I graduated with a MA tesol degree right before Covid became rampant. I have some college teaching experience and a good amount of volunteer teaching/intern/tutoring hours as well. Unfortunately, due to Covid, I hadn’t been able to land other teaching jobs in my area. However, I’ve been wanting to teach abroad for a long time and did a stint in Korea as an college English Instructor and really enjoyed it. So I’m thinking of doing it again except in Japan. My reason for picking Japan is because I can understand enough Japanese to scrape by (tho I’m nowhere near fluent).
I know it’s very hard to apply to universities in Japan directly without a PhD, published papers and years of experience. So I thought about applying to Westgate. I’ve heard mixed things about them from lot of people, but I feel like it might be an okay way to get my foot in the door. Especially since my Japanese is not at its best at the moment (I’ve forgotten a lot from not using it enough).
Is there anyone who used to be in a similar situation as me? What did you do to get your foot in the door?
Is Westgate worth it? Or will it make it more difficult for me to get a different job after working there for some time?
I would appreciate any kind of advice or information.
4 comments
>Is Westgate worth it?
Not any more. In the past it worked for some people, now it is as bad as ALT dispatch… maybe worse. They will not hire you if you refuse to live in company housing. The changes in labor law coming next April means they will have to pay 50% pension and insurance for almost every employee. They overcharge for housing to get that money back. Another thing they do is move everyone around to prevent them from making contacts at the schools. If a school decides to hire a teacher directly, westgate loses the contract.
Westgate is horrible BUT they do give you a “Professor Visa” which can be valuable experience for a real Uni job
I would just advise you not to teach in Japan. If you have an interest in Japan, just travel here – it’s a great place to visit. But working here as a teacher carries more problems and bullshit than it’s worth, and living here isn’t all roses. There are other countries where you get better hours, better pay, more respect, and you don’t have to deal with racist bullshit.
The days of getting decent university jobs with just an MA are long gone. The kind of jobs you can get (Westgate) are no better than, and actually often much worse than, standard ALT jobs. You could get away with just an MA with some more experience and a decent publications – so teaching in your home country and getting a few publications under your belt might help, but you’ll still be looking at adjunct contracts which don’t offer much in the way of pay/security.
If you seriously want to teach at the university level in Japan, get a PhD.