I just started my last year of college and my plans are to find a English teaching job in Japan. Are they’re any English teachers in this sub who can answer a question or two? My questions are, how much Japanese is recommended or needed to work as an English teacher. Like should I learn every word, proper pronunciation, and how to write Japanese? My second question is, is the pay reasonable enough to live in a comfortable apartment and not struggle with food or anything? Thanks!
21 comments
No Japanese needed and pay is shit unless you get into the JET program
As already mentioned: no Japanese needed, pay is not great. You can afford to live in a small studio or 1 bedroom apartment, pay all taxes and insurances, groceries, and maybe have about $600 left over for entertainment, clothes, travel ,savings. A tight budget can make it.
That said, if you can stick it out 6-8 years, then you can likely find a job that’s with somewhat higher pay.
>are they’re any English teachers
Your to qualified already
Before the cynics among us comnent (yes i am cynical too but it’s not gonna help OP:
1) You don’t need to know any Japanese however hardly any of the Japanese teachers speak English so knowing a bit will be a plus
2) Wages are poor and not getting better. Some companies don’t even pay over summer/winter holidays but as long as you spend wisely and not go wild every weekend you should be ok
Overall I don’t think it’s worth staying for a career unless you plan on getting pretty fluent in Nihongo and escaping the ALT/Eikaiwa black hole.
Come for the wonderful experience, run before you become jaded.
I lived there on the JET program for 2 years. I was living in the countryside and saved about $10k a year. Basically what you’ll hear a lot is that there will almost always be a huge difference financially depending on whether you’re in a big city or in the countryside– and, like others may point out, what teaching company you work for. For people with little or no teaching experience, you’ll probably be going on either the JET Program or Interac. Very big difference in salary there. But it also seems there’s a LOT more effort and more long months of waiting to hear back for the JET process.
Anyway, to sum things up, you might be more or less struggling (though not starving) if you do Interac (and JET to a lesser extent) in Tokyo/downtown Osaka. But you might enjoy living somewhere more out-of-the-way anyway.
As for Japanese, learning at least basic communication and some kanji will enhance and ease your experience somewhat, but I wouldn’t delay your plans for Japan in order to learn Japanese first. Most people, if they’re the type to really learn a language in the first place, will learn exponentially faster once in Japan. If you have time to learn basic conversational skills before applying to the JET program, it could help you a tiny bit in the application. Other than that, wouldn’t worry about it in terms of planning.
I’ve been here for 8 years teaching English. I’ll share with you what I know so far. 🙂
1. You don’t need a lot of Japanese, but it does help. Most eikaiwa have staff that can speak English to a proficient degree. ALT positions will usually place you in schools with at least one fairly proficient speaker, but there are still teachers at these schools who don’t speak the best English, so knowing a bit of Japanese will help you communicate more effectively with these people.
2. Starting out, the pay isn’t great unless you sign on with JET. I think 250,000 yen/mo is pretty average for the starting salary elsewhere. You can certainly find jobs that will pay less and some that will pay more, but I would expect something around this figure. You can afford a decent apartment with this (although if you’re in Tokyo or a larger city, that might be a different story). I had to side hustle with private lessons for a bit while I was working at lower paying schools in order to afford my expenses in Tokyo. D:
At the five year mark, I was able to get a decent teaching job out of the eikaiwa/ALT world and life is a lot better. I also got a master’s degree during my time here, so that helped with getting better pay and a more comfortable job. 🙂
Good luck!
There are three basic levels. Academic, JET and (for lack of better word) joke. Academic teaching jobs have the same requirements as academic teachers in western nations. JET is a government program where they let university graduates hang out at public schools and play games with kids. Getting accepted is basically like playing a lottery, no real qualifications needed, just luck. The joke jobs are just that, a joke. The wages are so low that they aren’t worth taking unless you just want to be a backpacker in Japan for a year or two.
Okay, so, there’s a lot of good information here, so I’m mostly just going to add context.
Teaching English in Japan (at entry level) means one of two things, ALT or eikaiwa.
* ALT: You work for a private company and are subcontracted to 1-3 public schools in a specified city for a year (with a renewable contract). While there, you work as an assistant teacher to either a homeroom teacher, or a Japanese English teacher. As you will be working in a public school, your age groups will always be K-12; Elementary and JHS are the most common by a wide margin. Your hours will be somewhere around 8ish-4ish. Pay generally isn’t great.
* Eikaiwa: You work as a teacher at a private school or cram school for a year (with a renewable contract). Class sizes will usually be small. Age groups will vary wildly, and students can be anything from students studying for tests, to bored old ladies, to salarymen looking to blow off steam. Sometimes companies have specific age groups they focus on, but usually you’ll be teaching a wide range. Because students prepping for tests and working professionals are the main target customers, working hours are evening shifts, such as 12-8, and often include weekends. Pay isn’t great, but usually better than ALT.
As for your specific questions:
* As a matter of simply living in Japan, yes, you should learn Japanese. It will make your life easier. That being said, between the two, on a working level, it’s better for being an ALT, and inconsequential for being in an eikaiwa. As an ALT you’ll be surrounded by Japanese people trying to talk to you (that speak no English), and you often have to have meetings with teachers you work with. It’s never listed as a requirement of the job (and many postings advertise “No Japanese necessary!”), but it absolutely makes life easier for both you and the people around you every day. At an eikaiwa, there will be virtually no Japanese; students will be advised against or even prohibited from speaking it, and the coworkers you talk to on the daily are all but guaranteed to be fellow foreigners or English-fluent Japanese.
