Some background info: I’m a 25 year old female, got my English and Spanish philology degree two years ago and I’ve been working as an English teacher in academies here in Spain. I’m halfway into getting my master’s degree in the teaching field again (high school and baccalaureate) while working part-time as a teacher of English.
At the moment I still don’t have the Spanish nationality but I have a permanent residency here which allows me to work and reside here indefinitely (my nationality is still in process, they take a long time here to grant it to you, Spanish bureaucracy sucks). I’ve been thinking about applying to teaching jobs in Japan, since I have good/sometimes proficient command of 5 languages, some of them on a higher level than the others. I also know Spanish on a native level, since I have basically been raised in Spain (although if you don’t apply for the nationality, you’ll not get it automatically, that’s why I still don’t have it and it’s a matter of time until they concede it to me).
I’ve been thinking about getting the CPE certificate (Cambridge proficiency exam) to prove my level of English, in case it is needed.
However, I’ve been reading pretty discouraging experiences coming from non native speakers who had the same goal, here on Reddit. It seems that if you don’t have 12 years of education in English then you have no chance of getting any English teaching job in Japan, which is my case, my education has been in Spanish apart from the last 6 years (degree and master’s degree done in English). In regard to my accent, it’s pretty close to a native speaker’s accent, I don’t really mispronounce words and many native people I spoke with in the past told me my accent, if there’s any, is almost unnoticeable.
Apart from liking Japan as a country, my real goal is to try and live with my long distance boyfriend who’s also a teacher there (he had it easier because he holds an American passport). What are your thoughts on this?
Thank you in advance for any helpful information or experience on the matter you can provide!
PD: I’m middle Eastern, but I do look white, in case it’s a big deal for Japanese 🙂
4 comments
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100% you can. Having recently known of, directly or indirectly of Filipinas who can barely speak english, or speak it in an unintelligible accent that are employed as what they describe to me as “english teachers”, then i would think you with a degree in English Philology would be more than qualified.
I don’t know if it’s changed much over the last decade or so but: GABA
It used to be highly meritocratic and many of its top rated teachers were non-native speakers.
Although most of the positions were part-time, they did also sponsor visas for full-time teachers.
Probably worth looking into as an option.
([https://www.gabateachinginjapan.com/](https://www.gabateachinginjapan.com/))
Try borderlink 🙂
edit: lol autocorrect