Hi everyone,
I’ve been lurking on this sub for quite a while and have read through the wiki/some posts on high school and university teaching, and wanted to seek advice on my personal circumstances and the next steps to take to give me the best chance at teaching in Japan without having to teach for more than a year or two at an eikaiwa.
I am 27 and currently preparing to do a Masters degree in Secondary Education in Australia. I’ll graduate in December 2027. I am not an Australian citizen and technically would count as a “non-native English speaker” passport-wise — but I am fluent in English, all my education from secondary school onwards was conducted in English (at international school), and I have two other degrees from the US and UK. My two specialist teaching areas are Visual Arts and Legal Studies, and my university will not let me change them to English or TESOL due to their own internal procedures. I am currently learning to speak Japanese but will most likely only be at N4 level by the time I complete my degree in two years’ time. I’m hoping to move to Japan at least a year or two after graduating, by which time I will hopefully have the requisite two years of teaching experience under my belt and N3 level Japanese.
Given my circumstances, I have some questions:
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Will I need a TESOL qualification to get a teaching job in Japan? I’ve been browsing JALT and JACET and only some jobs appear to require this, but I’m wondering if it is also a secret requirement for most English-speaking teaching jobs in Japan. Getting a CELTA online from Lexis or RMIT is an option for me — will this be enough?
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Will my “non-native English speaker” nationality count against me on job applications? Will my educational history will cancel it out/show that I’m definitely fluent in English?
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Will not having N2 level Japanese (I believe this is business proficiency?) also count against me on job applications? I haven’t spotted many job postings with explicit requirements for Japanese fluency but am wondering if this is a secret criteria that would make me less competitive in the job market there.
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I notice that a lot of positions on job sites require existing work rights in Japan, but have also read on here that if I was to get my foot in the door by working at an eikaiwa/Westgate for a year while applying for teaching positions, I wouldn’t be eligible for the more lucrative expat teacher compensation packages. How difficult would it be for me to land a job as an overseas hire with my qualifications and two years of experience? Would doing eikaiwa teaching for a year open plenty more doors for me job-wise since I’d have work rights? (My country of citizenship only offers positions for CIRs, not ALTs, so I can’t do the JET programme to get my foot in the door.)
Any advice appreciated. Ultimately I guess I’d like to know if teaching in Japan is just a pipe dream, or if it’s truly feasible with the qualifications I’m on track for, and if so, how to maximise my chances over there. Thanks!
by treejoakley