Going about teaching English as a Japanese citizen?

8 comments

1. “teaching” can mean many things here. But thankfully you already overcame the biggest hurdle, which is visa status.

   I can’t comment on your specific situation, as a Japanese national without Japanese language ability, but there are many English “teaching” positions that don’t require any Japanese language ability. You should also know that, most* companies prefer to hire domestically, so this would be your next step if you want to increase your chances.

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3. If you graduate with an education degree you could probably get a job at a private international type school as do foreigners with the same qualification.

4. Honestly and unfortunately, you’re likely to come up against the ‘I’d like a teacher who looks more American’ barrier from students if you go the normal Eikawa route. I’ve spoken to several Asian-Americans who’ve had the experience and it seems increasingly upsetting.

   There are arms of the industry like business-English where you’re less likely to have that problem, but that may not be up your street if you’re more interested in cultural aspects of language.

   This is not to dissuade you; if your goal is to connect with your Japanese heritage, you might be able to grin and bear the casual racism while you find something that really suits you elsewhere.

5. I’ve come to know many Japanese that have had successful teaching careers outside of Japan!

6. You probably don’t want to live here as someone who looks Japanese and has a Japanese name (assumedly).

   Your gaijin card being revoked, it means you’re going to need to do everything expected of you. Even if you have no clue what that is.

7. First decide what kind of teaching you want to do, especially whether you want to teach elementary, high school, or university. Then you will be in a better position to decide what to study and what qualifications you need to get.

   Above all, do NOT aim at being an ALT or eikaiwa teacher – these are not careers; they are jobs for tourist-teachers who want to live in Japan and experience the culture for a short time. The people who try to make eikaiwa/ALT work into a career very often regret it, for a lot of very good reasons.

   One reason is the low pay – even now salaries are continuing to decline, and this trend will continue. You will have a very hard time making a decent living on salaries that range from 210,000-300,000 per month.

   Another reason is the lack of standards in the industry, meaning that every job you will ever have will be considered entry-level. There is no upward mobility, and you can’t even make lateral moves – that means if you quit one job, you wind up starting all over at the bottom again.

   There is also no way out unless you learn an entirely new skill. ESL doesn’t really lend its knoweldge or skills to any other industry, so if you later decided you wanted to do something else, you would have to go back to school. That’s not easy, either financially or in terms of finding time to study while working.

   What you should do is look very seriously at getting a teaching license for elementary or high school, look towards the qualifications for teaching at an international school, or an MA to teach university. Those are all professional contexts where you can grow your teaching skills and have opportunities for professional advancement.

8. I have japanese citizenship but spent most of my time in America. I also have limited Japanese reading and writing abilities. I applied with Interac, and in my opinion, they were pretty eager to get me over to start working in japan because they didn’t have to do a whole bunch of paperwork for a visa. I liked starting with Interac because a dispatch company like this helped me with getting an apartment, car, etc, everything I need with help/ a translator. I am now set up in my life in japan, making money, while trying to improve my Japanese skills. Now that I’m here, I have many opportunities to apply to teaching jobs outside of the dispatch company, and opportunities will just keep increasing as my Japanese level improves. PM me if you have any more questions, good luck 👍