Job Discussion Forums

[Strugglebunny]

Hi all,

So, at little background. I've studied Japanese for a few years, have my N2, lived in Tokyo for a few months as an exchange student, and have visited Japan 3 times within the last year.

From May 2014 - May 2015, I taught English in South Korea. Since then, I've been unemployed (back in the US), hoping to find work in Japan while I still have some savings left over.

I got accepted to (possibly) two positions in Japan, one in Hiroshima, one in Nagoya. They're both small mom & pop eikaiwas that have the standard eikaiwa pay and conditions. I still have about $4000 saved from my teaching gig in SK.

I much, much prefer Japan over SK, however I can't deny SK is much more financially attractive. I can't think of another place that'll pay for my flight, room and board, and will allow me to save over $10,000/year while being able to travel and not live like a penny-pincher. Also note, I have some pretty high student loans to pay each month.

I can elaborate more, but in the interest of brevity, I'll cut it short here. If you were in my shoes, what would you do: take a chance on the place you love (Japan) with the possibility of being broke the whole time, or go with South Korea and be guaranteed to be much more financially stable?

Thanks for reading! Of course, questions are welcome.

[fluffyhamster]

I'd go where you can earn more, pay off those loans, and save save save. Build up a 20K or more nest egg. Japan isn't going anywhere, and it could get old pretty quickly if you end up living paycheck to paycheck and possibly without even the means to speedily relocate within Japan (i.e. how much work is there within or regional to H and N?). Plus I hope you've done your homework on these mom n pop outfits as some of them can have very strange ideas about teaching, employees/foreigners in general, etc etc.

[currentaffairs]

Probably, I would go back to South Korea. I think Japan is a hard place to save in the first few years until you make contacts and get univ work. It took me two years to fill out my week with univ classes and then I was only on 4.5-5 mil a year. With tax, cost of living and housing that soon goes.

I would definitely go to Nagoya or Hiroshima rather than Tokyo, though. Better, slower lifestyle and less expensive.

[Lamarr]

I'd be looking to pay the loans off first before taking risks. So I guess that would mean doing a year or two in Korea and getting the majority of the loans paid off. Then when you can breathe more easily on that score, you can look at Japan and afford to take a gamble.

Some eikaiwa outfits are very dodgy, and the pay isn't great. I'd also get plans together beyond a year or two in eikaiwa in Japan. I'd advise against simply carrying on as an eikaiwa teacher for much longer than that.

[Inflames]

If you sign up for income based repayment you basically don't have to pay your loans as long as you live overseas (as long as you can exclude all your income under the foreign earned income exclusion and have federal loans - private loans generally don't allow this) and, if you live overseas for 25 years or more, your debt is forgiven. Note: You must file tax returns for this

Yeah, we Americans who live overseas finally didn't get screwed on something.

[Strugglebunny]

I've got a bunch of private loans on top of the fed loans, so yay me.

I was never planning on doing eikaiwa for a long time (especially since I'm in my thirties...I kind of went on vacation during my 20s.) I was hoping to make some connections and find a job with an international company or switch over to translation since I already know Japanese.

Anyway, I think I'll be going the to Korean route again. I guess I can brush up on my business Japanese with an online tutor while living there and, who knows, maybe actually learn some Korean this time.

[mitsui]

Can't believe it. Makes me think more teachers will come here if they find out about not paying for loans, at least for a few years.

Before it wasn't like that. I used to pay and the US government could care less where I lived, like when I was in Africa and struggling since I sent money for the debt I had for student loans and couldn't buy new shoes.

I know a teacher who doesn't like living here but owes a lot of money for university. Maybe he isn't going to go anywhere.

[Strugglebunny]

I can actually vouch for the loans part. Since your foreign income (up to a certain amount) doesn't count as taxable income, you pretty much appear poor to your lenders. If you are on an income based payment plan, your (U.S.) federal loan monthly payment will go down to zero. That's where I'm at now due to filing my taxes while working in Korea.

[Lamarr]

[rtm]

[mhard1]

I used to work in Korea for a short stint. I moved to Japan soon after and had much less money and not even N2 at the time. I managed to get set up in Japan with a small mom and pop eikaiwa gig, transitioned closer to Tokyo, and I have been slowly working towards transitioning out of teaching English.

I save enough money, (about 300 - 500 dollars a month) and I live frugally but definitely not a penny pincher by any means.

Japan is way better than living in South Korea in my opinion. The financial aspect is much better I agree in South Korea, but you can`t put a price tag on being the place you wanna be.

[nomad soul]

[Master Shake]

Go for the Japan option. Nagoya and Hiroshima are pretty nice cities to live in. Even though you won't save much at first, you can make connections, build up your language skills faster, and hopefully find a better paying job in a year or so. You said your loan payments were low already, due to the foreign earned income exclusion, so you can pay those off later when you have a better paying job.

Nothing worse than returning to a mediocre job in a place you'd rather not be.

[nightsintodreams]

It's English teaching at the end of the day; easy to get in and out of. You know what South Korea holds for you, so give Japan a shot. If you don't like it or can't earn enough money here, you can always hop on a plane/boat to South Korea.