Finding a Job in Japan

PREPARATION: TAKING A CELTA

For English speaking people, wanting to teach in Japan, but still living in their home country, there are loads of English Language School companies willing to set you up with a job and with a visa.

That's great. But, the downside is that, almost without exception, no one is going to particularly enjoy working for any of these companies. But, it can be bearable, at least for a bit.

However, the first thing you should do before even looking at job advertisements is take a CELTA (Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults). This is always a good idea for the following reasons:

• It gives you some training for the job you want to do.
• It makes you more employable.
• If you find you enjoy living in Japan and, after a while, want to get a better English teaching job in Japan, then this qualification is a must. There are some English teaching jobs in Japan for which you can only apply if you are already living in Japan - these are often better paid. This is because you would not have issues with getting a visa (as you would already have one), you would have experience of working in Japan and teaching Japanese, and also, you would look like you have got used to living in Japan, so the company wouldn't need to 'look after you'.

I took my CELTA during the summer break after my second year of university. That was in 2003. So I'm having to cast my mind back quite a way. However, I believe, the principles of taking a CELTA have remained the same.

When considering taking a CELTA you should remember 3 things:

1. It's not cheap. Taking it in the UK will probably set you back over 1,000 pounds.
2. If you are going to do it full time, it will take you 4 weeks. And it's pretty intensive.
3. There are lots of cheap CELTA courses advertised. Whatever you do, don't do one of these. They are not accredited courses, so the certificate you will receive at the end of it is worthless. The CELTA certificate you really want is the one accredited by Cambridge University.

So, to summarize, you need four weeks free in your schedule and around 1,000 pounds.

While I was doing my CELTA course, there were 11 other students in my class. Two were not first-language English speakers. That is not a problem at all, as long as you are fluent. However, a Polish guy taking the course, who quite possibly spoke English more eloquently than me, was completely shocked near the end of the course when he found out that even though he would soon have a CELTA, he would not be able to apply for his dream job in Japan, at least with the company he wanted to apply to, because his nationality was Polish and therefore was not from an English speaking country.

Another thing to remember is that, usually, a basic requirement for people applying for English teaching jobs in Japan is a university degree. They don't care if you got a third class degree and they don't care if your degree is in basket weaving. They just want to be able to say that all of their native English teachers are university degree holders.

It is possible to find an English teaching job in Japan without a university degree, but it often involves working for a rubbish company and/or lying to a company and/or your students.

For example, I know a guy who works for a tiny English school in Japan. The school knows he doesn't have a degree. The school doesn't provide him with the standard (and legally required) health insurance and pension (the company usually has to contribute to the payments). His salary is not great and, if that job ends, I can't imagine it will be easy for him to find another job. When students ask him where he went to university, he tells them where he went, but he doesn't tell them that he dropped out after a few weeks!

I once met another guy who worked for a big English Conversation School chain (that begins with 'N') who bought a fake degree certificate off the internet and did very well by it!

So, finally, to recap...

In order to apply for your first English teaching job in Japan (which you probably won't enjoy that much) you should have a university degree, hail from an English speaking country, and, ideally, have a Cambridge University accredited CELTA certificate which will cost you around 1,000 pounds and take up 4 weeks of your life.

MY CELTA EXPERIENCE

In 2003 I was living in London and studying at university. I decided to take a CELTA course after finishing my second year of university's assessments. I looked around for a place to take the CELTA and decided upon Saxoncourt in South Molton Street.

The course cost about 900 pounds (I would guess that it is over a grand now) and lasted for 4 weeks, Monday to Friday.

There were about 12 of us taking the course at the same time and, London being London, other members were originally from other parts of the country and other countries, including Poland and Mauritius. Everyone seemed to have their own specific goal in mind - some, like me, wanted to teach in Japan and others wanted to teach in the middle east. One lady was intending to return to Mauritius - her home country - and open her own English language school.

