Currently going into my 2nd year and wanted to ask a question to anyone who did a 3rd year.
I often hear the first year is all about adjustment and that the second year is the sweet spot. My question is, for those who did a 3rd year, how was your experience?
Did it feel drawn out? Or was it nice to have another smooth year on the job?
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Probably largely because of the virus but my 3rd and 4th year were a bit complicated and the first two years were way better
But it also got me into the learn new skills mindset which in the first two years I wasn’t really thinking about because school was so fun.
I’m grateful for the lessons I learned on my 3rd year… but I think I wouldv’e been happier ending on year 2. Just felt really burnt out and every day was a constant panic for planning lessons I didn’t care for.
If you have a reason to stay (you like ALT work, working towards a goal with Japanese, want to travel more), I think it’s worth it. If you don’t enjoy the work, it’s not worth it. ALT work with the right teachers and the right school can be fun. However, if you’re doing human tape recorder stuff most of the time, it can be draining.
I also think that you should talk to your friends in the area and see what they are thinking about continuing. Having good support around you can make a huge difference.
I’m going into my 6th year now. What happened to me is that I got better at the language, made more Japanese friends, got really into my hobbies, ran a bunch of events and felt more and more settled in the community as time passed. I had already done all the JLPT stuff. Learned to drive and got a licence here and a bunch of other things I wanted to get done in my 20’s. So for me it got better as time passed.
I’m having no issues in work though. I get the support I need and have a good relationship with my coworkers. I realise that’s a huge deciding factor for most.
All of this makes it pretty easy to stay. The salary is really good and people take for granted how nice it is to have a regular 8-4 schedule and your holidays mapped out for the year. My previous job was shift work and it messed up my body, my mental health and ability to socialise. Impossible to plan anything long term too.
If you’re thinking of finishing up I will say have something vaguely planned for when you go back to occupy your time.
Going into my fourth year.
My school sucks, for the most part. I realised I was never going to get anywhere with the teachers, and trying hard was just getting taken advantage of, so I stopped caring about what they think. It’s taken a lot of mental stress off.
But I enjoy a lot of other aspects of living in Japan. Our salary is good (for the amount of work I do) and there’s plenty of free time. Things have been kinda crazy back in the UK, and don’t seem to be getting better any time soon, so I’m enjoying the relatively relaxed time in Japan.
For my third year, I ended up having to get a car. I think I have settled into life here much more comfortably in my third year. Things that would have messed with my anxiety in first or second year seem trivial now. My Japanese has come on a lot, and that makes things much easier. I met my partner, who is Japanese, and it’s been the highlight of my time in Japan.
I’d say the hardest part is that you’ll have other ALTs you’ve made friends with leave. I’ve been lucky with a lot of the friends that I’ve made here, but we all leave eventually. I think a lot of the ALTs who have been here for a long time retreat into themselves or their bubble, and it becomes increasingly harder to relate to incoming folk.
I just finished my third year, and I think that was the sweet spot for me. I did consider leaving after my second year, but looking back I definitely would’ve regretted it, there were still so many things that I hadn’t done in Japan that I wanted to do. Whereas now, I feel pretty content about leaving – and whilst I’m still sad to leave, I think I’d probably regret doing a fourth year.
My 3rd year started in the summer of 2020 lol, so things were very weird and very hectic.
Personally I found that my job satisfaction has increased exponentially year over year. This is partially because my job changed a lot over the course of my 1st 3 years due to the new English education reforms. As I’ve moved into years 4 and 5, work satisfaction only increased as I continued to gain experience and the trust of colleges. My JTEs/HRTs have started to trust me more and include me in higher level discussions/ planning which has been super rewarding.
Tldr; pandemic aside, 3rd year didn’t really stick out. Professionally, things have just gotten better every year (we’re ignoring personal because that’s been largely influenced by the pandemic)
Third year was my shooting star year. I did everything and was in the best place of my life and then it all burnt up when my ALT friends left and my best JTEs got replaced. 5/10
I stayed 3 years and could really just enjoy my third year as I knew it would be my last. My schools were great (on the most part) but my BOE really started to get on my nerves (forced us to stop riding bikes to school amongst other things). I spent my 3rd year really travelling around so I don’t regret it. Definitely wouldn’t have enjoyed a 4th year though
The difficulty of work / to pay ratio is too good to pass up. The amount of free time + satisfaction + quality of life that I have here is too good to pass up and not stay the full five years.
What’s the possibility of living in Japan again for most of us? Very little I would imagine.
The longer I stayed, the easier the decision to stay another year was lol.
