Job Discussion Forums

[Piri-Piri]

Has anyone on the board has experience of working in Japan, then working in Korea and finally returning to Japan again? It would be interesting to know how your experience was perceived in the Japanese market after working in Korea, if you already had some experience in Japan to begin with.

I've read a couple of threads about coming to Japan from Korea but in most cases the individuals don't have any experience of teaching in Japan (and their Korean experience is disregarded). I'm curious to know whether spending time in Korea would just count as nothing when returning to Japan, or whether it would put you back to square one where your earlier Japanese experience doesn't count because you've worked since in Korea. If it's been covered in another thread please let me know?

Thanks.

[Bread]

I did that. The previous experience in Japan helped me to find a job pretty quickly. I don't think working in Korea really counted for much, I played up my Japanese experience a lot more and only included the Korean job so that I could count my total ESL teaching time as longer. In interviews they always asked why I came back to Japan, and then I got to talk about why I like Japan better than Korea, which the interviewers seemed to enjoy.

I've never met anyone else who's done it; my experience, which is probably the same as yours, is that a large number of teachers in Korea tried and failed to get a job in Japan and then fell back on Korea. I don't think that I ever met anyone else in Korea who had previously worked in Japan.

[Great Teacher Umikun]

I�m very much about to do likewise, only I�m coming back to Japan from Turkey. My Turkish students kept thinking I went to China! -.-' Many times, I�ve tried telling them that China and Japan are completely different countries, the former a totalitarian sweatshop republic and the latter a democratic (more or less) monarchy.

But anyhow, I actually find myself missing Japan. I hope my MA in English and five years of experience in Japan will get me something. It�s tough while I�m still in Turkey, though.

[Glenski]

[Great Teacher Umikun]

By the way, if you go back a second time, do you have to get a new Certificate of Eligibility or do they keep your old one on file in case you come back?

[Glenski]

If your visa has expired, you have to go through all of the procedures again to get a new visa, including getting a new COE.

[Tiger Beer]