yeah it is normally a thing you do when single... call me crazy, but I got married and starting having kids before I got out of University.

You're crazy! But, I'm guessing they won't be paying for anyone but yourself to get over there. Consider yourself lucky, I just bought my ticket to get over there today to work for Nova. G'luck. What city will you be in?

I have not applied yet... I will not be going until next year if I do go. At this point I will probably apply for it this coming fall/winter at the same time as I am applying for Masters positions (or PHD) at other institutions.

Dunno what will be the case but I would certainly love to spend a year in Japan. Much to my extended families lament.

Where do you think the best place would be to teach english. The city with the most need?

The demand for English teachers is around the larger cities in Japan such as Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nagoya, etcetera. This is simply due to the number of people living there which requires more schools and more teachers. The places with the most need for native English teachers would be somewhere like rural Nagano, rural Kyushu, rural Akita, etcetera. They have a greater need because they are less desirable locations as far as the teachers ability to travel and other things. Usually there are few to no eikaiwas in the countryside. Also most schools in rural areas share one ALT between three, four, maybe even five or more schools in the area.

Big universities do provide housing for their professor, but only if you are really a big time professor or a researcher :vsign:

Let's Union!!
 

http://www.jil.go.jp/english/laborinfo/library/Laws.htm.

General Union.

Nambu FWC - NUGW Tokyo Nambu.

Fluent in Japanese Lang?
 

Hi,

Firstly, i'm new to this forum..hope all of you can guide me along.
Thanks...

I will like to ask whether being fluent in Japanese will be an added advantage when applying for ATL?

I heard from other people in other forums commenting that the JET program actually looks for candidates who are not too fluency in the Japanese language. The reason being that a JET teacher is encouraged to engage his/her students in English, and having Japanese fluency can potentially defeat that purpose.

Is that true?

Regards.

JET Selection Process
 

The truth is that the selection process of JET's is a complete mystery to me, those rejected and those chosen as well. I have a theory though. My theory is that five or six Japanese gather in a boardroom. Each one selects their favorite candidate. Then they janken (rock, paper, scissors), and the winner of janken has their favorite chosen. One of the current ALT's in my city was turned down by JET twice. His major in was Japanese studies and has a rather high level of Japanese. That being said, I also knew one of the former JET's who was at the 1st or 2nd proficiency level on the JLPT. He also studied in Japan during university which visiting Japan before entering the JET program supposedly also harms your potential for being selected.

Every other ALT hiring company and many city boards of education are always going to choose the person with Japanese ability over the one without. However the JET program seems to choose at random. Good luck and if they don't take you, somebody will.

....
 

Hmm...So there is no fixed tips?

That really sounds confusing and double standard.
I think i will apply to both JET and priv schools at the same time.