Thanks jason I really appreciate your advices.
I'm quite confident about my accent and I'm a lot better with spoken english than with written, so I'm really happy to hear that phone interview is an important hiring factor. Besides I still have at least 3 years to improove my skills.
But I was wondering if it's easier to get an ALT or eikawa job as a native english speaker with 0 skill in japanese or as a non native one with japanese at conversation level?
And about the experience: I'm still only 22 and I'm in the middle of political science and international affairs studies, so it would be hard for me to get experience but I'm considering on taking TESL course in UK after I finish studies. BTW what age were you when you started working in japan and what age is most common for ALT's you know?
Also did you ever meet foreigners working as waiters, bartenders or other such jobs? The host thing is an absolutely last resort for me, I would rather try to find other jobs. I always thought it wouldn't be so hard for a foreigner to find jobs like waiter in a cafe for women (like the cheesecake cafe), I heard it's quite common in China but I don't know how it looks in Japan.

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Thanks for the informations. Now I'm starting to think that my dream of living in japan is really achievable ^_^
But how hard is it now to get an ALT's job? I read about strong concurence nowadays, and I guess only some schools are hiring them right? Also do many foreigners give private english lessons? And most important: is ALT's pension enought to make a living in japan?
Sorry if I'm starting to be annoying with my unending flow of questions but when I learned about this whole ALT thing I've become really passionate about the issue. I have never before even heard of such a working possibility until I found this forum (and I just recentely started searching for a possible job in japan in the first place).
BTW ALT's never appeared in any manga or anime I saw (and I've seen a lot of them) so I'm guessing ALT's are pretty rare (or a new idea), am I right?

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Hiring from within Japan vs. Overseas
 

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I read your thread regularly and thanx for a lot of new information. I would like to know how can I apply for JET since I'm from Croatia and not an english speaking country? I'll get my master's degree next year, I'm actually an elementary school english teacher and don't know japanese language. And if I don't have a chance with JET will I have better luck with ALT?

Another down the drain...

Thank you soooo much! I will try to ask around about this at the embassy as you suggested, thanx again. If I'll have some more questions I'll let you know :)

Is the English industry in Japan pulling a South Korea on us?
 

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jasonbvr: Hmm, does this apply to those employed through private companies as opposed to something like JET?