Has anybody heard of Mike Lyons English School in Gifu City Japan?

Question

I am looking into ESL teaching positions in Japan and came across this school and will be doing a telephone interview with them soon. I was wondering if anybody has heard of/been involved with this school and can give me some insight into what they're like. Anything is helpful. Thanks!

Answer 1

I used to live in Gifu City and I have never heard of it. It could be a new thing though.

Here's how many English schools spring up: foreign man (who probably worked as an English teacher before) marries Japanese lady and they go into business together. She gets all her friends to send their kids there.

How successful the school is depends largely in part on the personalities and business sense of the proprietors. Some people are cool, some people are jerks, it just depends.

I'd ask them how long they have been in business, how many students they have total, how many employees they have, how big their school is (ie, is it just a rented room in an office building, or do they actually have their own building?) Do they have more than one location? Did they originate in Gifu?

And at this point you are still in the US, so they would have to help you get a working visa. Where would you be living? Would they help you find housing? Be aware of the fact that renting an apt in Japan is quite complicated and expensive. . .you might have to pay 3 mos + as a deposit. How are they going to pay you, direct deposit or what?

And of course there are the usual questions, what your schedule would be, how many days a week and hours a day you'd work, do they train you at all, when are your holidays, what is your salary. And so on.

I don't think it is rude to ask all this if you just say, it's a big step for me and I am trying to find out as much as I can. I want to be prepared.  . .if you preface your questions w statements like that I don't think they'd take offense, unless of course they had something to hide. . .!

You should also search this company on gaijinpot.com

Answer 2

http://www.lyons-japan.com/English_schoo...

Do your best and good luck!