Hey,
I was just wondering what my options are for moving back to JP after a long hiatus away. I’m half Australian/Japanese and just regained my JP passport after not renewing it in 14 years. I’m about to finish my Master of Teaching next month in AU. I’m kind of tempted to move to Japan as my mother is always pushing for it, but obviously with minimal teaching experience, in International Schools probably won’t be an option. Does this leave me with just language schools? Best place to look for teaching work? (Best to apply directly as I’ve got JP Passport?) Or are there other viable alternatives?
Thanks for any help.
3 comments
>but obviously with minimal teaching experience, in International Schools probably won’t be an option. Does this leave me with just language schools? Best place to look for teaching work? (Best to apply directly as I’ve got JP Passport?) Or are there other viable alternatives?
Doesn’t hurt to just apply to anything and everything that peaks your interest. You never know what might happen with some luck or good timing.
What is your MTeach in? And what state? Do you plan to ever return to Aus to teach? These are some important things to consider too.
Have you read though this forum at all? Just wondering, because if you do, you’ll see lots of warnings about “teaching” in Japan, and how it’s not really teaching and is either babysitting (kids) playing games (ALT) or chatting (eikaiwa).
If you want to teach as a career, Japan is not the place, unless you have the experience and qualifications to teach in an international school (a real one, not a babysitting service that puts on airs) or at a university.
Alternatively, you would need a Japanese teaching license (challenging to obtain) to teach direct-hire as a homeroom teacher (not ALT) in the school system.
Get your MA, get your Oz teaching license, work a couple of years to get experience there, THEN decide if you want to try out teaching in Japan.
Because teaching here without quals will *not* look good on your resume if/when you go back to Oz, and believe you me, you do NOT want to get stuck in an dead-end ALT/eikaiwa job in Japan.
There was an ALT recruiter on here a week or so ago (will point you to the post if you like) who said the quiet part out loud – he said that ALT comopanies don’t expect ALTs to have any qualifications, do any real teaching, or to stay in the job more than three years. And he was openly contemptuous of the ALTs who do stay in the job longer, calling them irresponsible and lazy (or words to that effect, I can’t remember how he put it exactly). That should tell you something about the industry.
As some others have said try to see if you can find a teaching job in OZ probably teaching English to international students.
If not you can do as I did try out ALT/ eikaiwa for a year just to see if you like teaching and living in Japan. After about one year you can start applying on jrec or jalt for senmongakko jobs. After a couple of years of that you can start applying for part time university jobs. Be aware though that the entire market is getting very competitive at the top as the amount of full time jobs are slowly being replaced by more and more part time jobs