Hey,
Been seeing a lot of incredible negative comments and a plethora of misinformation floating around the sub lately about English teaching as a career.
It’s just crazy to me that people would tear others down for legitimately enjoying English teaching in Japan and actively encourage the more serious teachers to stay away from Japan.
Anyways just thought I’d share my number one resource that has helped me a ton here with making English teaching a career here.
“The Smart Guide to Teaching English in Japan” by Charles Moritz and Martin Bragalone
(Real good information on best ways to job hunt, network, get qualified, finding better salaries, etc.) This book has personally helped me get out of eikaiwa with a significant salary bump. Highly recommend.
I hope many others can share their resources that have helped them too.
Edit: wow lots of comments! I do lament the fact that most of the haters are people who assume ESL career means ALT or Eikaiwa….
I also am sad to see the few trolls on the sub redirecting the post to be less about resource sharing..
Some people are saying that it’s either alt dispatch, eikaiwa, or University like there is no other options? Do you even research the job market??? Have you read any other resources besides reddit?? It’s hard to take the experienced and bitter seriously when all they spout is their experience as if that’s enough.
Anyways I’m glad one comment out of 80 actually shared some resources.
16 comments
Definitely agree. I’d like to recommend a couple of resources.
[ALT Training Online](https://altto.net/): A free online and open source collection of courses for ALTs.
[JALT](https://jalt.org/): A great community of teachers with tons of conferences and seminars. There are also special interest groups (SIGs) within JALT, such as Teaching Younger Learners.
ALT Agora: A monthly online event with different topics and discussions for ALTs. Check out their FB page for info.
Thank you for this!! The trolling has been unreal 🙄 I’m currently an ESL teacher in Korea (I plan to teach in Japan in the future) and um…we work hard. We get paid. It’s a real job. I’ve already learned plenty of job skills and life lessons I didn’t get from previous positions I’ve held.
Not everyone is interested in a classic career path that values money over time and happiness. I for one don’t plan to teach English for more than a couple of years, but I’m also getting everything I possibly can out of this experience in terms of personal development and yes, if you’re creative and know how to find the good in difficult situations, there’s plenty to be learned.
Plus, certain aspects of the job that are cons to some are pros to others. For example, I’m looking into being an ALT because the shorter hours and “deskwarming” would give me valuable time for personal development and projects that will help me achieve my goals post-teaching.
This also isn’t to say that there aren’t some VERY real abusive practices happening in this industry, and I think the people working in it need to push back against it as much as possible. I don’t have many ideas about that (possibly unions?) and I know it’s different depending on individual situations, but there does need to be an increased level of protections and respect toward ESL teachers.
My own personal opinion is that a lot of the naysayers are people from very privileged backgrounds (I won’t make assumptions about gender and race, but I have my suspicions) who dislike being in a situation where, as foreign workers, they are technically second-class citizens. As a less privileged person, this job is the first time I’ve been provided with PTO, health insurance, or the ability to start paying off bills, saving money, and getting off the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle. So just bear in mind that not everyone comes from the same background or brings the same expectations to the table.
TLDR; if you work and get paid, it’s a real job, and stop criticizing people for their life choices when you don’t know their background and it has quite literally NOTHING to do with you.
So true! And thank you!
For some reason I get a huge gatekeeping vibe from this sub when anyone wants info on how to get a job or what it’s like to teach in Japan. Are people worried about others taking their jobs? Are they just being spiteful? Really, I’m curious as to why people have to be so bitter and rude on here too.
English teaching is just another job like many, with its ups and downs. Let those who come to Japan decide how they like it after they experience it.
Like the ole sayin goes, “The hurt hurt”. Most of these people went through it. They learned the hard way what ALT work is and what ESL work can be at its worst destroying their fantasy. Now, they relish in watching others be put down just as they were put down. It’s a lack of empathy. Empathy is intelligence. Think about the psychopathology of the circle jerk crew. Hide in anonymity behind a Reddit handle, search for people’s post, re-post then tear apart. Basically sharks, in that the brain didn’t develop much and all they have is to prey on what they consider weak in a frenzied manner.
Personally, having worked here for 3 years I think that Japan isn’t a good place if you want to teach English seriously. If you want to teach English seriously and live in Japan then you’re better off learning Japanese and getting employed by universities etc rather than being an ALT/Eikaiwa worker as the system is so badly flawed IMO it’ll suck any motivation you have for teaching out of you.
If however you’re here for an easy job and not looking
to seriously teach English/looking to travel, ALTing is perfect.
The reason why there are so many frustrated individuals here (including myself) is because many are jaded and fed up with many aspects of Japanese life/education system. A lot of their criticisms are real and I don’t think can be ignored or just simply put down to “trolling” (although it does ofc exist). Japan is far from perfect and there are a lot of ppl who will attack you if you say anything negative about Japan.
There is a lot of negativity but I think a lot of it is justified.
P.S. I have loved my time in Japan and wouldn’t swap it for anything!
“Gatekeeping” that has to be the best word I have seen to describe a lot of the negative resentful idiots on this sub, the ones who try to keep everyone out of Japan! Seriously we need mods to just start removing these people, I get there are downsides but every job industry has its downsides ffs. This sub should be unbiased and supportive at the same time to those who are looking for decent meaningful advice rather than idiotic generic comments such as “tEfL iSn’T a CaReEr” and “tHe MaRkEt iS sAtUrAtEd” absolutely unhelpful and outright negative. (And I’ll bet this will get downvoted or some wise ass will say “but that’s how it actually is”) whatever. This sub needs a good revamp and needs to have a more supportive network!
It is a bad career choice though. That’s not an exaggeration when you consider it doesn’t pay well, give you good experience or have a good work/life balance.
