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I taught English around Tokyo, Japan (private tutor while I was studying there), and I have friends that teach English in Japan. The best program is the JET program, but I believe it requires a bachelors degree. There are a number of English schools that will hire you without a degree, but most are very sketchy and a few years back there was a huge government bust and deportation proceedings related to the English schools.
Also, my friend who did a non-JET program always complained that (1) they underpay you (basically only enough to barely squeak by with roommates); (2) it is very lonely because you are NOT allowed to interact with your students outside of class, you will get fired (they are concerned you will take their students and tutor them for cheaper than the school is charging); and (3) it is very difficult to study Japanese with the hours you put in plus your isolation.
Your best bet is to go to the forums in Japan (i.e., the English forums that English speakers that live in Japan frequent). I haven't done it for a few years so I can't direct you to any at the moment. Those people bitch a lot, so you can find out which schools are getting the most bitching.
You should be aware that the yen is extremely strong now compared to the American dollar. My girlfriend and I play the currency market and now is a good time to pay off all your American debt with Japanese yen.
All this being said, the year I spent in Japan was one of the best in my life, so I would encourage it. Just make sure you are prepared for it.
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China and Taiwan are very secure places to teach English, especially in Taiwanese high schools (though most people have a college degree that teach there). Without a degree you may teach in afterschools, elementary, or tutoring. From personal experience and knowledge.
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another note on teaching English in Japan: are you white? They want to learn from white people. My roommate in college (while I was studying in Japan) was Japanese-American. She spoke fluent English and Japanese. She couldn't get a job. I am a blonde-hair, blue-eyed Californian. I was able to find five English tutoring jobs and I was paid 2-3x what she made. There is a considerable amount of prejudice in this regard. Also, (not saying I agree), but if you are certain minority races, forget about Japan. I won't expound on that last bit because it still upsets me.
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I've looked into this quite a bit myself. In fact, I'm currently saving up money to pay for my TOEFL certification.
If you're serious about this, then you'll need a degree unless you can get in with some religious organization that offers such programs overseas, which would likely be missionary work.
If you're part of the way through a degree plan right now, then finish it, if not, then you need to start applying to local community colleges. You need a degree in order to do this. I have friends doing this right now, and, believe it or not, the ESL market is rather competitive in the countries that people actually want to live in.
A friend of mine just got back from spending a year in the Dominican Republic teaching 5 and 6 year old children. She not only has a degree in Psychology, but also had three years of public school teaching experience PRIOR to applying for a teaching position in a third world country.
You have to have a degree to teach in any Asian country. South Korea is a good example of a country where it is easy to find a job teaching English as long as you have a degree. It is more difficult in Latin American countries because more people want to teach in those countries to improve their Spanish. As far as European countries go, it is very difficult to get a job teaching English in Western European countries. It is easier the farther East you go, but the pay gets worse, and, in some cases, the cost of living stays the same or is even higher, like Prague.
I would suggest checking out www.daveseslcafe.com for more information on the requirements for various countries. They also have an international job board that schools post on.
I hope everything works out for you. Good luck!
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Something I've thought about too, but I'm 99% sure you need a degree to teach in almost any country.
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On August 24 2011 07:59 dAPhREAk wrote: another note on teaching English in Japan: are you white? They want to learn from white people. My roommate in college (while I was studying in Japan) was Japanese-American. She spoke fluent English and Japanese. She couldn't get a job. I am a blonde-hair, blue-eyed Californian. I was able to find five English tutoring jobs and I was paid 2-3x what she made. There is a considerable amount of prejudice in this regard. Also, (not saying I agree), but if you are certain minority races, forget about Japan. I won't expound on that last bit because it still upsets me.
It's unfortunately the same in Korea. I don't understand it at all. Just a sad state of society we are in.
@OP you will certainly 99.9% need a degree. It's simply a standard part of the documents required along with a photo. Interviews are frequently done over Skype now a days even to make sure you look like your photo! (they look for clean attractive white people)
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From personal experience in Europe you need to have an english degree or some sort of teaching degree if you want to work at another company. My advice to you is to advertise on some websites, forums and to put out poster around your city. Teach privately, you can earn in cash and if you wish not report ALL of your taxes. Plus, you will be able to work whenever you want and on your own terms.
