Now Ye're Talking - to an English language teacher in Japan

Boards.ie: Niamh · 29-06-2015 2:22pm #1

Today's AMA is with one of our members who has been teaching English as a foreign language for ten years in Japan. He has experience and qualifications in this area and can answer your questions about how to become a teacher of English as a foreign language, how to find a position, adjusting to life in Japan and the cultural differences he experienced there.

R.D. aka MR.D · 29-06-2015 3:22pm

Hello!

Fellow English teacher in Japan here. I've been living in Chiba for almost 6 months at this stage.

My question: Where are all the Irish people?

I lived in Seoul for a year and a half and it was really easy to meet people and have a good time. There was even a meet up group especially for Irish people!

I'm here with my OH (American), we're late twenties. We're obviously not here to pick up Japanese women (which seem like 65% of the people I've met, the other 30% are married with kids and work a lot!!) We're too old for nightclubs and aren't into comic books, role playing or anything. We do like a bit of nintendo though!

Clearlier · 29-06-2015 3:22pm

I was in Japan for 10 days a year ago and had a fantastic time. I tried a whole load of food that I still don't know the name of. For one meal a side dish seemed to be a raw egg on top of a pile of raw vegetables. Is that a common dish as far as you know?

Do you like Sushi? Any strange (to Irish eyes) food that you love?

What do you miss most about Ireland?

Have you learned Japanese?

GLaDOS · 29-06-2015 3:32pm

Why Japan?

What qualifications did you have going over? Did you gain any since moving over?

Did you intend to stay long term or did it just happen?

I've heard Japan can be pretty unaccepting of foreigners, is this something you would agree with?

Do you ever plan on coming home?

Lots of questions sorry

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 29-06-2015 4:22pm

First of all, I'd better point out that I actually moved back to Ireland a couple of months ago. I decided that I needed a better qualification to get a better job (better means tenured, basically), and it is easier to do that in Ireland. Certainly, a return to Japan is something that could very well happen in the future.

R.D. aka MR.D wrote: »

Hello!

Fellow English teacher in Japan here. I've been living in Chiba for almost 6 months at this stage.

My question: Where are all the Irish people?

I lived in Seoul for a year and a half and it was really easy to meet people and have a good time. There was even a meet up group especially for Irish people!

I think that there are just not that many Irish people in the country - I remember that when I first moved there, I got some information from the embassy after I registered with them, and they said that there were only 900 Irish people in the country at the time. I've no idea what the number is now, but that low number was certainly a surprise to me.

I agree that there is no place to get together with other Irish people, although there are St. Patrick's Day parades and a few Irish pubs around the place. There is an Irish Network in Japan that gets together every now and then, if that's your thing.

I didn't really have any interest in joining myself.

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 29-06-2015 4:23pm

Clearlier wrote: »

I was in Japan for 10 days a year ago and had a fantastic time. I tried a whole load of food that I still don't know the name of. For one meal a side dish seemed to be a raw egg on top of a pile of raw vegetables. Is that a common dish as far as you know?

Do you like Sushi? Any strange (to Irish eyes) food that you love?

What do you miss most about Ireland?

Have you learned Japanese?

Raw egg is a part of lots of Japanese food, and something that I treated with a bit of suspicion (in a 'isn't that actually kind of dangerous to eat raw?' way). Even after I wasn't suspicious of it any more, I still didn't like the taste and texture of it.

It's quite common to see people dipping their noodles or grilled/fried beef into raw egg, or pouring raw egg over a bowl of rice. It is assumed that you want one if you order something like sukiyaki. I'm not sure I know the particular dish with raw vegetables that you are talking about though.

I love most kinds of sushi. Again, there was a bit of suspicion at the start, but when I go over that I really did like almost everything I ate. There seem to be plenty of foreigners who never get over that first hurdle though. Sushi is usually different kinds of fish and rice, and there is none of that which I don't like. I'm not a big fan of the raw squid sushi as it is quite chewy, the fish roe as it is quite salty, or the sea urchin, again because of the texture.

I've eaten horse in Japan (knowingly) and it tasted lovely. I've also eaten whale, both raw and cooked. In those cases, it's more a mental hurdle that you are eating something strange, and once you've cleared that it tastes surprisingly normal. Deep-fried whale in particular is tasty.

Adzuki, which is a red bean paste, makes up a lot of traditional Japanese sweets, and is quite nice once you get used to it.

From their perspective, the idea that anybody would eat rabbit filled them with horror (I took gleeful pleasure in mentioning this whenever I could), as it is simply not something to be eaten in Japan.

EDIT: Missed a question. When i lived there, what I missed most was certain foods like brown bread, good cheese, milk, sausage. The dairy there is of poor quality unless you are willing to pay a fortune. As well as that, long summer evenings (it's dark by 8 even in summer) and open green space, as things are so built up. I once took a shinkansen from Tokyo to Hamamatsu and there wasn't any moment when, looking out of the train window, I couldn't see apartment blocks. Even though the two cities are hundreds of kilometres apart. There is more space in the northern half of the country though, especially Hokkaido, but I never lived there.

I've learned lots of Japanese, but my written Japanese is nowhere near as good as it really should be. I was thinking about this the other day - the subjects in which i can communicate well and confidently reflect my roles and interests in Japan - I can talk up a storm in a bar, but would find it quite difficult in a doctor's office for example, as I went to a doctor no more than a handful of times. I can talk about education and teaching and so on, but wouldn't be able to have much of a conversation in physics (nor would I in English, for that matter).

Once you've picked up some circumlocution techniques to compensate for unknown vocabulary, things get a lot easier.

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 29-06-2015 4:37pm

ScienceNerd wrote: »

Why Japan?

What qualifications did you have going over? Did you gain any since moving over?

Did you intend to stay long term or did it just happen?

I've heard Japan can be pretty unaccepting of foreigners, is this something you would agree with?

Do you ever plan on coming home?

Lots of questions sorry

To answer your last question first - I am in fact back home now, wife and kids in tow. Whether or not we move back there in the future we do not know yet. Certainly, it is something we will be considering.

