I work with some French teachers in university. All have masters and many PhDs. However most universities won’t have the student numbers to hire a French teacher fulltime so most are adjuncts.
My old high school had a French teacher/ ALT come in. I think they were hired through the grapevine or posted somewhere maybe prefectural website. Try some Japanese job search engines maybe. Almost most were never hired full time but just for weekly lessons. So feel this normally comes out of some special budget controlled by each school. Which would really be a who you know thing.
One of my other students father was a Spanish teacher at a university. Though he had a long academic career in Mexico before coming to Japan.
I’m still pretty pally with a few of the French lecturers at my old uni in Japan.
You basically need a PhD and a shit ton of luck. I think one of the native French professors at my school was married to a Japanese women and spoke fluent Japanese. Also he had taught at a Lycée in Strasbourg for 10 years. A lot of it is networking and pure chance. (Right time, right place)
You’re probably better off applying for an MEXT scholarship and going down that route.
For universities, there are two general ways.
1. Find a job on [JREC-IN](https://jrecin.jst.go.jp/seek/SeekTop?fn=3&ln=1). JREC-IN is the standard place that almost all academic positions are posted on. I did a search for “French” on the English side and “フランス語” on Japanese side. In all of Japan, there are none on the English side (only French literature, not language) and four or five on the Japanese side. That means you need to be fluent in Japanese and can lecture in Japanese. 2. Know the professor in charge of the 非常勤 (part time lecturers) . Sometimes they need someone to teach a few classes. But, as far as I know, these positions don’t sponsor visas and aren’t enough to support you unless you take spots at multiple schools. Also, you probably have to teach in Japanese.
Well, as the new academic year just started last week (April 1st) you are probably out of luck for this year.
>the procedure
A university that needs a professor will advertise that they are looking. Most will publish in a special recruiting page on their website. Most universities will also advertise with 3rd party sites like JRECIN and academic societies. For French try groups like La Société Japonaise de Didactique du Français (SJDF). Their website has a list of links to other French organizations. (https://sjdf.org/liens). You can also try the Other Languages Educators (OLE) SIG at JALT (https://jalt.org/groups/sigs/other-language-educators)
For full-time positions, most will advertise in the spring/summer (May/June/July) for positions starting the next year in April. So in this case, April 2024. The submission window will be anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks. After which, there will be a time gap while read the applications, and then they will invite applicants for an interview typically sometime between September to November.
For part-time positions, most start looking in the fall, October to December, but sometimes as late as March for April starts.
>the documents
Typically you will need to submit at least a rirekisho and a gyosekisho. Note that these documents can be downloaded from the human resources section of the university website and you should only use the forms the specific university you are applying to. Do not recycle the documents from another university. That usually results in an automatic rejection.
The rirekisho is unique to each university but will contain at least the three following sections: 1) personal information: Name, address, phone number, etc. 2) Educational background. Most private universities only require from high school, but some public universities may require every school you’ve ever attended starting at age 5. 3) Work history: usually you should list every job that you’ve had since age 15 (the legal work age in Japan) but some universities may only want employment history after university graduation. Check the guidelines that come with the document.
The gyosekisho is based on a document created by the ministry of education. While the format varies from university to university, the sections are usually 99% the same. The first section is related to your teaching abilities and you should fill in your teaching methods, materials, practical experience, etc. The second section is about work performance, so you should fill in things like licenses, patents (for STEM professors), as well as administrative experience at universities/schools. The final section is about research. You should fill in all the books, research papers, translations, etc. that you have written as well as conference presentations, panel/forum speakers, etc. What’s important with the gyosekisho is to follow the instructions for each university because each university interprets that sections from the ministry of education differently, so what you need to include will not be the same everywhere.
In addition to these two documents universities often ask for essays about your teaching philosophy, copies of research papers, letters of reference, examples of teaching materials, videos of you teaching, etc. What you will need to submit will vary from university to university.
