Peppy Kids Club: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

I started working for Peppy Kids Club (PKC) at the end of August, 2018, after two weeks of training in Nagoya. I left at the end of February 2019 in the middle of my contract. My leaving was amicable and I’m grateful for the experience of working with PKC, but had I known then what I know now my decision to work for them may have been different. This what I’ve learned and hope to share for the benefit of others.

PKC is a children’s conversation school with locations in every corner of Japan, with the exception of Tokyo and Okinawa. Students start from as young as infants to as old as high schoolers, with the majority of classes falling somewhere between the 5-12 age range.

Workdays are Tuesday - Saturday, with monthly meetings and occasional “office days” taking place on Monday. Weekday classes start no earlier than 3:45, with Saturday classes starting no earlier than 11:15 (but more often in the afternoon). Lessons are 1 hour with a 15 minute break in between to send off and receive students, change materials for the next class, and have a quick bathroom break if needed. All materials for classes - flash cards, textbooks, song lyrics, CDs, etc. - can be found in the classrooms, with lesson plans contained in manuals given out during training for the teacher’s own use.

PKC offers 2 weeks’ of paid training (in Nagoya or Osaka, depending on whether your placement is north or south of Nagoya) and single-occupancy semi-furnished apartments, which are generally close to major train stations. Employees are responsible for paying for rent, food, and utilities, with commuting and apartment setup costs covered by the company. The salary is ¥240k per month before taxes, with rent automatically deducted and commuting costs reimbursed every paycheck. Wages are paid a month in lieu on the 25th or the previous working day, meaning that you will get paid at the end of February for January’s work.

PKC is a company that won’t rip you off or treat you badly, and it’s very unlikely to close down without warning (like in the recent Gaba drama). For those looking for a way to move to Japan and work minimal hours with decent pay, this is a great job. For those who take teaching seriously and want to advance their career, this is a good job with some downsides.

In terms of money, I struggled for the first few months of work. I began in the middle of August and got my first paycheck at the end of September, which was half of a full paycheck due to being for half of August. I got my first full paycheck at the end of October, all of which I spent on necessities for outfitting my place. It was only in November that I was in a situation where I could save some of my money and live more comfortably.

And make no mistake, once you get past the first few months it is comfortable. I generally scrimped on material goods but ate out when I wanted to and was able to visit plenty of local sightseeing spots. When my December paycheck came in, I’d saved enough that I was able to buy a ¥150k MacBook Air. For a single person living in Japan who’s reasonably sensible with their money, with a bit of saving you can pursue any kind of lifestyle you want.

My recommendation: bring at least 2 months’ spending money and don’t spend money you don’t have (i.e. save up if you want to splash out later). Don’t stress too much about things being tight when you first move, because it does get a lot better.

PKC also offers a mandatory “loan” for new workers. This loan consists of the cost of training accomodation (~¥30k), first month’s rent (~¥50k), and a futon (~¥10k). Mine added up to around ¥100k, which is paid off in instalments over your first 10 paychecks. It’s not a substantial chunk out of your income, but it does add up. PKC presents the loan as an interest-free way to help out their new employees, but in my opinion it seems to be a way to try and tether employees to completing their full 12-month contract. Any amount owing at the end of early termination is taken out in full in your last paycheck. For someone who relies on their full paycheck and doesn’t have savings or another job lined up, this could be a huge problem.

Requiring rent a month in advance while paying a month in lieu means it takes a long time to get ahead. Making employees pay for mandatory accomodation during training also seems unreasonable, as many companies offer free accomodation for training. I stayed in the centre where a few of the training days actually took place, which was nice, but I was provided with no crockery, cutlery, towels, or other small necessities, and I also had to share the room with another trainee, which was not good for the simple reason of being an adult who needs privacy. I got to the flat and almost immediately had to go out to the ¥100 store to buy a towel so I could have a shower. It’s a small thing, but for people who are jetlagged, nervous about starting a new job, and in a new country where they may not know the language, lacking basic necessities in training accomodation is frustrating.

The futons they sell you at the end of training are second-hand and refurbished (read: low-quality) and not a good deal into the bargain: I’ve seen new futon sets for sale in department stores for the same price. My futon was not delivered until several days after I moved in during which time I slept on the futon the previous tenant had left, which I would have been happy to use had I known it was there. Furthermore, when it did arrive the delivery fee (cash on delivery) was about 1/3 of the cost of the futon.

