Hey all, thanks for taking the time to stop by and take a look at my post.
As stated in the title, I’m a 22 year-old EMT in the US who is seeking feedback on my plan to move to Japan in the future.
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**Background on my education and work experience:** After high school, I began taking courses at my local community college with the plan of transferring to a 4-year university to get a bachelor’s in Computer Science. At some point, I decided to take my community college’s EMT-Basic class and ended up enjoying it greatly. After finishing that class, I decided to drop my plan of going for my bachelor’s in CS and have since been working full-time as an EMT in my local 911 EMS agency for about two years now.
Up until recently, my plan was to attend my department’s in-house paramedic school and then promote within the department to be a lead paramedic. Several things about EMS and experiences that I have had in the field have made me decide that I do not wish to continue down this path for my long-term career.
Moving to Japan has been a recurring thought of mine since I was in my teens. I have been there a few times on vacation and have greatly enjoyed my time there. I will be visiting Japan again for two weeks this summer as well. I figure that it is well worth a shot going back to school and eventually making the move considering that:
* I don’t have any debt.
* I don’t have any responsibilities tying me down to where I currently live (no partner, children).
* I have a decent paying-job and parents who are not opposed to me moving back in in order to more effectively save money to go back to school full-time, as I’m currently paying $1,500/month in rent.
* I do not have a well-established career or significant tenure that I would be sacrificing.
* My work schedule (24 hour shift followed by 72 hours off) would afford me ample opportunity to study Japanese well.
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**My plan:**
1. Move back in with parents, work lots of overtime, save up as much money as I can while continuing to take classes at my community college on the side in order to earn my associate’s.
2. Leave my job with at least 100k in savings after approximately a year.
3. Transfer to a 4-year university (either in-state or maybe an online program) with an associate’s degree and finish after two years. I am still unsure about what kind of degree I’d like to pursue, although I am leaning towards CS.
4. Go to Japan and attend a language school for two years on a student visa with the savings that I have accrued. I would do my best to make the most of this time and learn the language as proficiently as possible within two years. During this time, I can begin scouting for work opportunities in Japan for after I finish with the language school.
5. After the two years at the language school, I should have a good idea if pursuing a career and living in Japan is the right choice for me. If not, I can move back to the US and pursue my career there.
6. If I decide to stay and work in Japan, I plan on eventually achieving complete fluency in Japanese, so as to open up work opportunities and make daily life easier.
If anybody has any feedback to share, I would greatly appreciate it. I would like to know if there is anything that I have not taken into account or any flaws in my thinking/planning that you notice. Additionally, I’d like to know if pursuing a bachelor’s in CS is ideal or not for working in Japan, and if you have suggestions for different degrees/fields.
Big thanks for taking the time to read my post, y’all.
by clinch0429