Teaching English in the JP

[cocoluvnihon]

Originally Posted by jasonbvr

Your resume and cover letter are going to be on separate pages with your contact information as the header. On the cover letter, include the address of the person you are sending it to even if like me you emailed all the potential employers. That reminds me that along with these, you are going to write an email that will be along the same lines as the cover letter only more brief and bare of specifics about education and what not. Some employers ask for an essay describing why you want to work in Japan, you're on your own on that one.

Education

2001-2005 University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Bachelors of Arts in International Studies-East Asia, Minor in Japanese

Fall 2004 University of Language and Culture, Beijing, China, Level 1 Chinese

1996-2000 West Rowan High School, Mount Ulla, North Carolina

Academic Awards- College credit earned in high school through Advanced Placement Exam in English Composition

Work Experience

1998-2006 Lake Norman Seafood, Assistant Kitchen Manager

Now the cover letter:

Dear Daredemo,

I am a recent graduate of University of North Carolina at Charlotte. As a student in the International Studies program there I have always sought to broaden myself through experiencing and learning of foreign cultures. I chose to concentrate on East Asia out of curiousity at first but have quickly come to love and respect the culture and languages.

I am writing to you in response to your opening for English teachers and believe that my experiences and background would make me an excellent candidate for the position. Studying both Japanese and Chinese in school, I believe that I have a first hand understanding of how languages are acquired and the teaching methods involved. I am looking to continue learning as I am currently enrolled in one of the online certification programs for Teaching English as a Second Language.

My exposure through friends, studying abroad and university courses to foreign languages and cultures has given me insight into how difficult yet crucial English education is. I know the challenges facing your students and look forward to helping them try to overcome the obstacles facing them.

Thank you for your time and I look forward hearing from you soon.

Sincerely, Jason

heey is it near the research triangle park?!! and hav they tried recruiting you before? and do you like your job? ohh with u're wage is japan kinda cheap in the part you live at?

[jasonbvr]

Originally Posted by Xlll

Even so, I hear working visa allows you to only stay for a minimum of three years in Japan, which I'm planning on staying longer than that given duration. What visa do I need to work and live in Japan at my leisure, or does this particular visa has a limit to it as well?

The longest work visa available is the three year work visa. After your three years is up, you can have it renewed for another three and so on. I have heard that even getting the three year visa could take you two to three years of working in Japan and applying for it over and over again.

The visa you will need to live and work at leisure as you put it, would be permanent residency status. This is the one step down from actual citizenship and from what I have read, just as difficult to get as actual citzenship. The thing is, you are going to need like over five years of working and living here before they will grant it to you. And even then, you would probably need a very good reason for living in Japan whether it be a spouse, business or child.

As for me, I am a foreigner and will always be one even if I lived here the rest of my life. Auburn hair and hazel eyes mean that even if I was fluent in Japanese and lived in at a Shinto shrine as a monk, I would always be on the outside in a way. I have only lived in Japan for eight months now and probably only be here for another ten to eleven.

[samokan]

true. Before they issue a 3 year working visa. but now they change it to 1 year only. After 1 year, you can renew and usually the next visa you'll get is would still be 1 year. If you get lucky on the 2nd time you renew, you can get a 3 year visa. My colleague here, was granter a 3 year visa after his 3rd renewal. Mine was on the 2nd renewal.

[jasonbvr]

Originally Posted by cocoluvnihon

heey is it near the research triangle park?!! and hav they tried recruiting you before? and do you like your job? ohh with u're wage is japan kinda cheap in the part you live at?

Just briefly, the area I live in now is somewhere around average as far as living expenses and what I am paid is probably average too for teachers/college grads in Japan.

As far as the research triangle, that term in North Carolina refers specifically to Raleigh, Durham and Greensboro area where a lot of medical research takes place and no they never tried recruiting me. Charlotte is farther south in NC and the second largest banking center in the US after NYC. Shocking I know.

As far as a research triangle in Japan, I have never heard of that. No, no one has ever tried to recruit me for anything other than the armed forces after they learned I know a little Chinese.

Do I like my job? That is a difficult question. As far as jobs go, it is a pretty sweet ride being an ALT. You get paid well for the little that most ALT's do. My trouble as I've been told by other ALT's is that I take my job far too seriously.

But let's compare. Most ALT's are simply what is known as the human tape recorder simply reading the lines given to them to demonstrate correct pronunciation. As the name Assistant Language Teacher implies, they simply assist the Japanese instructor in the English program and every now and then are given fifteen minutes of free time to do a short activity or game.

Now consider my school where I plan and for the most part run my classes on my own. I have fifty to forty-five minutes of class time to teach "grammar" that is in the text book without the use of a text book. Which means that materials I use, I have to make basically from scratch. My Japanese teachers don't really get how frustrating that is. They have the textbooks, workbooks, CD's and computer lessons which they use in their classes. I have started incorporating the text readings into my classes much to their disappointment because I've recently realized that some of the seniors can't even read simple words like "fun" or "want."

