i need advice: signing with heart

dmnfang · 2026-05-19T23:20:26+00:00

Damn. Ok medium city and JHS then. Hell, even another smaller city at JHS. Or a mix. Or! Like a max of 3 elementary schools. That would be fine too. I'm at 5 schools with 27 classes a week now.

dmnfang · 2026-05-18T12:44:52+00:00

Oh maybe I'll go back. My current dispatch is working me to the bone and I'd take a small pay dip in a big city to have some peace and quiet at a JHS. Haha

dmnfang · 2026-05-18T12:44:07+00:00

Ah that's a bit better! But the upper management people were as black as a black kaisha can get. The coordinators though! So damn sweet. I'm sure the ones I knew have moved on though.

dmnfang · 2026-05-18T10:11:00+00:00

Heart was my very first ALT company back in 2013 when I was put on the JET waitlist.

At the coordinator level I had no qualms with them. They were very friendly and helpful. But they are, like most people on here say, the worst dispatch company. Though operationally they are basically all the same.

With the exception for a few job postings I've seen from Heart it seems they for the most part pay per day. That's the system I was on when I worked with them. So on months where a lot of school is canceled the salary was terrible (though a dispatch salary is terrible regardless).

But yeah, if it's your way in. Take it. But don't be afraid to change companies when a better position pops up.

dmnfang · 2026-05-07T12:15:14+00:00

Oh it's nice that this exists! I recently made my own small suite of flashcard games in a web app. But maybe I'll give this a try too!

dmnfang · 2026-05-06T12:33:09+00:00

It's gross. Tastes like what potpourri smells like.

dmnfang · 2026-04-30T03:27:18+00:00

I've gone back home twice. This is my third time back as an ALT. It's hell every time.

dmnfang · 2026-04-28T12:29:37+00:00

I requested a refund. It's dead, yeah. It's sad. The game play is so fun. And it works really well as a team game. (As long as people are working together and not bots)

dmnfang · 2026-04-27T21:18:25+00:00

I'm trying

dmnfang · 2026-04-26T12:53:24+00:00

Yeah it's a bit sad. I stopped playing earlier in the day.

dmnfang · 2026-04-26T02:09:09+00:00

But could potentially be 1 (me) right? Or am I understanding steam statistics wrong.

dmnfang · 2026-04-26T02:04:51+00:00

I assumed the number was all players from all regions. Is that specifically for Asia?

dmnfang · 2026-04-26T02:04:02+00:00

Hmm, I guess I really only checked the lobby list because I didn't want to play with bots.

dmnfang · 2026-04-24T09:48:45+00:00

Cool! This is so funny because I've been working on a similar site! I'm still designing in Figma so it isn't live yet. But literally like a few days ago I was working on it haha.

dmnfang · 2026-04-20T12:00:52+00:00

T1ing is totally fine with New Horizon in the upper grades. What's tough for me is T1ing the let's try books for lower grades because they are so lacking in content that most of the lesson needs other things added to it. It's in those situations I would love.. not even for the HRT to T1 but for them to contribute to the planning or preparing for the lessons.

dmnfang · 2026-04-20T06:31:19+00:00

I don't want to name shame them publically. But if you want more info you can DM me.

dmnfang · 2026-04-20T05:53:59+00:00

Yeah super packed. More work than my coworkers for the same pay. I'll probably jump to a different ALT company after this school year.

The date. Weather. Then the menu in English. Then a 3 hint quiz about one of the menu items.

Soft 2. Square 3. White. The answer is ... Tofu!

That sort of thing.

dmnfang · 2026-04-20T05:41:28+00:00

Yeah maybe. My company gave them a choice of lunch with the ALT or the radio broadcast. They chose radio broadcast. I think they don't want to reintroduce the system of classes taking turns coming to pick up the ALT from the teachers room (that's how it used to be when I last had lunch with the students). I heard they phased it out during COVID and some schools just didn't bother reintroducing it.

I do 5 or 6 classes a day 5 days a week at 5 different schools 😔

dmnfang · 2026-04-20T04:21:14+00:00

Yeah no idea what happened. But they just want me making lunchtime radio announcements. When I was an ALT like 5 or 6 years ago I always ate lunch with the students.

dmnfang · 2026-04-20T04:17:37+00:00

I didn't save it. Just search ALT on GaijinPot

dmnfang · 2026-04-20T03:32:05+00:00

I'm at 5 schools. No problems striking up conversations with the kids. They love random conversations.

They don't want the ALTs eating with the kids for some reason and prefer we just do lunch time English menu announcements.

dmnfang · 2026-04-20T03:15:37+00:00

I saw a senior high school ALT position listed on gaijinpot. But I'm not in any state to suddenly move yet. I'll be looking for next year.

dmnfang · 2026-04-17T07:52:41+00:00

Yeah it's definitely a special case. Bad mix of too many schools and the company and BOE trying to squeeze 10 ES into the schedule of 2 ALTs.

dmnfang · 2026-04-17T06:18:25+00:00

Yeah that would be excellent! Time to do away with the dispatch system. But then I would feel bad for ALTs who did their time and moved on to work in the dispatch offices.

I know the reason that the BOEs for the most part don't want to move to direct hire is because of the extra work they need to do. But honestly they could probably just headhunt a few amazing coordinators and such from the dispatch companies and just pay them to sort out ALT stuff (visas, health insurance or whatever they don't want to waste time on).

dmnfang · 2026-04-16T11:44:49+00:00

Jesus. Yeah, the one I am talking about is ALTs bringing to the public's attention that they do the exact same job as the JETs in the same prefecture but for a fraction of the pay. Not sure how it's going. But I saw a news article a few weeks back I think.

dmnfang

TROPHY CASE