Like sure, you can point out some exceptional prestigious university job with a great salary and low working hours but that’s an exception to the average situation. The average situation being working on your weekend for some 3 million annual salary and getting experience so bad that even ten years of it won’t get you a real teaching job.
Jack of all trades ‘Eikawa’ gaijin lifer here, twenty two years in and still loving the job. Run a group of Eikawa classrooms, PT Uni classes, kindergarten contracts, ALTing one morning a week and even manage a community center class. Love the variety of the classes. Although just doing one even it could be that dream Uni tenured job I would find boring and repetitive. I still feel lucky that I have been able to work in Japan. Take every opportunity that Japan gives to you and ignore the majority of the negative posts on this topic.
Loud Trouble brought up a good point regarding the trolling and classism that is so often on view here.
Loud Trouble pointed out that people coming to work in Japan from a lower economic background will find the work conditions and pay to be overall better than where they came from, and that it is elitist and classist for people from a more privileged background to look down on or insult them for trying to make a decent living.
One example is how some posters use the phrase “white monkey” or “dancing monkey”. The writer cannot possibly know the background of the person they are aiming it at, and ironically, many teachers are not white, are not from G7 countries, and aren’t native English speakers.
But even if they were, it is still entirely possible to express frustration about low teaching standards without the use of such derogatory and demeaning language. In short, this really should just not be tolerated.
In addition, it is classiest to deride people for their economic status, as some posters have done in referring to low teaching salaries.
And it is also elitist to insist that one must be affiliated with a university in order to call oneself a teacher **regardless of** that person’s educational background, qualifications, experience, and skills.
Japan absolutely needs better teaching standards, and teachers should develop their skills and get qualified. However – these low standards are not the fault of the teachers, and the systematic abuse of labor law aimed at immigrant foreign workers is one of the reasons teachers so often don’t have the money for training courses even when they want them. The blame can be spread around – the government, the employers, and yes, the lazy ones who just don’t care and are more than happy to coast along and never bother to even try. They exist, of course, but a clear line should be draw between them and the people who are doing their best with what they have.
The point being, ALT and eikaiwa work is a big vicious circle that is VERY hard to escape from, and we simply do not need people being insulting and using derogatory language with the sole aim of being a giant asshole to everyone.
Before you criticize, you better know who you are talking to, what you are talking about, and do it from a place of empathy with the aim of HELPING – and not, as I said, with the sole aim of just being a complete prick.
TL/DR: people, we are supposed to teachers – just fucking BE NICE.
Teaching is a skill. To do anything “GOOD”, is a skill. To the point where schools and people, highly recommend you/request you!! You become an asset not a liability. If you think teaching English is just being a “dancing monkey”, you either have no passion for your job, or you think kids are pretty much worthless. Nonetheless, do not put your failures on someone else. Let the person experience it for themselves. Who do you think is more of a liability, a dancing monkey who comes to work half asleep who doesn’t care for the well being of others let alone themselves, or someone who actually cares, is enthusiastic, reliable, and doesn’t bring private life/baggage to the workplace? You tell me.
I’ve started noticing a lot more negative posts/comments regarding teaching English in Japan. I got a little unnerved since I’m applying at JET this year. I understand that some people might have had a poor experience, but I’ve come to realize that I just need to find out from my own experience
It’s so nice to see people calling out those JCJ asses.
Thank you!! I’m probably going to order this book. My wife is from Hiroshima, we’ll probably live there for about a year in the near future, and I only speak Japanese at roughly an N2-ish level (if you want to think of that as a good way to measure ability) so teaching English was on my radar.
I’m a pharmacist, so I’m definitely interested in learning more about opportunities to teach at medical schools/drug companies/etc. Glad to hear you’re enjoying it – I agree I see almost nothing but negative comments, but there’s usually both a good and bad side to everything.
So I’m not gonna say how I know this, but neither of the authors of the book mentioned in the OP are licensed teachers anywhere, and unless they’ve really recently update their education, neither have an MA in SLA/TESOL/Linguistics. This isn’t to say the information in the book isn’t valid or helpful, but it’s not the same industry/jobs that a serious teacher would be in/perusing. If I had to guess, a lot of the information is about getting as close to the ceiling in the “private English teaching business” field as possible without getting a real MA or license.
The issues is, we need more teachers. As in, people who have devoted time to higher education and actual, verifiable, professional development. People who are legally permitted to actually teach their own classes in Japan in accredited institutions. People who are expected to function in the same capacity as Japanese staff. That’s where a lot of the legitimate criticism of the field comes from, since the vast majority of people filling “teaching” positions in Japan don’t meet the above standards. If you want to encourage people in Japan to take teaching seriously, providing resources on where to get reputable MA’s in relevant subjects, how to get special permission teaching licenses in Japan, and info on what teaching certifications are legitimate would go a lot further.
ALT work is fine, so is eikaiwa, they serve a real need. But I can’t in good faith call those positions professional teaching jobs, nor those that fill them “teachers”.
>Some people are saying that it’s either alt dispatch, eikaiwa, or University like there is no other options? Do you even research the job market???
My team of 40 were paid millions of dollars to research the industry for a client looking to open a national kids eikaiwa. We looked at it from every angle from academia to straight up scams.
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Yes, university and international school are the only real teaching jobs in Japan. Just because your employer doesn’t call themselves an eikaiwa doesn’t mean they aren’t. Working independently in a 1 on 1 situation is not teaching, it’s tutoring.
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As for the ALTs that get special licenses, they are not teachers in they eyes of MEXT. They are substitutes.
Soo… I came here for resources. Does anyone have any of those?