Background: American (native English speaker), have a Bachelor’s in Science, was certified in 2 states to teach high school science and did so for a short period of time, have 10+yrs in the IT world.
Japanese Language: basics, so not conversational but focused on reading/writing.
Option 1: ship over on a student visa to learn Japanese for 1yr and look for part-time gigs teaching English or being an English speaking tour guide (I do have a hobby of reading Asian history and culture)
Option 2: pickup a TEFL certification and ship over on a work visa to teach English
Option 3: grab education to reach JPT N5, then TEFL to ship over on work visa to teach English
Option 4: pickup JPT N3 or better and try to ship over on work visa for IT (granted, my current specialty is recovery specialist, not a code monkey/dev)
I’m leaning towards one of the first 3, with 1 & 2 looking the most attractive. I have been quietly stalking threads in this subreddit to try and get an idea of the various challenges involved with each of my options, but running into an issue of establishing firm goals since I can’t seem to settle on which would be best. Either way, I have a few years before I make major moves, but I am prepping at this stage.
by Destructive-Angel