How much is the cheapest rent you can get in Japan?

[RealJames]

Originally Posted by hitotsz

May I ask what kind of corporation you are president of? And how do you become that? just exploring possibilities here.

I teach English, I own an English school.
I worked at a few, hated them all, they sucked or has fundamentally huge business flaws or customer satisfaction flaws. I saw an opportunity to introduce a much better service than the competition, and jumped on it.

[hitotsz]

Originally Posted by RobinMask

From what I've heard it depends on a variety of factors. It's a job that can potentially be easy and laid-back, but not if you're planning on doing a good job and giving your students their money's worth. Teaching requires lesson plans, marking work, hours of lectures . . . if you do a good job you'll be spending a lot of your free time working too, like if a student has a problem you'll need to arrange time to talk things through with the student. People assume teaching's easy, but having taught and done a teaching course it's acutally very hard!

Some schools may let you turn up, talk to the class for an hour at a time, and do little else, but even if they did it wouldn't make you a good teacher and your students would suffer for it. So yes, it can be an easy laid-back job, but it really shouldn't be.

Can teaching English in Korea be just as laid-back and easy as in Japan?
How much do you usually earn? How much hours would you be working if your did the bare minimum and if you did a good job?

[hitotsz]

Originally Posted by RealJames

I teach English, I own an English school.
I worked at a few, hated them all, they sucked or has fundamentally huge business flaws or customer satisfaction flaws. I saw an opportunity to introduce a much better service than the competition, and jumped on it.

If you don't mind,
How much did it cost to start the school? What were the flaws? How many staff did you hire? Do you require a 4 year Uni degree in order to work there? Is there a site for it that I might see?

[RobinMask]

Originally Posted by hitotsz

Can teaching English in Korea be just as laid-back and easy as in Japan?
How much do you usually earn? How much hours would you be working if your did the bare minimum and if you did a good job?

I don't think you understood me, if you plan on doing a good job teaching then it won't be easy or laid-back. Teaching requires a lot of time and effort, and if you just take the "easy" approach you probably won't last longer than one year there.

Teaching in Korea, I'm not too sure how "easy" that is. To my knowledge it's just as demanding - if not more so - than Japan. When I looked into getting a visa there to work (and what the employers ask for) they ask for a lot more than Japan does in terms of paperwork, evidence, qualifications, experience . . . I would say it's not an easy option at all.

In Japan you earn around 250,000 yen a month, and this is around 3,000,000 yen a year. The wages are near enough the exact same wages a teacher would earn in the UK, around £21-24k a year. Most jobs expect you to teach aroun 20-24 contact hours, and I think there's usually around 20-24 office hours too. So let's say 40-45 hours of work a week.

[hitotsz]

Originally Posted by RobinMask

I don't think you understood me, if you plan on doing a good job teaching then it won't be easy or laid-back. Teaching requires a lot of time and effort, and if you just take the "easy" approach you probably won't last longer than one year there.

Teaching in Korea, I'm not too sure how "easy" that is. To my knowledge it's just as demanding - if not more so - than Japan. When I looked into getting a visa there to work (and what the employers ask for) they ask for a lot more than Japan does in terms of paperwork, evidence, qualifications, experience . . . I would say it's not an easy option at all.

In Japan you earn around 250,000 yen a month, and this is around 3,000,000 yen a year. The wages are near enough the exact same wages a teacher would earn in the UK, around £21-24k a year. Most jobs expect you to teach aroun 20-24 contact hours, and I think there's usually around 20-24 office hours too. So let's say 40-45 hours of work a week.

What I meant to ask was how much hours do you need to work if you do the bare minimum and how much hours do you need to work if you do extra hard work in preparing for classes. Do people come in a lot for the office hours? About how much of the office hours becomes waiting time?

How hard is it to get a teaching job in Japan? Can you still get it even if you have bad GPA?

Also could I teach Korean on the side? What's the demand like for learning Korean language?

[RobinMask]

Originally Posted by hitotsz

What I meant to ask was how much hours do you need to work if you do the bare minimum and how much hours do you need to work if you do extra hard work in preparing for classes. Do people come in a lot for the office hours? About how much of the office hours becomes waiting time?

How hard is it to get a teaching job in Japan? Can you still get it even if you have bad GPA?

Also could I teach Korean on the side? What's the demand like for learning Korean language?

It's not entirely difficult to get a job in Japan, however it's a very competitive market at the moment, so the more you have to offer the easier it'll be. You need a four-year bachelor's degree (three years is acceptable if you're in the UK), and I think it's at least 12 years of schooling in an English speaking school, and to be a native English speaker. A TEFL qualification can help, as can previous teaching experience.

Your questions about office-time I can't answer, you'd need to ask more experienced members who've spent time in Japan. The bare mininum number of hours working for a full-time job will be forty hours (aprox.).

You'd do best to look at these threads:

http://www.japanforum.com/forum/livi...-jp-2-0-a.html

http://www.japanforum.com/forum/livi...ive-japan.html

[philostyle]

RealJames, do you have japanese teachers too? is your school mainly for teaching english to japanese or do you also have japanese classes for foreigners?

[hitotsz]

What if I came to the US from Korea when I was in 3rd grade (8 yrs old)?

[RickOShay]

Originally Posted by hitotsz

What if I came to the US from Korea when I was in 3rd grade (8 yrs old)?

You are probably fine. And I am willing to bet from now for the next year or so getting an English teaching job in Japan will be easier than it has been in a long while, with all the "flyjin" who bought the media hype, and headed straight for the doors. Anyhow in order to get sponsered for a work visa (if you are American) you do need a four year degree as far as I know.

[RickOShay]

Originally Posted by hitotsz

I read about capsule hotel and sleeping in Internet cafe. What would be the cheapest option?

Also what is the feasibility of an American citizen going to Japan to get a job as a hotel housekeeper or clerk for konbini stores in this economy?

When I first came over living in teacher housing cost me 13,000 yen a month, the place was a dump, and really shabby even by Japanese standards. I got used to it though and lived there for quite a while, and really saved a lot of money by doing so. Now my rent is 58,000 yen a month the place is smaller but billion times nicer, and part of my contract gets me 30,000 yen a month of that rent paid for. So i basically pay 28,000 yen a month in rent plus anywhere from 8000-15,000 in water/gas and electric bills each month. Internet+cable costs another 8000 yen, regular phone line is 1680 yen, cellphone is like 4000 yen. Food/commodities bought at grocery stores has always been around 3000-4000 a week when it is just me.

In all my time here I have been able to save about 50-60% of all my paychecks. I do not own a car however, and live my life on a bicycle or by public transportation.