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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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yingwenlaoshi
Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Location: ... location, location!
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 Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 1:01 am Post subject: Teaching in Japan |
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What's the best way to find a teaching position in Japan? Where are the best places to teach? What kind of school? What city or what part of the country if rural?
Are there any good websites to start looking? I find most jobs posted on Dave's to be quite low in salary. What schools or who pays the best?
Enquiring minds want to know. |
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blurgalurgalurga
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
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| Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 1:24 am Post subject: |
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Dave's has a japn forum in the international forums section. I think they got an FAQ.
Gaijinpot has a lot of job postings.
Google 'teaching in japan' for the basic run down.
Seems like going there on a tourist visa and looking around is the best way to find good jobs. Expensive though...as you no doubt know there aren't a lot of cheap places to stay, and traveling from city to city is costly. There are lots of companies who hire from overseas, but they seem to be lower quality outfits in general--your basic 'nova' equivalents, plus 'Westgate,' who offer short term contracts demanding rather a lot of work for the money they're offering. They're uni gigs though, and I've heard some people say it was worth it just to get their foots in the door and a bit of a network built up. |
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Are they the lemmings
Joined: 15 Feb 2007
Location: Not here anymore. JongnoGuru was the only thing that kept me here.
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| Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 1:30 am Post subject: |
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I'm in Japan but not involved in ESL, so I can't help you except to suggest that your question might get better answers than mine at these sites:
Let's Japan
GaijinPot
NB: These sites often refer to "eikaiwa". This means "English conversation".
As for good areas of Japan to live in... well, I don't know your tastes, so here are some very general ideas.
* North is cold, south is warm.
* With the exception of the major cities (Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Yokohama, Kobe, etc.) there aren't really very large suburban areas; things get rural very quickly as you move away from the centre of many of the cities.
* In the cities you can get everything and even if you don't live in an urban area, you can get your favourite creature comforts from "back home" online. |
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yingwenlaoshi
Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Location: ... location, location!
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| Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 2:15 am Post subject: |
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| Thanks. I'll check those sites out. |
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pastis
Joined: 20 Jun 2006
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| Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 2:20 am Post subject: |
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| blurgalurgalurga wrote: |
| Seems like going there on a tourist visa and looking around is the best way to find good jobs. Expensive though...as you no doubt know there aren't a lot of cheap places to stay, and traveling from city to city is costly. There are lots of companies who hire from overseas, but they seem to be lower quality outfits in general--your basic 'nova' equivalents, plus 'Westgate,' who offer short term contracts demanding rather a lot of work for the money they're offering. They're uni gigs though, and I've heard some people say it was worth it just to get their foots in the door and a bit of a network built up. |
Bingo. Most of the jobs to be found from overseas are not worth a damn. I found my job (a good one, in Tokyo) by spending about 3 weeks hoofing around, dropping off resumes and going to interviews. Sometimes you get lucky and you can land a real plum job just by being there at the right time and talking to them in person. There are plenty of decent jobs around, but they are often small operations and not to be found online. There may be more competition these days though, since NOVA went belly up, flooding the market with thousands of teachers.
Anyway, depending how strapped for cash you are, you might just get a job at a big eikaiwa for the work visa, then split after your first paycheck (assuming by then you've found another job). Many people used NOVA for just that purpose, but that's no longer an option; GEOS, AEON, ECC are the other big ones.
Bear in mind that in Japan you can keep your visa even if you quit or are fired/laid off, unlike Korea.
In terms of making money, the best place is Tokyo. It's easier to find privates, and you can typically charge them ~3000 yen ($30) an hour. Rent is higher etc., but it doesn't have to be that expensive to live there (esp. if you live in a suburb like Saitama). |
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pastis
Joined: 20 Jun 2006
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| Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 2:26 am Post subject: |
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| yingwenlaoshi wrote: |
| Thanks. I'll check those sites out. |
I just remember another good site to check: www.ohayosensei.com, there are some decent jobs in their newsletter (they email it to you). |
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yingwenlaoshi
Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Location: ... location, location!
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| Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 3:31 am Post subject: |
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That's good information. My contract ends March 1st. I might just say screw it and go over there and take a look.
Owning your work visa is such a plus. I imagine you could make some good coin over there.
Yeah, the net doesn't seem like a good place to start. All the jobs I've seen (in my minimal searches) seem pretty low-paying. But like you said, I could switch jobs... |
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quilter
Joined: 11 Feb 2006
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| Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 5:29 am Post subject: |
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I think you will find most of the jobs will be between 250-300 thousand yen. The key will be your hours, fitting privates in, and housing if you are very lucky to have it included. If you are motivated you can make good money on the side. I spent a year in Tokyo, but found it too expensive for housing, and too difficult to compete in privates. You have so many foreigners there on tourist visas teaching for anything they can get to fund their next trip to India or wherever that it really waters things down. I found a city of about 500,000 people, with housing included was perfect and I made almost double my salary in privates, but really worked for it.
Good luck. |
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yingwenlaoshi
Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Location: ... location, location!
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| Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:27 am Post subject: |
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| quilter wrote: |
I think you will find most of the jobs will be between 250-300 thousand yen. The key will be your hours, fitting privates in, and housing if you are very lucky to have it included. If you are motivated you can make good money on the side. I spent a year in Tokyo, but found it too expensive for housing, and too difficult to compete in privates. You have so many foreigners there on tourist visas teaching for anything they can get to fund their next trip to India or wherever that it really waters things down. I found a city of about 500,000 people, with housing included was perfect and I made almost double my salary in privates, but really worked for it.
Good luck. |
I was thinking along those lines. Not a big city, but big enough. |
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Are they the lemmings
Joined: 15 Feb 2007
Location: Not here anymore. JongnoGuru was the only thing that kept me here.
