Oh well - teaching English again...
 

Hi there,

I wouldn't post this one if I had found an answer already. For some reason, most people don't want to teach English. I DO!!

Unfortunately, I'm neither a university nor a college graduate. And I'm German. However, I graduated from a US high school and went to college for a year (and two more in Germany). So, my pronunciation is similar to that of an American native. I hold a 120 hrs TEFL certificate (with a letter of recommendation), and I worked at a Thai Catholic high school for one semester. For the last 2 years, I've been working for an English media group in Thailand.

Now, I'd like to get to know Japan, but where do I go from here? Are there any agencies that can place teachers with schools? What are their requirements? Would it be better for me to teach German instead? How do working conditions/living costs differ when comparing country side to urban areas?

Many questions...maybe someone knows who I should get in contact with. Any suggestion is highly appreciated.

Danke schön!
mike2519

Wow, you have a lot of experience. I'm sorry I can't be of help, but I'm sure one of the topics around here might can give you an idea. One thing I do know of, is that you need a Visa in order to go there, naturally, and usually, one needs a Bachelor's degree to qualify for the Visa. Of course, there's always the other way, where you get hired through a company, and that company sponsors you and then obtain a Visa that way.

I'm also certain that there's a website you can look at that offers English Teaching jobs, but I can't recall it right off.

You could always try this topic....http://www.japanforum.com/forum/livi...-jp-2-0-a.html

http://www.japanforum.com/forum/livi...ive-japan.html

That's the best I can do...

Teaching English is great, but almost every company will require a BA degree. The degree can be in anything. They just want to know you can read, write and speak well.

So there are no places that might use experience in place of University/College degree?

possible, but unlikely. cruise the net and check out school's requirements.

If they want to hire a foreigner, they must get permission from the Japanese government. The governmnet must agree to allow that company to hire a foreigner to do a certain job.

This is a long and arduous process.

At the very least the applicant needs to have a four-year degree. Or else why would the Japanese government accept them?

That is the train of thought.

Visa questions come up quite often in this forum... Just a few days ago I began reading the official guidelines for Visa requirements, just to get a better understanding of them. From what I've been reading, if you do not have a bachelor's degree, you need a minimum of 10 years experience in a particular field to qualify for a working visa. An exception to this is the so-called "entertainer" visa, which isn't an option for most people.

You can find the entire guidelines here -> MOFA: Visa

It's been a while, so I might have this wrong, but I thought English teachers were under a sub-class of Entertainer. When applying for a job they could ask for a photograph because we were "entertainers."

???????????????

Paul, no, English teachers are classed under "humanities/international relations." They're not entertainers but people with an ability to help establish relations with other countries -- in this case, people who are native English speakers.

Though they may feel like dancing bears sometimes ;)

The reason why you need to submit a photograph is because they want to know what you look like. If you think that's because they have preferences in hair and skin color you would not be far wrong.

I met many AETs when I was an English teacher and they were all blond, except for one redhead. But times may have changed...