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blackrosewitch121
Joined: 11 Apr 2015
Posts: 13
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 Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 5:51 pm Post subject: Without a 4 year degree, how much experience? |
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I am a Native Speaker with a US Passport, a TEFL 120 hour, a 2 year (not 4 year), but I plan on getting upwards of 10 years of experience teaching english in other countries. I already have 3 years. How much experience do I need to teach English Legally in Japan? Thank you.
I have heard of the skilled labor visa |
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nomad soul
Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 11454
Location: The real world
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| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 6:22 pm Post subject: Re: Without a 4 year degree, how much experience? |
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| blackrosewitch121 wrote: |
| I have heard of the skilled labor visa |
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The Skilled Workers Visa category is for the following skilled workers:
Cook
Architectural Engineer
Repair Technician
Processing Engineer
Animal Trainer
Mining Engineer
Aircraft Pilot
Sports Trainer
Wine Sommelier
The common characteristic of these jobs is that they require the application of specific industrial techniques or skills that are considered uncommon in Japan.
The Applicant is expected to have a high level of skill and significant experience. Often, Applicants are brought to Japan to assist with specific projects rather than indefinitely.
Source: http://www.japanvisa.com/visas/japan-skilled-labor-visa |
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jkozera
Joined: 09 Jan 2015
Posts: 90
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| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 7:04 pm Post subject: |
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I could be wrong but I believe a requirement to teach in Japan is a minimum of a 4 year degree. This requirement is set by the Japanese government if I am not mistaken. Correct me if I am wrong  |
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RustyShackleford
Joined: 13 May 2013
Posts: 449
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| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 7:10 pm Post subject: |
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| If you are in Japan on a spousal visa, you can also fulfill the requirement. They really just want the BA to be able to process your visa otherwise, although I have heard of guys without degrees getting left out in the cold by degreed competition. |
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jkozera
Joined: 09 Jan 2015
Posts: 90
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| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 7:14 pm Post subject: |
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| I knew about the spousal visa and I have heard of people being left in the dust by those with degrees. I know that my employer requires a 4 year degree. I know in the states you can have a 2 year degree in anything but have 10+ years experience in other professions and get hired based off of that but teaching abroad seems to be somewhat unique in requiring that education no matter the experience |
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blackrosewitch121
Joined: 11 Apr 2015
Posts: 13
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| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 8:55 pm Post subject: |
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| So there is absolutely no way around the education ? I mean I have 2 years already. I thought that if you have enough relevant experience you can work there? If I had 10 years of experience in ESL teaching I would think I can fulfill the brief |
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Pitarou
Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Posts: 1116
Location: Narita, Japan
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| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 9:02 pm Post subject: |
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You don't need a 4-year degree. I believe that 3 years relevant experience is sufficient.
Your visa would be a Specialist in Humanities visa. |
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esl_prof
Joined: 30 Nov 2013
Posts: 2006
Location: peyi kote solèy frèt
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| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 9:11 pm Post subject: |
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| blackrosewitch121 wrote: |
| So there is absolutely no way around the education? |
Why do you want to bypass the education requirement? What's the big hurry? |
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blackrosewitch121
Joined: 11 Apr 2015
Posts: 13
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| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 10:34 pm Post subject: |
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| esl_prof wrote: |
| blackrosewitch121 wrote: |
| So there is absolutely no way around the education? |
Why do you want to bypass the education requirement? What's the big hurry? |
I refuse to have student debt like so many Americans in the U.S. and I could barely get out of the 2 year degree without debt. Also I can't stand college as I actually haven't learned anything useful in my career that I am doing now. I learned more in my TEFL and actual teaching than in any college class. As well as having to worry about finding a job for my partner who is Japanese and wanting to be able to live in Japan so we don't have to keep jumping around. It's EXTREMELY hard to get him hired anywhere. And even though we have been together for almost 4 years I don't want to have to get married to him in America JUST to be able to have him stay there. Anyway those are my personal reasons and opinions on this matter. In the eventual future I will probably get the rest of my 4 year, but at this moment in time, that is extremely difficult and not really possible. My parents also do not support giving money for college at all. |
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jkozera
Joined: 09 Jan 2015
Posts: 90
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| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 11:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Pitarou wrote: |
You don't need a 4-year degree. I believe that 3 years relevant experience is sufficient.
Your visa would be a Specialist in Humanities visa. |
depends where you live, in the states we don't have a 3 year option due to the universities wanting to drain all the $$ they can. We only have a 4 year undergraduate degree. you CAN do it in less than 4 years by taking 18 credits a term and taking summer classes but that usually only shaves off like half a year |
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jkozera
Joined: 09 Jan 2015
Posts: 90
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| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 11:08 pm Post subject: |
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| blackrosewitch121 wrote: |
| esl_prof wrote: |
| blackrosewitch121 wrote: |
| So there is absolutely no way around the education? |
Why do you want to bypass the education requirement? What's the big hurry? |
I refuse to have student debt like so many Americans in the U.S. and I could barely get out of the 2 year degree without debt. Also I can't stand college as I actually haven't learned anything useful in my career that I am doing now. I learned more in my TEFL and actual teaching than in any college class. As well as having to worry about finding a job for my partner who is Japanese and wanting to be able to live in Japan so we don't have to keep jumping around. It's EXTREMELY hard to get him hired anywhere. And even though we have been together for almost 4 years I don't want to have to get married to him in America JUST to be able to have him stay there. Anyway those are my personal reasons and opinions on this matter. In the eventual future I will probably get the rest of my 4 year, but at this moment in time, that is extremely difficult and not really possible. My parents also do not support giving money for college at all. |
Well, you think about Applied linguistics? I have learned a lot in that major about language, language studies and how language is taught. there is now a TESL certificate which is the undergraduate equal to the TESOL MA (though employers still view the MA as higher than the cert despite the courses being the same).
