Peppys Kids Club Help

I hear a lot of complaints about the training. Can someone tell me what the training is like? What exactly happens during the two weeks?

Also, can you describe the apartments? Are they clean or rat/roach infested places? I would appreciate any feedback you can give please. I just got my degree so I'm thinking of applying with this company.

I am currently a Peppy Tt. And as all I see are mails from Trevor who is very Pro-Pep. I thought I'd add a bit of reality. NO ONE in my district (+12 Native Teachers and countless Japanese Teachers) are happy/satisfied with this company. While, yes, there are days when you work only 3 hours, there are days of commuting up to 6 hours, very little room for holidays (you must put in a request for a day off 3 months in advance), slow response from the head office in Nagoya, and a change in what is being taught ( I can not elaborate as it is considered a breach of contract to talk about it!!) and it ain't good.
You really have to know what you want to get out of your time in Japan before taking any job here. Peppy is not bad but they are currenlty undergoing some big changes and everything seems to be in chaos.
I may currently work (actual class time) 3 hours but I spend 6 hours of my day getting to the classroom and in order to have a good lesson take up to 2 hours to plan. Peppy does not recognize any of this!
The biggest issue is the fact that some Native teachers may teach only 8 hours in a week while others can teach 3times that. It all depends where they put you.
I recom. that you ask to be in the city as it seems that these folks have the shortest commutes, and lightest schedules.

Wow, thanks a lot for the insightful post Pep Teachet. I was beginning to think the job was too good to be true. SIX hours commuting? Do you mean six hours five times a week?! That is insane. Won't they let you relocate? Can you not request a change in the schedule? I am really hoping you mean six hours of total travel in a week.

FYI what ''Pep teachet'' said is all true and for the most part I agree with what he said. (new lessons etc)

Again depends where your put. commuting times vary depending on where you are. 6 hours a day is the MAX one may travel. but thats the exception. usually average is about 1-2 hours a day. plus a 3-4 hour work schedule. thats aboout 5-6 hours working.

Unfortunatey, things are changing at Peppy. They restructured and put more people in charge of micromanaging the teachers.... In my area, this has been awful. The supervisors bicker alot and are petty. We have meetings often and people are very unhappy about the situation. There is no way to address teacher concerns about their supervisors. People in our area have been bullied into leaving by supervisors who dont like them.

There used to be a person in charge of standing up for teachers if there were conflicts and problems. That position has been eliminated. Japanese teachers who resent English speakers because of the high wage they get (our Japanese coworkers get very litte pay, we get high pay, ), are now in charge of us.

These things were the things that made PEPPY differnt and better.

Lastly, its true that if a kid hurts himself or makes a story up about you, even if it is not your fault, you will be blamed. If you have students arriving at a classroom and students already IN the classroom, you are liable if the students inside hurt themseves while you are following policy meeting the new arrivals outside. Same with departures.

There are ways in which I prefer peppy. Good hours, and if you get along in your area well, you wil be fine. If you have a bad Performance supervisor, and cant pay the game, it can suck.
On the other hand Ive never heard of a bad area besides mine!

Can anyone tell me something about the training. As in why is it so bad? Also during the training do you get any days off for the 2 weeks like the weekend, or do you work 14 days straight. I figure if you get the weekend off you could visit the expo!

earlier, folks were talking about nova vs. other schools.

I work for nova and while I realize that nova has a bad reputation and you are likely to listen to that. Let me tell you I dont have any major problems with nova and a lot of my co-workers dont seem to either.

I think every company has its downsides but very rarely do the people who are indifferent give their opinion very strongly. I think this is true for every job and that you will always hear people whine and complain. The difference is that Nova is a very big company. there's practically one on every corner. as a result, there are more (former) employees and more noise gets made about it.

One reason I chose Nova rather than other schools is that I prefer teaching adults. While nova does have kids classes, most of the work I do is with adults. While I love kids, I prefer not to teach them. most of them dont really want to be there, their parents want them to. Adults on the other hand, enjoy being there. A lot of kids classes are taught in a way that the kids memorize a lot of vocab, stock phrases at most.

Older students on the other hand, WANT to learn to communicate with you. I have learned a lot from my students which is a big plus.

From what I have heard, some other schools give you a lot of freedom and expect you to create a lesson plan by yourself.

