Hi,
I seem to be in a weird situation where almost every single school is asking me for experience, most of them are asking for experience in int schools. This took me to the classical fresh graduate problem of “How do you expect me to have experience if I don’t have a place to start?”.
I was directed to the Search Associates database and I decided to make my account looking for internships. They said the pay is usually half of the pay of a teacher but they could offer hosing. That is the general statement, but what is the actual situation around Japan?
I would go for a full-fledged teacher position since I have the qualifications, but as I said, we have to magically obtain experience. If the opportunity is there, I will take it, but if it isn’t, I want to know if I can live as an intern. If half a salary would be 150.000, it seems barely doable depending on other benefits.
Since I know everyone lives differently, I will mention that as long as I have my own space with an AC, internet and a toilet, I am golden. So we can go with “livable” by those standards.
Thank you!
Edit: Let’s go by Tokyo standards to take the worst case scenario.
5 comments
The truth is that most people gain experience in their home countries first then come abroad to work at international schools. And truth be told, you are competing against educators with a decade+ of experience in international schools. Japan is EXTREMELY competitive and that is for ALL available jobs not just the good paying ones.
If you have an in to a school that is offering an internship. Do it. Otherwise, expect to have to leave Japan to gain experience and come back.
Try asking about or searching up internships in r/Internationalteachers? They might know more there. As for in Tokyo, it is probably up to the individual international school but the one I know that accepts interns only takes in local graduates. However, still recommend you continue going through Search and if you need to, get your experience in another country first.
Hate to break it to you but no international school is going to offer an internship. They want experienced teachers who are fully qualified and have experience.
Not gonna happen.
Sort out the obstacles preventing you from teaching in your own country, teach for a good few years, then apply to an international school here.
You will struggle but perhaps you can find an apartment share or something to get you through. International schools really struggle if a staff member leaves the job unexpectedly at the beginning or end of a school year and that is when interns and others with their foot in the door can luck out and get a full time job suddenly. Check that they provide some of the benefits like flights and health insurance as that will be important to make it through.