Without a degree you can't even begin to think about a solid job with security.
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I just had an epiphany. Maybe I could write my M.Sc.-thesis in Korea; designing a novel English language course based on the latest psycholinguistic insights.
+ Show Spoiler [Correcting Fuchsteufelswild] +On August 24 2011 07:17 Fuchsteufelswild wrote: So, it seems in my case: Accent ✓ - Born and raised in Australia, but with an English mother. Have always cared about language. Conversation partner situation ✓ - I'm often picking up on little errors and being nit-picky about them, I'm sure I can come prepared for lessons with backup ideas for topics to cover and practice activities. ^_^ Also I worked for a few months for an interpreting and translation company (mostly subcontracted), so just to clarify (although I think people had the correct idea), you really do need to be extremely fluent in a language to be considered for official translating (and will usually be required to have additional translating certification, different for each country though, I imagine). For interpreting at events that do not require NAATI certification (or otherwise, country-specific I imagine), it's not always so hard to join a subcontracting business or, with advertising, get at least occasional jobs as an interpreter. Networking will be key there. Large companies also would be likely to demand only higher certified interpreters too, but competition here is not that of the biggest cities, so you can get away with less certifications for most jobs. Regardless of certification, you need to be typically needed to be good at English, but fluency in the other language was probably even more critical, to the point where even people who had spent 10+ years in a country would still barely get any jobs that came in compared to people born in the foreign country who spoke English. Native speakers were heavily favoured (perhaps a bias in the company though).
Apart from the mistakes you made which can be explained away as 'colloquial' speech (or a result of flawed punctuation), you neglected the following: 1) Whenever you talk about regularities, you have to use infinitives: "...I often pick up on small mistakes..." ('little error' is not an idiomatic expression, by the way). This is not always the case (as you could talk about formerly regular events, for instance), but usually it is. Either way, you cannot use the gerund to indicate the regularity of events. 2) Make sure to use proper sentence structure ("I'm sure I can come prepared for lessons..."). 3) You should not begin a sentence with "also". 4) Time span indicators should not precede the object ("...a few months for an..."). 5) "...not always so hard..." is not an idiomatic expression. 6) The "also" qualifier should not precede the auxiliary ("...also would be likely..."). 7) "...less certifications..." should either be "fewer" or "lesser", depending on what you want to express. "Less" is only used for uncountable quantities ('less water', for instance). 8) "...you need to be typically needed to be good at English..." makes no sense.
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Is an Associates Degree most likely useless for this? I have mine, but it seems most places mention having a Bachelor's is required/highly favored. I'm in school working on finishing my B.A., although whether or not I will be able to is uncertain at this point.
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For people not from the US (such as Canada, Australia and UK), consider something called the Working Holiday Visa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_holiday_visa)
It's basically a once in a lifetime free work visa for young people to explore other countries.
I got one for Japan.
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First, I havent read the thread but the OP.
I know from personal experience, that in brazil, at least in the smaller cities of the interior, it is REALLY easy to work as an english teacher, either for a group (~12€/h) or with a single person (much! more). And I learned to speak pretty fluent portuguese in less than 6 months and I think its possible in a lot less time. Provided you do mainly talk in portuguese, not like I did in your mother tongue. As you mentioned spanish speaking countries in the OP, it might be interesting. Visa can be difficult though... best luck to you!
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I dont have a degree, im not getting a degree, whatever i do and whereever i go it is to be done without a degree
Everyone in this thread is giving you solid advice about having a degree to teach English in any foreign country. Chances are slim that you will find a job teaching English without a degree. By slim, I mean that unless you have some very good connections with people in the right positions, you are not going to get a job with zero qualifications.
