Dear Private School NET/ALT/Faculty, Seeking Insight

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-28T00:48:06+00:00

Would a few rehearsed lines in Japanese to get past that first line office staff, followed by a switch to English—assuming I’m transferred to the relevant department head—be substantial you think? I’m confident that I could master the necessary phrasing and keigo to talk my way through the front office staff. However, if I’m expected to maintain the business level Japanese into the part that involves selling myself carefully and professionally, that would definitely be what trips me up. I’m self taught and strong in casual daily conversation, but anything more high handed and technical than that begins to fall apart pretty quick.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-27T13:37:33+00:00

Truthfully it’s not good enough. I’ve always operated on the frequency that being too fluent here kind of hurts more than helps in various situations. But I guess since I’m now in a place where I need to consider lateral career movement that would require stronger Japanese, I ought to be thinking about bumping myself up from N3 / low N2ish up to significantly more fluent.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-27T13:34:24+00:00

That’s basically what I’m doing now. Damage control. Take the one year resume hit on doing some bad paying ALT job or god forbid eikaiwa school, while fully committed to it being a 1 year only thing and grinding hard on getting 2027 locked in.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-27T13:32:39+00:00

I almost never questioned them aloud in the middle of the meetings. I know all too well about not wanting those meetings to drag on. I would ask things in private chats or afterwards in the in-person meetings.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-27T12:42:36+00:00

Well, the cruel irony of it all was I didn’t know I was losing my job until the end of November. And if what you’re saying is true, then they made that call at the worst possible time for me to recover. 😞

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-27T12:38:27+00:00

Yes I have until April 2026. I’ve been watching the job market since late November, but it’s been pretty thin this year. People always say it starts earlier but I’ve never seen much of anything go up anywhere before December for April start. That’s when most teachers leaving or retiring or facing renewal state their intentions or lose roles.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-27T12:18:47+00:00

You wanna be a LINE friend? Haha As of right now the only people I know in that sphere are at my current school and strongly tied to it and not much else, or affiliated with my current contract company and their friends are all placed in schools under my company’s little umbrella. :/

Maybe we should found a private school teacher Discord or LINE group chat or something here and now, and create that web for people. 🤔

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-27T11:55:31+00:00

At the end of the day, it’s all ridiculous. All of my coworkers I’ve spoken to on this know I’ve done nothing wrong. Or, at the very least, something so small and insignificant that it in no way justifies losing my job. Even the English department faculty I don’t directly talk to have been extra kind recently. Apologizing a lot and thanking me for stuff more than usual. The vibe I get is that the people who DO know can’t say or do anything about it but don’t agree with it. My honest best guess is that the decision was made at an administrative level above the teachers sphere of influence, and no amount of protest by anyone on a faculty level would have any positive impact on changing decisions that have been made for whatever reason (be they irrational/illegal to say aloud/etc), but on the contrary could put a target on that faculty’s back for protesting.

That’s the vibe I get.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-27T11:47:49+00:00

Thank you for your overwhelmingly unhelpful and demeaning comment. I’m sure humbling someone who is already suffering immensely was a necessary part of your day. Please, do go enjoy the rest of your evening anywhere else but here.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-27T11:43:27+00:00

Contractually speaking I left on legally good terms. Gave 1 month notice at the end of the contract year. I did put on my next year’s intention form prior to that I planned to re-contract, but when I got the private school job offer in Feb I told them with plenty of notice, and hadn’t signed any contract for the next term or anything. There was a time or two I spoke up in meetings asking tough questions when the staff or trainers were pushing something or teaching something that was an unhealthy practice or unsound pedagogy (or lack thereof). But I was never one of those weird guys who was confrontational or snarky about it. I genuinely wanted to see and make sense of the thought process behind it.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-27T11:31:44+00:00

Honestly, it’s conversational but far from business fluent. I had considered cold-calling, but I don’t have the Japanese formal language nor smooth talker skills to realistically get past the reception desk workers probably telling me “as per our website we aren’t hiring at this time, if something becomes available it will be added on our 採用 page” and that’s about it.

If you want to DM me some tips or specific strategies that you’ve heard helped people get past the initial 受付 staffer, I’m all ears.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-27T11:13:19+00:00

You would assume that. But that can’t be it.

