Job Discussion Forums

[PAULH]

[Gordon]

Some very points have been raised and I don't think there are many dissenting opinions either. I too would not recommend a newbie to come to Japan as their first choice. I am shocked when I hear people talk about how decent the eikaiwa salaries are. I don't think 250,000 is a lot of money even for a 25 year old. 10 years ago I made double that in Korea with no experience and only a BA. Yes, your quality of life is slightly better here on average than Korea, but Japan is not the be-all of EFL jobs recruiters and schools make it out to be. Vietnam is a very interesting place to go. I have just recently travelled there, but not lived there, and it is a very enticing place for a new teacher to go. Pay from what I have heard is $13-20 US/hr with a cost of living about 1/6 of Japan. You can do the math.

[chirp]

Or you could be a newbie like me. 30 years old, willing to leave far more lucrative salaries behind at home just because I like Japan. Not in it for the money, (although coming home in 2 years time with some would be nice) I truly am going for the experience. And as some other posters alluded to, although the pay may be higher in other countries like Korea, it has its own set of issues. I believe it is up to the individual contemplating EFL as a career or short term gig, to determine their own priorities and choose the country and job accordingly.

I do hope that things look up for you job satisfaction wise Bosintang. A life without challenge makes things very dull. BoL!

[Glenski]

I'm going to take a chance and disagree with many of the things the OP has said. The main thing to consider, though, is the perspective.

My perspective is one of having worked here for 8 years, in eikaiwa, in private lessons, in private high school (not ALT), and in university.

One needs to be realistic about goals and what awaits one here. If a person doesn't do the research beforehand, one gets what one deserves. ALTs (aside from JET) have been widely advertised in the past couple of years as being pretty much bottom of the barrel job opportunities here, with practically zero benefits. If one doesn't want to take on eikaiwa or JET work, that's all you get, and I don't see any reason to complain.

Is Japan a good place to start out? Well, even though I have not been on the JET program, it looks pretty good. The pay is higher than any other entry level job, and you don't need anything more than a bachelor's degree. Your hours are sweet, and your vacation time is better than most. Airfare is paid, and if you are lucky, you might even get free housing. As for the job itself, how much more hand-holding could you want than to be an assistant teacher, not the FT teacher?

Is Japan a good place to start out? Look at it this way. If you have any sort of long-term goals of staying in this business, I think it might serve one well to jump in here. Not everyone is suited for it, but I've heard more than one person say that if you can teach EFL in Japan, you can teach almost anywhere. I would add that one must do his research beforehand to know what sort of business TEFL is like here, though.

To compare cost of living or lifestyle in Japan with that of Thailand is like comparing apples and oranges. Try comparing life in the USA with that of Mexico and you have about the same analogy.

Is Japan a good place to start out? Well, look at the salaries. You get about 250,000 yen/month for eikaiwa work, and half of that goes to basic necessities. The rest goes to whatever you personally want to spend it on. People just starting out might be fresh college grads with tons of student loans to pay. That'll obviously cut into your remaining 125,000 yen, but this is where you have to learn to budget yourself and plan ahead (doing that research I mentioned). Come here just to party and you'll be in the red easily. I know someone who paid off all of his Canadian student loans in 5 years and still saved enough money to have a steady girlfriend here and to return to Canada to start a master's program. I started out much older in life than most, so I feel I had a more budget-conscious mind coming in, but that doesn't have to apply just to us "oldsters". It's not that hard to save US$500-700 per month if you watch yourself, and you can still have a good time. And, just remember, an industrious person doesn't have to resign himself to working just at one eikaiwa. He gets out, meets people, establishes a network, and learns what it takes to take on private lessons to supplement that income beyond the 250,000 mark.

Improving oneself and your credentials is expensive anywhere and anytime, not just in Japan. If you are in your home country, how would you get further certification or higher degrees while working? You'd do probably the same thing as in Japan.

If life as a dispatch ALT is that boring, I say change. The 2 most important things are to realize what happens around you so you know where to go and how, and to always be prepared instead of leaping into things blindly.