Why Japan - because the world cup was held there in 2002 and I wanted to move there to watch it. If Ireland had been based in Korea, I'd probably have gone there instead. I didn't plan to stick around beyond the end of the tournament, or beyond the end of my contract, but I was enjoying myself enough to give it another year. Then I met a local lass and that was that. It turned into more than 6 years.

Going over I had no qualifications. Things are stricter now in some schools, but there are places that will accept people with no qualifications. Don't expect to get well paid in those places though, as a general rule. I did a CELTA while I was there, which I would recommend to anybody looking to teach English, and then got a Master's degree in TEFL which helped me to get university jobs (only contract, not tenure).

The Japanese attitude to foreigners is a complex one. In some ways they are uncritically welcoming to foreigners, which can be abused horribly by the kind of people R.D aka Mr.D mentioned earlier. Plenty of girls still waiting for Mr Navy guy or English teacher who promised he'd call her as soon as he was settled back in his home country.

In other ways, they can be quite suspicious of foreigners in that they might wonder what the foreigner is doing there in the first place, and what is in it for them. Japan was effectively shut off from the rest of the real world until the middle of the 19th century, and there are a lot of very conservative folk around the place who'd like to go back to something similar to that. There is certainly an attitude of exceptionalism among some politicians, say. It might have something to do with all that.

With (I would say rare) exceptions like above, the more you attempt to integrate, the more effort you make to get involved in the local area/community, the more accepted you will be.

irishrepeat2 · 29-06-2015 4:44pm

Boards.ie: Niamh wrote: »

Today's AMA is with one of our members who has been teaching English as a foreign language for ten years in Japan. He has experience and qualifications in this area and can answer your questions about how to become a teacher of English as a foreign language, how to find a position, adjusting to life in Japan and the cultural differences he experienced there.

would you advise a gap year or a summer trip to do it?

Mr. CooL ICE · 29-06-2015 5:55pm

As an Irish person who lives and works in Ireland, how difficult would it be to suddenly up sticks and move to Japan to teach English? What kind of hurdles are there, e.g. visa and work permits, etc? Is there any complicated bureaucracy behind moving into accommodation, etc (I've heard of Germany being a nightmare for this)?

ancapailldorcha · 29-06-2015 8:12pm

The AMA I didn't know I wanted most!

I spent a fortnight in Japan recently and absolutely loved it.

How long did it take from you applying to getting everything sorted and waiting for flights, etc? Is it a huge hassle?

Do you get much time off over there? I read once that annual leave there is 5 days though that may not be true. If so, did you just have to cope without heading home at all?

Would you recommend it? I'm thinking of doing it myself as I'm on a 3 year contract which is nearly halfway through.

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 29-06-2015 8:55pm

irishrepeat2 wrote: »

would you advise a gap year or a summer trip to do it?

If a gap year means a whole year, or at least 6 months, then sure, go for it, in Japan or elsewhere.

You will be doing yourself and your students a big favour if you get some kind of training first. That training will most likely be a CELTA, and these are available in different schools/institutions around Ireland. One of the best (in terms of name at least) is the Cambridge CELTA. This means that Cambridge have endorsed the training and standards of the course. I am not sure how seriously Cambridge take that, but they do seem to pay some attention to it. If you are interested in doing that, try to avoid a cheap online course if you are actually interested in learning how to teach.

For a summer trip, you would find it hard to get a visa. There are companies like Westgate that sometimes have short-term positions to fill, but otherwise, you'll have trouble getting a company to go to the effort of sorting out a visa just for a couple of months.

Links234 · 29-06-2015 9:12pm

Now that you're back in Ireland, what do you miss most about Japan?

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 29-06-2015 9:38pm

Nicolas Cage wrote: »

As an Irish person who lives and works in Ireland, how difficult would it be to suddenly up sticks and move to Japan to teach English? What kind of hurdles are there, e.g. visa and work permits, etc? Is there any complicated bureaucracy behind moving into accommodation, etc (I've heard of Germany being a nightmare for this)?

There are basically three parts to this.

Getting a job: look for one of the companies which hire outside Japan, as many do not. NOVA still do, and don't need teaching qualifications either. They have an office in London. Other companies like Westgate might be worth looking at, as they also hire from outside Japan. Shane English school also, although I'm not sure if they hire Irish English speakers. In many cases though, schools only want to hire from inside Japan.

Getting a visa: this is really linked to getting a job. If you get a job offer from a company, they will send you a certificate to indicate that employment is waiting for you, which allows you to get a visa you otherwise would not get. Not every company is willing to do this either, so search carefully. It's almost impossible to get a work visa otherwise.
EDIT: Thanks to Konata, who highlighted the possibility of a working holiday visa, which I had somehow forgotten about, and which is a great option - mentioned in later posts.

Getting an apartment: getting an apartment by yourself will be difficult and expensive. You'll need somebody to agree to be a guarantor for you, so - in the event that you take off suddenly, they'll be left with the outstanding bills and so on. So these people will, obviously, be hard to find. The expense is significant too - apartments generally come empty, and that means completely empty - no washing machine, cooker, lights, nothing. Combine this with a couple of months' deposit, a months' rent worth of commission to the estate agent, the first month's rent up front, and even the horrible 'key money' ( a gift of a month's rent you have to give to the landlord for the honour lof living there) and it's prohibitively expensive, even if you could sort it all out.

But there are other options - companies like Leo Palace 21 can organise furnished apartments for you and sort out a lof of the paperwork. There are 'gaijin houses' (called because 'gaijin', or 'foreigner', as foreigners are the majority of those living there) where you can get a private bedroom but share kitchen, living, and bathroom space. Also, the company you work for might also have accomodation for you, and save you all the hassle.

In all cases, you're avoiding the trouble of doing it all by yourself, but you'll probably pay for the convenience.

One option which is worth looking up is the JET programme, which is a kind of effort between the Irish and Japanese governments to get teachers into Japanese schools. Teachers on this programme (which is not just between Japan and Ireland, but between Japan and many countries) seem to be well looked after.

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 29-06-2015 9:53pm

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

The AMA I didn't know I wanted most!