After reading your post, it seems to me that teaching English is a means to an end for you. IE: You want to live in another country and need to find a stable job to fund that life. There are other opportunities in order to live in another country. Most, however, also require a degree. Some do not. Other countries are the same as the United States in the regards of immigration and workers. They have open arms to workers with degrees or skills that will benefit the country.
Take the reality check with a grain of salt, but if you have nothing to offer, they are less likely to even give you a work visa.
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NeverGG
United Kingdom5399 Posts
syst pretty much summed up the situation regarding Korea. They won't even consider you without a degree - it's considered the basic minimum legal requirement along with a check criminal check, and medical report. Some people will tell you to come here on a tourist visa, and teach illegally - I'm not one of them though ^_^ There's been a pretty big crack down on that sort of thing lately, so you'd only be asking for trouble if you tried it.
Good luck with finding something that works for you in the future though, you do have options, just not ones involving Korea. I'm not knowledgable about anywhere outside of SK, so I can't comment about that.
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United States5582 Posts
On August 24 2011 07:59 dAPhREAk wrote: another note on teaching English in Japan: are you white? They want to learn from white people. My roommate in college (while I was studying in Japan) was Japanese-American. She spoke fluent English and Japanese. She couldn't get a job. I am a blonde-hair, blue-eyed Californian. I was able to find five English tutoring jobs and I was paid 2-3x what she made. There is a considerable amount of prejudice in this regard. Also, (not saying I agree), but if you are certain minority races, forget about Japan. I won't expound on that last bit because it still upsets me. I have heard this before many times and always get a bit discouraged when I hear about those experiences since I am a Korean-American interested in teaching English in Japan, but I have also heard that some Asian-Americans actually do get hired to teach in Japan/Korea/China. Are the chances really that low to get hired as a non-white native English speaker? And if so, would it be better to place hopes in going for under-the-table jobs such as private tutoring instead of trying to get into programs such as JET? I won't have high expectations for getting hired immediately, but if it takes me a couple of years to find a job...
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On August 24 2011 09:12 Spica wrote:Show nested quote +On August 24 2011 07:59 dAPhREAk wrote: another note on teaching English in Japan: are you white? They want to learn from white people. My roommate in college (while I was studying in Japan) was Japanese-American. She spoke fluent English and Japanese. She couldn't get a job. I am a blonde-hair, blue-eyed Californian. I was able to find five English tutoring jobs and I was paid 2-3x what she made. There is a considerable amount of prejudice in this regard. Also, (not saying I agree), but if you are certain minority races, forget about Japan. I won't expound on that last bit because it still upsets me. I have heard this before many times and always get a bit discouraged when I hear about those experiences since I am a Korean-American interested in teaching English in Japan, but I have also heard that some Asian-Americans actually do get hired to teach in Japan/Korea/China. Are the chances really that low to get hired as a non-white native English speaker? And if so, would it be better to place hopes in going for under-the-table jobs such as private tutoring instead of trying to get into programs such as JET? I won't have high expectations for getting hired immediately, but if it takes me a couple of years to find a job...
My Chinese-American friend taught English in the JET program in Chiba, Japan. She taught at an elementary school. i think most of the prejudice comes from individuals who want one-on-one tutoring, and I would assume its common in the organizations as well (but I hope not as much). I think your best bet is to go for the corporate jobs (i.e., JET program, big English schools) rather than the individual (under the table) jobs. I would definitely not move to Japan with the hope that you will find jobs.
How are you going to get into Japan without a job? Are you a student? Since the crackdown a few years ago, my understanding is that immigration is strict especially for English teachers.
Finally, since you are Korean, you should search for jobs in the bigger cities (Tokyo, Osaka). There is a lot of prejudice towards Koreans in general, and mostly in the southern / south-western portions (i.e., closest to Korea). Even in Tokyo where I lived the prejudice towards Koreans was astounding (not as bad as blacks and Chinese though). I dated a girl who was 1/8th Korean and the family refused to let her brother know that because they were afraid of how he would be treated (he was quite racist towards Koreans himself; the irony).
I don't want to scare you though. Younger people are less prejudiced than older ones and you will have a great time there regardless. There are racists everywhere.
