As the title reads, I’m curious in regards to what the expectations vs reality are when it comes to language proficiency that employers require.
After a fair bit of searching, what I’m getting is a mixed bag of answers, when it comes to the common point of being a fluent or native speaker. Though my native language is not English, I’ve been learning it for more than 15 years at this point, even majoring in it (will finish soon), and have taken (language proficiency) exams that prove I am pretty fluent.
The problem lies with the mixed information I’ve been seeing from both employers and those with teaching experience in Japan. Some say having good English is good enough, some say you must be a native speaker to even be considered. My main concern is that many list being a native speaker or being from an English-speaking country as a basic requirement.
What’s the reality of it? Though I know the job market can be quite competitive, would employers still prefer a native speaker instead of me if I have been speaking English for nearly my whole life and have majored in it (if it came down to that as the deciding factor)? Would they just decide on people like me based on interviews to see the fluidity of speech and what/how much of an accent I have? Could this be a dealbreaker in many cases or do most places not give it too much weight as long as they are fluent speakers?
6 comments
Basically for visa purposes you need to have 12 years of education in English, so like your whole school experience should have been in an English setting. It’s not enough to just study it as a subject. Some do say it’s enough to major in English in university for the visa but I’ve only seen that with eikaiwa, definitely not ALT work.
If you have a visa for Japan already (such as marriage or something) then you may have more chances at getting a job as they don’t need to meet those standards, but on the whole, they look for native speakers due to their pronunciation and accent, mainly British and American.
Again some places have more strict requirements as you might have noticed. It’s not impossible to get a job as a non-native but it is hard without connections or an existing non-work visa. I remember reading someone say here that if someone is not a native they don’t even bother looking at their resume.
One of the issues is image, and the other is qualifications. English schools advertise “native speakers” because no one has qualifications – so being a native speaker becomes the qualification. This way, language schools can more easily find teachers, since any old native speaker can pass themselves off as one.
For years they have worked to create created the image of the perfect English teacher as a white person who is from the US, UK, Canada, or another so-called “native speaker country,” and now they have to live up to that image or the students will not believe that person can actually teach them.
In other words, they value the image of a teacher more than they value actual education.
If you take teaching seriously, don’t look to Japan. It’s not the right place to pursue a serious teaching career. Very often, language schools will not even hire someone who has qualifications, because they rely far too much on image over substance and someone who actually understands pedagogy would throw a spanner into the works.
You should try somewhere like Hong Kong or Singapore, if you’re interested in Asia, or else go to the US or EU, where language schools generally require qualifications instead of just a passport from one of the “native speaker” countries.
As the previous person mentioned, it’s less to do with “proficiency” and more to do with checking all their boxes. I’ve met people who spoke a native language other than English (obviously not all Americans/Canadians/etc. speak English as their native language, but saying that to a Japanese person would just confused most of them lol), they spoke English well but still didn’t know everything and didn’t have perfect pronunciation so perhaps your level, although unlike you they technically had education in English (they were all Filipinos, aside from one Indian).
IMO tho, if you’re actually majoring in it, if you could get experience teaching it in your home country you might be able to get someone to take a chance on you.
Expectation: that you’ve spent ~12 years studying stuff using English as your native language. For visa purposes it’s easier if you have a university degree (any degree from any uni).
Reality: this captures a significant range of people of varying abilities. Some are pretty crap at English, though the majority are of at least average ability. People can be crap due to a whole range of factors. I’ve met bus drivers who speak better English than arts grads. I sincerely hope that the Filipinos being hired speak better English than the people I speak to (out of Manila) who staff the 24/7 English language support line for Japan’s embassy. I’ve had lower intermediate students with better comprehension, grammar and tone/intonation than these supposed ‘native’ speakers. Not saying it to insult them, but it would be like me teaching Japanese conversation while claiming ‘I am native as I speak the highly coveted Australia/Italian-Japanese accent with a bit of Fukui/anime slang in there… mada mada dane!!!’ My Japanese is not a brand of Japanese that should be encouraged, and nor is ‘Manila call centre English’.
I’m getting scared reading these comments lol. I’m a Dane and to be honest, I have native level English proficiency, I think. My accent is American.
I was planning on extending my stay by getting a job with an eikaiwa or something, but now I’m not sure I’ll be able to…
In my specific case I was hired while I was living in Spain, my degree was an English major but a lot of the subjects were taught in Spanish. I also lived most of my life in Spain so even though I went to a bilingual school I cannot be considered someone who has done 12 years of education in English. Despite this, due to my accent being fully American and being completely bilingual (my father is from an English speaking country) I was able to land a job and come to Japan without any issues. My company also hires a lot of “non-native” teachers (people from Greece, Morocco, India etc) so it really depends on the company. It is harder to get a job but not as hard as some people here are saying. It also depends where you want to live, Tokyo has a lot more people competing for the same jobs so it will be more common for other candidates from an English speaking country to be hired before someone who isn’t. That said, don’t give up! I’m sure you will find something!