I spent a fortnight in Japan recently and absolutely loved it.

How long did it take from you applying to getting everything sorted and waiting for flights, etc? Is it a huge hassle?

Do you get much time off over there? I read once that annual leave there is 5 days though that may not be true. If so, did you just have to cope without heading home at all?

Would you recommend it? I'm thinking of doing it myself as I'm on a 3 year contract which is nearly halfway through.

It was a long time ago, but I'd say something like 3-4 months. The hardest part might be actually finding a company that hire from outside Japan. Many don't any more, and simply wait for teachers to quit working for the companies who helped them get a visa. (There are also plenty of teachers who pretend to want to work for a company just to get a visa, and quit shortly after arriving in Japan, once they have their visa)

I wouldn't say it's a huge hassle, but you will have to go to the embassy and organise your own flights, I would guess.

In terms of those companies who hire outside Japan, the bigger the better, as it means more turnover, and positions come available more regularly. You may have little to no control over where you end up being placed though, but that is something each company will have its own policy on.

Leave in my first company was 10 days a year, as well as regular days off (2 a week, usually, but not always consecutive), and holidays like New Year and maybe Golden Week. It depends on each company. For each year you stayed, you got an extra day added to those 10. Some companies allow informal day swaps, where you agree that another teacher will cover you on that day (their regular day off), and you will cover for them some other time on one of your regular days off. This way, you can get time off without actually using holidays. I am not sure if the practice of allowing informal swaps is as prevalent as it used to be though.

Japan is famous for staff, mainly men, not taking all the leave they are entitled to, as a sign of their loyalty to their company. It wasn't a sentiment I ever saw a foreign teacher express though!

If you want to see Japan (or another country, you could head to another Asian country, South America, or a growing EFL business in places like Bahrain, where the pay is apparently quite good), then why not just go for it.

Again, get some training so you actually know what you are doing (there may well be a council run language class somewhere that you could volunteer for to get some practice), and enjoy it.

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 29-06-2015 10:04pm

Links234 wrote: »

Now that you're back in Ireland, what do you miss most about Japan?

The train system, the cheap beer, the clean streets, the sushi, the safety and complete absence of scumbags, the politeness of the people, the abundance of beautiful Japanese women, the food stalls, the old man who lived across from us and couldn't speak a word of English but always said 'Hello', the service in shops and restaurants, the pride people had in their local community, the buskers on the street who aren't even looking for money, the Tokyo skyline at night, fresh Japanese pears in the summer, my colleagues, the zoo a 5 minute train ride away, the no-smoking signs on the streets...for starters.

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 29-06-2015 10:16pm

It's worth explaining that there are different places English is taught:

In public and private schools (elementary, junior high, high school):

A company called Interac has a big stake in this market. I've never ever heard anybody say a good word about them as an employer, but they do hire outside Japan, and probably deserve to be exploited by teachers for a change.

In public and private universities:

There are two types of positions here:full time contract positions, or part-time positions. For full-time contract, they may hire from outside Japan but you are talking a Master's in TEFL, publications, working Japanese, as a minimum. For part-time positions, these universities either hire directly or through placement/recruitment companies. To the best of my knowledge, these companies hire from inside Japan only - they don't really 'hire' at all, actually - you sign up with them, and if a part-time position (one day a week, usually) becomes available, they put your name forward to the university, and take a fine chunk of your wages if you get the job.

In private language schools, or 'eikaiwa'.

As mentioned above, these companies have very different standards on who they will hire, and from where.

Lessons offered by government bodies/NGOs/companies:

Some government bodies/NGOs/companies (Japan Steel is the only one I can think of offhand) allow/force their employees to take free English lessons weekly. Most of the time though, these teachers are simply contracted through the same recruitment companies that work with universities.

Konata · 29-06-2015 11:14pm

I'm an English language teacher, AMA wrote: »

For a summer trip, you would find it hard to get a visa. There are companies like Westgate that sometimes have short-term positions to fill, but otherwise, you'll have trouble getting a company to go to the effort of sorting out a visa just for a couple of months.

Just to add a shorter term option to all your advice for getting a job as you may have missed it but Japan and Ireland have a working holiday visa agreement. So anyone looking to go over to work for a shorter period (max 1 year) could apply for a Working Holiday Visa, head over to Japan and then get a job. My boyfriend did it last year while I was studying in university there and he got an eikaiwa job. It's a fab option if you only want to go over for a year or less and also gives you access to all those companies/schools you mentioned who aren't bothered doing the visa process and only hire inside Japan.

*****

Anyway, all that aside I have some questions myself

What part of Japan did you live in? Were you in a city or more rural? What were the advantages/disadvantages of living in that particular part of Japan?

Did you just die every Summer? I was there for the last two Summers and jesus but I struggled with that humidity. Did it ever get any easier for you compared to your first year?

Are your kids fluent in Japanese and English? How did you manage that, if so? I lived next door to and babysat for a Japanese/Irish family for the year and was constantly amazed by their kids who were almost fluent in both (their Japanese was stronger but their English was fantastic too). I'm just amazed by bilingual people and I find the process of bringing up kids as bilingual absolutely fascinating so I'd love to hear your experience (assuming your kids are bilingual!).

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 30-06-2015 12:04am

Konata wrote: »

Just to add a shorter term option to all your advice for getting a job as you may have missed it but Japan and Ireland have a working holiday visa agreement. So anyone looking to go over to work for a shorter period (max 1 year) could apply for a Working Holiday Visa, head over to Japan and then get a job. My boyfriend did it last year while I was studying in university there and he got an eikaiwa job. It's a fab option if you only want to go over for a year or less and also gives you access to all those companies/schools you mentioned who aren't bothered doing the visa process and only hire inside Japan.

Yes!!

I had completely overlooked this, and it is a very important point. You can get a working holiday visa and use it to get into Japan, and try to find work from there. It's actually a sweet deal, as long as you are between 18 and 30.

I never actually met an Irish person who used a working holiday visa, and I know that for other countries the conditions might be different, such as restrictions on the hours you can work.

