Job Discussion Forums

[davetherave]

Hi there,

This is my first post on Dave's ESL (wahey) and I'm looking to get some information if at all possible. Any help and advice would be very much appreciated.

So I'm currently teaching in Korea in an elementary school (and have been for the past couple of months). Really enjoying it and getting a fair bit of travelling done. However, want to move to Japan for a short amount of time at the end of this contract (contract ends on the 7th of October and kind of keen to stay til then due to severance bonus!). I'm from the UK and have been trying to browse websites to identify how I would go about getting a job in a similar set up in Japan? Don't want to really live in Tokyo (too expensive I've heard) but would I really have to fly all of the way to Japan for an interview??? Surely there's some recruitment companies in Korea that recruit for Japan... Anyone?

As well as that how much in general is the cost of living in Japan? I mean out of a wage of 250,000 yen, how much of that is savable?

Any help would be very much appreciated. Like I say with being in Korea will definitely help with any VISA process. Just couldn't afford to fly to Japan first prior to starting!

Regards,

Dave

[Glenski]

See www.pricechecktokyo.com for a rough idea of cost of living here.

As for places in Korea that interview for jobs in Japan, I seriously doubt that such exist. Nobody has reported any in the 10 years I've been online in these sorts of forums. So, yes, you will have to come to Japan, unless you go home and interview, or unless you get terribly lucky and find a reliable (keyword) employer who does phone interviews.

Question: You wrote that you want a similar setup in Japan. Similar in what way? Short-term contract? Dream on (unless you can get in with Westgate Corporation).

[ironopolis]

When I came from Korea to Japan none of the jobs I went for in Japan recruited in Korea. I think your best bet would be probably be to find an employer who would conduct a phone interview. However, as glenski hinted at, you'd need to be careful.

I used to know a Canadian guy who was in Korea and came to work for a quite well known and reputable school in the EFL world. I'm not sure where he saw their advertisement, but he told me he was interviewed by the school owner over the phone, whilst he was in Korea. This school has people working in various educational institutions in their area, but this guy was primarily working in junior high schools and with elementary age kids - so maybe a little similar, in terms of age range, to what you're doing now. However, I should point out that although this school has quite a good reputation, he personally regretted being hired and having accepted the offer over the phone, as there were a lot of things he really wished he'd come to check out in person beforehand.

I'm a bit surprised how much you seem to want to avoid having to "fly all the way to Japan" beforehand. For a start it's not that far at all - from Seoul there are hardly any destinations in Japan much over 2 and a bit hours, and some (e.g. Fukuoka) that are less than an hour away. It's also not that expensive. To be honest, if the expense of a flight to Japan is worrying you, you might be in for some other financial surprises here too.

The cost of living isn't as high compared to Korea as it used to be. The yen's gone down and the won's gone up and prices have risen in Korea whereas not so much in Japan. So there are increasing numbers of items which are now noticeably less expensive in Japan than Korea. But the OVERALL cost of living is still higher in Japan, I'd say fairly confidently - I spent quite a bit of time in both countries and consequently relative prices is something I devote a sad amount of time looking into! But if you're really keen on coming to Japan and do your maths homework beforehand, then this is not an unmanageable difference. If saving is important to you, you do need to realise that you'll do a lot less of it in Japan though.

There's a whole lot more I could say but I feel that Japan/Korea threads get done to death on here a bit. However, feel free to PM me about it.

[ohahakehte]

i taught in korea for a year and then looked feverishly for jobs in japan and eventually landed one through a phone interview. ive been here for 2 years with the same company. its worth mentioning however that i was surprised at how relatively unimpressed a lot of japanese schools/businesses were with my experience in korea. they didnt think my teaching experience was a bad thing, they just didnt seem to think it was much of a big deal. i almost felt like it was just as good as not having it. it was discouraging and i was almost going to give up before i finaly found something...

the cost of living in japan is no big deal. it all depends on your lifestyle. i saved a lot of money in korea but half the reason for that is because there isnt a lot of fun things to do in korea (in my opinion). money goes faster in japan cuz theres lots of options for fun. the one thing that was annoying at the start was the month-long delayed payment of my first paycheck.

[Mosley]

To the OP: You do know that several thousand ex-NOVA teachers are scrambling for jobs now, right?

That doesn't brighten your prospects any.