Job Discussion Forums

[teacherfromca]

Can anyone advise me on this. I definitely want to return to Japan and live there a long time but not sure what the best course of action is.

I now have the opportunity to go to grad school, as I've been accepted, to start my MA in applied linguistics in the US but I just realized I wont get any financial aid for it. The way it works for residents in California is you usually get grants to help pay for college, but without that I am facing debt to the tune of over 50,000 usd. However will it pay off in the long run with my MA getting me better and longer term jobs in Japan. Or

Pay considerably less, for sure less than 30,000 usd for a couple of years of intensive Japanese study ( I already have a good grasp of the language but not fluent) to gain Japanese fluency and maybe get a job that requires Japanese and English skills, not necessarily teaching?

I'm thinking between the two options, money aside, Japanese fluency will open more opportunities for me in Japan. Any advice would be appreciated. I'm American with a few years of experience living in Japan and in my 30s. Thanks.

[Pitarou]

What's so awesome about Japan that you're willing to make an enormous investment of time, effort and money for, at best, a dead-end permatemp career as a low-rankng college EFL teacher?

(I really, really hope you don't say "the women".)

Take that time and money, and use it to retrain in whatever skills are in demand in your home country.

[fat_chris]

[teacherfromca]

Go for an MBA, why? Stay in my country, why? What makes you guys think that's for me? Not what I'm interested in. Home country doesn't necessarily mean better. Women are everywhere, not just in Japan. Like it or not fatchirs and pitarou, anyway you cut it, Japan is where I will be.

[jtea]

[Pitarou]

[teacherfromca]

[Futureal]

[Pitarou]

[nightsintodreams]

Yea, I'm also a little fed up of hearing the old "Why do you wanna be in Japan so much?" questions from some of the regulars here. It's kind of a hypocritical thing to say really, since many of us, for whatever reason, have made the choice to live here for an extended period of time. The OP has lived here before, so I'm sure he's got an idea of what he's getting into and is a grown up enough to decide for himself if he wants to be in Japan.

Anyway, I don't know anything about MA's or Japanese Language schools, so I'm not sure if my advise is worth anything, but I'd never recommend a language school to anyone, it's a waste of time and money IMHO. You can become fluent in Japanese/ improve your Japanese while working in a school and getting paid. Just sign up for one of the ALT dispatch companies that don't expect much of you, walk into school, teach/stand around in a few lessons and then spend the rest of the day studying/chatting to the teachers and students.

But then again, I can't really recommend doing an MA either. From what I've read and heard, University positions are getting very competitive and more and more positions are requiring recent publications, an MA, a young pretty face etc etc.

And what do they generally offer? Anywhere between 300,000 and about 500,000 if you're lucky and a 2-4 year contract before you're cast away to be replaced by a new face. Then you have to go through the effort of searching for another job again and possibly moving across the country to a place you don't really want to be. Doesn't seem worth it to me. Much better to spend that time and effort building something for yourself like a school, business or a string of private lessons.

[Pitarou]

[nightsintodreams]

[Maitoshi]

Is it because we move to Japan that we are miserable? Might it be that the reason for our misery is because we brought the Japanese spouse along with us, or perhaps that we are just miserable people in general, who would bring our misery along with us, wherever we might go?

This is not to say that I'm miserable, because quite the opposite is true, but rather to suggest there may be other reasons people drown their sorrows with their poison of choice

[rtm]

Getting back to the OP's situation...

[Maitoshi]

This is some very good advice, rtm!

The only part I disagree with is the last bit. Living in Japan can seem like a job in and of itself. It certainly isn't a picnic the whole time.