But what you've said is really important, and somehow slipped my mind. I think you need about 3 grand in your account, and there are only something like 500 available a year, but it is definitely another avenue to get into the country.

Konata wrote: »

What part of Japan did you live in? Were you in a city or more rural? What were the advantages/disadvantages of living in that particular part of Japan?

I've lived in Yokosuka, Yokohama, Matsumoto, and Tokyo. All cities, although Yokosuka is small at only half a million, and Matsumoto is a mere village at about 200,000. We actually lived a bit outside Matsumoto in a real village of just a few hundred people, but the city centre was only 20 minutes away.

There's not much to say about Yokosuka (it used to have half a page in Lonely Planet, but they deleted it!) apart from the fact that there are about 20,000 US Navy there. They stopped bombing it late in WW2 as they'd already identified it as a base once they won the war. So there are a couple of streets of bars that are unlike anywhere else in Japan - a really western feel to the place.

Matsumoto was definitely my favourite place to live in Japan. The city itself is quite beautiful, and it is surrounded by some wonderful scenery like Kamikochi, Hakuba, Norikura, and other mountainous places. In winter it is just incredible. I remember coming home from work one time in the middle of February and our heater (which gave the target temperature and the actual temperature) read the current temperature as -2 in our living room. I'd love to live there again.

Tokyo is obviously an incredibly convenient place to live, and some great sightseeing to be done. In my other guise in boards, I've mentioned before that I seem to be the only person in the world who doesn't think there is much to do besides sightseeing, but just sitting on the Yamanote line for 37 minutes or whaever time it takes to do a full circle of the line would be a great thing for a visitor to do.

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 30-06-2015 12:06am

Konata wrote: »

Did you just die every Summer? I was there for the last two Summers and jesus but I struggled with that humidity. Did it ever get any easier for you compared to your first year?

Are your kids fluent in Japanese and English? How did you manage that, if so? I lived next door to and babysat for a Japanese/Irish family for the year and was constantly amazed by their kids who were almost fluent in both (their Japanese was stronger but their English was fantastic too). I'm just amazed by bilingual people and I find the process of bringing up kids as bilingual absolutely fascinating so I'd love to hear your experience (assuming your kids are bilingual!).

Summer is the yearly nightmare. I hated it, hated it, hated it. Irish people, like my family, always made the joke about 'sure we could do with some of that weather here' but no, you don't want it. 34, 35, 36 degrees, every day, for months. Sweating constantly. I prayed for rain.

But you do acclimatise in different ways. The body does actually get used to it a bit I think, but you also get more sensible about where to go, and when, and so on. I went from sleeping with the air conditioning at 18 to the air conditioning at 27 over my time there.

Both kids are doing well so far in terms of bilingualism, but my daughter more so. She is 8 and has a really strong grasp of both languages. Crucially, she is able to read in both, and we have books and stuff to keep her working on it. My son is only 4 and it is a bit different. He doesn't have that strong grasp and doesn't see the value to speaking it either, which is an attitudinal hurdle that we will find very difficult to overcome. And it's important not just for some vague future for him, but because we may well move back there, and he'll need to go to school and so on.

We actually took them to a Japanese school in Dublin a few weeks ago, and plan to take them maybe once a month in the future. The (temporary) difference in his attitude to the language makes it worthwhile.

We've done the 'one parent one language' approach as well as the 'speak the opposite of what they hear outside' approach, and they seem to have worked well enough. At 8, my daughter already has a natural sound to her Japanese that I will never have. It's clear that there is no translation going on, no momentary pause to gather thoughts, no quick selection of appropriate tense or vocabulary. It's wonderful, and makes me very proud.

evolving_doors · 30-06-2015 12:08am

I've heard their is little to no crime in Japan.
But, I've also heard that the Yakuza control the crime to such a degree that you never see or hear anything.
Did you see or hear anything about organised crime there (I promise I won't tell)?

irishlad12345 · 30-06-2015 12:10am

im a student weighing up my cao options and would like to follow a similar career path do you have any suggestions that may help me in the future ?

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 30-06-2015 9:37am

Gebgbegb wrote: »

I've heard their is little to no crime in Japan.
But, I've also heard that the Yakuza control the crime to such a degree that you never see or hear anything.
Did you see or hear anything about organised crime there (I promise I won't tell)?

When people say that about crime, they mean stuff like muggings, assault, pickpocketing, burglary, drunken fighting on the street, and so on. That kind of stuff is incredibly rare, and you just feel completely safe walking around.

I've dropped my wallet a couple of times and got it back both times. I wasn't even doubting that I'd get it back.

Having said that, bicycles do get stolen here, as there is such a big market for 2nd hand bicycles. And most shops have a place for you to put your umbrella outside the shop, but you leave an umbrella there at your own risk.

I can't say I know too much about organised crime, but sure, if you visit a massage parlour, strip club, hostess club, brothel, etc you are most likely putting money in the yakuza's pocket.

There is a gambling activity called pachinko, which is a multi-billion dollar industry, and I'm sure they have their hands in that too, although I often hear that some of those pachinko parlours are actually run by North Korean sympathisers and that is where the money goes.

There doesn't seem to be much of the horrible violence that usually comes with organised crime though, so they must resolve their disputes differently, or else hide bodies very very well.

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 30-06-2015 10:01am

irishlad12345 wrote: »

im a student weighing up my cao options and would like to follow a similar career path do you have any suggestions that may help me in the future ?

Most people seem to kind of fall into this career, and I'm one of those.

I don't think there are undergraduate courses purely for TEFL and it isn't really necessary, as most places look for a degree (in anything), and even better if you have a teaching qualification like a CELTA. A Master's Degree would be better again.

UL has a very good taught Master's programme in ELT,or you could do something in linguistics/applied linguistics in other universities.

To get started, an undergraduate degree, a CELTA or similar, and a basic level of Japanese would get your foot in the door of a lot of language schools. From there you could build up skills, experience, language proficiency.

