Job Discussion Forums

[Emalaith]

Hello to all,

I am a newbie thinking about getting TEFL certified and working abroad. I am a European citizen, with a university degree from my country - which is not in UK - and I have an EU passport.

From what I read in this forum, the requirement to land a job in Japan is to have a passport from an english-speaking country. If I understand it right, employers want this so as to get you a working visa to stay in Japan.

Well, I would very much like to work in Japan but it seems that this problem with the passport is insurmountable. Are there any decent jobs that would not consider it a "must"?

Thanks in advance!

[Mr_Monkey]

I had a colleague in Japan who was Czech, but had emigrated with his family to Canada when he was quite young.

So yes, you can do it. I'd suggest that you'd need to be able to demonstrate proficiency in the language to any prospective employer, though (do you have the CPE?), and that there's also a chance that any somewhat less than scrupulous employers will try to pay you less. I dimly remember hearing things about non-native speakers needing to have undertaken 12 years of English-medium education to qualify for an instructor visa, although I really can't say whether or not that is actually the case. I'm sure there are others on the forum who can (dis)confirm it.

There's a real native speaker fetish in Japan, irrational though it may be. That may be your biggest obstacle. You could always look for work teaching your native language, and get your visa sponsored that way, although there may not be much of a market for it depending on which language you speak - I've seen schools that offer French, Spanish and German.

[Bread]

In my city there are at least two ALTs from the Philippines, so yeah, it's possible.

[seklarwia]

[Glenski]

[yangyoseop]

[Apsara]

I have a Pakistani friend with a fairly obvious Urdu-influenced accent who was working as an ALT for a while in Saitama- he found the job quickly. His schooling was mostly in English though, so he met the visa requirements. I have read discussions elsewhere by people who are very fluent English speakers but their schooling was in another language, and they seem to have a very hard time getting Humanities visas.

[starteacher]

Of course there are opportunities for all, but what is the OP actually up against ?

Anyone have the stats for the numbers of English teachers there are in Japan in the ratio
From Big 5 (UK, US, Canada, OZ, NZ) : "Non-native" countries ??


Well, for JET :
http://www.jetprogramme.org/e/introduction/statistics.html
Over 85% are from the Big 5.

Seems OP is entry level, so how about the stats for eikaiwa work ? I hazard to guess the percentage is even higher.

But I know of some Scandanavians who got work, some southern Europeans too but their vocations did not last long.

[seklarwia]

[yangyoseop]

^You're aware that English is the official language of Trinidad, right?

[starteacher]

[Imseriouslylost]

[steki47]

By coincidence, there was an article recntly about this issue.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fs20100415a3.html

Regardless of someone's actual English ability, the schools will have to consider the students' perception of the teacher. Maybe that is not fair or logical, but companies have a bottom line to consider.

[seklarwia]

[Emalaith]

Thank you all so much for the replies!

Well, I am from Greece and my 12-year schooling was done in Greek, so I guess I don't stand a chance of getting a working visa as an English teacher

My qualifications in the english language will be a cambridge proficiency and a michigan proficiency (certificates) - along with the TEFL course I am thinking about completing in the next 2 months.

I have a university degree in physics (from a greek university, 4-year course). I am not sure what this "L1" thing means in other countries! It's about your education after the obligatory 12-year schooling?