Honestly, I go back and forth between "English education in Japan is hopeless" and "This isn't fun and games because you have to be able to pass that entrance exam to get into a good high school." When I look at my own education and how it has changed my life, it makes me one of the strongest advocates for higher education you will ever meet. Yes, school is tough and it takes what seems like forever to get to where you want to be which is just finished. But if I didn't stick with (believe me at times I didn't want to), I wouldn't be sitting in a Japanese Jr. High writing to all of you out there wanting one way or another to be in Japan.

The answer to your question is yes, I enjoy working in Japan's schools. Being a teacher is tough anywhere in the world. Then consider that you and your students don't even speak the same language. But that's part of the job, to make your students want to learn English so they can talk to you. And now when I see my kids I had last year coming home from high school, I feel really good about what I do and very proud that they are still in school slaving away.

[jasonbvr]

As an English teacher in Japan, you will either need an Instructor, Professor or the Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa (which is the one I have). I may have been wrong about the different requirements by country as it appears to be rather by profession. However I was not wrong about working holiday visas, those are deals arranged between countries. Take a look here for all those visa questions you have on your mind:

MOFA: A Guide to Japanese Visas - Documents to Be Submitted with Visa Applications

[jasonbvr]

For aspiring English teachers take note of these phrases under Instructor and Specialist in Humanities/International Services:

Instructor
Documents certifying the academic career or a copy of an educational license of the person concerned.
Documents certifying the professional career of the person concerned.
Basically what this amounts to is proof of your education and/or career as a teacher. Note that TESL certificates do not alone qualify you to teach in Japan no matter how they are promoted. A degree would be a different story because it is not a certificate.

Specialist in Humanities/International Services
Materials describing the business undertaken by the recipient organization.
A diploma or a certificate of graduation with a major in a subject relating to the activity of the person concerned, and documents certifying his or her professional career.
Proof that the company hiring is in the business of hiring teachers/ALT's. Now the second one about "major in a subject relating to the activity of the person concerned" is not enforced word for word. Why else would most ALT's I know be computer science majors? Basically all you need for this one is a degree which is why most teachers fall into this category. They're foreign, they went to school, why don't we make them a teacher?

[Xlll]

About the working visa, so since it'll be my first time actually applying for a working visa, I'll most likely get one that is one to two years length, and eventually get a three year working visa over time, right? Also, when you say "renew", I can't help but think of it as an actual U.S. ID, so what I'm basically saying is once the visa is expired, I'll just have to "renew" it as you put it, am I on the right track here?

With that aside, from various comments from forums I've visited over time, I usually hear that majority of people will apply for a job that pertains to "teaching English" to the natives of Japan, which I eventually learned that this job is ALT. So my question is, what does an ALT person exactly do? I mean, I always hear "teaching English" in Japan is a good source of spare money while staying or traveling in Japan, but from the comments I gathered from various websites, it seems like anyone can apply for it and get the job on the first day, is this the case?

[jasonbvr]

For the renewal process you will still need proof of employment and to pay the four thousand yen or whatever the cost is. But you have to realize for any reason or none at all, they could choose not to renew and often they choose not to give the longer term visas especially because your contract is no longer than one year. Who knows what the people in the offices really base their decisions on? I got my visa on the first visa but know of people having to return a second time three months later for theirs.

As far as just flying in to Japan and thinking you will be able to get a teaching job on the first day, I would say that is a one out of a million type situation. I've said it before, I had a list of around 30 employers I sent my resume to. Ten called and interviewed me, and out of those ten I had five that were seriously considering hiring me. The whole process took a month.

Now that I am in Japan and have experience, I would probably get responses from maybe like 2 out of 3 employers and be offered the job from both. Even then though, the process from interviewing to hiring would probably be at least a month. After that, I would not be payed until a month after starting.

So if you flew over here, you would be living for 2 to 3 months without a job and the bare minimum amount of money you will need to survive for a month in Japan (unless you sleep in Yoyogi park with the homeless) would be around 80-90,000 yen.

[Xlll]

Don't get me wrong, I have no interest whatsoever to teach English or join any programs, well for the most part. I'm planning on getting my university degree first and then settling in for various jobs in Japan. With that aside, do you know any potential (i.e. dependent) websites that list employers and jobs that are waiting to be occupied? Also, I'm sort of in the mix with the whole "visa" thing, so does one have to apply for a visa before planning on traveling to Japan? I want to have one before traveling there to save me the trouble and hassle, or do I have to apply at Japan for one? Oh yeah, what visa do you use by the way? When you mean contract, do you mean your employment contract for your (i.e. person) job?

[samokan]

of course Visa are applied before entering the country. You cannot enter Japan without proper visa, except for tourist from UK and US?? who does not need a tourist visa if its less than 90 days. But for other countries, it is a MUST.