The benefits of teaching in Japan
Number one: cosplay
Only joking- I mean of course that the status of English teachers is not so obviously low that when I met the love of my life and asked her to marry me she actually agreed!
You won’t hear a lot about it on the TEFL forums, but there are actually a lot of other advantages to choosing Japan to teach in:
- Fixed monthly wages
- Mainly very nice students
- Some very attractive students (not how I met my wife!)
- Some very motivated students
- Cute kids
- The ultimate training scheme in getting the quietest students to talk
- Hundreds of interesting books about Japan to read, including about the Japanese education system
- An interesting and challenging language to learn
- An acceptance of games, experimentation and fun in the classroom
- Few discipline problems
- The chance to teach in big Japanese companies that look good on your CV
- ETJ (English teachers in Japan)
- Accommodation often arranged for you
- Loads of national holidays
- An interest by the students in your country and other places you know about
- Japanzine
- A completely uncynical group of teachers who’ve worked in Japan when you get back home (unlike those who have worked in Spain, for example)
- Far less cynical expats in the bars than in some other countries
- Learning things about the country you are living in from your students etc that are of international interest (unlike Spain, for example…)
- 5% income tax
- A living wage (as long as you don’t have kids)
- The ease of getting promoted in the big chains (as long as you don’t mind the job)
- 99% of the friends who visit will love it, but it’s far enough away to stop the number of friends visiting becoming overwhelming
- Cheap and easy to eat out
- No need to drive
- Uniqlo
- 100 yen shops
- The chance to teach students who don’t know the roman script
- Taking a huge knowledge of cool Japanese pop culture back home with you
- Great cheap souvenirs for the whole family
- Lots of demand for cross-cultural training lessons and materials
- The chance to become a fake priest or TV extra on your days off
- The chance to become a TOEIC expert
- The generally low level of teaching your students will have had before, making them forever grateful for your lessons
- An emphasis on wanting to improve speaking skills
- A fair amount of IELTS teaching, but not too much
- A good selection of EFL materials in the big bookshops and at the ELT Bookfairs
- A reasonable selection of workshops and conferences to go to
- No hang ups by the students on what kind of methodology you should use
- Enough English in the Japanese language that you can explain most things without using Japanese as long as you know what English words are used in Japanese
- A chance to train yourself up for the rapidly growing over-60s language learner market
- Genkienglish.com
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May 13th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Yeah, but just WHO is that funny-looking little geezer on the left, with the half-punk haircut?
May 13th, 2008 at 11:26 am
It does look like I’ve got a green mohican, doesn’t it? I’m sticking to the story that it’s a tree in the background and hoping the official softfocus ones look a bit better…
May 13th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
So you wore haori hakama for your wedding as well…. Good choice. Not too many opportunities for that outfit.
Love the sites. Great stuff all around.
May 14th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
That’s what I thought about the hakama, but then I got picked on to dress up as a Shogun at Edo Mura history theme park two days later…
May 20th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
hi, nice photo by the way, i poke around on this site, and i was quite impressed with (among other things) your sales job on the japan thing.
one question, you make reference to cynical teachers whove been in spain…as an american teacher in spain, i wonder whats the cause of so much cynicism…i havent been home in three years now, well see if it hits me when i get home…
anyway congratulations of your site, one of the best ive seen!
May 21st, 2008 at 12:13 pm
I’m not sure what causes that reaction- maybe people expect Spain to be more similar to home than it is because everyone is white, or maybe it’s the fact that the Spanish always seem to be enjoying life in Spain much more than you. In Japan it’s absolutely the opposite- a crap place to be if you’re Japanese and great if you’re a foreigner
January 12th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
hi, my name is Denielle. My dream is to become a English teacher in Japan. I know some things about Japan. The reason why i choose Japan because my friend got me into Japanese stuff since i was in the 9th grade. Now Im a senior working my way into a college near by my house. I enjoy teaching little kids to speak our language. I would like to know that if we could become friends so you can help me reach my goal/dream. Thank you very much of your time. ^_^
January 12th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Hi Denielle
Having an interest in Japan and liking small kids are two good signs for being suitable for life and teaching in Japan, so I don’t see any real problem when you get a degree. I don’t know if you are a native speaker, but even for non native speakers the number of opportunities to be ALTs is increasing.
Did you have any specific questions?
July 8th, 2009 at 5:20 am
No hang ups by the students on what kind of methodology you should use
Thats not strictly true; I have students who want to design their own lesson plans very time, saying “I need not grammar”.
Or school owners who dont approve of TEFL techniques, instead wanting you to ask each of the ten students the same question in turn, and then keep to that order. So the tenth person has heard the question 9 times before getting to answer.
By the way, it is NOT 5% income tax. It is 10%., or even more if you are taxed by scale, ie if your company doesnt do adjustments, they just take out the “emergency” tax which can be, eg. 25% of say 360 000 yen and then you have to try and claim it back.
Also, you now (2008) have to pay ANOTHER 10% in City or ward tax, plus there is compulsory insurance so you could be looking at 30%, or more.