5 comments
I work with some French teachers in university. All have masters and many PhDs. However most universities won’t have the student numbers to hire a French teacher fulltime so most are adjuncts.
My old high school had a French teacher/ ALT come in. I think they were hired through the grapevine or posted somewhere maybe prefectural website. Try some Japanese job search engines maybe. Almost most were never hired full time but just for weekly lessons. So feel this normally comes out of some special budget controlled by each school. Which would really be a who you know thing.
One of my other students father was a Spanish teacher at a university. Though he had a long academic career in Mexico before coming to Japan.
I’m still pretty pally with a few of the French lecturers at my old uni in Japan.
You basically need a PhD and a shit ton of luck. I think one of the native French professors at my school was married to a Japanese women and spoke fluent Japanese. Also he had taught at a Lycée in Strasbourg for 10 years. A lot of it is networking and pure chance. (Right time, right place)
You’re probably better off applying for an MEXT scholarship and going down that route.
For universities, there are two general ways.
1. Find a job on [JREC-IN](https://jrecin.jst.go.jp/seek/SeekTop?fn=3&ln=1). JREC-IN is the standard place that almost all academic positions are posted on. I did a search for “French” on the English side and “フランス語” on Japanese side. In all of Japan, there are none on the English side (only French literature, not language) and four or five on the Japanese side. That means you need to be fluent in Japanese and can lecture in Japanese.
2. Know the professor in charge of the 非常勤 (part time lecturers) . Sometimes they need someone to teach a few classes. But, as far as I know, these positions don’t sponsor visas and aren’t enough to support you unless you take spots at multiple schools. Also, you probably have to teach in Japanese.
Well, as the new academic year just started last week (April 1st) you are probably out of luck for this year.
>the procedure
A university that needs a professor will advertise that they are looking. Most will publish in a special recruiting page on their website. Most universities will also advertise with 3rd party sites like JRECIN and academic societies. For French try groups like La Société Japonaise de Didactique du Français (SJDF). Their website has a list of links to other French organizations. (https://sjdf.org/liens). You can also try the Other Languages Educators (OLE) SIG at JALT (https://jalt.org/groups/sigs/other-language-educators)
For full-time positions, most will advertise in the spring/summer (May/June/July) for positions starting the next year in April. So in this case, April 2024. The submission window will be anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks. After which, there will be a time gap while read the applications, and then they will invite applicants for an interview typically sometime between September to November.
For part-time positions, most start looking in the fall, October to December, but sometimes as late as March for April starts.
>the documents
Typically you will need to submit at least a rirekisho and a gyosekisho. Note that these documents can be downloaded from the human resources section of the university website and you should only use the forms the specific university you are applying to. Do not recycle the documents from another university. That usually results in an automatic rejection.
The rirekisho is unique to each university but will contain at least the three following sections:
1) personal information: Name, address, phone number, etc.
2) Educational background. Most private universities only require from high school, but some public universities may require every school you’ve ever attended starting at age 5.
3) Work history: usually you should list every job that you’ve had since age 15 (the legal work age in Japan) but some universities may only want employment history after university graduation. Check the guidelines that come with the document.
The gyosekisho is based on a document created by the ministry of education. While the format varies from university to university, the sections are usually 99% the same. The first section is related to your teaching abilities and you should fill in your teaching methods, materials, practical experience, etc. The second section is about work performance, so you should fill in things like licenses, patents (for STEM professors), as well as administrative experience at universities/schools. The final section is about research. You should fill in all the books, research papers, translations, etc. that you have written as well as conference presentations, panel/forum speakers, etc. What’s important with the gyosekisho is to follow the instructions for each university because each university interprets that sections from the ministry of education differently, so what you need to include will not be the same everywhere.
In addition to these two documents universities often ask for essays about your teaching philosophy, copies of research papers, letters of reference, examples of teaching materials, videos of you teaching, etc. What you will need to submit will vary from university to university.
Good luck!