Hello all, long-time lurker, first-time poster. I’ve recently turned 40 and, perhaps in the throes of a midlife crisis, have been toying with the idea of a career change, specifically to teaching English at the university level, but I feel like I may need a wake-up call (perhaps before wasting my time entertaining the idea any further). I know many of you have extensive experience in English education in Japan, so your advice would be greatly appreciated.
As background, I am a freelance translator working in a highly-specialized field for the last 15 or so years. Although I have a solid client base and don’t see machine translation replacing me outright any time soon, there is a general industry trend toward post-editing machine translated content, a task which I really do not enjoy. This coupled with the fact that, frankly, after 15 years, I have become exhausted with spending 8 or so hours each day alone in front of a computer with zero human interaction, has made me think about what other options I may have. I would really like to contribute something more to humanity, as cheesy as that may sound. I was discussing this recently with a friend of mine who currently teaches English at a university, and he was exceedingly confident that I could find a similar job. He was basically laughing at me for thinking that I \*couldn’t\* get a job at a university. Of course this sounded too good to be true, so I wanted to put it to the Reddit hivemind.
First, my qualifications: three years teaching English on the JET program ages ago (I know, I know; laughable); a M.A. in International Education from a well-known institute in the United States (on-campus, not online); two years’ working as a program manager for a third-party provider of inbound/outbound exchange programs (high school level). My publication (yes, singular) is limited to my M.A. thesis (on accessibility and reciprocity in U.S.-based secondary-level “study away” programs). My Japanese is maybe higher than advanced, but I’m not a native speaker (I do have JLPT Level 1 from ages ago, for what it’s worth); I have PR so a visa will not be an issue. Despite my username and being a translator, I’m a fairly outgoing person and always enjoyed teaching when I did do it.
Of course, I have no TESOL or similar certifications, no experience teaching at the university level, no list of publications, and… yeah. I know; it’s grim at best.
What I \*do\* have is a job which currently allows me a high degree of flexibility, in terms of both time and finances, so I could easily do online courses for TESOL or other certifications and, I suppose, another M.A. in Applied Linguistics, if necessary. The only problem there, of course, is that I will be that much older by the time I finish whatever program I start, and at my age I feel like every year counts. This is particularly true in Japan, where 40 seems to be the cutoff line for most jobs to begin with — to say nothing of someone with precious little experience in the field.
That’s about the long and the short of it. Any thoughts or opinions, even if they are “absolutely no chance, bud”, are appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read!
19 comments
Typically for University teaching jobs, you’d need to get a PhD. I don’t think age would play a big role at this point, but you would most likely need to complete your PhD before any higher education institution in Japan would consider you for a Professor or Associate Professor position. If you’re willing to put in the 3+ years it will likely take you to complete your doctoral program in Japan, then you may be able to become a Professor. Please be aware that these programs typically have difficult entrance examinations that you will have to probably study for. Certain programs may waive it and just do a document screening. You’d have to look at the Universities you’re interested in applying to first to see if they have a program like that. Please be aware that doctoral program are a commitment and your timeline should be along that schedule.
Some of my friends work at Uni’s here. From what I’ve heard…
The bad:
Job security for teaching at Universities isn’t great either. Most Uni’s only give you a 4 year contract and refuse to renew, forcing teachers to jump from school to school every few years. If they let you stay longer you could request full time employment and they don’t want to pay for that. Tenure is pretty much impossible, and depending on where you live there might not be a lot of Uni’s to work for. You’ll also probably want (need?) to publish articles or books of your own to pad your career.
The good:
I’ve heard it’s more rewarding and pays better than Eikaiwa, and ALT work. There seems to be a decent amount of down time for holidays, and possibility for work travel to seminars, workshops, etc. if you like that. Since you already have a masters and some teaching experience you should be able to find an intro gig somewhere pretty easily in the Tokyo area. Depending on your contract you might be able to continue doing translating freelance for some extra bucks.
The laundry list for what uni want:
* grad degree
* publications
* experience teaching at the uni level
* J-language ability
Tho an applicable degree is better (e.g., applied linguistics), some schools accept a ‘related’ degree, and of course that varies–based on the school itself, or perhaps on how strong (or not) those other items on the list may be. Know that many jobs are now asking for a phd, especially in greater kanto, and there are folks with phds who still have difficulty finding jobs there.