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On August 24 2011 09:28 dAPhREAk wrote:Show nested quote +On August 24 2011 09:12 Spica wrote:On August 24 2011 07:59 dAPhREAk wrote: another note on teaching English in Japan: are you white? They want to learn from white people. My roommate in college (while I was studying in Japan) was Japanese-American. She spoke fluent English and Japanese. She couldn't get a job. I am a blonde-hair, blue-eyed Californian. I was able to find five English tutoring jobs and I was paid 2-3x what she made. There is a considerable amount of prejudice in this regard. Also, (not saying I agree), but if you are certain minority races, forget about Japan. I won't expound on that last bit because it still upsets me. I have heard this before many times and always get a bit discouraged when I hear about those experiences since I am a Korean-American interested in teaching English in Japan, but I have also heard that some Asian-Americans actually do get hired to teach in Japan/Korea/China. Are the chances really that low to get hired as a non-white native English speaker? And if so, would it be better to place hopes in going for under-the-table jobs such as private tutoring instead of trying to get into programs such as JET? I won't have high expectations for getting hired immediately, but if it takes me a couple of years to find a job... Finally, since you are Korean, you should search for jobs in the bigger cities (Tokyo, Osaka). There is a lot of prejudice towards Koreans in general, and mostly in the southern / south-western portions (i.e., closest to Korea). Even in Tokyo where I lived the prejudice towards Koreans was astounding (not as bad as blacks and Chinese though). I dated a girl who was 1/8th Korean and the family refused to let her brother know that because they were afraid of how he would be treated (he was quite racist towards Koreans himself; the irony).
isnt there like some prejudice that a big part of the yakuza gangs are ethnic koreans? I am pretty sure I heard that somewhere and I find it kind of hilarious.
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On August 24 2011 09:37 Skilledblob wrote:Show nested quote +On August 24 2011 09:28 dAPhREAk wrote:On August 24 2011 09:12 Spica wrote:On August 24 2011 07:59 dAPhREAk wrote: another note on teaching English in Japan: are you white? They want to learn from white people. My roommate in college (while I was studying in Japan) was Japanese-American. She spoke fluent English and Japanese. She couldn't get a job. I am a blonde-hair, blue-eyed Californian. I was able to find five English tutoring jobs and I was paid 2-3x what she made. There is a considerable amount of prejudice in this regard. Also, (not saying I agree), but if you are certain minority races, forget about Japan. I won't expound on that last bit because it still upsets me. I have heard this before many times and always get a bit discouraged when I hear about those experiences since I am a Korean-American interested in teaching English in Japan, but I have also heard that some Asian-Americans actually do get hired to teach in Japan/Korea/China. Are the chances really that low to get hired as a non-white native English speaker? And if so, would it be better to place hopes in going for under-the-table jobs such as private tutoring instead of trying to get into programs such as JET? I won't have high expectations for getting hired immediately, but if it takes me a couple of years to find a job... Finally, since you are Korean, you should search for jobs in the bigger cities (Tokyo, Osaka). There is a lot of prejudice towards Koreans in general, and mostly in the southern / south-western portions (i.e., closest to Korea). Even in Tokyo where I lived the prejudice towards Koreans was astounding (not as bad as blacks and Chinese though). I dated a girl who was 1/8th Korean and the family refused to let her brother know that because they were afraid of how he would be treated (he was quite racist towards Koreans himself; the irony). isnt there like some prejudice that a big part of the yakuza gangs are ethnic koreans? I am pretty sure I heard that somewhere and I find it kind of hilarious.
I haven't heard that, but that may be true. The major ethnic tensions between Koreans and Japanese that I am aware of are (1) comfort women during WWII when the Japanese occupied Korea and the refusal of Japanese to put it in their history books or pay reparations, which has created a huge amount of tension between the two countries; and (2) Koreans (I think just North Koreans) kidnapping Japanese children and training them to be spies in Japan. Those were hot issues when I was living in Japan in 2000 and 2005.
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pretty nasty stuff happened there. But I still dont understand the problems, judging on the posts here, some asian countries seem to have with black people.
