Job Discussion Forums

[osakajojo]

I had such a good time living and working in Japan for 2 years. When I came back to the states I went right back to waiting tables at a fine dining restaurant that i had worked at while in college, before I went to Japan. Well I have been there for two years now. My routine is that everyday while I drive to work I miss Japan. I work about 35 hours a week and make well over the 290,000 yen a month I made in Japan yet I miss it so much. I miss my students and the cool coworkers I met while there. I keep planning to one day go back there, and more importantly, I have a Japanese girlfriend that I haven't seen in 7 months that is waiting on me to come- I just find it crazy that I can make more money waiting tables and have a big apartment with a garage overlooking a green golf corse and to pass cows grazing in the pasture everday on the way to work and want to trade it all in to living in a small ass apartment in the city, teaching all day everyday plus overtime usually to make less that what I am making now pouring $120 wine and serving $64 Surf and Turfs to rich Texans driving their Hummers in the suburbs. Yet that is all I dream about. I can't wait to go back, yet fear the fact that I will one day return to the states some time, with 10 years waiting tables experience and a bunch of overseas teaching experience probably with a wife a child by then (my girl friend is turning 34 soon and her clock is ticking...) in the future and what then?? I fear the future years down the road, but for the near future, I just keep saving my money and keep planning to go back to Kansai and have an apartment with my girlfriend, and teach, most likely making less than what I make now waiting tables in less hours. Yet I want to be with her and have a family. I have a B.A. in Fine Arts and two years Nova teaching and plan to get a Celta certificate in Thailand or China before I return to Japan, but what then?

[Sweetsee]

___________________________________
my lady drives a Honda
plays workout tapes by Fonda
but I bet you Jane Fonda
ain't got a motor in the back of her Honda,
my anaconda,
don't like you
if you ain't got back...

From one waiter to another,
s

[PAULH]

[Gordon]

osakajojo,
I think many of us understand you. It doesn't make sense does it, how a waiter earns more than a teacher in a country where education is as highly regarded as it is in Japan. You have to do what you feel is right. If your heart and girl is in Japan, then come. There is more important things than money and like Paul said, get a graduate degree and better jobs may open up here.

[Mike L.]

[Nismo]

The mistake everyone makes is looking at everything from the money-side of things. My best friend is guilty of it. I'd rather be happy in a country I love than be rich and bored in a country I've grown tired of. I guess it all depends on your personality type, and what's more important to you in life.

[chi-chi-]

Like, quit complaining. At least you live in suburban Texas...probably one of THE BEST places in the world to wait tables...the people where I live don't tip (mainly because we get a lot of people from Florida.)
Anyway, have you ever thought about bettering your situation? Did you like TEACHING? Is that what you miss? If yes, get certified while you are working....it would be a good deal.
If you just miss your girlfriend, then marry her, pop her the visa.
But quit bellyaching. You are so damn lucky to make such good money waiting tables. A lot of other people in the States would love to have your tips.
Chi

[Mike L.]

[shmooj]

the reason that teaching does not pay well in most places in the world is that if it did, the kind of people who we need to become teachers would never do so.

[PAULH]

PS I dont want to sound like a snob, but if you are working as a waiter in Texas (though making admittedly good money albeit on tips) do you think your girlfriend would come to Texas, get married set up a family, have kids (growing up speaking a different language than her), and how do you think about telling her father your occupation? Do you think he would go along with such an idea? Could you support a wife and a couple of kids on your income, as well as trips back to Japan every other year (see the thread about Japanese women living overseas with foreign husbands)? What would you do if she wants to move back to Japan in 5 years? Many young Japanese women don't travel well when they live overseas for long periods.

Working in that kind of field as a bachelor is one thing, but how many married waiters with families do you know?

working at a conversation school is probably not that much better and I guess you consider it a step backwards I will admit, but there are still opportunities to make good income ( a few of us here are making more than you do and are raising families here) and you would probably have an easier time with her father when the time comes.

This is not to knock what you are doing and I know being a Maitre'd is probably well paid but its probably not that well known here, and having been in the restaurant industry myself, it has its ups and downs but you would have to get past her family first.

[osakajojo]

PAULH wrote

[PAULH]

[osakajojo]

she is a graphic designer and quite good at it. Only thing is is that she isn't confident enough with her english to work in a graphic design firm in Dallas. She lived in Texas with me for 3 months and then another 8 months but only went to school and couldn't work without a visa. When she went back to Japan she had a job offer waiting on her, got hired the very next day. That was 7 months ago. As long as both of us are working it should be alright, but when it comes time to plan for a child, i know is a different story.
Thanks a lot for your advice. I really don't want to go back to a Nova type job. That's why I want to get my CELTA right before I arrive so I'll have more confidence with teaching, especially in groups, and perhaps more with kids, and to perform a nice demo lesson in interviews.

[Gordon]

If you do plan to get your CELTA, I'd recommend getting one where Jeff Mohammed works. I think he is in the Dallas area and is a well known teacher trainer. He is usually in the Teacher trainer Forum on Dave's.

[taikibansei]