2-3 publications is the typical ‘ask’, better if they’re in a vetted, more international (big) journal, but there’s also some wiggle room here.
Of course people ask “how do you get uni-level experience when you need that experience in order to get a job?” The usual answer is that you get part time work (非常勤講師), with the hope of eventually getting on full time somewhere. And while some folks do make that switch, others don’t, and are stuck in limbo, esp. if they are restricting themselves to kanto.
J-lang ability: This is your strong point. Some ads ask for a JLPT number, and some want near fluency so that you can do any of the normal faculty duties–meetings, advising, PR, etc. Others (on the low end) want enough that you can get along with the admin without needing a ‘minder’–sort of barely above functional. (Note that some schools ‘just’ want an english teacher, that they can slot/assign and forget about, and that excellent j-ability could be a little threatening.)
40 is a little old, but not impossible. Do you happen to have PR? –that could change the impressions school have of you.
You mention flexibility. You might consider getting your feet wet with some part time hours at one school or another (and full part time schedules take a while to build up, as you become known and perceived as being good/reliable). So you could continue translating, and a couple classes on the side for social stimulation. Maybe that would be enough?
One significant downside to relying fully on part time hours is the commuting–a class or two at school A in the morning, one more at school B in the afternoon. Rinse and repeat on other weekdays. From what I hear, this can be a real grind. So depending on where you are, if you could get some hours at a nearby school, while continuing with translation, you’d get some social contact and also be able to sidestep the need for commutes.
Browse [JACET](http://www.jacet.org/job-openings/) job ads, and the other big site is JREC (look in japanese there, since the ads are _definitely_ not 1:1 in english-japanese).
Finally, many schools want you to use their forms for your submission. Not great, but this is an easy hurdle for schools to put up to filter out the chaff–so they don’t get shotgunned with resumés, that someone at the school then has to filter somehow. On the positive side of that, it shows the applicant can read and understand and follow the application requirements, kind of the first step in showing that you can work together.
Unless you actively dislike your job, don’t discard what you have for a mystical university job that may never materialize.
Based on what you wrote it sounds like you feel your life is not very fulfilling but that doesn’t necessarily mean your current job is the problem.
You can check out [https://jrecin.jst.go.jp/seek/SeekTop](https://jrecin.jst.go.jp/seek/SeekTop) for a general idea of what qualifications you would need to even be considered for an interview. Generally, many of them look for at least 3 peer review, published papers. This is not as difficult as it sounds, but will require time to find the publication, and the review process can take a long, long time.
I think you could skirt by with some of the experience you already have (International Education seems a bit ambiguous and could be used in your favor if you can explain it did indeed involve language teaching). A degree in Applied Linguistics is something I think Temple advertises as their PhD while a Masters in TESOL is $30,000 and will take some years. It also doesn’t teach teaching explicitly, but moreover about theory in the field.
A career change into teacher is a quite uncommon path, though in Japan. Usually it’s the other way around, and for good reason. You’re not going to be getting paid well (though it’s enough to get by) and universities here are pretty stingy with tenure. It does exist, or so I hear, but I do have friends who have just been moving between universities when their contracts are up and that timing between jobs is always stressful.
First things first, what is your visa status? To work at a university you have to have a professor visa (or spouse or PR). If you have specialist in humanities, you will have to get immigration to sign off on a waiver. To get the waiver, you have to have a job. To get a job you have to have visa, etc.
Second, where are you in the country? If you are in one of the major urban areas positions are quite competitive because there are so many people trying to get one. If you are in a smaller city or in the countryside, there are few universities but also less competition. It’s a real trade-off between competition and availability.
Third, what do you mean by teaching at a university? There are lots of different types of positions. If you want to pick up a few classes as a part-timer, then I’d say you’re more than qualified and have a decent chance especially given your flexibility. Having said that, recently with declining enrollments part-timers have born the brunt of job reductions, so there are fewer part-time jobs than a decade ago and they can be quite competitive. Still, I think you’ve got a good chance. Especially, if you can find a department that has a translation program. They will be quite interested in you.
