Which is better JET or AEON?

From what you heard from your friends or experience in terms of benefits and pay and other related stuff. I plan on applying in one or both

Thanks in advance.

Mmm...with JET, I guess it depends on where you end up and whether you care about that. AEON just isn't as widespread as JET, so there is a better chance of staying within a city.

But I think JET has better hours (i.e. school days and school hours). Plus the gov't usually subsidizes housing and such, and that helps a lot. Everybody I have known who participated in JET managed to save a fair amount of money.

I don't know any real specifics about AEON, but I get the feeling that you would end up teaching afternoon or evening classes plus weekends, unless you want to try teaching little kids (which is never as inocuous as it sounds).

Meh...I have heard some good and bad things about both....

mizune wrote:

Mmm...with JET, I guess it depends on where you end up and whether you care about that. AEON just isn't as widespread as JET, so there is a better chance of staying within a city. But I think JET has better hours (i.e. school days and school hours). Plus the gov't usually subsidizes housing and such, and that helps a lot. Everybody I have known who participated in JET managed to save a fair amount of money. I don't know any real specifics about AEON, but I get the feeling that you would end up teaching afternoon or evening classes plus weekends, unless you want to try teaching little kids (which is never as inocuous as it sounds). Meh...I have heard some good and bad things about both....

Thank you very much for the reply.

Haven't heard much about AEON, but I heard JET can be really hellish. Make sure you're really set into going to Japan to teach, that'd be my advice.

On a lighter note...

www.kindofcrap.com wrote:

Thursday, May 20th: So You've Decided to Throw Your Life Away Today I sat down to write an office-mandated Friendly Welcome Letter for my imminently-arriving JET successor; who will, as you might expect a successor to do, be taking over all my schools (and apartment) when I leave at the end of July. Here is the first draft of said welcome letter, verbatim: Dearest Successor: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Boy, are YOU screwed. Your loving predecessor, Galvin B. Chow P.S. I broke the television before I left.

Thanks for the tip.

I've also had experience teaching english to foreigners, hope it helps me a lot. And you are right in saying that one must be focused in teaching.

I just hope that I get assigned to teach college or high school students, so that ill have an easier time teaching compared to kids or senior citizens.

I have friends in JET, some are leaving soon, with more on the way into JET. I also have one friend who was accepted to Aeon and departs in October. From what she said, the pay sounds pretty good, however that is by U.S. standards. I dunno how it weighs into Japan living, especially because she won't be in a boondock town, lol. I don't know how her rent will be figured and all that.....but the likelyhood of your being placed in a chosen location is much higher than Jet. I also don't know yet how Aeon treats their employees and all of that stuff. She's the first person I know to try Aeon. She researched a lot, and she seems really excited and looking forward to Aeon.

I suppose Jet's pay would be proportional to the living costs where you are placed. I never heard any friends of mine cry they were too broke to pay bills, plus they also had student loans to pay while abroad. I would assume Aeon is similar, but it might be harder to stretch your paycheck in Tokyo, for instance. Jet seems to mostly have people teaching elementary school and middle school students, with the rare high schoolers. I don't know if any Jet Alts teach college level. Probably depends on placement.

I've heard a lot about Nova though, and I knew a girl whose sister was in Nova.....she said it was horrible and that Nova doesn't give a f*** about their employees and treats them like crap. I also heard about fights about contract issues and having to work holidays without holiday pay...and some stuff about paid time off. Most people seem to pick Nova for the possibility of working in a big city, in my opinion.

From what I've heard, the best treatment and stuff by employers is JET. The main things people bark about are being placed in the middle of nowhere and if they get a hole of an apartment They make sure you always have someone to turn to when you need assistance for something or anything. I would say Aeon is runner up from what I hear, followed by Geos and Nova. I don't know anybody in Geos....but I haven't heard as many bad things about it rumor-wise compared to Nova Jet can be really tough as someone above said, but my guess would be that a big part of that depends where you are placed (my opinion).

Yeah if you're planning on going through JET, expect an inaka (rural)
placement, I'm not even sure they have placements in cities.
And I think it'd help to be proficient in japanese, tho I've heard people
have fell ass-backwards into it without a lick of the japanese language
^_^ But I guess learning it would just be for functionality and less stress.

I have also chatted with someone who's in Aeon, and he's 30+ years old and he does not speak japanese.

From what I have read on their websites Aeon does not require knowledge of nihonnggo while one kind of JET is required to speak nihonggo, while the other isn't. I do know basic Japanese because I took it as a foreign language and at the same time I'm taking a minor in Japanese Studies, I do hope that it will help me in passing the selection process and everyday living in Japan. With practical application, I think that my nihonggo will improve.

As for the pay, AEON pays 250,000 Yen excluding bonuses while JET pays 300,000 Yen from what I read from their websites.

Since most of you are fluent in Nihonngo, are any of you guys and girls interested in applying in AEON or JET?

Ok, my brother used to work at the Japanese Embassy screening and interviewing applicants for th JET program, so here are a couple tips for all of you planning on applying (based purely on the stories he has told me about some of the applicants):

1. They care about your English skills, not your Japanese skills. It's a nice little plus, but definitely not a requirement. If your essay sucks or you mumble when you talk, who cares how great you are in Japanese becasue they want you there to teach ENGLISH.

2. They don't care about how much Japanese culture you already know either. You can learn that when you are there. While it's great to have a leg up on some of the customs, it's more important to be the type of person who is flexible and open to different customs. Adaptability is a major concern (probably because most people think they'll be placed in a teeming metropolis).

3. Um...I don't want to be offensive or anything, but the last bit of advice is to lay low on the fanboy/girlish sentiments. There are more than enough applications with that sort of stuff in them already, and while you'll be remembered, it probably won't be in a good way... ^_^;;;;

Good Luck!

edit: I should add a disclaimer that my brother worked at the Japanese Embassy in the US, so I don't know if other countries are similar.

Thanks for the tips.

I do hope I get selected when I apply.

thanks for the info, i'm thinking of applying. not yet though as i really want to get to grips better with my japanese and need to save a load of money, just for safety like.
well it sounds like i could do ok with JET as i'm always open to other cultures, especially groovy ones like japanese
and if you need to be good at english, well i got an A in english and a 2.1 in creative writing and write novels so what more could they ask for?
a kiss? ok

i'll try, not for next year, but probs the year after so it will be the 2007/08 period. 2008/09 at the latest.

_________________

If you take JET you might have to TEACH in Japanese most of the time. many people take japanese a few times but they arent taught how to TEACH anything. just how to get by inside of a house full of people superior to them. Have you tried teaching a japanese person anything in their language? you have to learn an entirely new vocabulary set. I dont know what youve been reading, but Jet program does offer 5g's more but highschool students are just as annoying as any other level of school. 9/10 people(more specifically it seems women) that join JET are way in over their heads cause they can't take the stress. Soemtimes the teachers make you do all the work for months straight, the classes can be monotonous, and there are sometimes students (in any grade) in the back of the class making a huge racket, homie. It's not a fantrasy getway to sushi and teachers waving to you as you enter campus, you know.
can you speak clearly understandable japanese? if you just want to go teach people english and if youre as open as you say you are to other cultures, africa could use peeps like you. Maybe you should go someplace your help would be more effective like Africa? lmao let the flames begin