Teaching English in Japan?

[tikibirds]

Has anybody here taught conversational English in Japan? I am not talking about via the JET program that is sponsored by the Japanese government. I am talking about contracts with private language schools like Aeon or Nova. I have done some research and I know Nova has some serious issues in the past and they don't get very good reviews but I am also thinking a lot of that has to do with people's prespectives being skewed. I was on the Disney college program twice and there are tons of people that bash that program as well saying how horrible their experience was. Although I do think a lot of people who say that expected it to be a vacation and it's not.

I have NO teaching experience and can not speak Japanese - neither of which are required to be accepted.
Can someone get along alright there without knowing the language? Also, I spent 12 years living in Alaska so being far from family is not an issue for me. I actually ENJOY it.

[kaoskat]

I have no clue but it sure does sound exciting!

[kellyponyfeathers]

tebrighteyes did some sort of teaching trip in Japan; I'm not sure what program she was with though.  Try pm'ing her. 

[tikibirds]

I have no clue but it sure does sound exciting!

I need some excitement in my life 

But there are some things that concern me, like would I be getting paid enough to pay rent/food/ect. I know the apartments are pretty small but thats not an issue. My lovely <massive sarcasm right here> $900/mo apt in Alaska was only 280 SQ FT and I had a dog, chinchilla and 23 fish in there.

The other thing that worries me is - I do not like big cities that much. I am from New York City and I can handle city life but I really do not care for it. I would prefer someplace that doesn't have 30 million people in the region. Not all the schools are in Tokyo but they all seem to be in cities with at least a few million OR are part of the Tokyo metro area. On that note, I am also not a fan of earthquakes. I have had my fair share of them while in Alaska.

[kiwimlp]

I had a friend who did this years ago and really enjoyed it.  She was fluent in both English and Japanese though. I'm sorry but I really don't know how she went about finding the contacts but  I wish you all the best with your venture

[sailorstitch]

My best friend did this. Her major in college was Japanese. After graduation she spent a yearin Japan teaching English. I don't know all the details of how she got the job. And she didn't want to do it for more than a year. But that job did lead to her meeting her husband. So for her it was well worth it.

sailorstitch

[Sora]

I've always wanted to go down this path, I have certificates for passing Japanese courses and yet I don't have a Bachelor's degree so I'm kinda stuck for now.

Although like you, I hate living in large cities, but the last time I was at Tokyo, despite it being so crowded I actually felt calmer there than I did back home.

[melodys_angel]

Let me see if I can contact my neighbor.  He did this, only in Korea instead of Japan...mind hes also a teacher.

Maybe I can get some insight for you  

[mlp4me]

I have a friend and her husband who did this for 2 years. Both certified teachers. They lived in a small apartment and they said the pay was OK. They enjoyed dumpster diving to furnish their apartment. Neither will do it again though, they missed home.

[Sumire]

I taught English in Japan on the JET Program and also, afterward, through a private English conversation school.  I went over having spent one year studying Japanese in Japan as an exchange student in university.  The man I replaced at the English conversation school had been at the school since the eighties and spoke very little Japanese and could not read katakana (or possibly hirgana either, it never came up). What questions do you have? 

[Hervoyel]

I've known several people who have taught in Japan, but all of them were either doing it post-university through JET (and I've heard quite divided opinions on the experience), or were teachers already who found jobs at international schools in Japan.

So not quite your situation, I'm afraid.  Sorry!

[tikibirds]

Sumire - For the Conversation schools, do you get paid enough to pay rent and food? Which one did you go through? Were you in Tokyo or some other location?
Do they help with finding/providing an apartment? Is it hard to buy food without being able to read Kanji or Hirigana? I have books on it and something similar to the Rosetta stone but I never even opened it. 
How much money do you need to bring with you?

Let me see if I can contact my neighbor.  He did this, only in Korea instead of Japan...mind hes also a teacher.

That would be cool.

I've heard quite divided opinions on the experience

I expected as much. Like I said, I was on the Disney college program twice and worked for Xanterra which is one of the biggest contractors for hotels in national parks. Both Disney and Xanterra have alot of people bashing them, saying how horrible they are to work for, ect. Well, yeah, the jobs are sucky and the hours are long but look what you get in return. Disney was FREE admission and For Xanterra, I got to LIVE INSIDE Grand Canyon National Park.! Most people only get to visit there for a few hours or a day or two at most. I got to explore it for a year. 

I missed the deadline for this year and honestly, I don't think I would of been accepted for the JET program anyways. I donn't do so well in interviews

[Corona]

I interned at a graphic design firm in Tokyo for two months and taught English in Iwate prefecture for five months through a private program available only to students at my college. We lived with host families and got a stipend for food. Getting around without knowing Japanese it really depends on where you end up.

If you're put in a touristy area like Tokyo or Kyoto, then you can feasibly get around without knowing the language since most signs are bilingual and your chances of meeting someone who does know English go up. If you get out into the country like I did into rural Tohoku, then it'll be very difficult to navigate only in English. Do you know where you'll be placed? I'll have a better idea of how well you can get by in English if you do.

Before you go, I'd suggest you learn how to pronounce Japanese syllables and pick up a copy of Lonely Planet's phrasebook. I had a copy for my mom when she came to visit me and she was able to get by in Tokyo.

As for money, Japan is almost entirely a cash based economy. I only found one place that accepted credit cards and it was a konbini. If you bring money, make sure it's cash.