If you want to end up at a university, a related Master's degree, some publications and presentations, and a working level of Japanese would all be necessary, although some places will not be too bothered about the level of Japanese (this means that they won't really be involving the foreign teachers in any of the decisions they make either, though - you're just left in your own little bubble, which some people like, while others don't).

I'd say you could start by looking round at getting some practical training in teaching English - lots of schools and universities offer training programs over say 10 weeks, part-time, that will cost about 300 or 400 euros. Try to get some practice with the language of the country you want to go to, as it will make life a lot easier for everybody.

Vojera · 30-06-2015 11:07am

There is a prevailing attitude that Japan is incredibly expensive, but a blogger I follow who has recently returned to her home country of Germany after seven years in Japan said she was surprised at how expensive some things were in Europe by comparison.

How have you found the difference in the cost of living between Ireland and Japan?

ancapailldorcha · 30-06-2015 12:44pm

Thanks for the reply! I was under the impression that no real training was required and that the job involved serving as a conversationalist for students to practice with.

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 30-06-2015 1:09pm

Vojera wrote: »

There is a prevailing attitude that Japan is incredibly expensive, but a blogger I follow who has recently returned to her home country of Germany after seven years in Japan said she was surprised at how expensive some things were in Europe by comparison.

How have you found the difference in the cost of living between Ireland and Japan?

Overall, I'd say that living in Ireland is more expensive than Japan.

Rent is more expensive, as is electricity, internet, car tax, car insurance, public transport (for equal distance), - and those are costs that are mostly impossible to avoid.

Eating out, drinking, would be another two that are more expensive here.

Tax, I am not so sure about, as Japan has income tax and residential tax (paid to the local government of the city you live in) as well as an 8% consumption tax, and also national health insurance (mandatory, unless you are a member of a private equivalent)- this all adds to to a chunk of your pay, maybe about 30%.

Food shopping is cheaper in Ireland though, especially if you go to places like Aldi or Lidl, for which there isn't really any Japanese equivalent (that I know of).

A 700ml bottle of Jameson will cost me....25 euros (?) in Ireland, but I can buy the same bottle for about 11 euros in Japan.

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 30-06-2015 1:30pm

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Thanks for the reply! I was under the impression that no real training was required and that the job involved serving as a conversationalist for students to practice with.

Looking back at some of my answers, I have made it sound like you need a lot of training and so on, which might scare people off the idea, but that isn't always the case.

A quick look at gaijinpot.com shows that there are jobs available to people with no qualifications, other than being a native speaker of English (or speak English to a native level):

https://jobs.gaijinpot.com/

Here's infor for a job in Interac, one of the companies I mentioned previously:

Full Time / Entry Level

¥230,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month

Requirements
English: Native level

Japanese: Basic

Has graduated from a university with at least a bachelor’s degree (in any subject)

Holds a valid residence/visa status and possess a valid resident card or Alien Registration (“gaijin card”)

Has acquired an education delivered in English for at least 12 years

Is professional in all aspects of behavior, a team-player, flexible, cheerful, and energetic

Visa sponsorship available

So, if you could get yourself a working holiday visa, settle down in a cheap hostel at the start, you would probably be able to pick up that kind of work to keep you going. You would not make much money (initially at least), but if that's not what you're after, then it's doable.

As for the teaching itself, it is teaching, so that is going to take some practice to be able to do it well.

Definitely, being there for students to practice conversation with is part of it, but they can't practice what they don't know, and most of the job is delivering stuff that they don't know in a way that makes them learn it.

So it's partly knowing about the language yourself (What is an adverb of indefinite frequency?), and also about how to present it in a way that is understandable and functional for students, giving them lots of practice with the new language, so that they come away knowing not only what it is, but also how and when to use it.

ancapailldorcha · 30-06-2015 1:38pm

Cheers! I was staying a hotel where a girl who was staying there, teaching English said that I should consider it as I'm 27 (which means I might still be eligible) and have a Masters. She said she spent most of the day chatting.

traco · 01-07-2015 10:46am

Pity this post didn't happen earlier as there is a large group heading out at the end of the month. They might have asked you along to a meeting for a chat and some language / culture pointers.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scouting-Ireland-World-Jamboree-Contingent/132532459032

celica00 · 01-07-2015 1:37pm

This is brilliant!!!

こんにちは、元気ですか

I dont intend to teach English in Japan or anywhere else but I am currently studying Japanese (still a beginner).

I have a lot of questions, hope it's okay

1) How do experience being foreign in Japanese? I heard they older generation tends to be racist?

2) How long did it take you do speak/understand Japanese people with their slangs/accent's?

3) you mentioned that japanese people find it horrifying to eat rabbit. What else do they not eat but we do? In relation to food: how hard/easy is it for a vegetarian to live there?

4) I am going there for 10 days end of September. Any tourist traps that you can think of to avoid?

5) Do you mind if I ask many more questions since I'm a Japan enthusiast?

Thanks already

miamee · 01-07-2015 2:37pm

Since Japanese is world's apart from English - well I assume so with no knowledge of Japanese

- does that make it even more difficult to teach or did you start off teaching people who already had a basic understanding of English?

Even from your post about things you miss, Japan sounds like another world altogether, it's definitely on my list of places to visit. You've mentioned already how safe it is so I assume it would be safe for a female, solo traveller? Even with blonde hair? :pac:

ancapailldorcha · 01-07-2015 2:46pm

miamee wrote: »

Even from your post about things you miss, Japan sounds like another world altogether, it's definitely on my list of places to visit. You've mentioned already how safe it is so I assume it would be safe for a female, solo traveller? Even with blonde hair? :pac:

Japan is one of the safest places I've ever been. Our trip went extremely smoothly once there barring an incident where we inadvertently stumbled onto a few red-light districts. A friend of mine described it as "America without the social problems".

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 01-07-2015 2:50pm

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Cheers! I was staying a hotel where a girl who was staying there, teaching English said that I should consider it as I'm 27 (which means I might still be eligible) and have a Masters. She said she spent most of the day chatting.

Perhaps she got lucky with her job. Or, more likely, she was just being a bit glib about what she actually does.

