(Sorry for the double post, it seems the forum won't let me edit my previous one.)

Another question:

Are there any ways to go around the 'english must be your mother tongue/first language to be an english teacher in japan/other countries' issue?

I was born and raised in a french canadian family, and then learned english through school. Due to various situations and things that happened in the past 4 years, I've immersed myself in english and it's improved a lot since I graduated from High School. Even thougn my english is far from being perfect, I feel more comfortable speaking and writing in english, though I still use both every day(speak english at work, speak french at home). Would I have to go through some tests/exams? Or would I automatically be rejected?

I had always been around my friends and family too. In fact, I had never moved out of my parents house, even all through university. The only foreign country I'd been to was Canada (which is not very foreign at all to an American), I had never been to Japan, and I spoke no Japanese.

Yet I went anyway. Of course I had a few doubts, and I became homesick at times... for most people, that's only natural. And learning to live on my own for the 1st time, in a foreign country, had it's difficulties. But I made it through, I had a great time, and I wouldn't change my decision to go. It was an incredible experience.

How thick is your accent? Can you minimize your accent? People with a strong accent are not likely to be accepted because much of what you'll do is have the kids listen to your pronunciation and repeat, or listen comprehension when you talk.

ahh, after i get a degree, i would do like to apply for the JET program.

But I have a psychological thing that because i'm still learning chinese, i would like to master that one first. XD

Your nationality far outweighs your actual fluency in English. The JET program pulls people from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds (Finnish, South American, New Zealanders, etc.). Your personality is also more important than your accent. If anything, having a unique cultural heritage and attractive accent is going to aid you in selling yourself and setting yourself apart from the masses.

Furthermore, there are high schools in Japan that have French programs. There is an eikaiwa chain (named Maple something) that specializes in teaching French and English. Being bilingual in English and French, you couldn't be more attractive to any language school in Japan. And if JET won't take you (they would be crazy not to), rest assured you can get a good job with comparable salary very easily.

Don't hide it, you want to emphasize your dual language abilities and unique cultural background! And, you need to teach me French...

Unless things have changed, the JET program I know only hires people from English-speaking countries, including Canada. There were no non-native English speakers among the JETS that were there when I was.

I am not sure that a "unique cultural heritage" is a good selling point for a country that prefers conformity over diversity. Even on thise site we have seen Singaporeans, who likely speak English better then me, being rejected as English teachers because of their country of origin.

@samurai007: I don't think my accent is very thick. Actually, I often get questioned about my nationality, because people can't figure out where I come from. My accent is there, but it's small and it will only ever show up on a few words I might still have trouble with. My english "only" friends tease me about that, hehe.

@jasonbvr: Being bilingual has only been positive for me at the moment, so I guess that would make a lot of sense. Ahah, french is hard. But if you know how to pronounce the japanese letters (especially e and i) than it could turn out to be easier for you. My french is far from being perfect, because there are so many rules and specific little things all over the place. I was good when I was in high school and college, but I've been out of school for two years now, so I haven't really been practicing(my writing that is!).

@MMM: Well, I was asking this because when I graduated from High School, one of my application to college got rejected because my mother tongue was french. Even though I went and passed a test, they insisted that my english wasn't good enough and suggested I take two years to improve it. Considering that I always had 90%+ grades in my english class in High School, I didn't feel like wasting my time there. (And that's the story of my life! Lol)

Just to clarify, they take ALTs only from English countries, but they take CIRs from many other countries. There were CIRs in our prefecture were from France, Mexico, and China.

Aha! Point well taken.

There are not as many, but I know teachers from Finland, Denmark and Tunisia, one non-JET ALT, one JET and one eikaiwa.