I was a teacher around that time and believe this teacher to be biased. I don’t have a reason as to why. I enjoyed my time there and felt the foreign teachers were treated very well. I taught there for 2 years from 2009 to 2011, so I don’t know if anything changed since then. But would like to respond to this post made in 2011. It really bugs me that this post is the 3rd google result when I google the school.

The 250000 – 270000 is quite nice to be honest. I was personally able to comfortably save between 15,000 – 20,000 USD teaching there for 2 years. And depending on who you are you might like this much better than being an ALT. You head your own classes of size 1 to 6 and plan the structure, games, and activities of the classes as you see fit. You also have many school events and friendship days that are quite fun. These are usually done when normal classes aren’t scheduled and are a nice change of pace.

1. The 2pm to 10pm schedule actually is quite nice. 20 classes a week means there is a lot of downtime. Myself and every other teacher there had plenty of time to take a step out and grab something to eat from a convenience store or fast food place. Of course we needed to bring it back and eat it at our desk, but this was gladly done because we only had to work from 2 to 10. There wasn’t any deception by FEN.

2. It’s understood that at the busy times of the day from maybe 5pm to 9pm, you might have to help with things between classes. Every teacher knows this and has their lessons planned and prepared before this time. Most of the time, out of 4 teachers, 2 would have to help with the homework books, while the others could straighten out their materials or go to the bathroom. No one ever had a problem with this. There really isn’t any office work they wanted us to frequently do, so 2pm to 5pm was the usual class planning and preparation period. And that was always more than enough time.

3. We did have ‘paid holidays’ and they were nice. Eikaiwa classes ran in similar terms as the normal schools. So if the normal schools had a holiday or term break, so would the Eikaiwa. This gave all the teachers plenty of days around to plan vacations. I was able to take close to 3 weeks vacation for Christmas/New Year (paid) and also another week during the summer in August or September I think. If you did have to take time off when you were scheduled for classes, you can imagine it might be a little difficult considering there are only 5 or so teachers, many of which have classes at the same time. But it could be worked out. It’s a job, so you really only would want to do that for special occasion like a wedding or something.

4. Yeah, the management is actually really nice and generally let us be as long as there weren’t any problems and we were doing our classes well. There is a difference between checking your email a few times a day vs. being on your email or surfing websites all the time. One is normal, the other is something you should not be doing at a job.

5. The family drama is not much to talk about. Yes, the mother is really nice and really professional and will help you with whatever you need. She and the head Eikaiwa teachers were the only ones the other teachers ever really needed to talk to or interact with. The teachers’ room is not overcrowded and I believe they moved into a brand new building a couple years ago after I left. They do provide opportunities for housing if needed, and sponsor visas as the poster says. The rest of the points here are pretty irrelevant, inappropriate, and ill-intentioned.

I would recommend this school and would not recommend you take advice from the original poster.