Hey all
So I taught in Japan for a year (2002 – 2003) and loved it, back then I was on a working holiday visa. I’ve long wanted to return there to teach and live there again but I think that obtaining a TEFL certificate would make me a more desirable candidate as I’m in my early 40’s now instead of my early 20’s. Anyways just wondering which certificate (ie CELTA, etc) is the best option specifically for Japan.
Cheers
8 comments
CELTA or a Trinity CertTESOL are ‘the best’ insofar as they’re standardised and accredited; you (in theory) receive the same standard of training and instruction wherever you take the qualification. The CELTA also includes 6 hours of observed practicum (I presume the Trinity CertTESOL has something similar, but I’m not too familiar with it).
HOWEVER, these courses are very expensive. I have a CELTA from International House London and paid just over £1700 in total for it. It’s not worth getting unless you plan to make a career out of TEFL. For Japan, it’s arguably not worth getting even if you plan to make TEFL a career; it may give you a slight edge, but it’s not usually specifically required for any jobs in the same way that an MA TESOL or Applied Linguistics is required to teach in universities.
If you want to teach English just for a few years and then return home, either don’t bother with any TEFL certificate or go for one that’s inexpensive. Only go for the CELTA/Trinity CertTESOL if you want to progress to a better job within the TEFL world (bearing in mind it will make you a more competitive candidate, but won’t open up university jobs by itself).
Generally your best chances are if you have CELTA or CertTESOL. general online TEFL is okay but a dime a dozen. Best bet is a combo Masters TESOL + one or more of the above.
Fwiw, if you’re just looking for a short stint, you don’t really need any certification to work as an ALT or at an eikaiwa, but your opportunities will certainly be better if you have something!
1) When you “taught for a year,” what did you do?
2) What do you want to do when you come back this time?
You do not need the extra degrees. Most places won’t pay you extra for it so you’d be throwing your money away.
If you plan to stay and get an actual teaching job for the long haul, then it is wise to get certifications. However, if it is just eikaiwa, the salaries are dirt and they accept anyone because no one wants to stay that long working for 250,000 yen a month. Annual Residence tax bill is approximately 2/3 a month’s salary. As are the health care and pension payments. So basically 2 months of your annual salary goes to those three bills alone. Not to mention your rent and living expenses. So if you really want to get those qualifications they won’t pay off until you get out of eikaiwa and that money might be better used keeping you afloat in Japan.
One thing to be aware of: last time I looked, the pay for eikaiwa teachers basically only knows one direction, and it isn’t “up”. Despatch companies are just trying to undercut one another in order to win contracts with local BOEs by offering insanely bad pay. This could be very different to how it was in 2002-2003.
As for the qualification, I generally echo what the others have said. Unless you’re going for a top level, really plumb job (rich private school, etc.), then the general requirement for teaching English in Japan these days is “some command of English, not necessarily native…and a pulse is helpful”.
> Anyways just wondering which certificate (ie CELTA, etc) is the best option specifically for Japan.
Respectfully, I think you already know the answer from your 2002-2003 experience (and wages/opportunities haven’t increased since then). Anybody can come over for 6-12 months to teach.
As a bit of general advice about qualifications though:
– A bachelor’s degree… ANY 3 year bachelor’s degree will tick the box for a job and a visa if you’re from an E1 country.
– People from E2 countries most likely need a master of TESOL or some sorta post-grad teaching qualification (ideally from an E1 country… lotsa people on this sub seem to be in this boat).
– TEFL is just a piece of paper. It’s a nice primer before travelling overseas to teach English (I did one with a heap of backpackers for ~$200 and it was a good networking tool while I was bored, waiting for my job in Japan to start), but it’s just a piece of paper.
– A CELTA is seen as being the equivalent of a grad certificate in TESOL for all intents and purposes. Largely useless in Japan but might help you find work in some countries (including E1 countries where it may be a requirement).
– A Master of TESOL isn’t particularly hard to get and isn’t gonna give you an entry-point into academia. However, it’s technically a master’s degree so some people are able to get university tutoring jobs with them (generally you’ve gotta publish academic articles first, but not always). In my case, a Master of TESOL qualified me to teach ESL in Australian tech colleges and prisons (both of which paid the equivalent of ~8000-12,000 yen an hour). Neither were ‘career’ kinda jobs (i.e. there was no progression) but both provided some decent, quick money when I returned home from Japan without any serious gigs lined up.
– Fluent Japanese, a Japanese Bachelor of Education and registration as a teacher in Japan is your bare minimum if you wanna be a teacher in Japan. Having left teaching (I’m qualified as a teacher in Australia and also have a master of TESOL FWIW), I always find it sorta farcical that somebody would go through all this effort in order to teach kids. I mean, if somebody REALLY wants to teach, there’s lotsa ways to fast-track the qualification process (and earn a lot more $$$) if you get qualified in the west and teach in the west. As admirable as I find this, I left teaching (and re-trained as a lawyer) because it’s not something I wanna do anymore. To be clear… once you decide to go to u i, you can study ANYTHING. I have nothing against teaching, but there’s 100 other things you can spend your time studying that will earn you a lot more $$$ and provide more opportunities/development IMO.
Out of interest, what have you been doing in the intervening 19 years?
Probably CELTA, a lot of schools either prefer it or require it. Just keep in mind it’s not that CELTA is the best, just that it’s the most basic of requirements to get you started with slightly better jobs than you would be locked in otherwise.