My Experience with GABA in Japan
Gaba is a name that is a bit infamous here in this subreddit, nothing good is ever mentioned about this company, however, I would like to talk about my personal experience with this company, I even went as far as to create a new account just for this post because I am still working here to this day and I would rather remain anonymous.
I should shed a little bit of light at to why I even chose to come to Japan with Gaba to begin with. I come from a Non English speaking country, however I lived my developmental years in an English speaking country because of my Father's job. I returned to my home country when I was 12, so I learned English before I even learned the language of my own country. From the moment I turned 18, my job was at a Language institute where I taught English, I also went to University and studied Education where I graduated and earned a teaching degree. I continued working at the language school I started at because even though the salary wasn't the best, the job was very meaningful and I was making a differnce in the lives of so many people. The EFL program was essentially a government funded program for University Students who come from low-income households, it was an Immersion program that constisted of 4 continuous hours of English lessons, 5 days a week and lasted for a full year, so it was very rigorous and strict, but most of my students would graduate at a B2 level. They went from barely knowing how to say "Hello" to giving presentations, getting Biligual customer service jobs and even earning scholarships to universities in the US, Canada and the UK. You can see how much I loved this job and how much of a difference in the lives of others I was making.
However, despite having changed the lives of many people for the better, there was one life I wasn't helping change for the better, it was my own life. My life was stuck in the same loop for 7 years straight. So I began to look for opportunities in other countries. I love traveling and I love exploring new places, I also wanted to move from my country because my country was going downhill financially speaking. I looked into teaching in Japan, not because I wanted to be rich, I don't think anyone looks to Japan for becoming rich, but I did look into Japan because it's a safe country, it's a very interesting country, I love its Samurai history and Japanese is a language I would love to learn. However, many places either require you to be a "Native Speaker", which I do consider myself but apparently your passport is what tells others what language you speak here... (Even though a Canadian can just as much be a Native French speaker and not a Native English speaker, someone with a UK passport could be a Native Welsh speaker and not a Native English speaker, someone from South Africa could be a Native Speaker of multiple languages other than English), but Gaba didn't care, AEON also didn't care, but I wasn't hired by AEON, I was hired by Gaba... They informed me of the Gyomu Itaku contract, I agreed with it because they made it sound like earning an average of 250,000 Yen was easy, that's how they portrayed it at least, essentially just "don't slack off"... But you know what, skipping to my first week at Gaba, I was given priority on bookings, I was getting tons of lessons my first few weeks, I had full schedules, it was easy, the lessons were short (just 40 minutes), but I ran into my first problem, the lessons, just at they are fast, they are also... I have no idea how to put it into words... "Customer Servicey"... It doesn't feel like teaching, it feels like motivation and kindness disguised as teaching, essentially it goes like this: The students (they call them "clients") walks into your booth, you greet them standing up and sit down with them, you introduce yourself and let them introduce themselves, always smiling :), you have 5 minutes of free talk, after which you ask them what they want to do, if they want to work on the textbook, you do that, of they want to just talk, you do that too, if they want to talk about sports, you talk about sports, essentially, the approach here in "language acquisition", which I'm not entirely against, but 40 minutes isn't really enough time for a language acquisition method in my opinion. But you know what, they brought me to Japan, I swallowed my pride and bared with it and continued working, on my first month, even with priority, my salary was 15,000 Yen short of 250,000 Yen... I worked so so so hard... and even with priority... I still didn't make the 250,000 Yen they told me I had to be making... What? What did I do wrong? I did all they asked me to do...
I was then also informed I had some negative reviews, apparently my hand movements was an issue with some students, I come from a country where moving your hands when you speak is the norm, but apparently it made some people uncomfortable, I also got a negative review for my talking speed, that one I don't argue since it can affect the lesson quality... But for the first one, why am I being given a negative for my hand movements? It's not something that prevents the lesson from being given succesfully... It's just normal hand movements when speaking, why not instead tell me how my lessons are being recieved, did the client learn new things? Did they learn something meaningful? Isn't that what's important?
Month 3 and my salary is still low, I make less than 200,000, I'm no longer on priority and my booking rate is as low as ever. I'm now insanely angry at the company, I regret ever coming here and I wonder what I am doing wrong. I have colleagues who hold no teaching degree and have no prior teaching experience and they are getting double the bookings I am getting. I start questioning if it's my clothes? Is it my breath? Am I being disciminated because of my Non Anglophone heritage? It can't be that... I'm not the only one and they are still getting more bookings.
Another couple of months pass by and a new manager comes in because my former one got a promotion, he takes a look at my profile and suggests I write longer notes on customer profiles... Well, it did make a difference, I actually began to see my bookings rise after that, still not at 250,000 Yen level but it did still go up so it's a start. To this day I'm still trying to figure out the secret, but I'll keep you guys informed.
My take on Gaba, it's not what they tell you in the hiring process, it's not the worst place to work at, but it's far from the best. If you are someone passionate about teaching, you will struggle here, but if you're more of a customer service kind of worker and you want to transition to English Language teaching, maybe this place will be better for you. I'm not sure, all I know is that this place twisted the career I dedicated my whole adult life to, turning it from a meaningful life changing career to a customer servide job disguised as an Eigo no Kyoshi.