The daily format generally involved lessons in the morning sessions and teaching practice/observation in the afternoon. It was quite a long time ago now but, if I remember rightly, the lessons involved discussions and tasks - nothing to strenuous. The afternoon teaching practice/observation was the part that stressed most people out. We all had to teach 20 minute lessons 3 or 4 times a week and our performance as teachers was part of our assessment. The students we were teaching were foreign students from all over the world and, as they were being taught by trainees, they were getting the lessons at a reduced rate. One guy who was terrible at English had been coming along for these lessons for years and clearly they had not helped much! But that was all part of the fun. There were 2 groups of students - an elementary and intermediate group - in order to give us practice teaching both kinds of students.

Most evenings, after school, were taken up with preparation for the next day's lesson and, when you are starting out as a teacher, that can take a fair amount of time, even though it's only a 20 minute lesson. I guess that's because there is a lot to consider and think about for new teachers. There was also some coursework which took up some time at weekends.

What I'm trying to convey is that taking a CELTA is challenging for people and does require people to work hard for the duration of the course.

One incident I clearly remember was that one young lady - probably in her mid-twenties - just couldn't take the heat. She was trying really hard but she found the prospect of conducting a class of students very daunting and stressful. She didn't appear to be someone of a nervous disposition but she quickly realized that teaching wasn't going to come so naturally. She quit just over halfway through the course, which was a shame because I thought she might have battled on to the end and passed. I presume she wasn't able to get a refund so it seemed wasteful.

The tutors at Saxoncourt were really nice and were really great at teaching us. The other good thing about doing your CELTA at Saxoncourt is that they also recruit teachers for foreign posts all over the world, so once you've finished the course and got your certificate, you can go back and apply for a job from the same people. As they will know you at this stage, getting a job or taking an interview can go a lot smoother. So, if you are based in London and trying to decide where to take a CELTA, I would recommend Saxoncourt.

After taking my CELTA, and after finishing my final year of university, I applied for a job at in Japan through Saxoncourt - the interview was just a mere formality really.

The final thing to note about getting a CELTA is that you can get just a pass, or an A or B grade. Apparently 80% of people get just a pass. I got a B so didn't I do well?

So, let's consider where we are now. In theory, you will have your CELTA, and a degree certificate. Ideally you will also be from an English speaking country. So, now you're ready to apply for a job in Japan. See below for my thoughts on applying for a job.

HOW TO FIND YOUR FIRST JOB IN JAPAN

There are a few main routes most people go down in order to find their first English teaching job in Japan. I'll deal with each of them in turn. I guess they can be summarized into the following categories:

• Apply to the JET program.
• Apply to a large English conversation school chain.
• Just go to Japan and try and wing it into a job when you get there. (Not advised!)

The JET Program

I've had easy and hard interviews in my life and I've been successful and unsuccessful too. I have learnt from two interview experiences that you should always expect interviews to be challenging and that before taking an interview, you should always prepare for it. Maybe that is obvious for most people, but for me, I had to learn this the hard way. My JET program interview was one of these experiences.

What is the JET program? What are the pros and cons?

Although I applied for the JET Program, I failed the interview, so I'm certainly not an expert on the program. However, you might not know what it is so I'll try and explain.

The JET Program recruits teachers from many English speaking countries - The UK, America, Australia, Canada etc - and gives them a job in a Japanese state school. I guess these are usually junior and senior high school so JETs (as participants on the program are referred to) are 'teaching' (and I purposefully use quotation marks) 12 to 18 year olds.

As many JETs don't have a CELTA or experience in teaching, they are not really proper teachers. They are treated like a school resource. Depending on the aptitude of the JET a school may ask the JET to do different things at school. However, as most JETs won't really have any idea about teaching, they may often work by responding to Japanese teachers instructions. Instructions like...

• 'Read this aloud.'
• 'Check this written work for mistakes.'
• 'Practise this dialogue with this students.'
• 'Talk to this student about his family.'
• 'Check my test.'

A JET has zero responsibility. I have heard JETs complain that they were the school's English monkey - they just said what they were told to say and spent most of their time just getting the students to repeat after them.

That sounds extremely boring, right? Well, the great side to being a JET is that you will get paid fairly well. Actually, it is nothing to right home about, but it often trumps the starting salary of an English teacher at an English conversation school. Check the JET website (linked above) for details. The other benefit to working as a JET is that, as you will be working in a school, you will have loads of holiday time in order to enjoy Japan. Although I am not a JET, I do work in a school and I get 5 weeks off in the summer, almost 3 weeks off in the winter and lots of shorter holidays too.