[Sumire]

Sumire - For the Conversation schools, do you get paid enough to pay rent and food? Which one did you go through? Were you in Tokyo or some other location?
Do they help with finding/providing an apartment? Is it hard to buy food without being able to read Kanji or Hirigana? I have books on it and something similar to the Rosetta stone but I never even opened it. 
How much money do you need to bring with you?

As Corona says, it really depends on where you are as to how easily you can get by in English. I taught in Osaka prefecture for three years with JET, Niigata prefecture for one year also with JET and Chiba prefecture for one year with a company called American Language School. Niigata was where I used the most Japanese by a wide margin (although I also taught in elementary schools where there were no English teachers so that is no doubt a big factor).

In Osaka I knew a man with a Japanese wife and a daughter who only spoke Japanese and he only spoke English which, in that scenario, is incredibly sad but also obviously quite possible. In Chiba I took over some classes in a fairly small town, Yachimata, from the older gentleman I mentioned in my first post who had spent around twenty years in Japan without learning Japanese -- also quite possible.

Not knowing any Japanese most certainly curtails your activities but I knew English teachers (on JET too) who spent their free time with other English teachers, going to "gaijin bars," and/or spending their time with Japanese friends who were eager to practice their English skills.

Corona points out that in urban areas most signage is bilingual and thus you can take trains to get around pretty easily. Buses were more difficult in my experience because you had to ask for your stop to be announced and recognize it when it was announced but times have probably changed and I wouldn't be surprised if it's all electronic now. Most family restaurants have the famous plastic food display so you can just point at what you want and say "これをください" (kore o kudasai) [this please] if you want to flaunt some phrases (you can often get away with just pointing though if need be). Many informal restaurants also have photographs on their menus so you can do the same.

As for buying food to eat at home, I think a lot of people who got by without Japanese shopped primarily at convenience stores where you just picked up the already prepared food that looked good and brought it home. If you want to cook (which I wholeheartedly encourage) you will need a bit more Japanese. Of course fruit looks like fruit (and is crazy expensive and often larger than you would believe) and eggs look like eggs etc. but even packaged goods can be pretty easy to figure out as a lot of things have pictures on them. Yes, sometimes the picture is a finished product and all you are getting is powdered soup stock or the like but live and learn. The most difficult for my friends and I was buying sugar and salt - those are some kanji you might just want to commit to memory or copy down somewhere.

ALS (American Language School) paid enough for me to pay my rent, buy food, go to some concerts, buy goods, buy train tickets, travel back to Osaka on breaks and even save up a bit for my return to the USA. If it's your first time in Japan you'll even get health insurance pretty cheaply too as the cost is based on your income from the previous year (if you stay more than a year though, it can get more expensive -- I will say JET covering insurance was a nice perk). Here's an informative website about health insurance (it was a really big deal back when I was working there because AEON and NOVA -at the time- were revealed to not be providing the mandated health insurance): http://www.keepingpaceinjapan.com/2008/02/health-insurance-and-pensions-in-japan.html

I always had help getting an apartment. It is very, very difficult to get an apartment as a foreigner in Japan without a Japanese person to sign for you. In Osaka a Japanese English teacher found an apartment for me. It was completely unfurnished. I had to buy a light for the ceiling as well as a refrigerator. In Niigata I was in an apartment complex where the city rented three apartments for JET participants and when one left another took their place. This means I inherited dishes, vhs tapes and a basket of fake flowers among other things. They even gave me a bike and when someone stole the seat they gave me a new one!

In Chiba, with ALS, I also got a hand-me-down apartment that another employee was leaving. I even got moved three months before the end of my year because a female teacher was leaving her apartment in an all women's apartment building but the teacher replacing her was male so I moved to her old apartment and he moved to mine. Once again I inherited a wide variety of things, even including a futon. On the downside in the first apartment the guy who was leaving assured me he only ever saw one or two cockroaches in the apartment. I learned the hard and scarred for life way that he was lying through his teeth and there is no such thing as "one cockroach" in an apartment.

I have heard some English language schools have "dorms" for their teachers. I think NOVA and AEON may have them, at least in larger cities. I wanted to be in a "real" apartment building with Japanese neighbors so that didn't appeal to me (although when I was freaking out about roaches, wow did I appreciate having that one other ALS teacher in my building). However some people really like the dorms because it gives you a lot of possible friends from which to choose!

I would say I went over with around $2000 to start out. I don't know if I really needed that much but it definitely made surprises like buying light fixtures and bicycles easier! Oh and you'll probably need a bank account because every place I worked did direct deposit and to get a bank account you will probably need a hanko (name seal) but most places should help you with all of that. You usually need an account before you can get a cell phone too. This is definitely a time where you need to ask questions at the interview though, make sure the company you sign with really will help you with all the red tape.

Okay, I have probably written way too much here. Sorry. One last thing, the place where I found my ALS job was http://www.ohayosensei.com/

[tikibirds]

I have read that they are mostly cash based and the apartments are small and tiny.

As for locations:

Native English Instructors - Kanagawa
Company:
NOVA Co. Ltd. (株式会社NOVA)
Location:
Kanagawa
Work Type:
Contract / Entry Level
Salary:
Amount not specified
Up to 2,100 yen per 60 minutes. Number of lessons will vary.

This and another in Gifu I applied for but Im thinking it would be best to apply again AFTER the summer season - since then I can save up more money.