Nova on the other hand, provides the lesson plans so all you have to do is model the text and make corrections were necessary. I think this is good because when lessons are consistant, students understand what is going on and what is expected of them and they arent so shy and self consious. plus it ensures that students in every level in every branch are being taught by the same method and standards. Of course, the plans are only guide lines, altering the lessons here and there to meet your students needs is allowed.

Whoa. never hear of a commute like that before. I also work for PKC. Have heard that the Performance Supervisors having power trips, but none in my district. A couple bad apples think it easier to replace a teacher they dislike, rather than train them to be better.
My advice: check out thr reputation of a district before you go.

So a question I've got is where are the good locations?

Trev. mentioned that if you don't want to travel you should work in the city. But what about the prefectures?

Which locations should be avoided completely?

thanks for all the info about Peppy Kids. i'm accepted to both JET and Peppy Kids and i'm at lost to which school/organization i should go with. any suggestions? thanks!

I worked for peppy kids for 2 years. I just finished with the company 2 months ago. Great company. But if you are excepted with JET I would suggest that. It is a lot more money.

As for locations. I strongly suggest not working anywhere near Nagoya or Osaka. Very busy, shitty long days etc.. I worked in the south, it was great for surfing and the beach. I also heard the Tokyo Kanto area (Nish-Tokyo, Kanagawa, yokohama, Chiba or Saitama etc) is very good becuase its close to tokyo and you can party there as you wish.

After working as a District Leader for two years, I decided to quit Peppy partly out of frustration with the Head Office. The staff in the Head Office were slow to respond to the needs and requests of Native Teachers. They were a bit insensitive to what life is like in the field because they are in the office every day. Considering they don't require any teaching experience and the curriculum was simply average, they really had unrealistically high expectations of the Native teachers. But, if you can bear the office politics, it's possible to still enjoy your time in Japan. Since your classes are located in different areas of the city, you'll see more of Japan than a Nova teacher that might work at the same office everyday for a year. The occasional business trips allowed me to see a few other cities that I might not have seen otherwise. And, you'll also acquire more street smarts in terms of how to get around in Japan. Despite the cons, I still had a great time in Japan and have maintained friendships with a few of the Japanese teachers. It's been 5 years and I still see them either in Japan or they visit me.

I agree... always go with big companies like Jet.

It looks better on a resume later on.

If you don't want to go with them see if they'll take me instead! :D ha ha

Here's a little tidbit that concerns anyone with a college diploma who's stuck coming to Japan on a WHV. You can switch to a Work Visa once you get here! I didn't find this out until after my arrival. For some reason the Japanese Embassies in Canada don't care if you went to college. They want a B.A. The Government in Japan is a little cooler and if you bring your Diploma to the immigration office, they are more than likely to grant you a Work Visa. And seeing as Peppy hands you the same amount of work regardless of your Visa, it's totally worth it. Bring the official copy of your Diploma.

I just got a job with PKC and I requested to be placed in Osaka. Does anyone know how accommodating are they with placement requests?

After reading all the msg about the different companies, I'd liek to ask how good JET is... Does JET really pay that well compared to the other companies? But you work 35 hours a week... Is there bonus for JET?
Thanx...

Hello.

I am interviewing in Vancouver later on this week with PKC. From the research I've done on Peppy's, it seems to me like a pretty good place to have worked. I'm looking for responses from the ppl who have started this year - how is it going over there?

I guess my lack of actual experience teaching kids concerns me (a little)- but I do have teaching experience at a private college (some days I dealt with some decidedly childish behaviour). I have taken a course in TEFL - which had a lot of kids-related stuff, and there are add-on kids-type correspondence courses that I will take if PKC likes me. I'm not really worried about my lack of kids-related experience. I'm an easy-going guy, and I do like kids.

Are there any existing PKC teachers who have not had much or any experience working with kids that are doing well?

simon

I worked for PKC when I first came to Japan which was about 10years ago. At that time it was pretty good, but not as organized as it could have been. After 2 years of that I decided to quit and got a job with Nova. I have to admit, if you want to work with kids, PKC is a lot more fun that Nova's kids program.

Hi,
Anyone gonna start training in November 2005 for Peppy's Kids? I am currently waiting for the paperwork from the Japan side. I am very very anxious.

Hey Looi - I am to start in November too (start date of Nov14) - my interview went pretty well :)

I don't know where I'll be posted yet.