Job Discussion Forums

markle · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 1316 Location: Out of Japan

Well to get a work visa you will need a BA etc but since she will have a dependant visa there is no legal obstruction (I think) to getting employment if the employers so wishes. Anyhow a BA from a Phillipines Uni is still a BA so many meet that requirement in that way. Really I would not dismiss her chances of working (at least part time).

Apsara · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 2142 Location: Tokyo, Japan

I have come across Filipinos and Indians teaching English here and have a Pakistani friend- native English speaker but with an Urdu-influenced accent- who is working as an ALT in a junior high school.

It's possible for a Filipina to get a job teaching English here as long as she sounds like a native English speaker and meets the educational requirements of employers.

Miyazaki · Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 635 Location: My Father's Yacht

Tiger,

No problems with her finding work teaching English, particulary in a place like Tokyo.

Since she isn't applying for a work visa she won't need a B.A. degree.

However, she may need to meet particular requirements of certain schools she applys to.

There are many people without degrees teaching EFL in Japan who are either on dependent visas or spousal visas.

As for your American wife, I've met American men and women without degrees that were teaching part time at places like Berliz, NOVA and corporate EFL dispatch companies in Tokyo.

ironopolis · Joined: 01 Apr 2004 Posts: 379

Tiger beer,

As others have already suggested, I'm pretty sure your wife will be able to find legal English teaching work without too much difficulty.

What's helpful in this kind of situation is the fact that for so many Japanese, it's simply a case of "we Japanese speak Japanese, foreigners speak English" - and that means ALL foreigners. I often encounter not just surprise, but even almost resentment if I tell people that not everyone in (insert continental European country) speaks fluent English. In the city where I live, there's a local dispatch company providing English teachers to the city's elementary schools. Many of these are not native speakers - I've come across some from Hungary, Poland, Ukraine and elsewhere, whose level of English, whilst decent enough for us to communicate, was no better than many Japanese elementary teachers. And yet parents and teaching staff I've met seem totally unaware and unconcerned that their kids have a supposed native speaker, who is nothing of the sort.
(I should add that a couple of the Eastern Europeans teaching English that I met were women married to another non-Japanese and were here on dependent visas - the Ukrainian woman had come here because her husband had got a job as a pilot with a local airline)

So, tiger, to cut a long story short, with your wife having a US passport, and, I suspect, native-like competence in English, or at least a level way, way above some people employed to teach English here, she should be fine.

Good luck.

markle · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 1316 Location: Out of Japan

Glenski has pointed out an oversight on my part which I`m passing on

.... to get a work visa, people need a BA degree. That's not entirely correct. A bachelor's (or equivalent) is usually what people have and is what MOFA requires, but they also state that if you don't have it, you can still get a work visa (Humanities Specialist type) with 3 or more years of experience. Don't know about Tiger Beer's wife, but this is something they should realize

Although a dependant visa will be OK for just part-time work if there is the chance of something more substantial then is path (Humanities Specialist type visa) is an option.