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I teach in China right now in sort of a rural town. I teach at a company that you'll probably get invested in -- without much requirements except being a fluent English speaker.
It's a huge minus and a huge plus, because I think there is alot of free-way, but at the same time it doesn't feel like an actual job for the same reasons.
Do you want to teach English for a long time? Or are you just looking for some experience and some fun? I guess that's the question, and I'm sorry if I didn't read through all the comments -- especially if it's been answered.
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United States5582 Posts
On August 24 2011 09:28 dAPhREAk wrote:Show nested quote +On August 24 2011 09:12 Spica wrote:On August 24 2011 07:59 dAPhREAk wrote: another note on teaching English in Japan: are you white? They want to learn from white people. My roommate in college (while I was studying in Japan) was Japanese-American. She spoke fluent English and Japanese. She couldn't get a job. I am a blonde-hair, blue-eyed Californian. I was able to find five English tutoring jobs and I was paid 2-3x what she made. There is a considerable amount of prejudice in this regard. Also, (not saying I agree), but if you are certain minority races, forget about Japan. I won't expound on that last bit because it still upsets me. I have heard this before many times and always get a bit discouraged when I hear about those experiences since I am a Korean-American interested in teaching English in Japan, but I have also heard that some Asian-Americans actually do get hired to teach in Japan/Korea/China. Are the chances really that low to get hired as a non-white native English speaker? And if so, would it be better to place hopes in going for under-the-table jobs such as private tutoring instead of trying to get into programs such as JET? I won't have high expectations for getting hired immediately, but if it takes me a couple of years to find a job... My Chinese-American friend taught English in the JET program in Chiba, Japan. She taught at an elementary school. i think most of the prejudice comes from individuals who want one-on-one tutoring, and I would assume its common in the organizations as well (but I hope not as much). I think your best bet is to go for the corporate jobs (i.e., JET program, big English schools) rather than the individual (under the table) jobs. I would definitely not move to Japan with the hope that you will find jobs. How are you going to get into Japan without a job? Are you a student? Since the crackdown a few years ago, my understanding is that immigration is strict especially for English teachers. Finally, since you are Korean, you should search for jobs in the bigger cities (Tokyo, Osaka). There is a lot of prejudice towards Koreans in general, and mostly in the southern / south-western portions (i.e., closest to Korea). Even in Tokyo where I lived the prejudice towards Koreans was astounding (not as bad as blacks and Chinese though). I dated a girl who was 1/8th Korean and the family refused to let her brother know that because they were afraid of how he would be treated (he was quite racist towards Koreans himself; the irony). I don't want to scare you though. Younger people are less prejudiced than older ones and you will have a great time there regardless. There are racists everywhere. Hmm okay, that's what I thought. Corporate jobs it is then.
Yes I am a student, and I am definitely not planning to move to Japan without a job. It's first find a job, then Japan or bust.
I'm interested in finding a job in Osaka over Tokyo and the other big cities, and am prepared to go through prejudice, since Koreans have strong prejudice towards the Japanese, almost as bad as towards the blacks and even worse than against the Chinese. I feel guilty about hearing all the shit Japanese or part-Japanese people get in Korea, so my general attitude with Japanese prejudice towards Koreans is sort of, "Bring it on, let's see your prejudice compared to my people's prejudice".
Hell, if I hear racist remarks about the Japanese from my parents, grandparents, and other family in Korea, then hearing insults towards Koreans in Japan shouldn't surprise me too much, although I will most likely get a bit miffed when I experience it for the first time. My family is still willing to support my goals in Japan though, as they don't let their dislike of the Japanese cloud their morals and better judgment. But as you put it, racists are everywhere, and I don't intend to let a bit of racism make me bitter about being in another country; it'll just be another familiar experience in another country. I don't think that I'll be seeing prejudice on a daily basis though unless I hang around with old people a lot, which I hope I won't be doing even though Japan has quite a lot of senior citizens, haha.
Thanks for the info and quick reply; I really appreciated your advice. ^^
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