Hello everyone. I saw some people move to Japan as english teachers. But I assumed the people I saw were native English speakers. And I wondared if I can do the same. So I currently live in Turkey and non-native English speaker. However I am planning to get certificate like TEFL. With the TEFL cert. and after finising my MIS(management and information systems) degree, what are the chances that I can get hired as english teacher? If I can do that? If I can do how can I do that? How can I improve my chances?
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/13kpqsd/can_nonnative_english_speaker_be_english_teacher/
9 comments
I can tell you I have seen it, so it’s not impossible.
Non-native English speakers are usually only hired by third tier schools; you’d likely earn minimum wage. And you’d still need a bachelor’s degree. Not sure, whether your degree is equivalent. So chances are high that you’ll get frustrated.
Also, you should ask these kinds of questions in → /r/movingtojapan
It’s possible if you’re already living in Japan but to get a work visa as an English teacher you need to be a native English teacher with a college degree.
I knew plenty of GABA teachers who spoke English as a second language
I knew a French person who teaches English on JET. However, she’s perfectly bilingual and was able to spin her experiences learning EFL to demonstrate her ability to teach EFL
I’ve subbed for a Taiwanese ALT and worked with a Hungarian ALT. It’s not impossible
Filipinos do it somehow, so yeah
It really depends on the school, some are only looking for native speakers, but it is possible!
I’m French myself and have found several jobs as an English teacher and I’ve never been paid less than native teachers either. I have a pretty high Toeic score though (975) so I’d suggest trying the test yourself to let them know of your score.
But most importantly I’m fluent in Japanese which really is big advantage here! Since I speak Japanese I can communicate with the Japanese staff and the parents and do a bit of translating for flyers and stuff. So learning Japanese could also help you seem more reliable.
Good luck!
It’s difficult but should be possible. My friend managed, although from what he told me, his teaching experience helped a lot. It was not easy to find eikawa who accepted non-native speakers. He applied and did everything from his home country and only moved to Japan when they provided him with visa. This was ~4 years back, but I don’t think anything significantly changed.