I had a great chill placement with a good supervisor, so it was kinda easy for me to decide. I did also do a year after JET. And am planning to go back haha.
So maybe I’m just Japan bias.
The big question is what you want to do?
Going into my 5th year this year.
My work is way easier because I’ve done almost everything once, if not 10x already. I have strategies for classes, and now my school is asking me to help my struggling new JTE because he’s clueless and I have more experience than him at this point. Teaching is pretty easy now.
On the othr hand, my culture shock and frustration with Japan, mostly with my BOE’s restrictive and dumb rules about nenkyu and travel or when I can wear this official polo shirt, is running my patience thin. A lot of stuff I used to shrug off really pisses me off now, because I can read the air now, and that’s not necessarily always a good thing. I can also read people’s bullshit much more accurately, so sometimes I miss being ignorant and bright-eyed.
Anyway, I adore my kids and many of my coworkers, so I don’t regret staying. The bonds I’ve formed with them are worth it. But I’ll be glad to be free of my BOE in a year.
A lot would depend on your age and career aspirations. If you’ve got a desire to progress, learn new things, become more employable for future roles, then you’re likely not going to add much value between your second and third year. A lot of the CV stuff, you can probably already claim at the end of Year 2. The caveats to this are if you do the prefectural advisor roles that are often available, or if you significantly improve your Japanese and plan to use it for work going forward. I came with no Japanese and got N2 at the end of Y3. After that, progress towards N1 was more incremental and took longer to take the step up.
However, Year 3 is a sweet spot in many ways. For me, it was the last time my core close friendship group was together. I don’t regret that additional time at all. Because my schools changed 8 months in, I was in my groove for most of it. I had some good teachers (who would eventually move on later). I still had a lot of new experiences (to be fair, these did happen throughout, just obviously the wow factor can diminish). I got a lot of travelling done.
It’s definitely a sweet spot as well in terms of pay and effort. With good language skills, you can definitely coast in Year 3 and to be honest, it’s a pretty comfortable, fun year.
The caveat, again, is if you’re career driven, as it’s when coasting can get it’s hooks into you and you can stagnant. As I said, you’re not adding value to yourself in a lot of ways. You might want to seek out opportunities rather than just be passive.
I would do a Y3, if you are happy with the lack of career advancement. It’s not going to make a big difference, but it can be a time when you get complacent and end up just staying longer because it’s easy rather than because it’s right.
One extra year won’t make a difference and if you’re content with your personal life and work, go for it. But I would use the year to seriously think about what you want for the next 5 years. Don’t just live life according to that recontracting decision in February. Plan out what you want and make attempts to get closer to it.
My second year sucked, and my 3rd year went extremely well. To be honest, aside from how bad my 2nd year was, it got better every year up until my current 6th. If you don’t actually like teaching, you’re not going to want to stay more than 2 or 3 though.
I did three years and would agree, the first is just about getting adjusted and settling in. The second was great and the third was also good but it felt like the perfect time for me to finish.
Imo it really depends a lot on your teaching colleagues too, sometimes a big move in personnel can shake things up for the worse or better so that part is just luck.
I can’t imagine how I would’ve tolerated more than three just on the professional side though. There’s only so much ALT work one can tolerate before going nuts
I signed on for a 3rd year with the hope it’d redeem how much I couldn’t do my 2nd year since everything was shut down (I’m a 2019 JET – last intake before borders closed). I’m going home now at the end of it but tbh if my 2nd year hadn’t been so traumatizing and my JTEs were actually good co-workers I would have stayed at least 4 years.
It’s absolutely true though that your first year is 99% acclimating and settling into your new environment. My 3rd year kinda subbed in for what my 2nd year should’ve been T_T By your 3rd year if your JTEs haven’t changed (I had a 9th year JTE & 4th year JTE) you settle into a routine, you’re comfortable at the school, and the students can start to rely on you and ask for help a lot more / they’re less shy around you.
It’s also completely what you make of it. I plateaued a lot with my Japanese after having massive burnout so it got frustrating not being able to converse w/ co-workers or students the way I wanted to (my own fault I know that). But outside work I have really great friends and enjoy the area I was placed in so it’s really just weighing the pros and cons at the end of the day.
All in all, I think a 3rd year makes you settle back into a neutral view of Japan after the initial culture shock and severe highs and/or lows of the 2nd year.
The teachers who don’t get transferred will be the same as before. That might mean some of your classes are boring and others are interesting, which is already true but you’ll notice it more.
If you are interested in education or the school community, and you speak or are learning Japanese, you’ll be able to be more actively involved. If you aren’t, take your paycheck but curse the exchange rate, and have fun where you can.