Job Discussion Forums

prks · Joined: 26 Sep 2011 Posts: 36

Hello,

I've been wondering if this is possible? I have a CELTA, university degree, and experience in USA companies, worked there for about 4-5 years, but I am a not native English speaker. Can I get an ESL job in Japan?

Thanks, and I apologize if this is the 10,000th time someone asked this question!

steki47 · Joined: 20 Apr 2008 Posts: 1029 Location: BFE Inaka

What country are you from? That might make a difference.

Some job ads specifically state that a teacher must have a passport from the Inner Circle countries. Other jobs are more lenient.

Personally, I know a couple of Dutchmen are teaching English in Japan.

mitsui · Joined: 10 Jun 2007 Posts: 1562 Location: Kawasaki

Depends what you want. Places like Gaba will take you.
JET is possible too.

marley'sghost · Joined: 04 Oct 2010 Posts: 255

Lots of non-native speakers here. If you can talk the talk you can walk the walk that is EFL in Japan. I work for a ALT dispatch company and there are quite a few of us who are not native speakers. With your CELTA and past experience, I don't see it being a problem.

rxk22 · Joined: 19 May 2010 Posts: 1629

Interac has a lot of Filipino teachers.

rtm · Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 1003 Location: US

I think the bigger question than whether someone will hire you is whether you can be sponsored for a work visa. AFAIK, for a work visa to teach English, you need to either be a citizen of an English-speaking country (I'm not exactly sure which are included in this), or you need to have at least 12 years of your education in English (i.e., all classes taught in English). So, being a non-native speaker of English doesn't stop you as long as you either have a passport from a major English-speaking country, or your education was in English. Or, if you want to teach your native language, you could get a visa to do that.

As far as I know, the situation is similar for JET ALTs-- you need to be a native speaker of English or have had your education in English. Or, depending on what your native language is, you could apply to JET to teach your native language (there are French, German, Chinese, etc. teachers on JET, though in very small numbers). If you have a high level of Japanese language ability, you could apply to be a CIR.

I'd guess that many of the Filipino teachers either have a spouse visa or their education was all in English, so they qualify for a work visa.

You might also want to check to see whether you qualify for a working holiday visa. That would get you to Japan, but only for a year.

kah5217 · Joined: 29 Sep 2012 Posts: 270 Location: Ibaraki

There's a married Filipino couple in my city, hired by the same people as me, and they both kind of have an accent in English. They do a pretty good job, though, so if they aren't native speakers, it's not working against them.

TokyoLiz · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1548 Location: Tokyo, Japan

I worked with a teacher from Manila. She has a K-12 license.

In Canada I worked alongside many teachers from the former Yugoslavia. Many of them had advanced training in English language education.

As mentioned above, it really depends on your passport country, whether Japan's immigration will take you or not.

KarlaMontelibano · Joined: 11 Sep 2013 Posts: 17

my friend told me about this, most japanese people don't like the idea of a non native speaker teaching them english..which to me is plain snobbish..