hello everyone!
so, after some research, i’ve seen that the number one requirement for teaching is that you must be from an english speaking country.
here’s the thing: i’m from kuwait and i speak both arabic and english fluently. i’ve graduated with a linguistics b.a degree from the states and i have an american accent. teaching experience aside, would i still be eligible to teach english in japan or is it strictly for people from english speaking countries?
extra info: two years work experience, about to start my career in teaching english at a high school level and i already have my n5 certificate and will be getting my n4 certificate soon.
7 comments
The pay and conditions in Japan are awful for teaching. Try to consider another type of job.
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I’d say you’ve got a pretty high chance given your qualification. You can look into JET Program if that’s available in your country.
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– a non-native English speaker who’s been teaching English in Japan for 4.6 years.
Yes. You can work as a teacher.
Just look into Eikawas. They hire you if you’re good enough.
Borderlink is one of the ALT companies that don’t require being from an English speaking country
I’ll just say it: if you want to teach as a career, and not as a gap-year between college and a real job, then don’t bother with coming to Japan.
The only job you’ll be able to get as a “non-native” speaker and only a BA, is either assistant language teacher (ALT) or at a shitty low-grade English conversation school like Gaba.
Neither of those contexts is real teaching.
As an ALT, you can only do what your Japanese teacher instructs you to do, which ranges from “human tape recorder” to “do all of my work for me but get paid 70% less than me.” The teaching method in schools in Japan is outdated and you won’t be able to put anything you’ve learned getting your degree to the test in the classroom, because all they do is grammar and translation, with listening test training thrown in so they can pass the university entrance exams. In other words, you won’t be teaching and you won’t learn how to teach.
In an English conversation school, you’ll be forced to follow that school’s proscribed method, which is usually a form of auidolingualism with a PPP format, which as anyone who has studied methodology knows was outdated even back in the 70’s. They will claim to use the communicative method while at the same time shoving a series of discrete grammar points down the students’ throats. They’ve never heard of TBLT, and forget principled eclecticism because no one teaching in eikaiwa has any ESL qualifications, so how can they teach in a principled way? Forget pragmatics, discourse, strategic competence, or anything even vaguely related to teaching listening, reading, or writing. No method, no curriculum, no syllabus, no balance of skills.
Your level of Japanese only matters outside the classroom, because you won’t be allowed to speak it to your students, as stupid as that sounds. Don’t forget what they want is the image of a blue-eyed non-Japanese speaking white foreigner, which yes, is racist as hell. But that’s what conversation schools sell.
**TL/DR:** your best bet as a CAREER teacher is to look for a job outside Japan.
Otherwise you’ll be stuck in a dead-end, job that pays juuuust above minimum wage where you’ll get no raises and no benefits to speak of.
Heh. Most of these companies will also make you live in their housing, so they can overcharge you for it and make money off you.
And for a taste of how these companies treat their teachers, just scroll though and look for the posts with titles like “I’ve lost all respect for my school” and “my school won’t let me quit” and “i got fired for wearing sunglasses”. (That last one was ages ago, not sure if it’s still posted but it’s a horrible story).
Read more, don’t believe the hype the schools try to sell you, and make up your own mind.
We can Hire people aslong as they have 12 years of education in English. and yes, you will need to get documents to prove it.Im a recruiter for an ALT company. So our only requirement is you have those 12 years plus an accent check during the interviewing process.