Best Long Term Language School for Someone Over 30?

7 comments

1. Hello, only answering a small part of your question; I think without a bachelors it is not possible to gain a visa; but I could be wrong and it may be you can undertake language study visa without a bachelors.

   In terms of continuing to work in Japan, beyond a temporary language study visa, again I believe that would require a bachelors degree of some kind.

2. Age doesn’t really “matter” in regards to language schools. You will find a lot of people that are in a situation that is close to yours, so I’d choose primarily on the area I intend to live.

   There is one thing however I would worry much if I were you: you seem to want to make a living / start a career in Japan without any kind of qualification that will find recognition there. That will likely be really, really hard. I often did get asked why I had a (relatively!) easy time to get to work for Japanese companies. Well, I got more then just 1 professional degree and by now have a resume that includes work for some renowned companies.

   Nevertheless, I do generally not work in Japan and I do not intend on living there. I love the country and will continue to visit it and will likely again work there temporarily. But getting a good job or well paid work ain’t easy if the only thing you got to show for yourself would be some language knowledge.

   That might sound rather negative I guess, but in some way, I can’t emphasise the importance of qualifications enough. You might have done a lot of stuff, but a “teacher” is supposed to have a qualification that is even beyond bachelor in my country and at least on the bachelor level in most of the world. So if you can somehow get your bachelor done: this might open more doors then anything else.

   In terms of language learning, I’d say age does not matter. I started roughly at the same age as you are now, already had a professional degree there I did while at the military where I spend 10 years), went to University, added some study on my own and successfully went independent as a language professional. Successful enough to have had paid (!) business trips to Japan for some rather large projects where I did work in Tokyo.

   Oh and me trying to visit language school for a short time is where I got a lot of experience with other people. I did cancel this however. I am still convinced my spoken Japanese isn’t really good and I too sometimes have trouble with really fast speakers. On the other hand, language schools aren’t made for people beyond N1+, so I felt like I hardly gained anything.

   So that’s some rather large text, but I hope there is some helpful advice here. Keep in mind, this is personal based on my own experience.

3. What didn’t you like about Fukuoka?

4. The “pool” of apartments available to foreigners, particularly those without corporate sponsorship and those with language school visas, is small.

   Many language-school students stay in school-sponsored housing or “share-houses” where pets “typically” are not allowed.

   So consider front-ending some of the pet logistics early on. You can contact a big language school directly to see if they have some pet advice.

5. The mix of foreign students varies by school, over the years, etc. A few years ago, a large percentage of students were from China and Korea; there students from other Asian countries too. Decades ago I sense there were more westerners.

   Some schools target a few countries to source their students from. Some schools have “junior year abroad” programs that would take students from say US universities for a few months. But IME, Asians tended to be the most represented in the mix, many who aimed to attend Japanese univeristy or trade school.

   Post-pandemic, who know what the mix of students will look like.

6. I’ve studied at the Yamasa Institute on a student visa in my 50s.

   But I am American, married, and had also studied there for shorter periods of time previously, worked in Japan for a year, and have a master’s degree, so convincing a bureaucrat that I was serious about studying Japanese and not overstaying my visa might have been easier than average.

   Yamasa works hard to ensure diversity in the language the students speak, so it will not be majority Chinese, Vietnamese, or anything else. They do get a lot of Brazilian students, partly because there are a lot of Japanese-Brazilians in the Nagoya area, relatively speaking.

   Yamasa has a fairly detailed website, which isn’t hard to find.

   On a student visa, you can work at most 28 hours a week at most. You won’t be able to support yourself that way.

   Last time I checked, Yamasa had some pet-friendly apartments. You’ll want to check out Japan’s quarantine process for bringing in animals, though.

7. I had a great experience at Kyoto Institute of Culture and Language. Spent 18 months there and went from knowing only hiragana to JLPT N2 by the end of it. Very intensive so you’ll be studying/doing homework on average 6 hours a day everyday. Most of my classmates were from places like Taiwan and Thailand which is actually a good thing since as they didn’t speak English, Japanese was a must. Most of my classmates were 25+ with me being one of the youngest at 23 (this was 10 years ago though).

   Also a bonus is that it shares the campus with an art university which gives a lot of opportunities to interact with the local native students in clubs and such.

   For the cat situation, that’s going to be pretty rough as they’ll need to have been gotten all of their shots at least 6 months before your trip and your options for pet-friendly apartments will be very limited. That will definitely be the hardest part to get sorted.

   For work, you’re allowed to do so up to 28 hours a week on a student visa, but only after you submit an application for permission to do so at the immigration office. Once you leave school and are no longer under a student visa, you will not be legally able to stay in Japan without changing to a work or spousal visa. However, the requirements for getting one are strict as you’ll either need a bachelor’s degree or able to find a company to sponsor you (even with a sponsor, it’s not guaranteed the government will grant you one though).

   Getting a self-sponsored visa is technically possible as well but extremely difficult as you’ll need to show you are receiving income through contracts with Japanese companies (foreign ones don’t count). You’ll really need to hustle though as you’ll need to accomplish this before you leave the country (you’re not allowed to apply for a self-sponsored visa while outside the country).

   More info about visas here: https://reddit.com/r/movingtojapan/w/freelance?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

   Hope that helps!