Job Discussion Forums

[Apsara]

L1 is your first language- in your case, Greek.

[Glenski]

[seklarwia]

I'm quite surprised that you didn't google "L1 definition" or something similar before posting. It's a piece of very basic standard terminology.

But that aside:
I'm not sure what to suggest... Greek is really not a "language in demand" over here so I doubt you will be able to hired to teach that plus English. And Greece is one of the seemingly few countries that JET doesn't recruit from - I mean even Mongolia sent in CIRs and an ALT according to that list! And your nationality (unless you've got a relevant dual-nationality up your sleeve) means you can't apply for a WHV either.

Unless Imseriouslylost can give us the full details on the visa status of those ALTs from Mexico, Peru and France that he mentioned and they managed to get a visa despite being in the same situation as you, you might have to accept that you may not be able to come over here purely to teach English.

If experiencing Japan is something you really want to do, then there are other ways to come over. For example, you could come over as a student and get special permission to work part-time. The advantage is that you aren't bound to a specific type of work as you would be with a regular work visa, but the downside is that you would be student, not entitled to work full time since you should be studying and would actually need to be enrolled at a school willing to sponsor your visa which means you will have to pay for a course in something.

If you just want to work abroad, as you said in your initial post, perhaps you should consider other countries. Places like China just require you to have a decent level of education (a full bachelors degree) and occassionally to prove a decent level of English ability to get a work visa. I knew many EFL teachers who were not from English speaking countries. Quite a few of the foreign teachers I worked with at a uni over there most certainly were not being hired and brought in to teach solely their native language (if they taught it at all... I, for one, wasn't teaching anything English or French language related for an entire semester).

[Bucky420]

To cheer you up, yes, it is possible. Granted, it's a bit difficult(even frustrating) in the beginning, but it's definitely possible to teach English in Japan as a non-native(I'm from Slovakia, btw). Eight months after coming to Japan, I'm teaching at three language schools and have almost 30 private students.

The biggest problem is not really getting students or finding a job at school, but finding somebody to sponsor your visa. In my case, I got marriage visa, so that made it much easier. Once you get past the visa issue, it's just about waiting then.

[Imseriouslylost]