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nightsintodreams
Joined: 18 May 2010
Posts: 558
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 Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2014 1:41 am Post subject: |
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redstanggt01 wrote:
Well, for me honestly, trying to self-study is difficult. It's just hard to keep motivated when I have a lot else going on in my life.
This sounds like a bit of a contradiction to me. So, Japan's truly truly your dream yet you don't have the motivation to learn the language? How are you ever going to get to that N2 you think you can reach if you don't even have any motivation when you'd think in your current situation the desire to go to Japan would make you really motivated to learn the language. If that doesn't make you motivated what will?
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Exactly, without sounding arrogant, my Japanese is far better than the average person who's lived in Japan for four years, but I've still been unable to pass N2. I'm probably better at speaking than choosing the correct grammatical response from a list of four, and some people do pass N2 within 4 years of living in Japan, but don't assume it's going to be an easy task or one that wont require a huge amount of self discipline to achieve, especially if your goal is to pass it before you turn thirty. |
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Solar Strength
Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 557
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
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| Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2014 8:02 am Post subject: |
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| mitsui wrote: |
The good old days are gone...To make money you have to work really hard and will have to decide if it is even worth it.
Frankly at this point if I can get 4 million a year, I would be doing well.
Or I could work six days a week. That is the way it is going here. |
In Japan, a 13-year veteran of the TEFL scene can go from having a great direct hire high school ALT job or university contract - to nothing! All in the blink of an eye.
Entry level applies to the 15 year, or 20 year veteran, also. This is a racket that does not often discriminate against time served, or even academic qualifications or publications.
We are all at entry level in the TEFL industry, regardless if one holds a doctorate, master's, has publications, etc. Once you lose your ALT or university contract job, you soon realize where you stand.
It's back to ground zero - entry level work.
This is an industry where one can go from hero to zero in a 2 year contract. |
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rtm
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1003
Location: US
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| Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2014 8:51 am Post subject: |
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| Solar Strength wrote: |
In Japan, a 13-year veteran of the TEFL scene can go from having a great direct hire high school ALT job or university contract - to nothing! All in the blink of an eye.
Entry level applies to the 15 year, or 20 year veteran, also. This is a racket that does not often discriminate against time served, or even academic qualifications or publications.
We are all at entry level in the TEFL industry, regardless if one holds a doctorate, master's, has publications, etc. Once you lose your ALT or university contract job, you soon realize where you stand. |
I know it's only anecdotal, but all of my friends who have wanted to stay long-term in Japan have been able to. Many of them have been in the same direct-hire ALT position for 7+ years, or working at the same private high school for 10+ years, or working at the same university for 25+ years. None of these were in Tokyo or Osaka, however; maybe that is a difference.
It's not as doom-and-gloom as you say. For university positions, academic qualifications are the bare minimum, and experience at other Japanese universities does count, as do publications. You make it sound like mitsui's situation ("a 13-year veteran of the TEFL scene can go from having a great direct hire high school ALT job or university contract - to nothing! All in the blink of an eye.") was sudden and irrational. On the contrary, he knew when his contract was finishing, he knew it was non-renewable, and he knew that publications are important for finding a new job, yet did not sufficiently produce in that area.
Is the system perfect? Of course not. I agree that there isn't a clear ladder to climb, and when one loses their job, they might be competing with others who have fewer qualifications or less experience, but I don't think it's accurate to say that experience, qualifications, or publications don't count or aren't valued by employers. |
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mitsui
Joined: 10 Jun 2007
Posts: 1562
Location: Kawasaki
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| Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 3:05 am Post subject: |
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It is quite easy to judge if you are not even in Japan but I know what it was like back five years ago. I had better interviews and felt optimistic.
Schools would be nice enough to let me know if I was rejected.
There is age discrimination here. I would work at a high school but many places don`t want people over 40.
With universities it is easy to say, get published. Good luck with peer reviewed journals where acceptance rates can be 50% or less.