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| Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 4:59 pm Post subject: |
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| yingwenlaoshi wrote: |
| I was thinking along those lines. Not a big city, but big enough. |
Then, might I suggest Kobe? It's not as big as the metropolises like Osaka or Tokyo or Yokohama, but it has many advantages. Some of these are:
1) It is a city with city conveniences. It's only 30 minutes to Osaka; 1 hour to Kyoto.
2) Much of the city is very modern (this is because large tracts of the city were razed to the ground by a large earthquake in 1995).
3) Kobe (esp. eastern Kobe) has many universities, thus many university students, thus a large pool of potential private students. Plus, the major English school chains are here, so you can try for a foot-in-the-door job.
4) Kobe has a superfluity of excellent eateries and pubs. Plus, it is bordered by mountains to the north and the sea to the south - great if you're an outdoors kind of person. |
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yingwenlaoshi
Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Location: ... location, location!
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| Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Are they the lemmings wrote: |
| yingwenlaoshi wrote: |
| I was thinking along those lines. Not a big city, but big enough. |
Then, might I suggest Kobe? It's not as big as the metropolises like Osaka or Tokyo or Yokohama, but it has many advantages. Some of these are:
1) It is a city with city conveniences. It's only 30 minutes to Osaka; 1 hour to Kyoto.
2) Much of the city is very modern (this is because large tracts of the city were razed to the ground by a large earthquake in 1995).
3) Kobe (esp. eastern Kobe) has many universities, thus many university students, thus a large pool of potential private students. Plus, the major English school chains are here, so you can try for a foot-in-the-door job.
4) Kobe has a superfluity of excellent eateries and pubs. Plus, it is bordered by mountains to the north and the sea to the south - great if you're an outdoors kind of person. |
Sounds like the kind of place I'm looking for. |
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shetan
Joined: 24 Apr 2006
Location: In front of my PC.
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| Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 8:46 pm Post subject: |
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what about the fact that Nova closed down? 4000-5000 english teachers with no jobs now.
Any news regarding lack of jobs right now... must be lots of people applying for the avaiable jobs...
I wanted to go in March too.. but maybe not good timing now....
http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Foreign_teachers_jobless_after_Japan_language_schools_closed_10017.html
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Nova, Japan�s biggest chain of language schools closed yesterday leaving thousands of foreign instructors jobless.
The company owns about 900 schools, has 418, 000 students and mainly offers English classes. It has 7,000 employees, 4,000 of them foreigners, according to the Japanese media. Many of the employees have not been paid for months.
Nova promised through advertising campaigns opportunities for �international exchange.�
But the problems appeared earlier this year when the Supreme Court ruled that the firm acted illegally when it refused to refund the money to students who cancelled their contracts. In June the company was asked to close down some schools after the misleading campaigns.
Due to the negative publicity enrolments declined leaving the school incapable of paying the teachers, some of them facing eviction because the firm didn�t paid their rent, that is deducted from the salaries. The 2,000 Japanese staff didn�t receive their salary since July and the 4,000 foreign instructors from September.
According to BBC the British embassy in Tokyo said in a statement that it cannot provide financial assistance but put an advice page on the website in order to put the British teachers in touch with a travel agency that could provide cheap flights to UK.
A spokesman of the embassy told the Guardian: �We are doing everything we can in terms of consular support and advice but the one thing we can�t do is provide direct financial assistance.�
Nova accumulated debts of JPY50bn ($437m, �213m).
The court appointed two lawyers to sort out Nova�s debts and monitor its assets and to find sponsors to rebuild it. If within a month that is not possible they would have to dissolve the company.
According to Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun the Japanese internet firm Rakuten Inc took interest in helping the company. |
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cangel
Joined: 19 Jun 2003
Location: Jeonju, S. Korea
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| Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:39 am Post subject: |
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| Good luck. You'll be competing against literally thousands of unemployed teachers. G-Comm, who "won" the right to take over the now defunct Nova, and who originally said they would hire ALL ex-Nova employees, announced, while those ex-Nova employees are on holiday and expecting a job when they return in January, that they will not hire but a few hundred teachers. The market is super-saturated with teachers. The salaries are stagnant. The benefits are severely lacking/non-existent. Now, this isn't to say jobs are impossible to come by, but don't expect anything grand and don't expect to make more than about Y220,000 (before taxes, housing etc.) Larger cities will cost you more for housing but smaller cities will offer less in wages. Good luck. |
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yingwenlaoshi
Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Location: ... location, location!
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| Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:49 am Post subject: |
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| cangel wrote: |
| Good luck. You'll be competing against literally thousands of unemployed teachers. G-Comm, who "won" the right to take over the now defunct Nova, and who originally said they would hire ALL ex-Nova employees, announced, while those ex-Nova employees are on holiday and expecting a job when they return in January, that they will not hire but a few hundred teachers. The market is super-saturated with teachers. The salaries are stagnant. The benefits are severely lacking/non-existent. Now, this isn't to say jobs are impossible to come by, but don't expect anything grand and don't expect to make more than about Y220,000 (before taxes, housing etc.) Larger cities will cost you more for housing but smaller cities will offer less in wages. Good luck. |
No more than 220,000 Yen? What? |
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tomwaits
Joined: 05 Feb 2003
Location: PC Bong
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| Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 1:31 pm Post subject: |
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I glance in on the Japan side a lot.
The "accepted wisdom" seems to be you will not get a job unless you show up and wait it out. It's only places like Nova that hire from abroad and even they tend to go for first-timers.
I'm not trying to be a downer here or anything. I think maybe a sincere cover letter at least is needed for every job you try. Not like Korea where you hit SEND RESUME and the offers start coming in. |
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