One thing that may put people off working for the JET program, however, is that you have no control over where you will be located. Generally, most people want to live somewhere like Tokyo or Osaka, or maybe even Okinawa. However, Japan is a large country - twice the size of Britain - and you could end up living in the backside of nowhere with nothing much around except for a ramen shop and a pachinko parlor. If you wanted to go to Tokyo from the back end of Gifu it would take you about 3 hours to get there by bullet train and set you back around 20,000 yen for the return ticket. That's about 120 pounds. There are some great places to live in Japan, but there are a lot of absolutely boring places too - and these places also have schools!

A final drawback to the JET program is that you can only remain on the program for a maximum of 3 years. If you want to stay in Japan after that you will need to find a different job. Maybe that doesn't sound like to much of a problem, but if you don't have a CELTA (see above) then it might prove difficult to find a job. That's why I always recommend doing your CELTA course before applying for a job in Japan, even if you are intending to apply to the JET program because a CELTA is not an requirement for its applicants.

What was the JET Program interview like and why did you fail it?

It was over 10 years ago now so it's difficult to remember much about it. However, I'll do my best.

The interview was held at the Japanese Embassy near Green Park Station in central London. I wrongly believed that as I had just finished an English degree at university and because I had a CELTA certificate I would be an ideal applicant. Not so.

The JET program wants to offer places to people who are genuinely interested in Japan rather than people who will be great teachers. That's because, as I explained above, you won't really be required to teach! If you look at the JET program's homepage introduction it states that it 'is aimed at promoting grass-roots international exchange between Japan and other nations.' (Correct as of March 2014) So it's more of a cultural exchange program rather than a teacher recruitment company.

In actual fact, I didn't really have much interest in Japan or Japanese culture and I had never been to Japan either.

The pre-interview questionnaire asked me questions like, 'Who is the prime minister of Japan,' and 'Can you name a Japanese sports personality?' It didn't once ask me about anything to do with teaching the English language.

At this stage I began to realise that I was not prepared for the interview!

The interview that followed was similarly themed and I guess my lack of genuine interest in Japan became obvious. That's why I failed.

So, if you are considering applying for the JET program, make sure you have something to talk about in the interview that conveys your interest in Japan - something cultural. And perhaps, come up with a list of places you'd like to visit in Japan. Forget about any qualifications or experience you have in teaching - that's not the interviewers' primary concern.

English Conversation School Chains

When I first moved to Japan I worked at a large English conversation school chain. I'll try and summarize what this kid of job involves and also give you some ideas of the pros and cons surrounding it.

What is the job like?

Generally you'll be working in a school (which will probably have a layout of a couple of classrooms and a reception area) from around 1 o'clock in the afternoon to 9 o'clock in the evening. Usually, you will work at a number of different schools during the week in different cities. The schools can be located where you live, or they may involve a 45 - 60 minute commute. Most people get placed in schools both close to and far from where they live. However, the train system in Japan is very efficient and so travelling to and from work is usually fairly easy. You'll also be travelling outside of the rush hour so it's fairly stress free. Your company will reimburse you in your salary for your transportation expenses so you need not worry about the cost of your commute at all.

Usually, your day will start with 'afternoon classes' for adults. These are group lessons and usually the students are bored housewives or retired men. The ability of these students can range from being extremely good and completely hopeless. Later on in the day, as schools finish, you'll probably have some kids lessons and then, in the late evening, you'll have some more adult lessons. The kids and adults lessons may be group or private lessons.

Personally, for me, as far as lessons go at English conversation schools, you may have a few adult students who make progress and who seem like 'interesting'/'normal' people, but quite often, a lot of students can be a little weird - not the kind of people you'd like to meet socially. A lot of teachers hate teaching kids, probably because they find it difficult or cannot control them. Personally, more often than not, I hated teaching the adults. It could feel quite awkward in lessons - trying to talk with people who had little imagination or wit. Some adults were okay, but a lot were just freakish and freakishly reluctant to try and speak even though they were shelling out a load of money on the lessons. I felt so liberated when I quite that job and started to work in a private junior and senior high school - I would never have to teach adults again!

