22M with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and I’m very interested in the Japanese language as well as Japan’s culture and history. I’ve been self-teaching for a while using Anki flash cards and textbooks, however I feel like it’s not enough for me. I’ve been thinking of traveling to Japan and living there for a while (1-2 years) to immerse myself, make new friends, get to see the culture in person and meet many friends I made over Twitter recently. The problem is that I’m poor and from a third world country, so I can’t afford to go on some carefree rich college kid gap year staycation, and I know IT jobs in Japan are exceptionally torturous unless you’re willing to invest in a decade of slow crawling up corporate pyramids.
However on my last TOEFL test I scored 110/120, with comments on my essay segment including a recommendation for C2, so I’ve been thinking. Could I leverage this to get some kind of small English teaching position in Japan and use it to fund my immersion trip? I’m very aware the “foreign English teacher” market is flooded with pretentious outsiders with zero qualifications who end up treating it like an exotic holiday and disrespecting the culture, but I’m optimistic I can stand out for reasons mentioned above.
I’m also aware the pay is poor, but I’m not looking for a tourist trip– I want to experience the low urban life, hanging out around convenience stores, living in a 3×3 meter box, scraping by to attend conventions, saving up with friends to go see historical sites, hiking in the mountains, catching bugs, pulling $2 nesoberi plushes out of claw machines and reselling them on ebay for $60+, posting しごおわり on Twitter every day as I crawl back to my apartment and hug my Love Live merchandise… It’s all very comforting to me, much more so than the idea of being well-funded or conventionally “entertained”. I’m not just fine with the grimy, low-class labor lifestyle it would entail; I’m actively interested in it
Does my scheme sound realistic? If so, where should I apply? If not, are there any other temporary work opportunities for a humble foreigner looking to experience the less glossy side of Japan?
5 comments
> and I know IT jobs in Japan are exceptionally torturous unless you’re willing to invest in a decade of slow crawling up corporate pyramids.
Not really true.
> I’m very aware the “foreign English teacher” market is flooded with pretentious outsiders with zero qualifications who end up treating it like an exotic holiday and disrespecting the culture, but I’m optimistic I can stand out for reasons mentioned above.
Your lack of self awareness is astonishing.
You are literally an outsider with pretensions of being better than others, whose idea of Japanese culture is living in a metal box and wasting all your money on crane machines. You think that being a poor, non-native English speaker from a third world country will somehow make you attractive as an English teacher. You have somehow convinced yourself that working in software has worse working conditions than working as a poor third-world non-native speaker English teacher.
> where should I apply?
Google “teach English in Japan”
>However on my last TOEFL test I scored 110/120,
If you’re coming from a country where you need to take TOEFL tests, it’s going to be a challenge for you. For most of those low skill English teaching jobs they want someone who has completed 12 years of education in English. Not just studying English for 12 years.
Does your country have a working holiday agreement with Japan?
>I’m very aware the “foreign English teacher” market is flooded with pretentious outsiders with zero qualifications who end up treating it like an exotic holiday and disrespecting the culture, but I’m optimistic I can stand out for reasons mentioned above.
Brags about how smart and qualified they are, calls other people pretentious. Chefs kiss
I’ll try to be kind.
Most of the people wanting to come to Japan to teach are exactly like you. The reality is there are more people wanting to come to Japan than there are available jobs in ESL, so the schools and dispatch companies can pick and chose. Because of this, they can also get away with treating recruits like shit, paying them shit, and skirting labor law whenever and however they can get away with it. They could care less about recruit’s well-being and only care about filling their pockets with money. In fact, the entire industry is predicated on exploiting people like you, who will do anything to come to animeland.
Now, knowing that, do you still want to get an ESL job? Or do you think it might be better to save your money and visit as a tourist?
You already have a Bachelor’s in CS, why would you (for the lack of a better word) “ruin” your CV with a tutoring job? You could simply look for jobs at IT companies. Better pay, better conditions, easier to get a visa for because it’s easier to find a job that sponsors it, and depending on the company, you can even skip the studying Japanese part, because English is sufficient.