TL;DR I've been planning for a career in education in Japan for a while and I have some questions for you (see the end of this post).
I've spent the past 4+ years sporadically scouring various subreddits and doing my own research into the work environment and kinds of positions that are available in secondary and tertiary education in Japan as I work towards finishing my bachelor's degree, but now that things are starting to get real, I wanted to ask for more specific advice.
My background:
- (Soon-to-be) HBA in East Asian Studies and Linguistics, University of Toronto (3.99 GPA)
- Exchange at the University of Tokyo during third year
- Native English speaker, born and raised in Toronto
- JLPT N1 certificate, conversationally fluent in Japanese (around four years of study now)
- Some research experience (currently working on an L2 psycholinguistics experiment)
- Some volunteer teaching experience (mentored a small group of JHS students at an English camp in Miyagi prefecture towards the end of my exchange)
- One publication in an undergraduate journal (a history paper)
- Research interests: language pedagogy and policy, L1/L2 acquisition and sentence processing, modern Japanese history/urban planning/machizukuri
I originally planned on majoring in East Asian studies and history, but ended up swapping history for linguistics after discussing my aspirations to teach English in Japan through the JET programme with my first-year Japanese prof; she was very encouraging and suggested that in the long term, it would be a good idea for me to pursue postgraduate studies in linguistics and look for work at a university in Japan (she also helped me realize that all of the language instructors in my program had at least an MA in something related to linguistics).
Currently, my plan is to apply for JET as well as to two or three dispatch companies (Altia, Interac, maybe Borderlink…) in the upcoming cycle to increase my odds of getting some kind of teaching work in Japan. I've wanted to do JET for a long time, but I know that I might not get in, and I want at least some (assistant) language teaching experience before I commit to a master's program (or teacher's college). I've also enrolled in an in-person CELTA course this fall because I want some practical training before I start looking for ALT work.
I wrote a paper on English language education in Japan while I was in Tokyo, so I'm relatively familiar with the industry's main structural/ideological issues and don't intend to spend more than 3-5 years doing ALT work, but while I was volunteering in Japan (very briefly), I really enjoyed just connecting with the kids and doing what I could to encourage them to discover the joys of self-directed language learning. I also loved living in Tokyo, from the trains to the music scene and the neighbourhood oba-san, and I've made close friends there who I'm still in touch with. All of this to say that I'm seriously considering living and working in Japan in the medium-to-long term.
If I'm able to find ALT work, I'm thinking of pursuing an online MEd in TESL from the University of British Columbia part-time after a year or two so that I can maintain residency in Japan. My intention is to use the master's to find work at a private JHS/SHS or university in a larger city. Taking into account my preferences and future demographic trends, I am currently thinking of Tokyo, Yokohama, or Fukuoka location-wise. In terms of deciding between private JHS/SHS and university teaching, I love working with kids, but I do have a slight suspicion that I might prefer teaching higher level English for Academic Purposes courses in the long run (and university work seems to pay more), so I want to keep both options open.
If I enjoy teaching but decide to move back to Canada for whatever reason, I would instead apply to UBC's BEd program. I understand that this could also open up opportunities for employment at an international school in Japan after several years of teaching in Canada, so a BEd itself might be a good option in terms of teaching credentials for working in Japan, but I'm hesitant to go to teacher's college instead of getting a master's seeing as job opportunities at international schools seem to be very limited based on my research thus far.
This brings me to my specific questions:
1. How evenly distributed are job opportunities at private JHS/SHS, international schools, and universities? Do you expect this distribution to change in the relatively near future?
2. For those of you with experience in private JHS/SHS and/or university positions, what has your work-life balance been like? What have you particularly enjoyed or not enjoyed about your position(s)? What has helped you to succeed in your career?
3. In terms of university work, are full-time contract lecturer and associate professor positions still attainable for master's graduates, or will it likely be necessary to pursue a PhD going forward? Looking through JREC-IN, it looks like a master's in (applied) linguistics or a related field is the bare minimum at the moment, but I'm still slightly unclear on Japanese universities' actual hiring practices. I do have some interest in pursuing a PhD in linguistics.
4. In initially securing university work as a contract lecturer, how important are publications and networking compared to when applying for higher posts?
5. How much do private schools and universities tend to focus on the reputation of your alma mater?
- Note: I'm asking this because I've also considered applying to Oxford's MSc in Applied Linguistics & SLA, but I don't want to get fleeced as an international student in the UK. (Personally, I'm more concerned about the educational quality of the program and the research that the faculty are doing.) My understanding is that degrees from Oxbridge and top American schools carry a lot of weight in Japan, but UBC is also well respected. Other options for me here in Canada are the MA in Language and Literacies Education at OISE (University of Toronto) or the MA in Linguistics at UofT, both of which would be fully funded. Of course, these alternatives are all in-person, so pursuing any one of them would necessitate leaving Japan for a while.
6. Do you see the English education job market for qualified professionals in Japan shrinking significantly in the coming decades? This is part of why I'm leaning towards working in larger, more resilient cities. I'm more concerned with job security than salary or exchange rate competitiveness (I learned how to live within my means in Tokyo).
If you read any of this, thank you!
I would appreciate whatever advice you might have, even if it's sarcastic or blunt. I'm trying to keep my plans flexible, because they often change.
by Physical-Version7840