My recommendation: ask your Performance Supervisor (PS) if there is a futon already available in the flat, and if not search for futon stores in the area so you can pick one out on move-in day, or simply order one online so you can choose it. As for the accomodation, it’s typically a Leopalace apartment, which is a single-occupancy studio. I was happy with mine: it was clean, reasonably spacious, and came with some furniture and appliances. Every situation is different, but if you’re in a Leopalace (especially a new one) you probably won’t find much to complain about.

The living situation is not too bad. But what about the teaching? Peppy does provide all the materials for classes and a strict curriculum for levels based on age. Teachers will never have to plan lessons or make materials. The only demands placed on them are to know the materials well, teach them clearly, and have a good stock of games and activities to make the class fun. However, unfortunately PKC teaches using the audio lingual method (ALM), a teaching method that focuses on rote-learning phrases through repetition until they can be produced spontaneously. This method gained popularity as a way to teach soldiers new languages in WWII, and soon fell out of favour in the 1960s. The preferred method of ELT now is communicative language teaching (CLT), which focuses on learning through successful communication in real-life situations.

My previous teaching qualifications focused on CLT, so it was a shock to change to such a backwards technique when I started working. ALM is exhausting on the teacher (for me, at least, it was a lot of repeating phrases for students to copy and correcting mispronunciations), and boring for the students. I tried to change it up where I could to integrate more games and natural communication, but the heart of the curriculum and ingrained in the textbook is still repeating set phrases.

While there are difficulties with using CLT in a monolingual classroom (after all, if students can communicate with each other in their native language, why would they use English?), it can be done. I don’t think PKC as a company will ever change their curriculum to be more communicative, however, because they manage to sell the current product very effectively and both parents and students don’t necessarily know that there are better methods of language learning out there. In addition, pretty much anyone can teach ALM - it doesn’t take any special skills or an education background to say a phrase and get kids to repeat it. It’s my impression, too, that the Japanese teachers’ lessons focus a little more on explaining grammar points and production of target language, while the native teachers’ lessons mainly focus on correct pronunciation.

However, the majority of “native” teachers in my area were not native English speakers. While I am well aware of the strengths that non-native teachers bring to the ELT profession, in my time I witnessed incorrect pronunciation being taught by teachers who were unsure themselves of certain points of the target language. The qualifications to become a Peppy teacher are simply a Bachelor’s degree in any field, for the purposes of visa sponsorship. Because parents will sign up for Peppy classes based on the strength of the sales team, the quality of the teachers does not necessarily factor into it. Furthermore, children only have one native lesson a month, so an ineffective native teacher only accounts for 25% of the total product. I did my best to be as effective a teacher as I could, but I often felt hamstrung by the rigid curriculum.

Along with the curriculum, there were certain aspects of Peppy that informed my decision to leave. For the first three months of work, PKC requires you to do “Status One” check-ins by calling head office from your classroom an hour before classes start. The punishment for failing to call in, or for calling in even a minute late, is an ECB point for lateness (four of which result in termination, and any number of which lessen your bonus) and the extension of Status One by three months.

While calling to check in seems straightforward enough, when you’re faced with new schools in unfamiliar areas, infrequent trains, bad weather, and lack of English signage, it can be extremely stressful. Do I take the train that gets me there 2 hours in advance, or the one that gets me there 2 minutes before I need to check in? What if the bus is late? What if I have trouble getting into the classroom? I suffered from anxiety and sleeplessness for my first few months of work, due in no small part to fretting about missing Status One. I missed Status One once due to oversleeping, which resulted in the higher-ups extending my Status One by a month (normally three months, but they decided to be kind as it was my first offence).

Things improved when my Status One was finally up, four months after starting. I still had to arrive at classrooms a minimum of 30 minutes before the first lesson, but the anxiety of counting minutes and hurrying to make the phone call was gone. I completely understand the reasoning behind the rule (giving teachers enough time to prepare for lessons, ensuring that children who arrive early will have someone to receive them, etc.), but I think the severity of the punishment is excessive. Time is precious, and there’s enough time eaten up in commuting without extending the Status One period.

TL;DR: With all that said, would I recommend PKC? It depends on the person.

For people who enjoy working with children, who want to have the experience of living in Japan on a comfortable wage, for those who are self-motivated or otherwise happy to fill their mornings with their own pursuits - this is a good job for you.

For people who want to seriously pursue a teaching career, then the Peppy curriculum and lack of advancement and teacher development is not conducive to that end. In the end, my decision to leave was largely motivated by wanting to move along in my career as a teacher. If this is not a concern for you, I would definitely recommend Peppy.