Advice on courses for teaching in Japan? Celta?

[Fairy]

Hey all, I'm new to this forum and also to teaching and looking for some advice. Having done some research I've concluded that the best tefl courses seem to be the CELTA and TrinityTESOL. However both can get quite expensive (often around £900-£1500.) Given that I know I want to live and work in Japan (for at least a year, but possibly more.) Is this course essential to getting a teaching job over there? I know that it's listed on a lot of job adverts as a preferred requirement but has anyone managed to get a job over there without one of these qualifications?

To be honest the shorter courses like weekend courses are often expensive too, sometimes a couple of hundred pounds, and given it's such a small amount of time I'm not sure they are actually better value for money.

I would really like to get some practical experience before going over there though, even assuming I could get a job without any, because I don't believe walking blindly into a teaching job is going to be a good idea for me or the students. However a thousand pounds is a lot to put forward on a course I'm not sure I'm even ready to do (given how intensive it is, and my lack of experience.)

So can anyone recommend any good beginner courses (or are the Celta and TrinityTESOL suitable for someone who is completely fresh to teaching? I notice most require interviews...) Also if anyone has done a course that was cheaper how was that?

I apologise for the waffley nature of this post, I'm pretty tired right now having spent hours searching for courses and I guess I'm a little lost. I think before doing a course I'd really like to do a taster session but often times you have to pay for them too! and with so many options, and money being involved, I really don't know what courses are worth doing. I've just graduated from university, so I've got the debt from that to pay also and don't want to waste money on a pointless course. D:

Thanks in advance for any help

[kaithegreene]

Dear Fairy,

Are you certain about teaching in Japan? Even if you are, you might want to move on to another country afterwards. You might even make a career of EFL and work in a number of countries. I've had a very interesting time over the last twenty years working in Europe, Africa and Asia.

Although there are quite a few employers advertising jobs that don't require any qualifications the most commonly demanded, internationally well known and accepted qualifications (by both employers and immigration departments) seem to be the CELTA and the Trinity CertTESOL.

These courses will do (at least) two things for you - make you more employable globally and give you some knowledge and skills in EFL methodology and pedagogy - in other words you'll know roughly how to do it! It's not always quite as easy as it looks.

The application procedures are designed to both help you to be sure you want to do the course and to process candidates by course providers. Why don't you contact one or two course providers for rurther information before committing yourself?

See what's on offer in various locations before you decide.

Good luck!