Hello all, I have worked as a teacher in an international kindergarten and it’s now facing closure.
I have a Japanese wife and children, she works and my kids are in elementary school.
I have a permanent visa but don’t have a degree and have no recent experience besides teaching young children.
I took a look on several job websites, and it seems my options are kids duo and the like and the review of those are quite bad.
If anyone has any advice on what do do next, either a change of career, or more of the same.
Perhaps I could open a school, but I’m not business savvy and doubt my own abilities.
My Japanese is conversational at best since my job doesn’t require Japanese. Yes I know I’m lazy, but if it would enhance my job opportunities I am an change that.
I would appreciate any help, links etc that anyone has during this stressful time. Thanks.
20 comments
Blue color work. Tons of jobs that pay more than standard eikawa. But doesn’t hurt to apply to English teaching jobs since you have 15 years experience and don’t require visa. Degree is more for visa purposes
go to hello work and stop using your skin to get a job.
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edit– ROFL The downvotes…… Really, when the only requirement is “Native English” you are getting employment based on your race and ethnic background. If you have an issue with that, don’t take the job. After 15 years in Japan OP should be adjusted enough to know that they can make more money and have better stability in a factory or even a 7/11. Avoiding those jobs means people think they are too special and deserve special treatment, the exact kind that give all us teachers a bad name.
15 years in Japan and your Japanese is conversational at best? cmon bro…
Unfortunately having no degree and no Japanese pretty much means no career in Japan, outside of teaching English
My advice would be to get someone to help you write your resume. Look at things that you have done and see how they could apply to other situations.
To keep working with toddlers, try a kindergarten with *some* progression like kinderkids, moving if you can. Depending on the branch, they might make you work like a horse but you’ll get paid.
To teach older kids, ALT work may help you transition to a real job.
Kid’s eikaiwa (I don’t know if that market is still good) is another option. Amity or any local ones.
You say you are lazy but if you want to change that, go back to school and get a master’s or education degree.
If you want out of teaching, focus on the interpersonal aspect of working with clients directly and indirectly, the ability to follow instructions, decorate, work on a tight schedule, keeping detailed logs, precision based work etc depending on the job you want.
Sorry, I don’t have any advice, just a question.
How did you manage to get a teaching job without a degree? I’ve been struggling to find a job without a Bachelor’s as a requirement in Japan. I have a CELTA certificate only. My dream has always been to go to Japan
Did you ever look into JIEC/JACPA? They work with private kindergartens all over Japan. I worked for them for six years and it was the best job — however, like all companies and jobs, there are those that didn’t fit for one reason or another and I’m sure that you will certainly find bad reviews about them online — but assuredly nowhere near the amount of other similar companies.
If you’re thinking about long term prospects it’s probably best for you to change careers. A friend of mine did a coding boot camp and they helped him find a job. Two years later, he has a great salary with a good company.
Obviously improving your Japanese skills will help but you’re probably going to need some other skills on top of that.
Whatever you do from now on – be it more English-related work or something else – work on either getting your bachelor’s degree or improving your Japanese (hopefully both, but given your situation, it may need to be your Japanese specifically).
Your options aren’t super bright now, but you are now aware that change can come suddenly. You should work to make sure that it doesn’t cause you so much stress in the future should it rear its head again.
Good luck!
What do you like? Do you know basic computer stuff? I could possibly help you out into something. Where do you live?
Are you in a city? Are you and your family willing to relocate?
Your current international kindergarten should surely have connections with other kindergartens or with the education sector in general? Your 園長先生 should be able to help you network with other schools that need teachers.
There are a lot of private school gigs that get filled by word-of-mouth only. Don’t just depend on gaijinpot.
My advice isn’t for everyone
but the best thing I did here in Japan was to hang out my own shingle
Sounds brutal.
I don’t know anything about teaching, but I have endured the receiving end of a bit of corporate training.
If you can teach teach, then how about pivoting into a new career in corporate training?
If you have experience wrangling children, then herding the animals in the sales force along a curriculum should be fairly similar.
Software companies often need trainers for their products, to train their own staff, as well as their hapless customers.
Make a list, tell them when you can spare time for an interview, and make it look like you know what you’re talking about.
At your age, hard experience should hopefully trump the absence of a degree. PR is useful, as it means no dicking about with your visa.
And as you have PR, don’t forget that you can work almost *any* job; jigolo, for example. Even remotely, for overseas companies.
Good luck.
I know people who’ve grown tired with teaching and taken jobs with recruiting agencies head hunting foreigners. Little Japanese needed. But those jobs are mostly in Tokyo (and I assume Osaka) although they may have moved more to online since the pandemic.
Lionbridge is hiring in Tokyo (more like Yokohama). The branch in Japan is not exactly brand new, but the gaming division is sort of new. I joined when it started, and I’ve been already given a senior and now a leadership role.
We have 2 divisions. The LQA team which focuses more on languages in gaming (which pays a bit more) and the FQA team which is pretty much just game testing.
LQA has been there for a while, but the FQA team in Japan just basically started and we are still growing super fast. We’re already having talks of opening a branch in Tokyo, which won’t happen too soon. But when it does happen, we definitely need more people for IT, HR etc.
If you’d like to see our clients, go to Lionbridge’s website and look for our clients in the gaming division.
The branch in Japan has already surpassed other branches around the world. We are still hiring more people. We are still growing extremely fast, we’re having a hard time to catch up with the growth.
The pay for LQA is higher, maybe 1250 yen? While FQA is about 100 yen less. LQA is not exactly hiring, but I think we could use some real native or skilled English speakers in LQA. While in FQA, as long as you speak basic or communicative English, that’s fine.
I’m not a recruiter. I’m just someone—what I’d like to say—got lucky and joined in at the perfect time to show my skills.
What about some “学院” series elementary school or kindergarten. Many Christian or Catholic Church do have kindergartens.
*sigh* I see this type of situation all the time. It also often leads to divorce
Please, everyone, keep in mind these jobs teaching English are NOT stable and the future of the industry is bleak. This applies to whether you are Eikawa, ALT, Direct Hire or working at Uni. Places are closing. The demand for “english teaching” is decreasing. Japan is losing population.
Please, make sure you are keeping yourself up to date with credentials, improving your Japanese language and having a Plan B and Plan C
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And don’t be afraid to look at jobs in your home country and move back if you find a good one. Your life doesn’t have to be only looking at GaijinPot (or JREC for Uni people). There’s tens of thousands of jobs back in your home country that need filling (that pay more). At a bare minimum, keep your eye on the job market in your home country.
How about of girl talks as an expert in Kindergarten education?
Since you have PR, you could also try to find some remote job in your home country and work like that. I know people who do that.
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Since you don’t have any degree or experience, you are limited but I’m sure you could still find some crappy data imputing job or something. May only pay like $30k a year but that’s better pay than the jobs you do in Japan (especially with the exchange rate)
If you are American, have you considered generating income in the U.S. remotely from Japan?
This is particularly attractive now considering the US dollar’s strength vs the Japanese yen.
If you are interested, I will share info with you.
This is not an MLM or cryptocurrency, nor is there any financial commitment upfront.
One transaction can net you close to 1M JPY on average.
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