People have been asking me if I got a job, a place, what the situation is ...
Most people when they travel to Japan for work do it through some kind of organisation like JET. There a few major problems with this idea. 1) You don't really choose where you get placed 2) If you hate your job, tough 3) If you want to go with someone you probably will not be placed in the same city. So you can probably see why we didn't go for that option. Besides, most of these programs are for people who have little or no experience teaching or living abroad.
Most people who decide to work abroad typically don't do it for very long, 1-2 years at most. Either they miss their home country, become bored or decide that it's time to stop running from their lives. These people typically go traveling after a major break-up or tragedy in their lives. So most people that apply for teaching positions have little or no experience. I believed that after teaching English in France for two years I would have no problems finding a job. So, I took a chance.
Rather than going through some official program that holds your hand, we decided that we would get working-holiday visas and arrive here and hope for the best. I'm not sure how smart that was in retrospect but it ended up working out anyway. We didn't really apply for any jobs before coming here since most places wanted an interview anyway. So we really came blind.
Now that I've been here for a month, I can honestly tell you that you could walk down the street and trip over work here. Everyone wants to learn English. If the economy is down, people want to learn English because it will help them get a better job or secure their job. If the economy is up, people still want to learn English, probably for the same reasons. There are jobs being posted everyday. I applied to about 7seven jobs in the first week I was here and got an interview at five of them. Given my work experience, I'm sure those interviews would have gone well. The truth is I never went to any of the interviews that were offered to me. Like I said, you can just trip over work here by doing very little.
For instance, the first week I was here, I was sitting at the international house trying to figure out how to start this blog. A 20 something year old Japanese girl came over to me and asked me if I was an English teacher, I said "yes" and she became really happy, bought me a coffee and chatted with me for 20 min. A few of her friends came over and Helene ended up teaching one of them every Sunday.
Like I said before, people are looking for new teachers all the time. Sometimes it's because people come over here and freak out because of the culture shock, you never know.
What ended up happening with me was on one hand great, on the other hand one of the most stressful situations of my life. I was introduced to a Canadian man from Toronto who was looking for someone with just my experience. I had my interview on the spot and overall felt very happy with the chance encounter. What was offered fit closely with what I was looking for and it seemed that he was happy with my qualifications. The situation was that he needed to go back to Canada for personal reasons and that he would be out town for some time. He had set up a rather large network of students that he taught English to and didn't want that network to fall apart.
Coming to Japan I was really worried about working for a large company because they usually have their own system of teaching English and insist that everyone use it. This was one of my problems when I was in France. I ended up creating my own system (hardly original, I'm sure others do it) and it ended up achieving amazing results. What my boss helped me realise was that I couldn't properly expand on this system because of the limitations of my last job. He had spent the last 18 years in Japan working on a very similar system. The point is we were very compatible in style and approach of teaching English and I could learn a lot to learn from his experience.
I spent the next while in an apprenticeship position learning all I could about the classes he taught and his style of teaching them. Due to the nature this approach, as it did not use a clear cut book, we ended up clashing here and there about many issues. I've always had a problem with authority, even when it's justified. I like doing what I want and so did my boss.
I'll make this very very long story short. Every day for the next two weeks became very very long. First of all we had to run around all over the Kansai region (this is the area that Osaka and Kyoto are in. A Region is sort of like a Province/State) using many different transportation systems at the same time. I had no idea where we were going or how long it would take to get there. We ran to the class, gave the class and ran to the next. Between each class, I listened to stories about the classes, the students, criticism of my teaching, personal stories and suggestions on how to make life smoother in Japan. Overall, it was all very interesting and very helpful but after a week or so it started to become too much. I started to get really cranky and the training became more difficult.
By the end of the first week, I was coming home to that crappy guest house I mentioned earlier exhausted and in the worst mood. By the end I was on the edge of crying every night because there was too much happening too quickly and I honestly don't take stress that well. It felt like it wasn't working even though it was. I'm not sure what the main reason for me being so overwhelmed was. Culture shock, jet-lag, running around, criticism, the food, the late nights, the apartment, or a combination of all the above. At times it really felt that my arrangement would not work out because we clashed a lot and were both under a serious amount of stress. But it did. Things did get better and I ended up keeping the job.