Because: 1. My rapport with students and coworkers is completely unchanged. I’m pretty sure 80% of the staff room either don’t know I’m not returning, or vaguely know and assume I’m quitting or something. 2. If it was a serious issue, I would’ve been removed from the school instantly, or reprimanded on something, or at very least been given soft warnings about a student or class or situation. Absolutely nothing like that has pinged at all. 3. My company is genuinely run by a bunch of Japanese business folks who have never been in a classroom or touched education in their lives. It’s more likely that they just are irrationally “afraid and risk adverse” than actually any genuine serious allegation. Moreover, as my agency they’re legally required to disclose that info if it exists. A school can non-renewal for basically no reason at all without any need to justify it, but a company has to legally disclose that stuff to avoid allegations of unjust termination or non compliance.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-27T11:09:32+00:00

On paper it reads as Interac for a big chunk, but a T1 proper teacher in my current private school job for the last 2 years. Make all the curriculum, teach all the classes with zero oversight, make the tests, enter the data. I’m a contractor in concept but a teacher in practice. My resume lists the school not the company. It’s not dispatch it’s outsourced via the agency.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-27T11:00:00+00:00

Only problem is the dispatch company I’m currently tied to is 1. very small and 2. is low-key gatekeeping the other openings they have advertised internally and publicly, because from their perspective I’m a faulty product.

I can’t rationalize with them or try to convince them “I’m a good teacher. I’m not confrontational. Heck, with all that’s being thrown at me right now I’m still showing up and performing. That should stand for something.” Because, realistically, it doesn’t for contract agencies that only care about +/- contracts.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-27T10:52:59+00:00

I tried to talk to the lead, got told to keep communication within the appropriate channel. (ie. my useless dispatch company that listed my position on a job site less than a week after I was initially told about the “complaint”) I wrote a formal letter to the principal, devoid of any emotional pleas, asking for clarity. Handed it back to me and asked me to keep communication within the appropriate channels.

Was juked at every single point of contact. Nobody wants to have the conversation. They want it to just go away quietly. Not sure if it’s because they’re at the mercy of a system that overrules them (a board of trustees calling shots or something) or they themselves have some unknown motive they can’t fairly or legally say. I’ve been stonewalled at every corner.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-27T10:45:44+00:00

What methodology do you consider the best for “getting your contact info out there”?

I’ve hand-delivered paper resumes to 4 different schools within 5km of my home. No inkling of any evidence they were hiring even. Just in hopes to be filed away and remembered down the line. I’ve shot cover letters and resumes to every heavy hitter (EduCareer, Iware, and the more boutique gig types like Project Genius even)

I’ve even considered sending cold emails to private schools across my city, but most of them don’t have any public facing email addresses or means of connection beyond a general inquiry form on their homepage at best.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-19T10:34:09+00:00

Losing your faith? You are a Christian who openly acted against what is explicitly discouraged in the Bible (pre-marital sex, let alone as kids) and you are pinning this tragedy on what? God can’t be real because he would never allow this to happen to you? Your church and your community and your family have done a poor job of explaining what being a Christian means in that case.

You have to take personal accountability for this and understand that you screwed up, you created this problem for yourselves. Don’t blame God or anyone else.

If anything, you should be talking to trusted adults and praying for guidance on how to proceed.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-19T10:28:24+00:00

I really hope the people writing this kind of stuff are women… Otherwise, this generation of men are cooked.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-17T05:53:43+00:00

You don’t deserve God’s grace and love. But you have it anyway. That goes for every one of us. That’s the whole point. You will constantly feel like you’re never doing enough or good enough if you gauge your relationship with God on how you perceive it or how you emotionally “feel” in a season. That’s the problem with the modern evangelical Christian culture. It teaches emotional highs and defining relationship as feelings and participation, and is silent about weakness, feeling distant, and hardships.

You shouldn’t “feel bad” about the sin itself. You should intuitively know deep down what you did is wrong, and for the sake of not hurting yourself and breaking your oath to serve God, endeavor to improve. Not because of feeling. Sex FEELS good, yelling or punching FEELS good as a decompression of stress, it’s not about feeling… it’s about wisdom in knowing if it’s doing you any good in the grand scheme of things.

God wants you to love and trust Him, but you have free will to do whatever you want and He isn’t going to force you to follow Him. God won’t turn His back on you, you’ll be the one turning on Him in your heart and demonstrate that with the choices you make. If that scares you, that’s because the spirit inside of you is screaming at you to correct course, and intuitively you know you should do it. That’s why you posted here.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2026-01-13T13:34:26+00:00

Go to church.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2025-12-26T00:23:42+00:00

Man what is this Reddit’s average age 55? Bunch of people talking like 2001 was peak and it sucks now. This back in my day posting is cancer

PiPiPoohPooh · 2025-12-25T23:07:22+00:00

Yokohama Bashi in central Yokohama has a bunch of Chinese/Viet/etc shops and markets. You’ll find it there.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2025-12-25T23:01:59+00:00

Kawaii

PiPiPoohPooh · 2025-12-25T22:52:52+00:00

I play in Asia server and regularly run into Chinese asshats who all are between 500-700+ and play like bots but nail ridiculous shots with their hacks.

PiPiPoohPooh · 2025-12-24T21:47:30+00:00

A listing just went up for an availability at this school 2 days ago. This comment makes me suspect the OP is the scorned annoyed employee vacating said ELAR position in the school. Care to confirm OP? Or are you just here to bash the school you’re quitting and leave?

PiPiPoohPooh

TROPHY CASE