The posts here give me the impression that this is a bit more of a numbers game than I previously realized. Assuming I do end up liking teaching as a career (which I think I will given my experience and education), what is the most recommended career progression in the teaching English track? In terms of money, or in terms of satisfaction? I have a degree from a pretty well-regarded university and am working on a TEFL certificate as well, but I figure in the end experience ends up being more attractive in terms of career progression.
I mainly wonder if there is a balance people with more experience than me have been able to strike in terms of finding an emotionally rewarding job that doesn’t pay nothing. I feel like my main motivation for going after this goal is a love for teaching language, is that something that can be truly turned into a valuable career here?
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If you are passionate about teaching, don’t become an ALT. Get your credentials and work in your home country for a couple years. Then think about moving to Japan.
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Getting a job as an ALT won’t help your career. ALTs are classroom assistants not teachers. Your job is to do what the real teacher says. These days many people are reporting that they don’t do very much and the “human tape recorder” part of the job is being taken over by tablets. As far as pay goes, it gets lower every year. Between ¥180k and ¥220k a month is the norm ($1,500 to ¥1,900 US) and you will lose about 35% to tax and insurance/pension. Most ALTs leave Japan before their third year. As a working holiday activity it is a great gig, it isn’t a career and won’t lead to better work.
I say this as an ALT.
ALTing is NOT teaching!!!!!
Hell it’s not even work really, that’s why I love it
But if you’re passionate about teaching and get any sort of self worth from your job this will be absolutely SOUL CRUSHING.
It sounds like your degree isn’t in education, in which case (depending on where you’re from) you’ll probably have to do another year at uni (postgrad) to become a schoolteacher here, there or anywhere anyway.
I think, come over to Japan as an ALT and see if you even like being in a classroom/around kids every day. See if you like the idea of the teachers’ lifestyles (differ from country to country but basically = long hours without a heap of money).
If you like the idea of those things, go back home and do another year of uni to become a teacher, teach at home for a little bit and then either stay there, come back to Japan as an international school teacher, or go somewhere else as an international school teacher. Obviously this depends a lot on what your nearly-finished undergrad is.
Long story short: Fuck it, you’re young, come on over and enjoy living and semi-teaching here for a bit and figure out what you wanna do next. Don’t count your chickens etc etc, you’ve almost finished your undergrad anyway so now isn’t (necessarily) a time for thinking long-term.
Look, there’s all kinds of ways you can thrive in easy or difficult fields. After living here for half a decade, I find no one gets loathsome over gaikokujin half as well as other (usually more fragile) gaikokujin.
I’ve seen guys with (allegedly) masters saying the dumbest crap about the eigo no sensei life and yet they’ll jump at a chance to get in contact for a 50,000 USD per year position because they feel like it’s “real teaching.”
I’ve seen ALTs make above the grade around 34,000 USD per year to as much as 45. Some have no debt because of limited education.
You should do what you’re interested in doing. If it works out in a way you like, then it does. If it doesn’t, it’s experience towards the next thing you do.
I find it personally to be lax work/life balance, and for me as a direct hire, pretty decent pay.
As someone with an MA in teaching that’s cobbed together an interesting and decently profitable career, if you actually care about teaching Japan is only a good place if you’re aiming at college, Tier 1 direct hire private school (in a major city), or corporate with a supplemental skill or area of knowledge.
Any serious institution won’t take short term certs or ALT/eikaiwa experience as proof of ability, and even in direct hire situations it will be illegal for you to be the actual T1 without a license. There are ways around this with provisional licensing, but if you genuinely want to be a “real” teacher it’s best to do that in America with a good program, then decide if you want to do international school, college, or to try to get a direct/more permanent place at a high end high school. Anything else is human tape recorder and “let’s English with Sam sensei while the actual teacher takes a nap” territory.
My advice is avoid eikaiwas.
I ALT’ed while I built my own private classroom. I make more than enough, set my own curriculum, and am my own boss. ALT work doesn’t prepare you for that, but it puts you in a solid position to start from. You have desk time to study, and you get to know lots of teachers’ methods in the classroom. I learned a majority of the Japanese vocabulary to describe English grammar in the JTEs classroom, and I was paid to be there.
If you don’t want to run your own thing, university is the option, but… i have a few classes on the side, and I don’t enjoy teaching uni. English is mandatory for a lot of students, just like in JHS, but they lack the positive and polite attitude of junior high school students. I find it shockingly unrewarding.
I was an ALT a LONG time ago. It was a great personal experience. It was not a good professional experience. I didn’t learn how to teach. I just learned how to be in school as an adult. I learned that I like working with kids.
Now I’m a teacher in the US. And have been happy for a long time. The ALT experience gave me an introduction to working in school while teaching me to understand the kids perspective and being an illiterate student. It was a powerful experience. I’d say it probably made me a better teacher.
I was avoiding ALT at first. However after failing an interview for a high school I was told ALT experience would have gotten me the job so I did it for 2 years. I looked at as an internship so I was more focused on what the teachers were doing.
Having said what got me in my current private high school job is my teaching degree. I was told that by the person hiring me.
I’ve done kids eikawa and international kindergarten. I learned something from all these jobs. International kindergarten was the most like teaching (elementary) in my own country in terms of responsibility and classroom managenent pressure. You also work without break.
Eikaiwa teaches you what you need to know for attracting and keeping customers for private lessons.
I’ve found that the lower the pay, the harder the job. Jobs that pay well tend to also treat you better. You can also see this phenomenon with university professors that work half days and make 2, 3 or even 4 times more that lower paying jobs.
As I’ve said before, you would make more money teaching in your own country no matter what you choose. You would need a strong desire to be in Japan to be happy.
I prefer being here but I am also constantly hussling my way to better pay.
“Long term career” + teaching as ALT = no career in Japan. No good pay, sometimes shitty people, realizing you’re just the gaijin in the room.
I loved Japan til I moved here. The nature is great but the work culture is fucking murder. Luckily I’m in IT working for an American company so that Japan stuff can kiss my ass
If you want a break from Japan and to save a ton of money, go teach at an international school in Thailand, where you’ll live lavishly.