Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Weigookin74]

[ippy]

For uni, no idea, but cost of living...

Japan is expensive.

So just to give you a quick breakdown:

On a salary of 230,000/month (which also came with some fun clauses along with a 'term based' year contract - ie no pay during holidays and no holidays/sick leave etc).

42,000 went on rent.
20,000 went on pension scheme
10,000 went on health insurance
8,000 went on income tax. (residency tax kicks in in year three if i remember right).

Thats 70,000 gone. Instantly.

Id say you need a bare minimum of 120,000 for living day to day. 4000 yen/day isnt really taking you all that far to be honest. A good night out is also going to throw you back a good 20,000 or so.

So that gives you likely savings of around 40,000 yen/month. Now of that, I needed to make sure that i had cash to pay my bills in those months where my salary would be reduced (april, january, september).

So really im not so much saving for the move, im saving to stay in the country at a reasonable comfort level. Pay cheque to pay cheque in a way. Yu may of course squirrel away cash, i did. But its never all that much. Its about 2 months salary/year. Which is nice. But if you move in Japan, yeah, clauses in your rental contract for 'cleaning', 'damage' and 'lock changing' will catch you out, as will the upfront cash youll be paying for your new lodgings (key money, agency fees, cleaning fees etc).

I always yearn to move back to japan. The pace of life is so much nicer. The people are... more polite (though more standoffish), but its not great for an ESLer looking at their future. My mate is a perfect example: shes 1kyuu Japanese (which literally is as good as it gets), she's a great teacher with almost 8 years of experience, but shes still sat about with interac at 250,000 (term-by-term - though interac simply reduce the salary to a set amount rather than completely kill it in the holidays as my company did). Shes still teaching in about ten different schools (osaka) and shes still got the same silly pressures of a fresh off the boater.

Its all pretty stagnant. As my old boss once told me (and i mention this every time Japan gets brought up): "ipps, if you want to work in Matsumoto, you'll be literally paying us for the opportunity".

Competition in the market is fierce. We won the contract because of all those punitive clauses and the low salary. With the cost of living, general bills and outlays and everything else, youre probably even below parity. Youre probably cutting back just to stay level let alone find something else. Its a tough market.

[Weigookin74]

[Who's Your Daddy?]

Joe,

I understand your frustration with Korea, but I wonder if it might be easier to take 3 to 6 months off. Just relax somewhere for a while (Guam or somewhere). After that you might be able to face Korea again?

[ippy]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Brooks]

My salary in 2008 - 7 million yen per year
My salary now - 4.3 million yen per year

It has become very competitive and I have to get used to teaching students who do not want to learn.

If you want money either work a lot (6 days a week) or get a MA/ PhD and publish a lot.
Or get certified in your own country and try for an international school.

The yen is at 120 to the dollar. Frankly at this point I could make the same or more money in the USA. Japan just is not worth it.

[maximmm]

[Chaucer]

[Brooks]

I worked at three universities last year.
I got sick of the different commutes.
At one in Yokohama I had just two classes yet I was expected to make presentations and do research.
It is just crass explotation.

So now I went back to high school. Getting a full-time university job is hard.
If I get another two articles published I could get university work, but with limited contracts and the weak yen, I may as just go back to the US
and plan my future.
I want to buy a house. Here I just rent and the quality of housing is terrible.

In Phoenix I could get a cheaper place that is furnished.

After time I just got sick of the endless formality.
You are just kept at a distance, and life is just about work.
Frankly, Japan really bores me.
Teaching low-level unmotivated students is tough.

[Chaparrastique]

[maximmm]

[Mr. Pink]

[Sector7G]

[Whitegirlinasia]

I never taught in university in Japan, but I did JET for 4 years and loved it. I regret trying Korea out. I recommend JET. The pay is excellent and usually your rent is subsidized, sometimes completely paid for. Most jobs do no provide housing in Japan. JET will provide an affordable apartment for you so you don't have to apartment hunt. They take care of all the visa paperwork, orientation, setting up internet and utilities. The hours at school are easy and you never teach more than 4 classes a day.

Don't let people tell you there isn't any racism in Japan. There really is, it's just not as apparent if you don't speak the language because people aren't in your face about it. Unless of course you're in downtown Kyoto and the nationalists are out with their megaphones telling the foreigners to go home and Korea and China should give back those islands.

Racism in Japan is the softcore variety that stems more from ignorance than aggression. The base line assumption is that you don't know anything about this mysterious and special country no matter how fluent you get.
I've heard tons of idiots on the train discussing foreigner culture after spotting me. There's a lot of dumb ignorance surrounding the outside world. I had one person I knew tell me they went to Europe and they saw a lot of foreigners. I pointed out that leaving Japan makes THEM the foreigner. It's not malicious but it's present.

Japan is a fabulous place to live and work. But it has it's downsides too. It's very difficult to make friends with Japanese people. They will see you as impermanent. Few people speak English so unless you invest the time in the language you'll have a rough time meeting friends outside the expat community. No one at immigration speaks English for crying out loud. I wasn't really accepted as a fully fledged staff member at my school until I learned how to speak fluently. Then I was treated as an equal.

However, daily interactions with strangers, bosses, services you need will be calm, pleasant and easy. People will see you as a guest and help you out if you get lost or don't know how to do something. As far as daily life goes, Japan is a breeze in comparison to Korea.