And you can also get bilingual students as well. Amity has a lot of different books to choose from (but the manager usually chooses the books). Amity also runs off a "loop" calendar which can be very good at times but also stressful trying to keep up with the schedule. 2-3 times a year you'll have follow-up training and in some cases a surprised school visit (I had one at my school). You are also required to due student reports and attendance but it's nothing difficult.

Depending on the location of your school you can have a lot of down time or a lot of students. I think Amity doesn't allow any more than 34 classes a week but that may have changed. I had about 29 classes when I started but go up to about 33 when I left. During downtime though I spent time making class props, psoters, and games (but this isn't required). There are some weeks in which you only have private students or just makeup classes. This happened around Xmas and summer vacation. With Amity you work Tuesday-Saturday about 8-9 hours a day (this may have changed since I worked there though).

The base salary for Amity is like 285,000 yen I think. It was originall 255,000 yen but the amount was raised due to some changes in the medical plan or something (you don't see the extra money thoug...it goes to the insurance). It's pretty easy to get bonuses and raises through Amity too. I had a nice apartment but this can depend. I know some people that hated their apartments.

If you do Amity, you will have to pay for your airfare, BUT Amity will pay for your return trip back (you have to complete the contract though). And you get a pretty nice going-away bonus. And I had no issues with late pay or anything.

Overall I had a pretty good experience with Amity. I know some people who complained about the jobs but their complaints weren't that crazy. Anyway I hope this info helps.

Thanks both for your answers. Very reassuring.