Westgate Reviews

Pros

The residents are fun to work with

Cons

The staff sometimes sucks

Pros

Great place to work, treat you like family l.

Cons

None at all the best place

Pros

Good enough to get some experience for short time

Cons

Extremely low pay benefits expensive not kind to employees

Pros

Many things are organized for you so you don't have to worry about not knowing Japanese when you first arrive. They take care of opening a bank account for you, dealing with the registration process and get an apartment for you. The staff that work in the office are nice and polite when you arrive, but beyond that you don't see them again. This is an easy to way to get started in Japan.

Cons

The apartment they give you costs a little more than 80,000 yen. When you check the local ads, you can see that the general expected rent for your area is way under that. We're talking about a 30,000 yen difference. The staff from Westgate never mention or engage in any discussion about this. I lived in Saitama but worked in Tokyo. There is also no support available apart from a weekly curriculum meeting, and that's if your coordinator actually makes it to the meeting. Don't get me wrong, it's nice not to be micromanaged, but sometimes you have some requirements or classroom difficulties that it's hard to discuss when nobody is around. You should also not expect to get a pay rise of you renew your contract more than once. They give you a 5,000 yen rise for the second contract, but it ends there. I've talked to people that have worked for more than five semesters and they're still being paid the same. That seems very unfair given that the Japanese staff in the office/HR can expect regular pay rises. It's sad to see that foreign teachers are treated just as disposable commodities.

Pros

Great students, good colleagues, decent material, decent pay

Cons

little freedom in interacting with the students, not much progression, part time pay is pretty annoying.

Pros

The only "pro" is if one has some impulse or need to be in Japan.

Cons

1) low wages (one cannot save money) 2) charged inflated rental charges that are a financial kickback for WG, 3) possible exhaustive long commutes, 4) imprisoned on campus all day, not allowed to leave thus on duty at all times, 5) isloated on the job from Japenses colleagues,