Or perhaps this is what she thinks her job is, but her employers think it is something different. :pac:

I've been involved in training new teachers, and in many cases the company sells the job to them by saying something similar to the above - just chatting, simple stuff, and so on. But the students are almost always hoping for (and paying for) something more substantial.

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 01-07-2015 2:51pm

traco wrote: »

Pity this post didn't happen earlier as there is a large group heading out at the end of the month. They might have asked you along to a meeting for a chat and some language / culture pointers.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scouting-Ireland-World-Jamboree-Contingent/132532459032

Ah, well, this is something that Japan usually does very well - if they invite you, they'll look after you.

Not much advice I could have given them except take your shoes off inside and drink loads of water whenever you can.

ancapailldorcha · 01-07-2015 2:51pm

I'm an English language teacher, AMA wrote: »

Perhaps she got lucky with her job. Or, more likely, she was just being a bit glib about what she actually does.

Or perhaps this is what she thinks her job is, but her employers think it is something different. :pac:

I've been involved in training new teachers, and in many cases the company sells the job to them by saying something similar to the above - just chatting, simple stuff, and so on. But the students are almost always hoping for (and paying for) something more substantial.

It's quite likely that she was being glib. How hard would the work be?

RainyDay · 01-07-2015 3:10pm

Did you ever go to a Sumo tournament over there? How is it viewed by the masses - as a serious sport or a WWF theatrical farce?

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 01-07-2015 3:12pm

celica00 wrote: »

This is brilliant!!!

こんにちは、元気ですか

I dont intend to teach English in Japan or anywhere else but I am currently studying Japanese (still a beginner).

I have a lot of questions, hope it's okay

1) How do experience being foreign in Japanese? I heard they older generation tends to be racist?

2) How long did it take you do speak/understand Japanese people with their slangs/accent's?

3) you mentioned that japanese people find it horrifying to eat rabbit. What else do they not eat but we do? In relation to food: how hard/easy is it for a vegetarian to live there?

4) I am going there for 10 days end of September. Any tourist traps that you can think of to avoid?

5) Do you mind if I ask many more questions since I'm a Japan enthusiast?

Thanks already

こんにちは。はい、元気です！

(1) It is important to point out that out of a population of over 125 million people, only something like 1.6% are foreign. And over half of those are Chinese and Korean, and are not immediately obvious as 'foreign.' Japanese people have had nowhere near the exposure to foreigners that somewhere like Ireland, or anywhere in Western Europe, has had. This might lead to a bit of suspicion or simply mystery about what the gaijin are all about.

Being foreign is often extremes - you are the 'cool' friend simply because it is cool to have a foreign friend, people can get away with lots of faux pas because 'it is difficult for the foreigner to understand Japanese culture', and if you make even the slightest effort to learn the culture or language, you'll be celebrated. (It's when people stop the rather condescending praise of your Japanese ability that you know it is actually getting pretty good).

On the other hand, I had an application to rent an apartment refused once as the owners/landlord simply did not want to deal with a foreigner. Perhaps they thought my presence would lower the tone of the place!

I am not sure that I'd say it is necessarily a generational thing either. Conservatives like Toru Hashimoto (controversial mayor of Osaka) are young, and elected by young people. Shintaro Ishihara (controversial ex-mayor of Tokyo) is old, but still got votes from a lot of young people. Recent disputes with both Koreas and China have stoked a lot of nationalism also.

(2). A long time. Partly because I didn't plan to stick around, so didn't see the point. It was only after I was going to get married and needed a better job that I started making efforts. And even now, some of the local dialects are a mystery to me, as are many slang expressions. But if you have a good grasp of the fairly polite Japanese, there won't be a problem.

(3). Blood sausage or black pudding is another one that some Japanese people found absolutely revolting. Some other things like rice pudding also. I think every culture has a perception of what constitutes acceptable food or not, and while the Japanese would view more things as 'food' those are a couple that they generally don't. Of course, not every Japanese person like all Japanese food either. There are plenty of people who find shiokara just as detestable as I do.
EDIT: I am not a vegetarian, but I heard plenty of complaints from people who were. There are a lot of stocks and sauces in Japanese food, and these will very often be fish/meat based. The staff, however, might easily consider a dish of vegetables in such a sauce to be a vegetarian dish. Vegetarians are rare in Japan, and generally not well catered for.

(4). Hmmm...Yokohama Chinatown isn't worth spending a lot of time in, nor is Hakone in my opinion, as it has kind of gone overboard on the 'we're a tourist attraction' and is one of the few places that you actually feel you are being fleeced. Izu also, but in October there won't be too much going on anyway. Remember that the food is basically excellent everywhere, and you don't need to pay a lot of money to get very very high quality meals.

(5) Feel free to ask as many as you like!

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 01-07-2015 3:22pm

miamee wrote: »

Since Japanese is world's apart from English - well I assume so with no knowledge of Japanese - does that make it even more difficult to teach or did you start off teaching people who already had a basic understanding of English?

Even from your post about things you miss, Japan sounds like another world altogether, it's definitely on my list of places to visit. You've mentioned already how safe it is so I assume it would be safe for a female, solo traveller? Even with blonde hair? :pac:

Apart from kids, every adult has had at least 6 years of English teaching. This teaching is, unfortunately, notoriously bad and outdated grammar-translation style stuff in many cases, leaving Japan below North Korea in proficiency levels.

There are yearly attempts to remedy this with new ideas, new books, but they never have much of an effect.

So, the levels can be extraordinarily low. In a language school, the lowest level of textbook might be focusing on grammar like 'There is a pen/There are two pens', and some students will struggle even with that.

As with any student, once you gauge their level, you get a good grasp of what they are likely to understand and tailor your language accordingly. If a student doesn't understand the grammatical difference between 'I opened the door' and 'The door opened', then telling them something like 'open can be both a transitive and intransitive verb', while correct, is just noise to their ears. It's difficult at times, but you get used to it (if you make the effort to tailor and refine your language).

I am possibly somewhat unusual in that I prefer teaching lower levels to higher levels - there are more concrete concepts for them to grasp, and progress is quicker, which makes everybody happy.

