tsurara

+ CAREERS IN JAPAN: English Teaching +

While thousands of anime, j-pop and game nerds proclaim their intention to "grow up and work in Japan", most of them never make it past the checkout counter at the local grocery store. Why? What does it take to get the job of your dreams? Does the job of your dreams even exist? Can you live on the pay? Will you be prepared to go out and get it when the time comes?


Job Profile #1. The English Teacher

Live your dream of working in Japan, befriend Japanese students, and become a part of your community. Live in a new and exciting place and learn about Japan beyond just Tokyo. Your presence in the classroom just might make the difference between a student becoming an ethnocentric shut-in or an adventurous world-citizen.


Demand: High

Longevity: short-term, temporary (average is 3 years)

Average Pay: USD $25,000-$35,000 a year

Workplace: Junior or Senior High School (ALT positions), Children and Adult conversation lessons (through private "eikaiwa"s, cram schools, and franchise schools)

Requirements - Assistant Teacher (ALT): to be a native English speaker (or have a stellar TOEIC score), a bachelor's degree from any accredited university (in any subject), paper application, face-to-face interview.

Requirements - Full Time Long Term Public School Teacher: all of the above, a liscence to teach from an accredited Japanese university, application/interview (in Japanese) with a Japanese board of education.

Breakdown: While teaching short-term requires little in the way of specialized education the better positions will require better qualifications (ie. Japanese ability, teaching/travel experience and demonstration of a background in Japanese Studies). Nearly all English teaching positions are "assistant" positions, meaning you will not be a "real" teacher -- instead, you will be aiding a Japanese teacher in the classroom. To become a "real" teacher, you will need to pass a liscencing course (in Japanese) to recieve Japanese teaching certification and then find a board of education willing to hire a foreigner in a position usually reserved for Japanese.

How you can prepare: Get a bachelor's degree! Research the school or program you'd like to work for ~before~ applying!! Ability in Japanese is a wonderful advantage to getting into the better positions (JET, private elementary work), so take a class or two and consider passing level 3 of the JLPT.

Be careful: Some programs have terrible track records (NOVA and INTERAC) and may provide more headaches than memorable experiences. Keep in mind that English Teaching in Japan is usually a "stepping stone" for a career, not a career in itself. Unless you are a Japanese citizen, you will be constantly juggling visas, taxes, etc. Nearly 100% of ESL jobs contract yearly... meaning you will never have any job security of which to speak (you must renew yearly at the discretion of your contracting company).

Other notes: Japan is incureably ageist. It may be rather difficult (or impossible) to get certain positions if you're over the age of 35.


Links to top employers:

JET - The JET Programme--Official Homepage of The Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme (generally considered the most desireable, highest paying, most benefits and support, but also the most competative and most positions are rural)

AEON - AEONet Homepage

GEOS - Your Teaching Career Begins in Japan - Geos Language School

NOVA - Nova Group WARNING - this one's in a bit of trouble... read more here Nova (eikaiwa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

INTERAC - Interac: Japan's leading private provider of Assistant Language Teachers - Official Website WARNING - INTERAC is a dispatch agency... meaning they will get you a job, but take a large chunk out of your paycheck every month before forwarding it to you


Best of luck!!

Up next - #2 ~ The Animator

Hassun

Anyone with questions can contact Mr Dragon Ball.

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Shodokan

He's an english teacher? I was hoping that he was a world famous engineer who went to Japan. Oh well.

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Legend

Yeah my cousin just left for Japan about a week ago, as she will be gone for a year with a whole group to be teachers...

And yeah doesn't DB have one of those similar sites??

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Cheer up, sleepy jean.
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