I’m an American in their 30s who has been caught up teaching in typical English teaching gigs for long enough and would like to upgrade my skills and profession.
My background is, after studying Political Science for my Bachelor’s degree, I did JET for a full five years. Afterward, I planned to join the Peace Corps, but then the pandemic happened and put a total stop to that plan, so I didn’t even get to depart. During the depths of the pandemic, I opted to come to Korea as it was it much safer than America at the time and I could still make halfway decent money. I have now been teaching at a Korean hagwon (eikaiwa) for a couple years now. I’m set to leave this fall. I’ve liked Korea well enough, but personally connect more with Japan.
I’ve realized I’ve now boxed myself in with 7 years of TEFL. As such, it feels like it makes the most amount of sense to continue along the teaching track. I’m not sure how to go about it though.
Would you advise getting an MA TESOL and aiming for university jobs? If so, i eould like to earn it online while working in Japan so I can network. Or would you recommend getting a teaching license and trying for international schools? I absolutely do not want to teach in the US at all, so I would like to aim to teach in Southeast Asia for a few years to build experience then try and level up to Japan.
I realize they’re quite different tracks, but honestly, I just want whatever is the better bet for me. I don’t want to decide on getting an MA TESOL and then fail at getting a university job. Same for getting a teaching certificate and failing to get an international school position.
Any advice?
9 comments
Just a heads up, even with a teaching licence, Japan is highly coveted as a place for international teachers for international schools and it’s an ultra competitive market. Even really experienced IS teachers find it hard to “break in” to Japan. Unfortunately, the TEFL experience also doesn’t help much as it’s generally English instruction to English speaking kids – though I admit, not always, often a majority.
That doesn’t mean it can’t and won’t happen, but good to know the reality.
If International teaching is something you want to pursue and happy not to pigeon hole yourself into Japan, world is your oyster! r/internationalteachers is a great subreddit with lots of info.
Not sure experience wise on how university hiring goes in Japan. Hopefully someone can give you some insight.
To teach at an international school, schools are going to want actual experience. Your many years an ALT asking “what color do you like” “what sports do you play?” will not count as bona fide teaching experience. If you go this route, you would need to spend a few years in the classroom in your native country getting actual teaching experience, not ESL
The other two comments mentioned the IS route. Think of the University as a different but similar difficulty in that Japan is a popular country, and in turn it is very competitive.
Most working in the University circuit are on one-year, temporary contracts. Sometimes forced to work at multiple Unis at a time to string together a decent part-time income. Getting a permanent, tenured contract is incredibly rare and difficult. It would require all manner of luck, connections, and the highest qualifications available (PhD, years of experience, publishing/presenting background) and even then, it’ll still be tough.
And looking forward, the country’s younger population will continue to contract. Universities slowly lose students, enrollment quotas aren’t met, downsizing occurs…and it will continue to slowly bleed out. The international student population certainly won’t make up the difference.
Be realistic about it and understand that even when you finally meet the minimum requirements for Uni jobs, it is still going to be an uphill struggle to get anything resembling a cushy job.
I would try for an MEd to try to cover your bases.
While I have not worked in an International School, I have worked in Eikaiwa, university, kindergarten, high school, English immersion elementary school and English immersion junior and senior high school (offering the International Baccalaureate).
Know yourself well and what is important to you.
For me, university teaching was easy and rewarding but I could only find part time work and never knew from one year to the next how much or how little work I would have. Pretty much all the university teachers I knew were insecure because they didn’t really have job security.
I eventually chose an immersion high school. I am so much busier than I was in university. My salary, however, is higher as a full-time teacher and I get bonuses, pension and health insurance.
That is not exactly why I chose this job though. My students need me and ask me for advice all the time. Sure, I could be replaced by someone equally as good, but I truly feel that I am making a difference in this job whereas in my university job although I felt that the students appreciated me, the admin didn’t care one way or another how my student evaluations went. I am dedicated to improving the lives of my students and I don’t mind how much of my free time that takes.
If you have a similar viewpoint then by all means try the US license route. If you want an easier life go through TEFL, but please understand that in Japan university jobs are often part-time and temporary despite being ‘easier’ teaching-wise.
My view is that the university teaching situation looks a bit wobbly at the moment, with some of the bellweather Tokyo unis putting their resources into international programs while shifting their ESL curricula so that part time teachers are mostly teaching it.
Judging by the comments so far, it seems the takeaway is that I would be better off seeking a university or international school position elsewhere in the world and just going on extensive holidays to Japan with regularity (assuming Japan ever does open up to regular tourism…).
You don’t *have* to keep working ESL/TESL. You’re young enough to completely change careers if you want.
If you are intent on teaching at a university in Japan you will need a Master’s. But then you will probably end up like me teaching 400 freshmen a semester over 15-20 classes. Don’t get me wrong I absolutely enjoy teaching, but it gets to be a bit impersonal when you do the same material, and with too many students wearing masks, and the overall ineffective approach to language teaching in English, I sometimes feel like my efforts are in vain.
Really I would say that if you are under 35 there is a MEXT program that can help fund your Masters or even better a doctorate. If you decide to go for a doctorate and become a full professor you will have fewer classes but you may have increased responsibilities and research instead but at least the pay is better.
Other ideas if you get a masters are to teach in Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, China, and the Middle East. Depending most on if you value money or a certain lifestyle.
> I don’t want to decide on getting an MA TESOL and then fail at getting a university job. Same for getting a teaching certificate and failing to get an international school position.
> Any advice?
My advice is that if you’re thinking about re-training, you shouldn’t necessarily restrict the scope to teaching as there isn’t THAT much growth in working at international schools or being a tutor.
At about your stage I was a qualified Australian teacher and also had a TESOL. The highest paid work I found involved being a ‘normal’ teacher in Australia or teaching ESL in Australian prisons / tech colleges (to a wide range of people… lotsa good stories but not something I wanted to do for 30 years).
I re-trained as a lawyer as there was more career growth for me (salary aside). Haven’t looked back. I always encourage people to think like this rather than sinking $$$ into a TESOL or a teaching degree as I think there’s limited growth in teaching. Some love it for life but I felt that after a few years I’d done it all.