Every student, whatever their age, will have a textbook, so it is easy to know what kind of language you should focus on in the next lesson. Students complain if you spend the lesson just grinding through the textbook, so it is always a good idea to view the textbook as a resource rather than a lesson plan.

You may be the only teacher in your school for some of the week, but sometimes you'll be working at a school with another teacher. Usually, your teaching time will be restricted to 6 hours a day so you will have time for lesson planning and breaks.

What are the pros of working at an English conversation school?

• The company will sponsor your visa application.

After you've taken an interview and been offered a job, the company will assist you with your visa application. This can take a few weeks to come through. Your visa will probably expire after a year, after which you just need to 'renew' your visa rather than apply for a new one, which is a simpler process.

• The company will usually provide housing for you.

You'll get a place to live. You don't need to find an apartment - the company will do this for you. However you will have to pay rent for the apartment and this will come out of your salary every month.

• The social aspect of the job is good.

You'll inevitably meet other teachers and a lot of them will also be new like you, so it is easy to make friends as long as you are relatively normal! This is something I miss as now I work in a junior and senior high school all of my colleagues are Japanese - I am the only foreigner working at the school - which limits the amount of social interaction I am able to have with them, and even, the amount of social interaction I want to have them!

• Choice of location.

Unlike the JET program you can choose what area you would like to be based. So, you can choose what prefecture you want to live and work in, and you can say what area of that prefecture you would most like to live. As teachers are constantly coming and going every month, your request is usually met. The exception to this is, of course, for positions in central Tokyo. Quite often, teachers who renew their contract are able to transfer into the central Tokyo positions.

Oh dear... I'm struggling to find anything else good about working at an English conversation school already!

What are the cons of working at an English conversation school?

• Students

Well... I suppose you can complain about the quality of students in any kind of English teaching job in Japan. But, as I have stated above, the adults that sign up for lessons at English conversation schools are often a little bit off-centre.

• Receptionists

Some receptionists are alright and they are often the first Japanese people you are likely to get to know. However, some receptionists have zero respect for teachers and teachers' opinions. For example, if a teacher believes a student should change to a lower level class because the student is struggling and receptionist may often say that this is the only lesson that student can attend. Sometimes that's a true statement, sometimes it isn't. Often, the receptionist is reluctant to tell a student they should move down a level - they are fearful of offending the student.

Very often the student should never have been put in that group in the first place - before the student signed up, he or she will have taken a trial lesson and a teacher may have assessed the student to be 'elementary' for example. However, the student then tells the receptionist that they want to come for a lesson on a particular day, and on that particular day there is no 'elementary' group lesson. There is, however, an intermediate group. The receptionist only thinks about student numbers so puts the student in the intermediate group.

Now, in the intermediate group, there may be 2 good students and this new student who cannot understand what is going on. The teacher tries to adjust the level of the lesson to hit a 'happy medium' but still there remains a plethora of awkward moments in every lesson as the student is unable to join in effectively with pair work activities or give answers to questions that make any sense at all. The lesson's vibe nose dives and both of the good students decide its not worth paying for/attending the lesson anymore and they quit. The new student is embarrassed but has bought the intermediate text book so you are instructed by the company to continue working through the text book with the student. The student gives up and quits.

The really strange aspect to this is that the company bosses often support the receptionist in their decision. Maybe that's because they know them better than they know the teacher. Maybe it is because they also just care about student numbers, even though the result receptionists do actually lowers numbers! If you take it to the bosses and question the decision, they always, without fail, say the following:

'Just see how it goes and let me know what you think in a couple of weeks.'

When you do let them know in a couple of weeks that the student is struggling, they always say something akin to the following:

'Oh well. Just do your best. She's bought the book now so we can't ask her to buy another one.'

At this stage, not only is the class about to nose dive and all the students are probably going to quit relatively soon, but you now think the receptionist is a total twit and have no respect for the receptionist or your boss. You are new to Japan and new to teaching and new to the company, but you have more business sense than these muppets. The quasi-friendly relationship you had with the receptionist halts and you now avoid any interaction with her and stay in your room with your door shut during your breaks.

