Job Discussion Forums

bejarano · Joined: 12 Sep 2006 Posts: 67 Location: South Korea

Hello Everyone,

I'm in South Korea at the moment and though it is a fine place and am working at a decent school, I fancy working in Japan a year after next.

I have a job lined up with a Peruvian university (I will have dual citizenship with the UK and Peru) but after Peru I would like to work in Japan, I went on a visa run to Fukuoka and I thought the city was marvellous! I would love to live there.

Now I have read somewhere that Japanese employers are ageist, I will be 37 when I apply for teaching jobs in Japan, will my age hinder my chances? Also, I'm not blond,blue eyed or North American - Is this another hinderance or does it not matter.

And is there much work in Fukuoka for teaching English?

Thank you!

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

ndorfn · Joined: 15 Mar 2005 Posts: 126

no problemo hombre. at least about the age and appearance thing. jobs are hard to come by at the moment tho.

flyer · Joined: 16 May 2003 Posts: 539 Location: Sapporo Japan

yes, you are still in the unofficial "OK" bracket (just LOL)

but obviously the older you get the lower the chances

but the key point here is just How Much is that?

that is very debatable, in varies from employer to employer

one company would't be interested but for most ....

its just not a big issue

on the other hand;

if 4 people applied for 3 jobs and all being equal except age, then it would probably come in to play but thats unlikely (??)

AndyH · Joined: 30 Sep 2004 Posts: 417

Personally, I think the type of school that would refuse to hire you based on your age would probably not be a good employer to begin with.

bejarano · Joined: 12 Sep 2006 Posts: 67 Location: South Korea

Thank you everybody for your informative posts and for taking time out to anwser my questions!

I'm hoping in the next two years, the teacher surplus from the collpase of NOVA will have subsided somewhat.

But I'm glad about the positive feedback, hopefully with the two years experience and my linguistics and TEFL degree I'm confident I will get a reasonable job in Japan, as long as age is not a factor then I'm pretty confident I will be buying you all a beer soon! Very Happy

Kilgore Trout · Joined: 18 Jul 2007 Posts: 27 Location: Japan

Just do not be deluded that you will actually be teaching here unless you operate independently.

Most (not all) jobs here are for glorified, babysitting sycophants.