Quote:
Originally Posted by Tsuwabuki
In my experience, if you ever expect to be an active part of any school you work in, you're going to need fluency in Japanese even when you teach English. You cannot be promoted nor be given more responsibility without the language skills, and if you intend to pursue licensing, you will need to complete between twelve and sixty credit hours of education courses in Japanese (dependent upon what transfers from your university) at a Japanese university.
I went to a four year university with the intent to become an English teacher in my home country. Texas is not currently hiring, and hasn't been for years now. Instead I came to Japan, and I'm quite happy here.
I consider teaching English my calling and I love doing it, whether I am teaching simple construction and conversation in an EFL classroom or teaching Medieval British Literature. Be careful how you paint "English teachers." If many people are unambitious and willing to continue to work in entry level positions for the rest of their lives, that has nothing to do with the area they are working in. I would hope you are not implying I am wasting my life.
I am currently earning an MA in Government with an emphasis on Japanese Culture and Politics (specific thesis area is the concept of kokutai 国体, a Japanese political philosophy, during the Taisho era) to be finished in June, but that is largely for permanent residency, higher salary, and university teaching requirements.
I'm quite happy continuing to teach junior high school students. They add meaning to my life, far from wasting it.
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You took everything I said out of context. Firstly, the majority of people who do come to Japan to teach generally do Eikaiwa work, where you don't need Japanese. Hell, I know people who are college students who don't have degrees yet who are teaching English at companies like Gaba here. Or it's not even uncommon for real programs like JET to hire people who can't speak a lick of Japanese. I think you would have been better off not getting a degree in English/Teaching back home because it's not like you need any teaching qualifications to be a teacher in Japan. With another degree you could have the option of switching jobs or moonlighting or something.
Secondly, I said "many" people. For every one person like yourself who actually enjoys teaching and are successful at it, there are 1,000 people here just looking for a visa. They've got no end game, can't be successful back home, and are complacent living off 30K a year. They could climb the ladder at Starbucks back home and make at least that much.
I know you'd like to add some kind of prestige to your job, but in most cases it's not there. Teaching in general, I have utmost respect. "English teaching;" not so much.