Got my first English-teaching interview on Monday. Any advice?

5 comments

1. You say you’re not a native speaker, do you have a passport from an English speaking country? Besides a university degree and a TEFL Certificate, being from a native speaking country/holding that passport is the #1 requirement for the majority of teaching positions in Asia. OP, I would proceed with caution. They may be hiring you under shady circumstances, probably illegally. I would look into this before your proceed further.

2. Just be friendly and fun, the vast majority of these companies don’t care at all about teaching ability, they just want someone that the students will have fun with.

   Avoid Nova or Gaba though, I’m not sure if you saw it but they introduced an extremely bad new policy where you lose an entire month of salary if you’re just sick for a few days.

3. I get that giving the name of the company is not something you want to do. Can you tell us if it’s an ALT position, an eikaiwa school or something else?

   Native English speakers, it seems, are having problems being hired if they’re not in Japan already, so it seems a bit odd that a non-native speaker would get an interview from outside of Japan. Giving the expected salary might clear things up if it’s really low, but I think if it’s too low the visa might be an issue.

   Anyhow, be cheerful and wear a full suit.

4. Be as positive as can be.
   Read about the company.
   If they have like a saying or slogan for example “English is a sport”
   Then say, “ah that really got me thinkingX English really is a sport, you need to practice to be the best” etc etc. then you got the job.

5. Why don’t u just go find an engineer job in Japan they are well paid (probably 3 times better)