English teaching in Japan. Great time or Complete Nightmare???

[ASSASSIN27]

Ok. A lot of you guys want to go to Japan to meet girls and I know you've all researched on the internet about the possibility of being an English teacher. Let me just tell you that the company and contract you decide on and the actual job location you get when you arrive in Japan can be 2 totally and completely different things and can therefore lead to a very enjoyable 12 months in Japan as an english teacher or can lead to 12 months of pure hell.

My first suggestion would be to not even go there as an english teacher. Try to apply for a work visa that would allow you to work outside of just teaching english because honestly unless your teaching at a university level the student's could care less about learning english and that will lead to a horrible experience.

If you don't have at least $3,000 U.S. Currency in your checking or savings before you leave for Japan don't even go. Because the economy is always booming in Japan $3,000 U.S. dollars will only last you about 2-3 weeks and that's only for food and entertainment. If your job won't pay for your apartment than you will most likely be living in the streets or back on a plane to America after your first month. This is no joke. If you are not a financially responsible person than do not live in Japan, especially Tokyo.

If your job ends up paying for your apartment (which most jobs do) than your all good. Oh and if you get a contract for an english teaching job that says they won't provide you with housing than turn it down and find a different company to work for (DO NOT WORK FOR ORBITZ TRANSLATING SERVICES!!!).

Be sure you actually have a 4 year bachelor's or equivalent degree from your university before you arrive in Japan because they check for those now. I had mine already, but I know tons of people who got kicked out of Japan because they bought fake diplomas for like $500 online so that they could get an english teaching visa. Don't waste your money because Japan is actually cracking down on doing background checks on those degrees now because some Canadian english teacher got caught sleeping with underage students from his classes and it turned out he had a fake diploma so parent's are freaking out about this.

That's about all I can suggest right now. If you would like any more information about working and living in Japan just send me a message and I'll try to help out. I don't know much about living outside of Tokyo though and I've been to Osaka a couple of times, but other than those 2 areas I won't be of much help.

Laters.

Oh and if your ever in Roppongi @ a place called Club Vallfarre keep an eye out for me. I'll be the only asian guy in the entire place who only speaks english. Haha. ^^V

 

[Bellotizio]

I was thinking of simply teaching slang English when I stay in Nagano. I have a lot of friends there, and they have friends who want to have that English Hip Hop slang talk, so I can do that, I'd also do the lessons privately. I do know that I need to get some text books though, but that's not a problem.

 

[Tatsurou]

velfarre closed like 2 years ago :/

 

[pauduro]

velfarre closed like 2 years ago :/

DAMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE :coldsweat: so some one is a little lier

 

[BlueOne]

Nice information ASSASSIN27,

What do you think minimum dollar that we have to earn every month to pay minimum expenses? and type of job that can provide that amount of money

 

[guy]

What do you think minimum dollar that we have to earn every month to pay minimum expenses? and type of job that can provide that amount of money

￥250,000/mo (￥3M annual) is the bare minimum if you need to pay your own rent. If your company provides an apartment, they will probably still tell you the full salary but subtract a flat fee for rent. But you should get as much information about housing as possible, as people have been known to get some bad apartments. You can look for your own apartment, but you should expect to pay up to 6x the monthly rent for the first month to cover key, deposit, and agent fees (it's standard, but some places offer "no key money" incentives). You should also make sure to sign with a company willing to sponsor your apartment as a guarantor -- you can get better apartments that way.

As a rule of thumb, 1K apartments in Tokyo begin at ￥90,000 rent, and 1DLK goes to ￥150,000 and beyond.

Generally, you should have at least $5000 that amount to pay for other initial costs, but more would be safer.

There are all sorts of jobs available, primarily eikaiwa and tech jobs. If you hold a 4-year degree (Bachelor's) and no experience, the best salary you can get is about ￥3M annual. If you have some experience, or enjoy working with kids, maybe ￥3.6M annual. If you're good at interviews and luck's on your side, maybe you can land a ￥4M annual job.

Don't expect to do eikaiwa for more than a few years -- it's not a permanent career option, just a way to spend some time in Japan.

 

[vancitylove]

Teaching at an eikaiwa is a good way to get you foot in the door into Japan. They set you up with a working visa (usually a specialties in humanities) Getting your own visa is very difficult - the only option is a working holiday. sure with that you can apply for any job but 99% of jobs require native level japanese.

pay is crappy, but most places will provide subsidized housing and medical insurance.

while teaching you should study japanese like mad and then move onto a different field of work.

 

[Bellotizio]

Oh and if your ever in Roppongi @ a place called Club Vallfarre keep an eye out for me. I'll be the only asian guy in the entire place who only speaks english. Haha. ^^V

Hahaha:

Velfarre opened on December 2, 1994 and closed their doors on January 1, 2007.


Aside from that, my main purpose when I was a kid was to go to Japan and Sweden and have sex with as many women as possible, and that didn't prove to be a hard task at all (in Japan, haven't been to Sweden yet.)

 

[kromet]

Aside from that, my main purpose when I was a kid was to go to Japan and Sweden and have sex with as many women as possible, and that didn't prove to be a hard task at all

That's good news, good news indeed.

And if you go to Sweden, it's Stockholm you're going to want to be, that's where all the dumb, slutty, rich blondes are.

 

[ASSASSIN27]

vallfarre closed

yeah. i know the old place is closed shortly after the new year's party in 2005 and it's called club acid tokyo now, but everyone still calls it valfarre for some reason

velfarre closed like 2 years ago :/

 

[Tatsurou]

acid = shinjuku
velfarre = roppongi

 

[aquamarine]

Teaching can be fun, but it will all depend on what kind of teaching you want to do. Class-room teaching, one to one, or private lessons out of your apartment. When I first moved to Japan, I was an English teacher and started off at 2,700 yen/hour. I moved up because I was a good teacher and received any good reviews to a final pay grade of 6,100 yen/hour before becoming manager.