If you want to get a full-time, limited-term contract position, I’d say your chances are ok, but not great. You don’t quite have the right master’s degree. It’s related, which would be fine if you had some recent experience and publications, but you don’t. I’d say that you would be a university’s second choice. Unless, of course, they have a translation program in which case they would be very interested in you.
If you want a tenured professorship, you’re not even in the ballpark.
My advice: 1) start applying for jobs in your area and any rural areas that you wouldn’t mind moving to. If you get interviews, then you know that you are qualified and people are interested. If you don’t get any interviews, then you know you may need to improve your resume. 2) Your friend thinks you can get a job similar to his, so ask him to introduce you to people at his university/universities. 3) Go to the JALT conference in November and start meeting people. Attend presentations from anyone listed as being from your locale and ask them questions about how they got their job, etc. If approached in the right way, people can be very helpful. Try to see if they can get you in touch with some decision makers. 4) Start small and grow. Keep in mind that university teaching is a career and not a job so it will take time for you to build things up. Start trying to get some part-time classes and then move up. Also, translation is often a semmon gakko subject, so you might to get some classes at a school that specializes in translation and use that as springboard to other things.
You may not be able to get anything for April 2023, but if you actively pursue things, then I think you might be able to get something for April 2024.
Good luck!
Getting a job will depend on your connections. Applying to random Universities on J-rec (unless you live in the middle of nowhere) is not likely to yield results (no doctorate, less than 3 publications. If you are a woman that may be different as there are quotas to meet.
Have you considered using others to get most of the translation done and become a manager of a small translation company?
Give it a crack!
Competition for university teaching (for foreigners / foreign language) is stupid competitive. You will compete against 100+ other people, most having PhDs, publications, and years of relevant teaching experience.
> there is a general industry trend toward post-editing machine translated content, a task which I really do not enjoy.
I hear you.
I take the 25% pay cut as an excuse to put in 25% less effort.
Hi /u/KansaiHermit; I’m in almost the exact same position as you!
I’m a couple of years older, and have slightly higher qualifications, but I’m also looking to do what you’re doing. I’ve also done a lot of translation, but in the corporate world as a back-office monkey, which is a decent middle-class life but tops out pretty quickly salary-wise if you’re not going into management; college teaching pays better when you look at things like time off and flexibility. And of course when it comes to contributing more to humanity, you can’t beat the academic world.
Your MA at least qualifies you to apply for part-time adjunct positions, so start there. What you really need is one year of experience at the college level, somehow. The vast majority of the listings I’ve seen on J-REC have that “1 year” stipulation. J-REC is the main portal for these things, so get familiar with it if you haven’t already. Some schools make it easy to apply and let you e-mail your resume; others have their own bespoke resume and application system which will take you hours to prepare.
I’m teaching part-time right now on Saturdays, in addition to work (depending on your visa, you may need to get permission to do this; it’s easy to get). It’s really fulfilling and rewarding, both intellectually and financially: my two classes pay more than an entire day of corporate wages; even with an equal amount of time spent preparing and grading, teaching comes out ahead. Not sure if the fulfillment would be as high if I taught five days a week, though.
Here’s something you could try: use your flexible freelance schedule to go to grad school at a national university as a non-degree research student (研究生) in possible preparation for a doctorate. Whether you go on to the doctorate course or not, use your status to research some of the stuff you didn’t get to during your master’s, and *publish* the results in your university’s journal. Also start making friends with people and setting up contacts for part-time adjunct work. Then springboard from there into full-time teaching.
You have a bird in the hand. You are dreaming of giving it up for the chicken bone with a flap of skin stuck to it in the bush.
Teaching English at university will not give you the satisfaction you crave. I advise you to spend longer thinking about what you actually want to do. We’re not getting any younger, why not look for a project-job that can have a real-world concrete impact to point to, instead of the vagueness of whether teaching classes achieves anything.
I’ll get down voted for this I’m sure but hear me out. A lot of the translators I know do that and work at eikawa. Idk where you live, but a lot of the people who are married here in Osaka will do that too. They’ll do some steady part time work at eikaiwa and freelance in other things. The eikaiwa work gets them out of the house and interaction with other people. Which sounds like something you’re looking for. If you don’t like children then well then it’s probably not for you.
Another gaijin and teaching…at least you’re aiming for a university. Make sure to do extensive research on the school you want and don’t make any compromises! As long as the salary is good, the hours are short, and you like the area, you will be fine.