* The good news: …Japanese *pronunciation*, for a native English speaker, is super duper easy. The bad news: if you’re looking at learning every word, and learning how to write, you’re gonna burn out. Look up the JLPT. The JLPT is a Japanese proficiency test offered twice a year with 5 levels of difficulty (N5 being easiest and N1 being the hardest). Each level of the JLPT has a specific set of vocabulary, grammar, and kanji that you’re supposed to know in order to pass. Passing the highest level usually takes around 4 years of dedicated study with active practice. I’d say start easier and work your way through it.
ALT’s are slowly becoming non native because the pay is so bad. Some “teachers” are fantastic and have a good command of the language.. Most can’t string a sentence together. I don’t recommend making a career out of it. The entire industry is a disaster(western teachers are weird or mentally ill and/or south east Asian teachers couldnt ride in a taxi in any modern English speaking country.. However, if you’re motivated.. you still might be able to find a respectable spot.
Not necessarily important to learn Japanese but some bosses prefer if you do.
Even if you get paid ¥200,000 you will use ¥45,000-¥80,000 on your apartment with all utilities alone (unless it’s a Leo palace). Then pay ¥12,000 for health insurance. ¥1000-5000 for your cell.
And you’ll be left with ¥103,000 realistically you’ll spend ¥40,000 on food and drinks. The remaining ¥63,000 can easily be used to have fun in Japan. And that’s the remaining profit if you have expensive housing and phone bills
You’re about 25 years too late.
Most of the info other people have given is great and from a way more experienced place than me who is still waiting to go. I just wanted to repeat some advice I’ve received and trends I’ve noticed when looking at potential other options that ALT work: Get a Masters and/or a teaching qualification if you think you might want to stay in Japan for more than a year or two. If you do stay, they’ll they’ll invaluable in getting better teaching jobs for livable money and if you don’t stay then you are in a good position for jobs back home too
Don’t do it. You’ll enjoy the easy lifestyle at first… meet a local and get married and then be stuck here without ever being an accepted member of society.
Do I sound bitter?
I know this might fall on deaf ears, but I have been very happy with my experience. I was hired into a private international school, so we only teach our subjects in English. We have had some that move to our school after working in JET or from eikawa’s and they love the actual school atmosphere much more.
As an ALT, usually you are just an assistant and you don’t actually teach your own class. If you are lucky and find a school that you are a full time teacher at, your experience will most likely be less “jaded”. Do your research before committing to a roll. And hopefully you enjoy what you do.
And to answer your questions,
1. No, you don’t need to know any Japanese, but knowing some will improve your quality of life in Japan much more
2. Depends on the school and your position, but if you find a school that you are a full time employee at, the salary is very livable and comfortable.
I hope that this helps!
You don’t really need to know Japanese to get a job; if you’re a native speaker, a BA degree and a pulse will do. But knowing some Japanese will go a long way in making your stay more enjoyable and allowing you to make friends/experience the country properly. If you want to come here, study the language before doing so. You’ll thank your past self for it.
As for salary, it depends. In most cases, yes. If you live in the countryside, you can probably save money (unless you’re burdened with student debt). But you won’t get rich, and might not have enough money to do a lot of travelling. There’s ways to reduce costs though, like not going drinking every weekend and cooking your own meals. Japanese meals, that is – it’ll still be expensive otherwise.
Scroll down the forum until you see the post about the union strike. Read all the comments there. THEN decide if you really want to subject yourself to working for a dispatch company.
I have a slightly different take on this as I’m not an English teacher.
Don’t come to Japan right after college. Figure out what you want to do, get good at it and make a career in your home country, and then come to Japan.
If you end up liking living in Japan (like many of us do) you’ll want a good job. For me, I had a career in my home country before moving here and freelance on an artist visa (people will say this is difficult to get but it’s not if you have a specific skill). Teaching English in an eikaiwa is a dead end job and if you’re in a big city, you can easily get financially screwed. I’ve never met a happy eikaiwa teacher in Tokyo (not even once) but have met a handful of teachers that teach privately or own their own small schools, if you want to go that route.
If you are insistent on coming to Japan for an extended period of time, and eikaiwa is your only option for a visa, go ahead and do that but plan your exit strategy from the company beforehand and make sure you have plenty of money saved up.
Great job for a poor person. As to language to teach no you wouldn’t need Japanese but to do anything else ..
Japanese is not required, although recommended to learn. Learn via textbook at first, as it gives you structure. Come via a shitty dispatch company and work for a year -> get a better job during your second/third year. You won’t even know if you like Japan, much less teaching, so no need to actually get serious about learning Japanese until then. Realize that there is a huge opportunity cost in learning JP.
Time for a reality check:
1. Most “English teachers” in Japan have no business being teachers, they don’t have the qualifications but -more importantly- they don’t have the natural, innate ability to teach. This applies all over the world really, just think back on your fave teachers among the many you had over the years, if you can count *3* that were truly great teachers then you were lucky.
2. Most foreigners living in Japan are losers, period. They either
A: grew up fapping to anime and decided they had to come to the “promised land” for real.
B: are people who couldn’t make it in their native countries and heard it was easy to get a teaching job in Japan so woo hoo, let’s go on an adventure.
Most have zero skills, zero ambition.
3. For most an English teaching job is simply a means to an end. They get burnt out within a year but persist in doing something they hate. If there was ever any passion or enthusiasm it’s long gone and the students suffer for it. They struggle financially and always will before ultimately fucking off and going back to where they came from but in the meantime they will continue posting pics on social media of weird and wonderful Japan giving the impression they are living their *best* life.
In conclusion, if you want to come to Japan find something you genuinely love to do and do it, if it’s teaching fantastic, truly great teachers are needed. Although the temptation would be to join I company I advise working for yourself to make real money and have control/freedom. On top of that find a side hussle, surely you’re good at *something*, right?
1. No but it helps
2. Yes, if you’re outside of Tokyo
These questions have been answered many many times.