I am currently in college(Sophmore) and for many many years I have been thinking about teaching abroad, preferably in Japan. While in college, I have been teaching ages 3-5 at an early education center on campus. This has broadened my experience and deepened my love for teaching. Although I am wondering if it *is better for me to visit Japan for a couple to a few weeks before signing a contract to live there for at least a year* (this is the commitment I have seen in the programs I’ve been looking into).
11 comments
You can always watch some jets program vlogs on youtube to see how they handle it, for me personaly part of the fun is being thrown in the deep end and it feeling like kind of an adventure, but everyones different so… if you think you might struggle then try go on a tourist visa first.
It’s gonna be difficult to find a place that’ll represent the area you’ll be teaching in without knowing your placement beforehand. And by the time you know your placement you’ll usually only have about a month to make a decision. (By which time the plane tickets and accommodations will be much more expensive) Consider the possibility that you could be teaching near the country side, in the mountains, on a smaller island, in a city center, in the suburbs, etc. The experience beforehand would wildly differ if you were to visit somewhere and get placed in a completely different environment. I think to get a broad sense of Japanese culture and day to day life it would be beneficial to visit via a study abroad program through your uni for a semester/quarter.
That or look up day in the life videos of teachers in Japan (most are a bit glorified/on days off)
If you can do it, it doesn’t hurt at all. You could also look into a study abroad program, most US universities offer them if you’re in the US.
I don’t think it will make much of a difference. If you visit for a few weeks you won’t experience what it’s like to actually “live” in the country since you’ll just be a tourist. A year isn’t actually that big of a commitment. It will go by in a flash.
You don’t buy a car without test driving.
I don’t think exploring the country as a tourist will really give you a good gist of what it’s like living there. I didn’t before going and I was fine, but I knew a bit about the culture beforehand.
A year isn’t that long of a commitment, I just feel like this time and money would be better spent on studying the language, which will make a big difference when/if you live here.
I would just go for it. If you come on vacation you’ll have fun and like what you see, since that’s what vacations are, but you won’t really know what your life would be like after signing a contract and living/working here until you do it.
I’m living in Japan now as a JET Programme participant and I’d never been here before moving here on the program. Having visited before could be helpful, but I would caution against going into any teaching program here with any expectations as to what it will be like because whatever you think it will be, it will definitely be different.
When people travel to Japan for vacation they always want to hit big populated tourism areas like Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, etc, but when you sign up for these programs the odds of being placed somewhere even remotely resembling those places is small at best. If you’re worried about adjusting to life here, my advice would be to just do your research. Learn about the school system here. Look up videos about life on the JET Programme on YouTube. Study up on some basic Japanese and learn about social norms. I was nervous as hell moving here on my own, especially because I’d never been abroad before, but you’ll find people are a lot more willing to help than you’d think!
If you’re able to visit, it would be better than not visiting, so you can at least get some of the initial discombobulation sorted out. However, as others have said, your experience as a tourist will be very different from your working conditions… Sort of like visiting the US once by going to SF or NYC, and then getting a 1 year job in Boulder Springs, CO.
If money is an object, then there are probably better things to spend it on. If you can find a cheap way to do it, it’ll be a useful bit of primer (and probably fun). It might also convince you not to go through with your JET plan, which could save you a lot of time and energy if you were about to make a mistake.
Yes.
If you really love Japan, or love living in Japan, you should visit it beforehand or get a internship in a Japanese company in your country.