Been here for a year now doing the standard ALT gig, and really enjoy it here. I think living in Japan made me realise how miserable I was in Australia (especially as someone who doesn’t drive). I majored in Japanese and my spoken Japanese is pretty good. I do enjoy the teaching part of the job, particularly when I get to do 1 on 1 work. Any advice and how to keep the ball rolling and stay here reliably for the long term. I do like the ALT job but admittedly I’d like a job with a larger salary so I can save etc. Thanks.
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I think getting involved in the community or engaging in your hobbies/interests outside of the ALT/English education/Foreign resident sphere can be really good for helping you feel connected and like you’re at home, which at least for me, is an important factor of being here long term.
I like looking through the city magazine (広報誌) to find events or clubs going on in the city. I’m always the only foreigner there, and a lot of the times one of the only young people participating, but it’s fun and helps me discover new hobbies or just keep my calendar full of things to do.
(I fell in love with the placement I had when I was a JET ALT and was able to make great connections with the community. It was partially thanks to those connections that I got my post-JET job, here in the same city I used to teach in. My current job is unrelated to English teaching.)
Don’t forget to get the pr if you get married.
I’d suggest going for a teachers license. You could do it online or try to get a Japanese one. Also consider getting IB certified as the IB schools pay pretty well. There should be part time online programs you can do while working.
I recommend transitioning out of the ALT job as soon as you can.
What’s your undergrad in? Recommend moving in the direction of using those skills, if they’re specialist skills.
And, given that you graduated with a Japanese major, that gives you 15 points towards Highly Skilled Professional eligibility already.
If you don’t have other marketable skills you can pivot into, the best route would be to get certified, move into actual teaching positions, then save and start your own school/business.
People say ALT is a dead-end job but then never get teaching qualifications, improve their japanese or develop their professional network.
Don’t wish to be negative but a major in Japanese might not get you that far seeing as the whole of the population of Japan speak Japanese. You need a marketable skill to get out of ALT work. What that is only you can decide.
Many Japanese companies still rock the playbook from the 1800’s when it comes to treating employees like chattel but there’s a burgeoning amount of newer career paths available. Try to look into exporting goods or some other solo venture. Low capital cost and high barriers to entry for anyone who would want to be a competitor.
If you have English and Japanese skills you can start looking into interpreting, getting certification in this field and then going into simultaneous translating roles can be a lot of money if you’re good.
Ability to speak multiple languages in Japan goes further than I think others are making out here.
You can also try looking at say Japanese consultancy businesses that work with foreign companies – where language / translation skills are highly useful.
Feel free to PM if you want to chat more!
You can go back to university part time in Japan for 2 years and get a teaching license in Japan which would allow you to teach at a normal Japanese public school.
You will have to work on your Japanese, but just work on while you study, thats what I did.
Also I saw in some of your comments you were thinking about marrying someone after 3 months…..if you know, you know
My wife and I met, were dating within 2 weeks, and talking about a marriage a month later….that was 10 years ago, and we have a daughter now and are very happy.
So yeah, if you wanna stay in teaching, but not go down the dead-end eikaiwa route, becoming a regular public school teacher is an option, although a very difficult one.
Get a teaching license in your home country. This will unlock the actually decent tier of jobs, as well as arguably one of the best tiers of teaching job, international schools. Without the license you will always be disadvantaged.
Apply to all the large international schools!
Apply for a tourism related job that pays more and do sideline teaching for extra cash. They pay teaching jobs here so low.
If you want to make progress in teaching, consider getting a MEd in Tesol or Linguistics. This will open up the tertiary field.
. Join professional groups like JALT, attend conferences, try to getting something published.
Be prepared to move to a job rather than waiting for something in your area.
Learn programming. I have several friends who were able to transition to that even just having learned from online “boot camps”. Started out with almost the same low pay in IT as they had in teaching but IT rewards experience and development and they’ve been able to do well. English teaching is designed to get people their first few years after uni. It doesn’t want to pay you more, it wants to treat you like a cog in a machine that’s eminently replaceable.