It's a good job, but you're going to fall into the cracks as far as job security goes unless you are working for a university or actual REAL school (eikawa's don't count as real schools, sorry kids). You will receive no health insurance. You will receive no dental or personal insurance. You will be expected to pay for everything (sometimes as with the case of Nova) they will pay for your shitty little apartment. In which case, I'd suggest you go and find your own apartment as you'll be a LOT better off. If you think that you'll be able to save up a LOT of money and do well for yourself, think again.

Don't forget kids, teaching English is equal to working in McDonalds. It's the Mickey-Mouse of jobs in Japan and CERTAINLY not something you'd want to brag about, lol.

I quit after seven months. It was fun, I did my time, I became a manager and that was enough. I moved into another industry which has job security, gives me a pension and where I can routinely make $6000/day. Teach English... go get a degree, then come over here and get a REAL job. There's nothing more pitiful than seeing a 45 year old man who can't get a real job because they have been teaching and making a shitty wage their entire life.

As a final note... don't expect teaching English to give you ANY relevant experience should you decide to move back to your home country. "I can teach English! So i can be a teacher back home!" =====WRONG====== With no Education degree, you're pretty much fucked and will have wasted god knows how many years of your life doing a remedial job and earning poor wages.

IF you want to teach English, go out and do it. It's fun for a while. But don't expect to have any relevant experience in any other teaching field.

 

[namelessbum]

Amen bro. Left Japan a few years ago after teaching in JET for a few years. Before starting JET the "JET alumni" kept spewing how awesome "working in Japan" will look on your resume. Sadly, there was a reverse correlation between years worked in Japan and career building back home.

My friends who realized how shitty their JET/eikaiwa/university job really was fastest could return to their home country the easiest. The longer people stayed, the harder it was for them to find good jobs back home, and more likely they were to be hitched to some bitchy, whiny, demanding J woman who spent all their money.

I had some connections that I kept and got lucky upon returning to the States, but some of my friends from Japan with Masters degrees stayed longer than me and went back to America with the only job they could find, working at a Best Buy.

Go there and do it as a notch under your belt, keep your uni contacts, and return to your home country (single) a year later and remember the good times.

Don't forget kids, teaching English is equal to working in McDonalds. It's the Mickey-Mouse of jobs in Japan and CERTAINLY not something you'd want to brag about, lol.

As a final note... don't expect teaching English to give you ANY relevant experience should you decide to move back to your home country. "I can teach English! So i can be a teacher back home!" =====WRONG====== With no Education degree, you're pretty much fucked and will have wasted god knows how many years of your life doing a remedial job and earning poor wages.

IF you want to teach English, go out and do it. It's fun for a while. But don't expect to have any relevant experience in any other teaching field.

 

[aXemeXa]

i've been looking into this recently.

and this thread is quite a downer.

but i appreciate the information.

i still have lots of research ahead before i decide if this is something i want to do. i do know i at least want to visit, though.

 

[armstrong]

I'm in Taiwan

Get to take some photos.

 

[aquamarine]

I teach at a univerisity, but have a lot of time off.

I've started to teach English at cram schools with the explicit purpose of trying to get action.

Sad? Or Lucky?

We'll see pretty soon.

That's pretty disgusting.

Way to be a pedophile there buddy.

For those who don't know, most cram schools are filled with children. Other than admitting you're into children, why post? You're not even in Japan and last time I checked, this wasn't a Taiwan discussion section.

 

[armstrong]

Actually, there are many cram schools that cater to late high-school or university students (and working adults too, for that matter). The students I have taught so far are in their early 20s.

The OP stated:

>Ok. A lot of you guys want to go to Japan to meet girls and I know you've all researched on the internet about the possibility of being an English teacher.

Granted, Japan <> Taiwan, but Japan is in Asia, Taiwan is in Asia, Meeting Girls = Meeting Girls, and English Teaching = English Teaching.

Not a lot had been posted DIRECTLY RELATED to the gist of the initial post so I chimed in. I'm sorry you found my post so offensive.

 

[Bellotizio]

The problem is that a lot of people watch too many shows which give them a totally different perspective aka bullshitting them about certain things about being at another country. First off, how much does an English teacher make in USA? Shit. How much does one make in Japan or another country? Maybe a bit more, but with all the problems you'll have and expenses without having anyone close will still be shit like in your original country.

Everyone clouds their heads up with "going to Japan" rather than "making some real money in a foreign country."

You don't leave a your own country where you're sure you can make some type of bread, to go to a country where YOU'RE the immigrant!

The aspect of going to a new country (especially Japan in most people here's case) is fucking sexy, but in the long run, you'll probably regret it, unless you marry there, but then you'll just probably have two mo' problems to worry about, lol.

 

[guy]

You don't leave a your own country where you're sure you can make some type of bread, to go to a country where YOU'RE the immigrant!

You leave your country when it's in the middle of an economic crisis and all your friends and acquaintences can't get jobs back at home.

No one goes to Japan to teach English as a permanent career (although some have ended up that way for lack of being proactive). The whole point is precisely because money isn't the number 1 factor. Everyone has different reasons, but the most relevant is because the job availability and salary is still relatively stable compared to a lot of other markets.

The only people who end up regretting these kinds of experiences are the ones who didn't really think it through properly, such as those who thought it would be "easy money". But there is no shortage of people who have come to Japan as English teachers and have had little or no regrets -- even if the salary isn't enough for you to retire on (although it is still enough for you to pay for everything, and treat yourself to some fun every few weeks).

 

[inugami1735]

I am saving every penny as of now. I'm 52 but, in a year I want to go. Idon't care if I die there!