I have ranted. It's 6 years after I quit that job, it still annoys me!

• The rent you are charged for your company housing.

For more details on this, please check out the content under the 'Life in Japan' tab. But briefly, the rent that you pay to your company is about 150% the rent the company pays for the apartment. Sure, they need to make a bit of profit, but that's extortionate. If you can, look into guest houses in the area you are going to live in. You can arrange a room in a guest house before you go to Japan - a lot of guest houses have English homepages. They are cheaper and cleaner. Again, see my 'Life in Japan' page for more details on guest houses. I wish I had know about them before I moved to Japan.

• Working hours and the working week.

I hated working from 1 o'clock to 9 o'clock. It means your evening is replaced by the night so you are limited in things you can do after work. If you want to take a train somewhere in the evening, you will have only a short while before you have to take the last train back.

Additionally, schools are often busiest on Saturdays so most teachers have to work on Saturdays. After you've completed a year's contract it is possible to change your day off to a Monday so that you have 2 days off together (Sunday and Monday) but this is never guaranteed.

• Vacation Time.

A lot of people working at English conversation schools seem to think they get a good amount of holiday. Not really. You will get a couple of weeks off in the summer and a couple of weeks off at the end of year, but these are times when, if you want to travel somewhere, you'll have to pay through the nose for it. If you compare it with working in a junior or senior high school, you're vacation time sucks. If you only want to stay in Japan for a year or so, you won't have enough time to do all the travelling around the country that you want.

• Salary.

Not terrible, but certainly not as good as the JET program. And after 2 or 3 years the company will refuse to raise your salary anymore. (You sign annual contracts.)

• Terms of contracts.

Often, but not always, your company will not set you up with the normal Japanese health insurance which they are actually required to do by law. They often tell you that you have to use a specific international insurance company which is rubbish and when you do have a medical issue, like the flu, or you want to get your teeth checked at the dentist, you have to pay all charges up front and it's difficult to claim back whatever percentage you are able to claim for.

The company will very often not set you up with a Japanese pension plan as they don't want to contribute.

These things, in particular, make working for an English conversation school something which no one should do long term.

• Overtime.

Many English conversation school chains will stipulate that you will have to do a certain amount of overtime every month, if you are needed. When I was working at an English conversation school it was rare that a month went by when I didn't have to work on at least one of my days off. I believe the system has changed now, but when I was working there a new rule was brought in that you would also not be paid any extra for this overtime. Shocking!

My conclusion for working in English conversation schools.

It is not great. But, it will give you some choice in where you work and live which, in my book, makes it far more attractive than the JET Program. However, this is a job which you don't want to do for too long. Ideally, even if you only want to live in Japan for, say, a year and a half, it might be a good idea to quit after a few months if you can find a job in a senior or junior high school somewhere. It is definitely not a long term career, although some losers do believe it is for them. Then again, that's true for almost all English teaching jobs in Japan.

My advice - take a job with an English conversation school, don't live in its company apartment (find a guest house), and start looking for alternative jobs which give you better working hours, less teaching time and really really long holidays! Such a job may offer a lower salary, but you'll probably enjoy your time in Japan a lot more. If you choose to live in a company apartment, when you do find a better job, you may have a scramble to move out of the apartment and find somewhere else to live! Generally, English conversation schools say they require two months notice when you quit, but by Japanese law, you only actually need to give them 2 weeks!

When I quit working for an English conversation school I didn't give the full 2 months notice - I was 9 days too late. They thanked me for my work over 3 and a bit years, but told me that due to their rules, I would never be able to work for them again. No problem there!

Why do you advise looking for a job in a junior or senior high school so soon after arriving in Japan and starting work at an English conversation school, but you actually worked for an English conversation school for over 3 years?

Well, hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it?

But the truth is, there are lots of jobs out there in junior and senior high schools, and I could have found one quicker. But the salaries are often not as good as the English conversation schools. I actually did start looking around and taking interviews after about a year and half, and I was offered positions. However, I was looking for a job that would pay me more than I was getting so I held out. I'm glad I did hold out, but for people who are only intending on living in Japan for 2 years or less, it's probably best to just accept an offer sooner rather than later.