Job Discussion Forums

[matcauthon]

Hi guys! Konnichi wa from the Land of the Rising Sun!

I`ll try to keep this as short as possible.

I`m currently in my 2nd year of the Jet Programme (been here 18 months so far) and I recently recontracted for a 3rd and final year. However, to say I feel ambivalant about the decision I`ve made would be a gross understatement. I get decent money here and lots of holidays and my job is completly devoid of stress. I`ve also studied Japanese quite hard over the last 18 months and I`m at about a pre-intemediate level in the language, I guess.

However, recently I`ve started to feel that I`m simply marking time here and not developing any skills or confidence in the classroom (due to the nature of Jet and the ALT position I hold). Furthermore, I`m really starting to feel a sense of "numbness" from living in Japan inasmuch as I feel that I`ve experienced the best of Japan in terms of travelling and sightseeing, having all those quaint, novel experiences you have when you live in a foreign country etc. In addition, I`m not happy about living in a small town of 14,000 farmers and would like to experience life for a year in a HUGE city - with all the complexity and opportunities such places can offer before I hang up my backpack.

For these reasons, I`m agonising over whether to call it a day after two years in Japan and to head to South Korea for a year`s TEFL, probably in Seoul, or to resist change and stay in Japan for a total of three years.

I`m 28, by the way, and I feel that living abroad is not something I can continue doing for that much longer. I definitly want to live abroad until I`m 30 but after that I have plans to do a Post Graduate diploma and live "the conventional way". I guess it would be easy to stay in Japan for another year but not terribly swash-buckling. I think moving to South Korea is an exciting possibility but I`ve read a lot of negative things about living there. This concerns me but stress and frustration are probably good for you in the long run and at least I would feel as if I were accumulating a list of new experiences (both positive and negative) something I don`t think is happening to me any more in Japan.

It would be a shame in a way to leave Japan after studying Japanese for two years and the people here are generally very nice but I`m getting itchy feet. I`m really caught in two minds about this tho. My gut instict is not telling me which way to go and it`s a little distressing. I guess any insight, anecdotal tidbits or criticisms about my spelling/grammar would be more than welcome. How do you truly KNOW when it`s time to move on? I don`t think you always can...

[coffeespoonman]

Of course you can't know when it's time. When you left your home country, did you KNOW that you were doing the best thing?

Here's the problem though--If you don't go to SK this year, are you always going to say to yourself, "I had the opportunity; I could have experienced more, but I was too comfortable"? If yes, get over to Seoul. You say that this is your last year living abroad. Will you always wonder what life would have been like elsewhere? Will you be disappointed that you only got to experience one other culture? If yes, get over to Seoul.

I suspect you will. If you were really content living in Japan for another year, I doubt you would have bothered posting the question.

As for me, I'm going to Seoul!

[Deconstructor]

Hey, I thought you said you were gonna keep it short! Just kidding.

Well, moving to SK isn't going to make your life more interesting and less numbing. Japan and Korea are similar in many ways.

TEFL in Korea is highly precarious and it will certainly not challenge you in any way and make you a better teacher, maybe a bitter teacher. Though it will provide you with plenty of stress if that's what you're looking for.

Overseas will never present you with a pedagogical challenge. You gotta go home for that.

[Sweetsee]

Follow your heart.

Good luck,
s

[The G-stringed Avenger]

South Korea!

I lived in Japan for 2 years, had to leave as I felt pretty much the same as you - it got stale.

Korean food is better, you will have a chance to see and experience something different (similar to J in some ways, way different in others IMHO) and if you're concerned about your Japanese, there are plenty of Japanese people there you can do language exchange with.

Time for a change - Carpe Diem and all that. Trust me, you'll look back in 10-20 years and say "Yeah, I'm glad I did that!"

Good luck.

[matcauthon]

Well, I just informed my supervisor that I will not be staying on the JET programme for a 3rd and final year. It`s definitely time for a change of scene and if I had to think about it this hard I`m sure I`m doing the right thing!!! It`s not as if I`m packing my bags tomorrow anyhow - I`ve still got another 6 months left in Japan!

Well, thanks for the kind words and encouragement guys. I best start thinking about where I want to work in Seoul .

[carnac]

Deleted.

[carnac]

Whoops, you posted your decision while I was writing! (unless I seriously lost track of something, always possible)
Good going! Nice jump from the fence!