Since you’re quite established in your current field, is there any leeway to say move to part time translating and also teach part time at a university?
There’s a serious lack of qualified part time university teachers. By just dipping your toes in the industry first, maybe you can see if it’s cut for you rather than jumping the gun. Speaking from personal experiences, there are universities where the students are great, highly motivated and teaching them doesn’t even feel like a job. Then you get some horror classes where you have to beg students to put away their smart phones during class. Where you wind up will go a long way in terms of job satisfaction.
40s is young by universitsy standards. I’m 37 and have been teaching at my university for 5 years now. The next youngest person in my faculty is 15 years my senior. The average age of our instructors is 60s.
Pretty hard to know the answer without knowing what you want in life. You after money? Prestige? Or just bored? What’s your financial situation, can you afford to take a risk and change jobs/careers? I mean it’s not really a Japan question more a life career question
As a translator I am jealous that you have enough work to actually require consistent eight-hour work days.
OP, I’m trying to figure out how much money, security, and “respectability” (the high status of university affiliation, and status of being a professor) matters to you. Could you talk more about these things?
If the goal is actually “contribute something more to humanity”, then I would reconsider teaching at (most) Japanese universities. Most Japanese universities are likely to only offer you adjunct positions, with pretty limited scope of responsibilities. Also, my foreign and Japanese friends in these positions are not treated or paid well. To add to the misery, Japanese university students rarely take their classes seriously, and are barely adults.
If you want more money and higher status, I would aim at getting into one of the foreign-affiliated or more international companies. Basically, the Japanese education market is a ghetto that is contracting. GO WHERE THE FOOD IS! I believe I am stating common sense that jobs at places like Amazon or Rakuten or banks tend to suck, but they do pay steadily and also put you into a position to change to less awful workplaces after a couple of years. A full-time job on a law firm translation team could also help you make this sort of transition.
If money is truly no object, and you want to help people, then there are refugees and foreign workers who have essentially endless problems and no money, and you could help them directly, or by simply investigating and reporting. Maybe you could write a book that would eventually get you into academia or a think-tank.
are not likely to allow you
I am a full-time, permanent university professor, and in addition to other, non-English duties related to my field of research, I teach English courses and am in charge of finding part-time English teachers for my faculty. The question you need to ask yourself is, are you looking for a full-time, permanent position with the responsibilities and pay that come along with that, or are you looking for part-time positions, with both less responsibilities and pay, and of course, less stability?
Full-time positions are hard to get, for both Japanese and international people. The younger you are, the more they will want you to have a PhD and publications, no matter your nationality. Those who don’t are either older (50s to 60s), or were hired through networking. Most of the full-time permanent native speakers at my university don’t have a PhD or publications, but they are older and were hired through connections. The ability to participate fully in the faculty and do administrative work is important; in this case, your Japanese ability will make you stand out from most international candidates, but most posts for “native speakers” that I see are not permanent. So you (probably) don’t have at least three of the things usually looked for: A PhD and publications, and/or a network with full-timers in charge of hiring.
Part-time positions, on the other hand, you could probably get if you can get your foot in the door. I have hired part-timers with your credentials, and at times even less. There are a lot of classes to fill at every university; get us last minute when someone quit suddenly, and you’d have a chance. Part-time work really depends on where you’re hired. Some places pay a lot, some not at all. Some have strict requirements, some don’t. Some will let you do whatever you want, some will have very rigid curriculum. (The trend is towards more rigidity and stricter requirements, though.) Either way, once you have some experience to write on your CV, it’ll be easier to get other part-time positions, you’ll meet other teachers who can introduce you to other positions, and you’ll develop that network you don’t have now. If you can work on publications along the way, even better. It’s not stable or great pay, but better than eikaiwa, and you don’t need to quit doing translation work as you do it.
I wouldn’t try to get another MA or a PhD at this point, btw. Too much money and time, and it won’t guarantee your getting a full-time position, permanent or contract. I would recommend talking to the people you know who teach at universities, and try to network with them–if you’re lucky enough to know somebody who knows somebody, you can get your foot in the door, and then see if you even like doing university teaching before you invest a lot of yourself in a ‘potential’ career.