I have had a couple articles rejected. If just one was rejected I would have got a job offer.
If I was less picky I could have applied for a job with work six days a week. Or in the future I could go back to my former school but take a big pay cut.
I wonder if term limited contracts are just the norm for Tokyo but my wife won`t just live anywhere in Japan.
Schools are really picky about who they want. What I see now are schools that want people really good at Japanese (2kyu or 1kyu),
or people that know medical, scientific or technical English, or people with experience teaching students advanced writing who want to study abroad and need to be at a high level. |
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Solar Strength
Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 557
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
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| Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 7:44 am Post subject: |
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| mitsui wrote: |
It is quite easy to judge if you are not even in Japan but I know what it was like back five years ago. I had better interviews and felt optimistic.
Schools would be nice enough to let me know if I was rejected.
There is age discrimination here. I would work at a high school but many places don`t want people over 40.
With universities it is easy to say, get published. Good luck with peer reviewed journals where acceptance rates can be 50% or less.
I have had a couple articles rejected. If just one was rejected I would have got a job offer.
If I was less picky I could have applied for a job with work six days a week. Or in the future I could go back to my former school but take a big pay cut.
I wonder if term limited contracts are just the norm for Tokyo but my wife won`t just live anywhere in Japan.
Schools are really picky about who they want. What I see now are schools that want people really good at Japanese (2kyu or 1kyu), or people that know medical, scientific or technical English, or people with experience teaching students advanced writing who want to study abroad and need to be at a high level. |
mitsui,
The new era is one of musical chairs. Get a job, lose a job, find a job. And if your wife won't live just anywhere, well that isn't realistic if you're going to be on 1 - 3 year contracts. You go where the work is. University TEFL instructors can no longer say, "I'm only going to live and work in Tokyo." Now I meet teachers who do 2 - 5 years in Hokkaido, then get punted, find something for 2 - 3 years in Tokyo, then head to Osaka for another 4 years. They have been moving around the country every 2 - 5 years.
And those who can't land another contract leave Japan for China, Korea, or T Thailand. Never to return again, because once you leave, it's extremely difficult to get a full time university teaching position from outside the country.
The people I know who've been doing that are both married and single, but if there are pets and kids involved, then it can be really tough to uproot every 2 or 3 years and move to the other side of the country.
Also, how does one live a life like that and not go broke?
It's bad. If you accept such conditions, you're nothing more than a migrant worker. The situation has only been getting worse over the last 8 - 10 years. And those publications, doctorates, presentations at TESOL conferences really don't lead to much, especially after 35 and definitely after you are 40.
What you need to be you can't do: 25, female, M.A. degree with good Japanese skills. Then you're able to write your own ticket in Japan as university EFL teacher.
Last edited by Solar Strength on Sun Feb 16, 2014 12:04 am; edited 1 time in total |
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rtm
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1003
Location: US
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| Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 8:18 am Post subject: |
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| mitsui wrote: |
With universities it is easy to say, get published. Good luck with peer reviewed journals where acceptance rates can be 50% or less.
I have had a couple articles rejected. If just one was rejected I would have got a job offer. |
I know it's not easy to do research and get things published -- trust me, I've done plenty of that myself.
If an article is rejected, you usually receive reviews of it. Those should help you revise it. You can then submit it elsewhere. There are literally hundreds upon hundreds of peer-reviewed TESOL/Applied Linguistics journals out there at all kinds of levels. It might take a few tries, but as long as you keep getting reviews and improving the manuscript, it'll keep getting better and closer to being of publishable quality.
Also, you said "If just one was rejected I would have got a job offer" -- do you mean "accepted"?
| Quote: |
| If I was less picky I could have applied for a job with work six days a week. Or in the future I could go back to my former school but take a big pay cut. |
OK, so it's not really a matter of you being unemployed.
| Quote: |
Schools are really picky about who they want. What I see now are schools that want people really good at Japanese (2kyu or 1kyu),
or people that know medical, scientific or technical English, or people with experience teaching students advanced writing who want to study abroad and need to be at a high level. |
Just curious, have you done anything toward these to improve your own profile?