[ls650]

[sprightly]

i liked korea. did three years, but never in seoul. however, if you want big city, well, it's a big city.

do lots of research; you should even be able to fly over and visit a school before taking a job. websearch KOTESOL as well.

as to pedagogical challenge? it is what you make of it.
i did some gigs in canada which might have qualified as pedagogically challenging, or they might have been described as "teaching without appropriate materials and thus having to spend 1 hour preparing materials for ever 2 hours in class, and not being paid for this necessary work, and being chastised if your classes/materials were exciting/professional/challenging/fun enough."

i much prefer having decent materials, and being free to supplement and self-challenge on my own terms.

[matcauthon]

Is60 - a valid question. I want to go to Seoul because it`s a HUGE city and I`ve never had such an experience. True, there are big cities all over the world, but at 28 years of age, and with a need and a desire to save more money (for a post-graduate diploma in careers guidance btw) South Korea seems a pretty much automatic decision.

I`ve taught in Europe (Poland); did my CELTA in Spain, Madrid; been to the Middle East (6 months in Israel on Kibbutzim); travelled and worked around much of Australia for a year AND have been living and teaching in Japan for the last 18 months - so I`ve experienced a bit of life in Europe, Far-East Asia, Australiasia and the Middle-East. It would be lovely to go to Brazil, say, or Argentina for a year and try somethong completly different but unfortunately I have to think about tucking a bit of money away for my future plans and unfortunately this rules out more exotic locations.

Teaching English and living in foreign countries CAN be extremely rewarding and mind-expanding experiences as well as FUN but I think when I hit 30 (an arbitrary number, perhaps?) I have to worry about getting myself qualified and ready for secure, long-term employment in my native country.

I know it may sound as if I`m not into South Korea as much as I should be and that I am almost going there purely through default. Furthermore, I do have certain reservations about going as well, but at the end of the day it will be a new country, in a HUGE city, I will be able to save enough money to complete my saving plan AND I will be able to do something for a living that I have enjoyed doing in the past.

[Roger]

Apparently you don't take TEFLing seriously enough. It seems to be a pastime that accidentally rewards you with an income. What are you enjoying in Japan outside of your job? Maybe you made the wrong decision in moving to Japan to "teach" English?

I noted that you planned long before on returning to your home country to continue your studies. Why postpone that? Why stick to a fixed age bracket to start your master's? That's what needs fixing. Otherwise I would say you are addicted to a consumer's life and creature comforts. Why then stay in a foreign place?

[coffeespoonman]

Roger,

I have no idea why you would say that. Nothing in matcauthon's posts make it seem like he is only in TEFL for the money. He did his CELTA in Madrid, for God's sake. Obviously he wasn't only in it for the money. He's said more than once that he's thinking about going to Korea for the experience, not the won, so give him a break, eh?

BTW, I think he's really going to Korea to find the Daughter of the Nine Moons.

[matcauthon]

Coffeespoonman,

Blood and ashes!!!! That`s precisely why I`m going to South Korea - to fulfil my destiny and marry the Daughter of the Nine Moons!!! On second thoughts, though, the Seanchan tend to be a highly-strung, temperamental bunch, not too disimilar to our friend Roger here.

Seriously though Roger, what is wrong with considering several factors when considering career choices, including financial renumeration? IF you had read my posts with even moderate care you would have had a fuller understanding of my reasoning behind moving to South Korea. Whilst it is admirable that you are wary of people working in this field for less than puritanical reasons, I think you should check yourself and think more carefully about what people are actually trying to communicate in their posts rather than leaping to conclusions and pigeon-holing (sp?) people. Otherwise you just sound bitter and foolish IMHO.

Sincerely, Kirk

[sprightly]

roger strikes me like nynaeve; looking out for you best interests, but not so confident that you can do it yourself.

there are a lot of people out there who believe english teachers abroad are only worthy of their jobs if they have some sort of higher goal. stuff 'em--we all need to eat.

saving money in seoul, well, it's possible. keep in mind that you will be one of several thousand foreigners, all chasing the money.
and there are a lot of temptations in seoul that don't exist elsewhere in the peninsula: 24 hour foreigner-only casinos, grocery stores carrying stuff you haven't eaten in a year (sour cream! blue cheese! chorizo salami!), lots of bars and clubs and really yummy restaurants.

many teachers make the real cash by teaching privately (illegal but common), and again, with no established clientele, you'll be scrounging and won't be able to demand the same wages.

it might be worth considering a smaller city within 2 hours of seoul. you'll be less tempted to spend, you'll have better pick of schools, and may be able to get a better rate should you choose to teach privately.

personally, i would LOVE to do some volunteer teaching--i see a lot of very excellent projects in places i'd like to live, with people who could benefit from more language skills.
sadly, i have 30 000 CDN of debt to repay, no retirement savings to speak of, and no safety net. so it's off to teach the spoiled offspring of the overpriveleged for me!

good luck.