I really wanted this job. Based on everything the other jobs were offering and what I had to do for them, this offer really seemed like the best for me. The hours are good with a small exception, I work really late on Thursday nights and every other week I teach an early morning Friday class. Pay is good and the classes are all really great. Mostly, I teach seniors but I also have some young doctors and some high school kids. So, right now that's my job. Helene ended up getting one of the jobs I applied for and by listening to her stories about it, I would have hated it, simply because of the strict system. But that works for her and I'm happy about that.
As for living conditions, that's another story.
In Japan most places require a deposit, usually this is about a month's rent. You're thinking "what country doesn't?". You typically don't need to sign a year-long lease but you're really encouraged not to up and move every little while. This encouragement comes from something called Key Money. I'm not sure of the full name but most Japanese people know what you mean when you say Key Money. Key Money is not for rent, deposit, or services. The closest thing I can call it is gift money. Most places expect it and it's usually written in the advertisement. This money is a form of "Thank you for choosing me" payment. I don't really get the ins and outs of the system but it can be very expensive depending on the place, location and the landlord. Plus, on top of the Key money, deposit and first month's rent, if you go through an agency you have to pay agency fees. Most people will not rent to foreigners so getting a place can be super hard. An agency that speaks English may be the only way, PLUS many land lords also want a Japanese Guarantor. A Guarantor is a person who can vouch for you, basically say that you're alright and they represent you. If you up and leave without paying rent, the guarantor must pay the landlord the money you owe. As you can probably guess, we did not have a Japanese Guarantor.
Anyway, all this stuff makes finding an apartment long, difficult and above all expensive. We ended up visiting a few places. The people preyed on foreigners who didn't know any better or who didn't want to go through all the above junk. So be careful if you're looking in a newspaper or website that rents out places to foreigners, you might end up getting a Japanese guy offering you a hole in the wall for more than its worth but without a guarantor or key money.
One of the things that we had to learn was that a place was calculated on the number of Tatami mats, not square meters or inches. Tatami Mats are standard size and all rooms in Japan are evaluated in the number of Tatami Mats. So we started looking into all kinds of different layouts. For the most part, Japanese apartments are very small and they don't really like clutter so you don't get that much space for your stuff.
Both my job story and my apartment story end in the same way. Because my boss had to leave the country, part of the deal was that I would house sit for him as well.
I'll get into the details of the place later.
Suffice to say it's awesome...
Most people when they travel to Japan for work do it through some kind of organisation like JET. There a few major problems with this idea. 1) You don't really choose where you get placed 2) If you hate your job, tough 3) If you want to go with someone you probably will not be placed in the same city. So you can probably see why we didn't go for that option. Besides, most of these programs are for people who have little or no experience teaching or living abroad.
Most people who decide to work abroad typically don't do it for very long, 1-2 years at most. Either they miss their home country, become bored or decide that it's time to stop running from their lives. These people typically go traveling after a major break-up or tragedy in their lives. So most people that apply for teaching positions have little or no experience. I believed that after teaching English in France for two years I would have no problems finding a job. So, I took a chance.
Rather than going through some official program that holds your hand, we decided that we would get working-holiday visas and arrive here and hope for the best. I'm not sure how smart that was in retrospect but it ended up working out anyway. We didn't really apply for any jobs before coming here since most places wanted an interview anyway. So we really came blind.
Now that I've been here for a month, I can honestly tell you that you could walk down the street and trip over work here. Everyone wants to learn English. If the economy is down, people want to learn English because it will help them get a better job or secure their job. If the economy is up, people still want to learn English, probably for the same reasons. There are jobs being posted everyday. I applied to about 7seven jobs in the first week I was here and got an interview at five of them. Given my work experience, I'm sure those interviews would have gone well. The truth is I never went to any of the interviews that were offered to me. Like I said, you can just trip over work here by doing very little.
For instance, the first week I was here, I was sitting at the international house trying to figure out how to start this blog. A 20 something year old Japanese girl came over to me and asked me if I was an English teacher, I said "yes" and she became really happy, bought me a coffee and chatted with me for 20 min. A few of her friends came over and Helene ended up teaching one of them every Sunday.
Like I said before, people are looking for new teachers all the time. Sometimes it's because people come over here and freak out because of the culture shock, you never know.
What ended up happening with me was on one hand great, on the other hand one of the most stressful situations of my life. I was introduced to a Canadian man from Toronto who was looking for someone with just my experience. I had my interview on the spot and overall felt very happy with the chance encounter. What was offered fit closely with what I was looking for and it seemed that he was happy with my qualifications. The situation was that he needed to go back to Canada for personal reasons and that he would be out town for some time. He had set up a rather large network of students that he taught English to and didn't want that network to fall apart.