I think the gist of this whole conversation about getting another job at a university is that one needs to keep improving, both their Japanese language skills and their research and publishing. One can't just rely on teaching experience and an MA alone. |
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rxk22
Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629
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| Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 6:58 pm Post subject: |
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Finish your IT degree. Get a skill now, while you can. Moving to Japan will make it much harder to gain another skill.
Also if you aren't motivated to study Japanese now, then you won't ne able to get your N2 is 3 years, I guarantee that.
Also, just to note, people here are much more reasonable than GP |
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mitsui
Joined: 10 Jun 2007
Posts: 1562
Location: Kawasaki
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| Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 12:22 am Post subject: |
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Yeah,
I am married and my spouse doesn`t like moving.
If I was single I would try Nagoya.
I was fine being at a high school but then lost my job so I had to work at a university since it was the best offer.
I would go back to the USA but conditions are tough there too.
The line between success and failure is not much and I have been close to getting work. |
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Inflames
Joined: 02 Apr 2006
Posts: 486
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| Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 3:30 am Post subject: |
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| nightsintodreams wrote: |
Exactly, without sounding arrogant, my Japanese is far better than the average person who's lived in Japan for four years, but I've still been unable to pass N2. |
It might be better than the average foreign English teacher who has lived in Japan for 4 years, but is not the case when compared to everyone. Everyone includes Korean and Chinese (and other) students who come to study, not to work. A lot of these people speak good English too. |
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nightsintodreams
Joined: 18 May 2010
Posts: 558
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| Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 9:25 am Post subject: |
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| That's very true, but I'm presuming the OP is a native English speaker like myself, and comparing a Chinese or Korean's Japanese learning journey to our own is kind of like comparing a Japanese person to a German when it comes to learning English. I was just trying to say that passing N2 is far from an easy goal, and if you're not disciplined in your studies and have low motivation then it's near impossible to do in the time frame he mentioned. |
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rtm
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1003
Location: US
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| Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 10:11 am Post subject: |
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| nightsintodreams wrote: |
| That's very true, but I'm presuming the OP is a native English speaker like myself, and comparing a Chinese or Korean's Japanese learning journey to our own is kind of like comparing a Japanese person to a German when it comes to learning English. I was just trying to say that passing N2 is far from an easy goal, and if you're not disciplined in your studies and have low motivation then it's near impossible to do in the time frame he mentioned. |
Taking Inflames' and nightsintodreams' comments together, one could also surmise (and maybe this was Inflames' point) that the competition for jobs in IT will have very high language ability, as there are likely to be quite a few Chinese and Koreans applying for these jobs. |
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redstanggt01
Joined: 10 Sep 2013
Posts: 22
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| Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 1:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Alright, well for the time being then, I'm going to try applying to ALT jobs again I guess. If anyone is open to helping me criticize my resume/cover letters, pm me. Of course, if I don't get in anything, then I'll go the student visa route and try to get some contracts that way. It'll be awhile though before I do, as I can only save up to $12k between now and July, so I'll have to wait til next year when I have $21k, and even with that, I'm not sure if I'll be able to stay for a year in a language school. |
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redstanggt01
Joined: 10 Sep 2013
Posts: 22
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| Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 1:44 pm Post subject: |
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| Also, stupid question I'm about to ask....What tips do you guys have for passing interviews for an Eikawa/ALT dispatch job? |
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Cool Teacher
Joined: 18 May 2009
Posts: 930
Location: Here, There and Everywhere! :D
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| Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 2:01 pm Post subject: |
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| redstanggt01 wrote: |
| Also, stupid question I'm about to ask....What tips do you guys have for passing interviews for an Eikawa/ALT dispatch job? |
Be positive and entusiatic, and always show willingness to follow the teaching method and to work with others but also show you can teach without being told how if you need to and also be prepared to do some demosntrations for them and not be put off by anything.  |
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