For a solo female traveller, even with blonde hair, Japan is as safe as it gets, and 999 times out of thousand, you'll be treated with great courtesy wherever you go.

But don't forget that there are opportunistic people everywhere. Don't neglect basic precautions just because Japan has a reputation as a safe country.

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 01-07-2015 3:27pm

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

It's quite likely that she was being glib. How hard would the work be?

The thing is, it is not really a hard job at all to do fairly well.

If you work on your own knowledge of grammar and work on your explanations/examples, you'll have a lot of the teaching covered.

Then, if you take some time to analyse the kind of language (vocabulary and grammar) students will need to complete a given activity, prepare them properly with that language, and give them meaningful practice with that language, you're basically doing a good job.

So it is frustrating to see teachers who don't bother to do even the basics right, and just go through the motions.

miamee · 01-07-2015 3:28pm

Thanks for that - the blonde hair comment was probably unnecessary on my part. I've done plenty of travel alone so I know my basic precautions. It sounds great

ancapailldorcha · 01-07-2015 3:29pm

miamee wrote: »

Thanks for that - the blonde hair comment was probably unnecessary on my part. I've done plenty of travel alone so I know my basic precautions. It sounds great

I'm confused. Blonde hair?

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 01-07-2015 3:32pm

RainyDay wrote: »

Did you ever go to a Sumo tournament over there? How is it viewed by the masses - as a serious sport or a WWF theatrical farce?

I never went to a sumo tournament. I seem to be the only foreigner who hasn't been to one.

I simply don't have any interest in it, and I've never been one for doing something just to say I've done it. I've never climbed Mt. Fuji either, for the same reasons.

Sumo is a serious sport, and absolutely viewed as such. It's not coordinated in the way that WWE is, although it was rocked by a match-rigging scandal a few years ago, as a result of which, it was free to attend for a while, as the sport in general atoned for its errors.

ancapailldorcha · 01-07-2015 3:35pm

I'm an English language teacher, AMA wrote: »

The thing is, it is not really a hard job at all to do fairly well.

If you work on your own knowledge of grammar and work on your explanations/examples, you'll have a lot of the teaching covered.

Then, if you take some time to analyse the kind of language (vocabulary and grammar) students will need to complete a given activity, prepare them properly with that language, and give them meaningful practice with that language, you're basically doing a good job.

So it is frustrating to see teachers who don't bother to do even the basics right, and just go through the motions.

Know the language basically. That's fair enough. I'm likely making it look a lot more intimidating that it is. I've seen ads go on about innovating during lessons, coming up with novel plans and such. Sounds quite difficult and probably more than it actually is.

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 01-07-2015 4:06pm

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

Know the language basically. That's fair enough. I'm likely making it look a lot more intimidating that it is. I've seen ads go on about innovating during lessons, coming up with novel plans and such. Sounds quite difficult and probably more than it actually is.

To give an example of a fairly basic lesson idea: take an example like comparisons.

A is ___er / more ___ than B.

That's what today's lesson is to cover. And you have say 4 students.

How do you go about it?

Know your students - what kind of things are they likely to be interested in talking about. Pets? Cars? Holidays?

Then, what kind of adjectives will they use for those comparisons. Cute, easy to feed, quiet / fast, cheap, safe / relaxing, beautiful, hot.

So you can go into a lesson and say 'ok today we are talking about comparing pets and these are the words we will use' or you can go in and ask them what they are interested in, and then get them to choose one or two topics between them. So they choose holidays (get them to choose specific locations for their holidays, hopefully quite different from each other) and....restaurants. Then you get them to think about the kind of words they will need to use, and you'll get something like I've listed above, as well as a new (and fairly predictable) list of adjectives for restaurants. You'll supplement these lists with new words which will be useful for them.

Some explicit focus on grammar, so they know when to use more___ and when to use ____er (make sure you the teacher know when to use them!)

Get them into pairs, pairing up those with fairly different ideas of what constitutes a nice holiday, and they'll have a go at convincing each other that their own holiday idea is better.

The most important point in a lesson like this is to get them to understand what an actual conversation sounds like, which means how to start, respond, and end a conversation - otherwise they're just going to be chanting the comparisons back and forth at each other in a completely unnatural way:

A: I think Kyoto is more beautiful than Okinawa.
B: But I think Okinawa is warmer than Kyoto.
A: But I think Kyoto is closer than Okinawa.
B: But I think Okinawa is cheaper than Kyoto.

and that is what you don't want - an over-emphasis on the target language at the expense of sounding natural - and this is one way a lot of teachers fall down on their teaching.

If you get them to start a conversation properly:

Opening:
So, what should we do about (our summer holidays)?
Do you have any ideas for (our summer holidays)?

Suggesting:
How about (Okinawa)?
I was thinking about Kyoto).
What do you think about (Okinawa)?
How does (Kyoto) sound to you).

Agreeing:
That's true, but...
I see what you mean, but...

Disagreeing:
I don't think so. I think...
Really? I actually think...

Concluding:
Ok, maybe you're right. Let's...
Actually, that's a good idea. Let's...

All that, combined with the grammar itself, will make for a much more natural conversation, and all the sentences can be used just as well for any other conversation about restaurants, pets, etc, by just changing words in brackets -s they should go ahead and have much the same conversation, but try to convince each other of something else.

From the start, the students have had input regarding the content of the lesson in terms of topics to be talked about. They're using known and new vocabulary relevant to those interests. They've spent a lot of time practicing and then producing English relevant to those topics of interest.

That's a satisfactory lesson. And it isn't difficult to prepare or teach.

Vojera · 01-07-2015 4:41pm

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

I'm confused. Blonde hair?

Blondes and gingers sometimes have issues travelling in areas where those hair colours and complexions are rare. There are some beliefs, especially in South East Asia, that to touch the hair of someone fair will bring you luck, so some Western travellers are overwhelmed by local attention. My own friend (who is ginger) found this a significant issue when travelling in China and one person offered her boyfriend money to "buy her time", all because of her hair colour.

