Can I get a Job in Japan? [Archive]

Gary

2001-06-07, 05:52 AM

Hi everybody. I'm from Ohio, USA. I'm 41 and I have a two-year Associate of Arts degree from Los Angeles City College. I have a Chinese wife and children. I taught ESL to Latino adults in Los Angeles for several years. (I speak Spanish) I've lived in Taiwan, the Republic of China for nearly 10 years and speak good Mandarin Chinese. I own and manage a children's language school here in Taipei. (Shir Jie Li Er Tong Mei Yu Bushiban) I have a great deal of experience teaching English to 7-13 year old children and have been making English language materials for the school. (I have a three and a half year curriculum with textbooks and MP3 sound files that I've spent half of my adult life working on) We usually have 250-300 students at any given time. I still teach several classes myself. My classes are always full (18-30 students) and I have some parents that have been waiting for two years to get their children into my classes. My problem is, I'm burnt out on running a school. Finding qualified teachers is a huge burden. Despite a good salary of around $25.00 U.S. an hour, American-born (white) Chinese speakers are as rare as hens' teeth, and they're often undependable with drinking problems or other social maladjustments. (In Taiwan, if you're an American-born Chinese, it's generally assumed you aren't qualified to teach English-or you settle for much lower pay!!) The business aspects of this adventure has worn me down. Bartering with the Chinese who demand everything ranging from good class seats to special discounts, and ridiculous laws, pollution, ugly,dangerous cement buildings, and dogs yapping all hours of the the night has taken taken its toll on me. I don't want to continue this school at any price. I just want out. I've considered going to back to the U.S., but Japan has always been there in the back of my mind. I loved the Japanese culture in Los Angeles. I studied both judo and karate (I have one brown and one black belt) I even went through a Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo phase in the early 80's (If you lived in LA during that time, you'll know hat I'm talking about-smile) and I've always regretted not going to Japan instead of Taiwan. I studied Japanese for 9 months a long time ago, but I think if I brushed up on it, I could speak fair Japanese in a relatively short time. So my question are; 1/ Would my degree be adequate to work there? Without lying, that is. 2/ Am I too old? (I'm very healthy--I run 3 miles, 4 times a week) 3/ Would my Taiwanese wive have any visa problems? 3/ How do children get along in a place like Japan? 4/ Since China is an rising economic giant, (and others say Japn's sun is setting) how many teachers think they should have gone to China or Taiwan instead of Japan? I'm just curious...
Well, that's about it. Hope I didn't bore anybody to death. Hehe.
Take Care----Gary

panda

2001-06-07, 11:20 AM

Check with the Japanese embassy to be sure what the visa requirements are but I think you're going to need a 4 year degree. It's possible to qualify for a visa if you can prove ten years of experience in a certain field but I think it would be difficult to be accepted to get a visa for teaching English without a 4 year degree even with 10 years experience.

If you can qualify for a working visa then your wife and kids will qualify for dependants visas so that part is no problem. Probably your kids would need to go to a private school which is quite expensive but I really don't know much about it so I don't know what the options are.

Salaries are a lot better in Japan than in China and Taiwan I'm sure but living expenses are also higher. Probably you still come out ahead in Japan (I'm guessing though). Japan is having economic troubles as a country but you don't notice it on a day to day living basis. Japan is still an incredibly rich country.