Coming to Japan I was really worried about working for a large company because they usually have their own system of teaching English and insist that everyone use it. This was one of my problems when I was in France. I ended up creating my own system (hardly original, I'm sure others do it) and it ended up achieving amazing results. What my boss helped me realise was that I couldn't properly expand on this system because of the limitations of my last job. He had spent the last 18 years in Japan working on a very similar system. The point is we were very compatible in style and approach of teaching English and I could learn a lot to learn from his experience.
I spent the next while in an apprenticeship position learning all I could about the classes he taught and his style of teaching them. Due to the nature this approach, as it did not use a clear cut book, we ended up clashing here and there about many issues. I've always had a problem with authority, even when it's justified. I like doing what I want and so did my boss.
I'll make this very very long story short. Every day for the next two weeks became very very long. First of all we had to run around all over the Kansai region (this is the area that Osaka and Kyoto are in. A Region is sort of like a Province/State) using many different transportation systems at the same time. I had no idea where we were going or how long it would take to get there. We ran to the class, gave the class and ran to the next. Between each class, I listened to stories about the classes, the students, criticism of my teaching, personal stories and suggestions on how to make life smoother in Japan. Overall, it was all very interesting and very helpful but after a week or so it started to become too much. I started to get really cranky and the training became more difficult.
By the end of the first week, I was coming home to that crappy guest house I mentioned earlier exhausted and in the worst mood. By the end I was on the edge of crying every night because there was too much happening too quickly and I honestly don't take stress that well. It felt like it wasn't working even though it was. I'm not sure what the main reason for me being so overwhelmed was. Culture shock, jet-lag, running around, criticism, the food, the late nights, the apartment, or a combination of all the above. At times it really felt that my arrangement would not work out because we clashed a lot and were both under a serious amount of stress. But it did. Things did get better and I ended up keeping the job.
I really wanted this job. Based on everything the other jobs were offering and what I had to do for them, this offer really seemed like the best for me. The hours are good with a small exception, I work really late on Thursday nights and every other week I teach an early morning Friday class. Pay is good and the classes are all really great. Mostly, I teach seniors but I also have some young doctors and some high school kids. So, right now that's my job. Helene ended up getting one of the jobs I applied for and by listening to her stories about it, I would have hated it, simply because of the strict system. But that works for her and I'm happy about that.
As for living conditions, that's another story.
In Japan most places require a deposit, usually this is about a month's rent. You're thinking "what country doesn't?". You typically don't need to sign a year-long lease but you're really encouraged not to up and move every little while. This encouragement comes from something called Key Money. I'm not sure of the full name but most Japanese people know what you mean when you say Key Money. Key Money is not for rent, deposit, or services. The closest thing I can call it is gift money. Most places expect it and it's usually written in the advertisement. This money is a form of "Thank you for choosing me" payment. I don't really get the ins and outs of the system but it can be very expensive depending on the place, location and the landlord. Plus, on top of the Key money, deposit and first month's rent, if you go through an agency you have to pay agency fees. Most people will not rent to foreigners so getting a place can be super hard. An agency that speaks English may be the only way, PLUS many land lords also want a Japanese Guarantor. A Guarantor is a person who can vouch for you, basically say that you're alright and they represent you. If you up and leave without paying rent, the guarantor must pay the landlord the money you owe. As you can probably guess, we did not have a Japanese Guarantor.
Anyway, all this stuff makes finding an apartment long, difficult and above all expensive. We ended up visiting a few places. The people preyed on foreigners who didn't know any better or who didn't want to go through all the above junk. So be careful if you're looking in a newspaper or website that rents out places to foreigners, you might end up getting a Japanese guy offering you a hole in the wall for more than its worth but without a guarantor or key money.
One of the things that we had to learn was that a place was calculated on the number of Tatami mats, not square meters or inches. Tatami Mats are standard size and all rooms in Japan are evaluated in the number of Tatami Mats. So we started looking into all kinds of different layouts. For the most part, Japanese apartments are very small and they don't really like clutter so you don't get that much space for your stuff.
Both my job story and my apartment story end in the same way. Because my boss had to leave the country, part of the deal was that I would house sit for him as well.
I'll get into the details of the place later.
Suffice to say it's awesome...
I'm looking forward to hearing about the apartment. Glad it's working out for you and Helene.
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