Hey everyone,
This is my first post and am super excited. I really want to move to Kyoto and obviously the only job I can do there is teach.
However, all these horror stories of teaching Japan has left me less than enthused.
If going to Kyoto, which companies are recommended? I was going to apply to Gaba or Berlitz, but now I am a bit worried? I wanted to teach to adults and then get a part-time teaching job to make ends meet.
If anyone can help, I would be so indebted to you 🙂
Thank you
5 comments
If I may ask why is that obviously the only job you can do?
> I really want to move to Kyoto and obviously the only job I can do there is teach.
Ask in r/movingtojapan.
If you’re really just interested in living in a specific city, then it’s going to be much harder to find a job. Keep in mind that in the main, only the large chain eikaiwa/ALT companies will bring you over, sponsor your visa, and find you a place to live. And those companies won’t place you where *you* want to go; they will place you where they need teachers the most. You’d have to be very very lucky to get placed in, or even near, Kyoto.
Finding a small, local school in Kyoto that will do all of that for you will be very difficult, if not impossible. They hire locally, often don’t sponsor visas, and expect the teacher to already be established in the area and able to find their own accommodation.
And you are not wrong to be skeptical of teaching in Japan – it’s not a great job. It doesn’t pay much, you’re not treated well by employers, and unless you really do enjoy teaching, you won’t have much fun doing it. Some of the people who come here just to teach do wind up enjoying it, but others wind up hating it.
I would suggest that instead of pulling up stakes and moving to a foreign country you’ve never been to and don’t know anything about, you instead come as a tourist.
After all, moving here would cost you a lot of money anyway, so you may as well use that money for travel and having fun. You can get a 3 month tourist visa, have all the time in the world to travel around, and not have the pressure of work tying you down.
After that, if you are still determined to move to Kyoto, you could always return to your country, apply at one of the big chain schools, go wherever they send you and work there for a while, and then eventually work your way towards living in Kyoto. You could do that within a couple of years.
IMO, pretty much the dumbest thing you could do would be to blindly take a job in a foreign country doing something you dislike just so you can be in a place you have never been and know nothing about – while spending upwards of three thousand dollars to do it.
But take that advice with a grain of salt – because what would I know? I’m just a grumpy old English teacher who has been in Japan for more than 30 years. 🙂
You could look on websites like gaijin pot. That’s how I found my job at a family owned school in Kyoto. Other job searching websites might come up too.
Put Kyoto on the back burner and focus on getting in first. Apply to ALL of the companies and dont be picky about where you end up. After a few years you’ll have enough experience to target a specific area. That’s the easier way, in my opinion anyway.