Job Discussion Forums

[MikeySaid]

I took a year off from Snowboarding... but I got on the mountain the other day and it was brilliant.

I want to teach abroad. Badly. (Clarification; I want badly to teach well.)

I majored in Spanish.

I've thought many a time of Japan or China or somewhere else in Asia... but it seems like it would be fool hearty to run off to Asia when I invested time and money into Spanish and Latin America.

Also... I love snowboarding... it's part of me. So is the Spanish language and latino culture

And... I enjoy living by (or at least in relatively close proximity to) the beach or a large body of water if I can.

Anyone have any thoughts on where I would best fit? I've though Chile, Argentina, and Spain. But given that I am from the US, Spain seems to have been ruled out for me in many a way.

Note: my only current qualifications are a BA in Spanish and some volunteer experience teaching and tutoring English as a second/foreign language.

[MELEE]

First of all don't discount Japan, you are young and can come back to Latin America in the future. I was in Japan for 18 months, sandwiched between time in Ecuador and Mexico. I'm so glad I went there, I wouldn't trade that experience for anything in the world, even though I am a Latinophile through and through. I often feel like I was born on the wrong side of the boarder. From what I hear, Japan has great snowboarding, but I can't vouch for it. But you probably already know that. But what you probably don't know is that several Japanese cities have large hispanic populations. When I lived in the Kansai Region (Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto-Nara) I listened to a Spanish language radio station. I danced more salsa there than I have in Mexico, and I've been here almost 9 years! (Where I live, Cumbia is king) After the war, a sizable number of Japanese immigrated to South America. Japan has visa waiver programs (or something like that) for South Americans of Japanese decent. They can go to Japan and work in factories or as office cleaners. The Latino community has loads of parties and events, they are often advertized in the English language publications so you can find out about them. When they heard me speaking Spanish, they welcomed me with open arms and invited me to many more parties.

I also was plesently surprised by how much I liked traditional Japanese culture and found the mix of ancient and ultramodern enchanting.
And after years of study and travel in Latin America, Japan blew my ideas about "development" out of the water.

Professionally, the big language schools will hire you without a TEFL cert and train you to teach in their method. I worked for ECC and recieved over 80 hours of training during the time I worked for them. I learned a lot there, and the experience helped me get my current job in Mexico.

Oh, and I also managed bring home 10,000 US dollars in savings, despite paying to bring my X over and taking a bullet train vacation to the far north of Japan. I think a large part of that was do to socializing with the South Americans, they are more likely to be on the cheap than the other English teachers.

[MikeySaid]

So you think given effort and maybe some luck I could get in with some latinos over there? That'd be great. It might stifle my learning of Japanese (although I'd really rather learn chinese, i think it'd be more valuable to me, for some reason).

Maybe I should just start applying and see what happens. Wish someone would just make the decisions for me, sometimes.

[denise]

I agree about giving Japan a chance. I spent two years there in Niigata. My neighborhood snowboarding resort was a 20-ish minute drive in one direction and the beach a 15-minute drive in the other direction. With the salaries there you can easily afford a season pass. I went riding four or five times each week.

After Japan, I headed to Chile. Perfect timing--just as the last snow was starting to melt in Japan, the first snow was starting to fall in Chile. The only problem was it was so hard and expensive to get out to the mountains! On a Chilean salary, season passes would be ridiculously expensive, and getting up to the mountain without a private car (which is easily affordable in Japan) was another added hassle. The snow is nice down there, but I only made it out to the mountains 5 times all winter.

So... why not head to Japan for a couple of years, enjoy the snow, save up some money, and use the savings to help fund your South American snowboarding?

Oh, I've also snowboarded in Argentina, but since the economy is stronger in Chile, I would imagine that Chile would be a better option as far as working.

d

[MELEE]