Scholarships scholarships scholarships. Listen to Dave Ramsey who gives fantastic advice on how to get an undergraduate with as little debt as possible. Could try Germany, university is free there (if you can get in).
loads of options. I used to want to bypass the 4 year requirement as well till I started job hunting and sadly most countries require US citizens to have a 4 year degree. Your 2 year degree is the same level of education as most high school graduates in the rest of the first world and the rest of the first world really values education |
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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 11:12 pm Post subject: |
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| RustyShackleford wrote: |
| I have heard of guys without degrees getting left out in the cold by degreed competition. |
Even if the OP can get a visa (maybe working holiday? That would get her 1 year- basically she needs a full degree or a spousal visa to teach English), then it will be extremely difficult for her to get a good job.
Ten years experience? Lots of people have more than ten years experience in Japan alone.
No four year degree? Pretty much everyone has an undergraduate degree (apart from people on spousal visas who got them before entry into this country), and as soon as you try to go beyond eikaiwa or dispatch ALT you quickly find that most people have k-12 teaching qualifications and/ or graduate degrees. The number of university positions now asking for PhD / Ed.Ds in language teaching means that a large percentage of the direct hire high school jobs (especially solo teaching ones) go to people who have masters degrees in language teaching (and also publications and speak Japanese at an intermediate level at least). |
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rtm
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1003
Location: US
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| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 11:42 pm Post subject: |
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| jkozera wrote: |
| Pitarou wrote: |
You don't need a 4-year degree. I believe that 3 years relevant experience is sufficient.
Your visa would be a Specialist in Humanities visa. |
depends where you live, in the states we don't have a 3 year option due to the universities wanting to drain all the $$ they can. We only have a 4 year undergraduate degree. you CAN do it in less than 4 years by taking 18 credits a term and taking summer classes but that usually only shaves off like half a year |
I'm pretty sure by "3 years of relevant experience", Pitarou is talking not about a 3-year degree, but 3 years of... relevant experience. I, too, have heard that 3 years of verifiable, relevant work experience will work in lieu of an undergraduate degree for getting a work visa in Japan. See info here, here, and here for more info.
Again, though, that just means that the OP will legally be able to get a work visa. Getting a company to hire him/her and sponsor said visa is another issue, when so many other candidates will have an undergraduate degree.
Last edited by rtm on Mon Apr 20, 2015 11:57 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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rtm
Joined: 13 Apr 2007
Posts: 1003
Location: US
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| Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 11:47 pm Post subject: |
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| blackrosewitch121 wrote: |
| Also I can't stand college as I actually haven't learned anything useful in my career that I am doing now. I learned more in my TEFL and actual teaching than in any college class. |
Then choose to study something that is relevant to what you want to do. If you were to do an undergraduate degree in, say, linguistics, applied linguistics, TESOL, language education, etc., you'd probably find it a lot more useful for teaching EFL.
| Quote: |
| As well as having to worry about finding a job for my partner who is Japanese and wanting to be able to live in Japan so we don't have to keep jumping around. It's EXTREMELY hard to get him hired anywhere. And even though we have been together for almost 4 years I don't want to have to get married to him in America JUST to be able to have him stay there. |
I'm really lost on how not getting a full undergraduate degree will either 1) help you not have to worry about finding a job for your partner who wants to live in Japan, or 2) make it so you don't have to marry him in the US so that he can stay there. |
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nightsintodreams
Joined: 18 May 2010
Posts: 558
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| Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2015 1:07 am Post subject: |
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Oh, here we go again.
You do not need to study applied linguistics to teach English in Japan, either at Eikaiwa or schools. Lots of teachers here in Japan like to think so highly of themselves, but in reality their job is a combination of playing games, telling kids to repeat after themselves, singing songs and making the odd conversational activity.
That's all the Japanese trust us with. In %99.9 of the cases, it'll be the Japanese teacher who does the grammar/linquistics teaching.
On top of that, the amount of control you get over your lessons is likely to be very, very small.
Seriously, there's barely a need to think. You could send a chimp in a suit into work in most of our places and it'd probably be a few weeks before anyone noticed we were gone.
Having a degree will not help your teaching (monkeying around) ability in any way shape or form, but unfortunately it's a requiement here. So go back to college and finish a degree (pick anything, a degree in basket weaving put you in an overqualified position for most of the jobs here).
Good luck. |
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