Links234 · 01-07-2015 7:33pm

Vojera wrote: »

Blondes and gingers sometimes have issues travelling in areas where those hair colours and complexions are rare. There are some beliefs, especially in South East Asia, that to touch the hair of someone fair will bring you luck, so some Western travellers are overwhelmed by local attention. My own friend (who is ginger) found this a significant issue when travelling in China and one person offered her boyfriend money to "buy her time", all because of her hair colour.

Yeah, you wouldn't really get that in Japan, dyed hair is fairly common, so people wouldn't really look twice at you.

Source: Am blonde, nobody even made a comment about my hair

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 02-07-2015 9:57am

Vojera wrote: »

Blondes and gingers sometimes have issues travelling in areas where those hair colours and complexions are rare. There are some beliefs, especially in South East Asia, that to touch the hair of someone fair will bring you luck, so some Western travellers are overwhelmed by local attention. My own friend (who is ginger) found this a significant issue when travelling in China and one person offered her boyfriend money to "buy her time", all because of her hair colour.

I have red hair but nobody ever offered to 'buy my time'.:(

I have heard from a couple of people who have been in Japan for years that they did have a child or two a long time ago come up and touch their hair, and, in the case of one of them, his black skin also.

I'd say it was out of pure childish wonder at somebody who just looked so different.

ancapailldorcha · 02-07-2015 1:20pm

What's the dating culture like over there?

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 02-07-2015 5:10pm

ancapailldorcha wrote: »

What's the dating culture like over there?

There is more of a dating culture in Japan than in Ireland I'd say - it's more understood that it is a 'date' rather than just 'let's do something together'. It's a bit more...formal, or organised, maybe.

Dressing up to the nines is imperative, and there will always be a plan, and I mean a plan above and beyond heading to the pub for a pint. It might be a trip to the beach or to some nice sightseeing area, where the two can suss each other out.

By the third date, it's probably accepted that they are now a couple if they plan on having another date. Often this is quite explicitly confirmed by both parties by deciding whether they are in fact tsukiau, or going out/going steady.

The pressure on young people, and girls in particular, to get married and have kids, is tremendous compared to Ireland. I don't have the statistics, but I would not be surprised to find that the average age of marriage is about 5 or 6 years younger than Ireland.

It is probably more conservative in that it would be more understood that it is the role of the male to initiate a date than western Europe say, but in recent years, a new breed of Japanese male has emerged called soushoku danshi, which literally translates to 'herbivore male', indicating their lack of agression/initiative when it comes to women. Rather than get married, have 1.6 kids, and work 14 hours a day for the next 40 years, there are more who want to just get by as 'freeters' - work a few part-time jobs and devote more time to their own interests.

Combine this with more women wanting to focus on their careers, and the result is a massive ticking time bomb of a hole in public pension funds that makes people even more reluctant to get married and subject their future kids to paying an ever-increasing tax burden.

As for foreigners,the white English-speaking male is probably the most desirable of all foreigners over there, but of course the very big hurdle is that so very very few people speak any English at all. A bit of basic Japanese will (obviously) help out immensely.

Phoenix Wright · 02-07-2015 10:00pm

How is the pay in Japan compared to other countries where similar programmes are common? In your opinion, what are the chances of getting a job in ESOL teaching abroad that paysâ‚¬45,000-â‚¬60,000 (equivalent) a year?

I'm an English language teacher, AMA · 02-07-2015 10:32pm

Phoenix Wright wrote: »

How is the pay in Japan compared to other countries where similar programmes are common? In your opinion, what are the chances of getting a job in ESOL teaching abroad that paysâ‚¬45,000-â‚¬60,000 (equivalent) a year?

45,000 euros is just over 6,000,000yen at current exchange rates. 500,000yen a month.

A contract position (1 or 2 year contract, renewable up to maybe 4-5 years in total, but definitely no more than that) at a mid-level university would probably bring in 450,000-500,000 a month. Maybe 550,000. I do not think it is possible to make that kind of money any other way, unless you run your own private language school.

Here is one such job, and requirements:

Open Positions for full-time non-tenured Language Lecturers in English (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)

The applicant should:
(1) be a native speaker of English.
(2) possess an MA in TEFL/TESL or the Humanities/Social Sciences.
(3) have a minimum of three published works.
(4) preferably have previous experience of teaching at university/college level.
(5) demonstrate a sense of dedication to the teaching of English as a Foreign Language.

[Remuneration]
To be determined according to the university's established pay scale

The following application documents/materials should be sent by post to the addressee below:
(1) A CV (in English or Japanese) with a recent photo
(2) A list of all publications to date (in English or Japanese)
(3) Two copies each of three major publications
(4) A sample syllabus (or teaching plan) to be written in English, for a one semester university English writing course (comprising fifteen 90-minute lessons)
(5) An essay of approximately 1000 words in English, outlining all past teaching experience and proposed future methods for teaching, in the case of selection for the position, at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

To earn the kind of money you are talking about, this is what you're looking at.
Also, Japanese employment law dictates that if a person has been working full-time for 5 years, the next contract offered to them must be a permanent position, not another 1-year contract. So nobody gets to stick around for more than 5 years, and usually only 4.

The other way to go about it is to work part-time at a number of different universities. If a person is hired directly, rather than through a recruitment company that takes a chunk of their salary, and teaches 4 lessons a day, 5 days a week, they could come out with 500,000 a month. More if they work evenings and weekends. Some universities pay even for months when the part-time teacher isn't working, some only pay for teaching months. Requirements for these positions are much less strict, and there are plenty who have no teaching qualifications at all.

There are teachers who do live like that - they don't want the meetings, office hours, project supervision, and so on that comes with contract work. They might have 20 lessons a week at 5 different universities but if they can choose their own textbook for ther classes, you can almost guarantee they'll have the same book for every day of the week, and only need to plan a couple of lessons, to be taught at all the universities.

One other advantage of this lifestyle is that there are no contract limitations - you can go back year after year.

Finally, there are some teachers who have a full-time contract position (which usually stipulates 4 teaching days and one research day) and use their 'research day' at one university to work part-time at another university. That's another way to increase income.

Now Ye're Talking - to an English language teacher in Japan

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