Hi, I’m considering moving to Japan next year for a year or more maybe for an ALT job when I finish school. There’s a lot of social customs from what I can tell compared to the UK – would it be extremely difficult with social anxiety and autism? Anyone have any experience in Japan with autism? I’m aware that eye contact isn’t necessary there which is a plus (not sure if this is actually the case).
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ALT work is interacting with hundreds of children and teachers every day. I don’t know the extent of your autism or social anxiety, but I would recommend that you think hard and be honest with yourself about whether this is the right field for you.
> I’m aware that eye contact isn’t necessary there
I’m not sure where you heard that; eye contact is as important here as it is anywhere else. One thing that isn’t necessary, however, is handshakes, which might be good for some Westerners who get anxious over that.
Eye contact is still a thing. If social anxiety is an issue for you I wouldn’t say it’ll be impossible but it will be more of a challenge than living in your own country. Language and cultural barrier are stressful for folks without anxiety disorders.
I think you’d probably adjust better to Japanese society. The culture on a whole is kind of culturally autistic in an awesome way.
I lived in another Asian country and saw people in similar circumstances to you try to wing it despite their condition. It never worked out well. New country, new language, new culture. It’s hard for even the most resourceful and well grounded individual. I would try non academic centred life in an environment you can control and have support systems in place first. See how you get on, then if you think you can handle the added pressure of doing it abroad give it a shot. Nothing to lose but I would never downplay how difficult moving abroad can be at first.
I haven’t lived in Japan but I went there on student exchange for a little while and I found it much easier to deal with than my home country. I have both autism and really bad social anxiety and I found Japan suited me very well. Japan is very organised so I wasn’t anxious about thinks being late or getting lost or anything. I’m not sure what it’s like living there long term but from my experience and research, it seems to match my personality well.
To what extent do you have autism? Are you able to speak fluently and coherently? Or do you have speech delay and it’s difficult to form a sentence when speaking, or people find it difficult to understand what you’re trying to express? If it’s the latter, you may find teaching challenging, as your whole job is based around speaking and communicating. Not only with the students, but also teachers and parents. If they think that your ability to speak is not so good, it might be difficult to get a job in the first place.
If, however, you just suffer from mild social anxiety and you have no disability when it comes to speaking, then teaching can be a great kind of rehabilitation, forcing yourself to communicate with people can really help improve your situation.
As an English teacher, you’ll often be expected to initiate and carry the conversation, as well as teach potentially hundreds of shy students how to carry on a conversation by themselves.
To be honest, I fell squarely into the social anxiety category when I first came to Japan. I quickly became more confident in speaking with people.