[Willy_In_Japan]

Japan might not be the best place to save money. However, from what I hear, it is a bit more stable than Korea.

The cost of living might be higher than say Thailand, but certainly you can save much more here in a month than you are paid in Thailand for a month.

I am interested in going to teach in Germany for a year, but the reports of pay there are terrible. They are paying poverty wages in Germany. You might be able to do better (Saudia Arabia anyone?) but who wants to live there? I certainly don't.

The bottom line is that Japan is a good compromise in my opinion. And, if you are stuck doing a McJob (tm) like I was in Canada, it is certainly a step up.

Not to mention that you can get paid about 30 dollars Cnd an hour net part time. Try doing that in Canada.

[Jazz1975]

[abufletcher]

[cornishmuppet]

Personally I quite like Japan. After two years in a bank boredom forced me to take a TEFL and I then did a year in Italy before coming out to Japan. I loved Italy; although the work was hard and many of the students were an utter pain in the as s, the vibe of the country was great and the food was amazing, as were some of the cities. But while I earned a decent enough salary for Italy it was peanuts compared to England and I left because I wanted to go elsewhere but also because I needed to save money.

I came out to Japan and worked in an eikawa for 18 months before ending up as a BofE ALT, a job I feel very lucky to have, as I`m not a JET and I`m not through a despatch company. At the end of the day I do my job as best I can but I don`t really give a rats as s whether the students want to or do learn English the same way I never really cared whether a client took a mortgage from the bank I worked for. It was my job to put it out there and its the same here, but I`m certainly not going to lose any sleep over it if a student has no motivation to learn. Some people simply don`t want to learn certain things, its as simple as that.

And as far as living in Japan is concerned, now at least I have a pretty good time. I have a decent job, I`ve just bought a car, and most importantly I have wads of holiday after going 18 months with the absolute bare minimum in an eikawa. I have the chance to travel over the summer and do the things I wanted to do, and still come back to a job where I earn almost three times what I earned in England. And a lot of that money is going to go back home to pay off my student debts. And if, as happens, my contract falls through and I don`t get rehired, its not the end of the world, I`ll just look for another job here or elsewhere. I`m only 28 and its easy for me, but I wouldn`t want to be 40 or 50 and worrying about contracts. Thats probably why most of the 40 - 50 years set up their own schools and make a living out of screwing other foreigners (just my experience).

On the downside, I live in a box, but I pay only 28k a month and it overlooks Zenkoji Temple in Nagano (bar a slightly annoying tree) and its a nice place to live. I park my car outside a temple, and at the end of my street is a cherry blossom park. I don`t plan on being here for more than another year or two, but its not so bad at the moment.

Anyway, what I was getting to was, that Japan isn`t so bad. If I can save a decent sum of money by English standards (which I could even in my old job) then its a pretty good place to be. I don`t really know any places that pay better, though I`m sure some people do.

Anyways...

[Eva Pilot]

I'm going to Japan as my first TEFL job, for a year, I'm thinking if I like it quite a lot, I'll move back home and get my butt into university and get myself a degree, then more options will become open to me.

[PAULH]

[Tiger Beer]

[ndorfn]

to the OP, haven't read all the other responses, but I think your opinion is spot on.

[BurnChurch]

In my opinion: NO.
I have been here for 6 months and no luck.
Big bucks? yes. But that is Little bucks here in Japan.
Police:Retarded.
food:Bland
Girls: Sometimes perfect. Dumb and hot at the same time. That does not bother me!
Expensive:Yes.
Music: Disposable.

This is the only place on earth where you feel miserable if you do not have a billion dollars in cash. I never felt like this before.
I am out of here in a month.
I wish you all good luck.
Japan is cool to visit, That's it!

[Sweetsee]

Spot-on, Boz. Nice one.

[abufletcher]

In my opinion, Japan is DEFINITELY living on borrowed mystique from times long gone! It's still possible to find a reasonable job and live a nice life but "life experience" value of being in Japan is no greater than any other country/culture.