Hello, I am a college freshman, majoring in language studies (japanese and spanish) and I am wanting to be a japanese teacher in the usa. I do fairly well in my japanese courses since I have had a passion for it ever since sophomore year of highschool. I’m just worried being a non native speaker will hurt my job prospects in the future. I do plan on going and getting my masters in japanese teaching for higher education later down the line, but have any of you went down a similar path? And what were the outcomes?
13 comments
In my experience, not at a community college.
Source: am a professor (not Japanese language) at a community college with a Japanese program.
In my university, my best professor was an American man who taught Japanese. He knew the hang ups he had as foreign learner and was able to help clear it up for the whole class. I think you can do it, as long as you can teach it clearly! Good luck on your dream
Not an “apples to apples” comparison, but I had a Spanish teacher who is Caucasian. She had no Latin/Hispanic heritage. She was actually a “generic” substitute teacher but she landed the job when one of the Spanish teachers left. She was a little “green” in regards to teaching, but she was definitely fluent in Spanish and was holding regular conversations with other Spanish speakers.
TL;DR – if you can prove you’re capable of the job, it is possible.
I would just try to do some research (as you are doing now with your post). Specifically, try to contact colleges as if you already had Japanese fluency (not lying to them to get a job, of course, but just asking about any possible positions and required qualifications). I do have a feeling that the options may be few, but it will probably highly depend on where you are and if you could travel anywhere if hired. A master’s degree would be useful to become a college professor, but again, it comes down to how many opportunities there are, as well as how fluent you get. If you do not come to speak as well as a native speaker, they’d probably just hire the native applicant. In that case, a master’s degree could possibly be wasted, and it might make more sense financially to use that time and money to establish a YouTube channel (once you pass JLPT N1) that teaches Japanese (if you are that type of person… I’m not…). And even if the channel doesn’t take off and become a primary income generator, it could serve 1) as a hobby aside from a more boring job that is easier to find, and 2) as a resumé showing your Japanese language and teaching skills for if you later apply to teach. It’s good that you are looking into things now, though.
A former classmate teaches Japanese at a college. Native English speaker. It can be done.
That same college has a French teacher actually from Japan.
If you haven’t already, I would recommend checking out the webpage for the [American Association of Teachers of Japanese](https://www.aatj.org) for resources, webinars, and scholarships — especially their study abroad scholarships. Participating in a webinar or two may be instrumental to answering your main question.
nah, just look at how many teach spanish and can’t even speak it.
Why not try getting some early experience by working for Concordia Language Villages in the summer?
There are positions that you can do even if you don’t have professional qualifications as a teacher yet. The staff will be a mix of native Japanese speakers and non-natives.
It would look good on your CV and it’s a good experience (hard work though).
I really recommend it.
The majority of Japanese teachers in American high schools are non-native speakers, the majority of college and university instructors are native speakers.
In order to get hired as a college instructor, you’d want to have an MA in Japanese language as a minimum, a PhD for a tenure-track position
At my university, there were three Japanese teachers: two Japanese natives and one American.
The American teacher had lived in Japan for quite a while though. I think almost a decade but maybe it was little less, but in any case, his level of Japanese was really high and could read difficult texts. He looked like he was in his mid-thirties at least.
I remember him telling me how Japanese people in Japan would initially think he was a Japanese native when speaking to him on the phone because they couldn’t see him, and because you start phone conversations with phrases you say a billion times like もしもし and other conversation starters. That repetition makes you really hone in your accent to a native level by the sheer repetition of it.
After a while though, the Japanese person would eventually feel something was off his Japanese, but it did give him a sense of pride that at least on some level. his Japanese had started to sound native-like.
I actually think in some ways he was a better teacher in terms of understanding the struggles of learning Japanese from a Western perspective and he often gave really insightful tips.
He thought pitch accent can be important to know, but not to overly stress about it. He thought it was more important to learn how to “flatten” your Japanese. Remove English intonation from your Japanese so you say all the Japanese syllables evenly at first when speaking Then over time, you can start picking up pitch accent for certain words if necessary.
I wish I had talked to him more. Often students would go to the main Japanese native teacher, and her office hours were busier. He often sat alone in his office, but I think part of the reason was mainly because he was somewhat of an introvert. The two Japanese teachers were more social and would organize gatherings outside of class like picnic outings, karaoke dinners, etc. They also encouraged the students to visit them in Japan during summer breaks.
If you really connect with your students, even though you’re not a Japanese native, I think you’d have success. I felt like I was one of the few students who took time to talk to the American teacher, and that was a shame since he was a treasure trove of information.
Not a problem imo. The Japan Foundation has programs to train and actualize non-native Japanese teachers almost year-round precisely to incentivize foreigner to teach. The only problem is that in the US the field might be more competitive, since you are competing with native Japanese moving to teach as well as with Japanese descendants. In Latin America, for example, it is very common to see non-natives teach beginner and intermediate levels of Japanese courses.
Hm, I never had Japanese in high school or anything. But most of my Spanish teachers in HS were non-natives despite the US obviously having plenty of native speakers. So I don’t think it’s impossible.
No, most of the Japanese teachers I had in a formal classrolm setting were not Japanese.