Want to move to japan where to start

[CoreyLynn]

I just want to say thanks again to everyone on this
thread.

All of your posts and opinions are really helping
me out.

: )

[Misericordias]

Originally Posted by steven

I'm sure there are other teaching jobs out there, but JET seems like the safest bet. However, that's not to say it's without its short comings as well. For example, sometimes (and not unlike most other teaching jobs in Japan) you will have to jump between schools like a pinball every day. I've seen people with 7 or more schools before. This is especially bad for people looking for teaching experience as having to deal with that many schools means less student-teacher interaction, which is really important. The kind of teaching you can do is also limited which makes it a bum deal for the boards of education doing this type of thing, too (but I believe they do this to save money). I don't know if that is the majority of the cases or not, but I only have to go to one school (reduced from 2) and it's an extremely satisfying job.

Misericordias, I don't think I'd be suited for a job like that. For starers, I think most of them are located in bigger cities. I really enjoy the inaka too much to do a job like that. I'm not so sure I'd be qualified to do a job like that anyways! To begin with, I just don't think I have the brain power. It seems like you have to know all the laws in America as well as all the laws in Japan and you have to know all kinds of things. I can't imagine what they have to deal with either... like people losing passports, expired passports, full passports, visa problems, criminal issues, babies being born, marriages, divorces?, etc. As far as everyday things, that's what I picture, although I'm sure there's more. It's not something I would want to do, as far as I can tell. It seems like it would be a job without much humor. Why do you ask, out of curiosity?

Hmm, why I ask I am not too sure. Perhaps it's because it's a career field that I want to work in once I graduate college. I was just wondering what most people do with their Japanese skills once they finish their JET program or some other teaching abroad program.

[GoNative]

Originally Posted by Sangetsu

Why Japan? I wouldn't necessarily rate Japan as an upgrade from America. Honestly, there are probably far more Japanese who would want to live in America than Americans who want to live in Japan.

Once again (as this topic has been gone over several times), the reality of Japan is often much different from the expectation. I know many people who have come to Japan to get the experience of living and working here, and most return home after one year. A few die-hards stick it out for longer, but I wonder if they truly love Japan, or if they are simply mentally unstable.

Personally, I like living in Japan, which is why I am still here going on 3 years. I visited 3 times before making the decision to move, so I knew what I was getting into, and I had lived in other countries in the past, so there was no culture shock or homesickness to deal with.

Contrary to what others have mentioned, you don't really need to know much Japanese to get by in Japan, particularly if you live in one of the larger cities. If you are coming to work as an English teacher, you'll get even less chance to use Japanese, as your coworkers and students will primarily use English. I spent more than a year studying Japanese before coming here, and I can honestly say that I could have done fine without it. It's better to know it, but it's far from necessary.

As for English teaching as a profession, I don't recommend it, unless you like minimal pay and minimal benefits. There is a lot of competition in the teaching industry, but surprisingly little room for advancement or good pay, unless you have a masters degree or higher and teach in a university. I enjoy teaching, but it's truly a dead-end job. But in my case teaching has become a sideline, as I've finally been able to go into business for myself.

There are other opportunities for foreigners in Japan outside the education market, but you'll need a professional degree of some type to qualify. The most useful degree in Japan is economics (boring as the subject is), with others being in engineering or such. Japanese studies would be an absolute waste of time and tuition as it wouldn't qualify you for anything in Japan, and it would be worth even less in America or Europe.

Keep studying, get into university learning something useful, and visit Japan a time or two before packing your bags and getting a one-way ticket.

Agree with most of the above especially the part about not needing fluent Japanese to live here. Sure it helps but you can live a great life here without being fluent. I've known people who have lived here for 7+ years without becoming anywhere near fluent. They don't last that long if they're not enjoying themselves. I've been here nearly 6 years and am far from fluent but absolutely love my life here.
I live in a small country town in Hokkaido and the cost of living here is a fraction of what it was back in Australia. The big costs in life like houses and cars are incredibly cheap. Our house, a 2 storey 3 bedroom place, cost only about Y10 million. In Australia you could barely get a shoebox for that.
The area I live in has about 300 foreigners who live here year round only a few of which teach english. Most of us work in property management, sales and development and hospitality at the Niseko ski resort. In winter many hundreds more come to work seasonal jobs. It is a great, close knit little community. Our lifestyle here is mostly stress free and based around outdoor activities and of course most importantly skiing! It's a lifestyle I could only dream about in Australia.
Anyway if you're looking for jobs in Japan outside of teaching English, Niseko is a good place to look especially for those with experience/qualifications in Hospitality or construction project management or real estate sales and have a good standard of Japanese language skills. Although I indicated fluency is not essential, it would definitely help you to get a job up here.

[steven]

Misericordias, my experience with the Consolate in Osaka blew me away. I went there to take care of some business just last month. The people there all seemed extremely smart... like on the elite level. They were answering all kinds of complex questions on the fly in both English and Japanese (American and Japanese people). A lot of it had to do with different laws and rules. The topics covered a lot of things like passports, visas, marriages, among other stuff. I'm not sure if the people there majored in Engilsh or Japanese or what, but it seems like their knowledge of international stuff was pretty expansive so I'm certain their studies went beyond a simple degree in language. If you're really serious about it maybe you could look on the website and see if there's any information. If there isn't, what harm would calling or e-mailing them do? I think it would be a good idea to get started early on something like this because it seems like these people probably did a lot of studying before they got their jobs. I'm sure a lot of stuff comes up again and again as to make some of it routine, but I'm telling you, they were very efficient about it so it seemed like they had to know all of the stuff they know before going in.

As a pointless side note, I find it extremely ironic that level of proffesionalism was nowhere near matched in government run places in California, which is actually in the USA.

Again, if you want to LIVE in Japan you should know Japanese. Sure a lot of people don't know Japanese and come here... the majority of whom return home after a year or two. At least knowing enough Japanese to get by really helps... being fluent, however, can be a life saver. The kind of treatment you get from people is completely different. It makes you way more independent so you don't have to rely on other people to tell you how to do things (which can at times be faulty information).

If you live in a big city with a lot of foreigners I'm sure it certainly is easier (which is the case for most people I'm sure)... but the smaller the town the fewer foreigners there are. In my town out of around 50,000 people we have about 250 foreigners (this stuff comes in the mail... haha). I suspect most of those are chinese, with some phillipinos mixed in, some brazillians, and a couple middle eastern families, and maybe about 15 Americans/half children, so if you live in the inaka like a place like this, then it can turn a "boring" place into a really exciting place.

I think what you're saying is ineresting though, GoNative. What I get from it is that where you are has more to do with WHERE you are than whether or not you can speak the language. Knowing the language will unlock more opportunities, certainly, but being in a place like where you are sounds fantastic. If you end up in a place like that it doesn't matter what country you are in as paradise is paradise. I do believe though, that knowing the language could only enhance that experience. Although I have to admit, there was certainly something magical about my first trip to Japan 6 or so years ago when had just been studying Japanese in high school... it was a euphoric feeling. It was like the beginning of culture shock without the shock at the end. Which is another good thing about knowing the language-- less culture shock (as I really haven't had much of that to deal with when compared with other people).

[GoNative]

Completely agree steven, the more fluent you are the easier everything would be and the more oppotunities open up in terms of jobs, friends and understanding of this weird and wonderful country.
I would really struggle I think if I wasn't living where I do. Or I would definitely have learned a lot more Japanese! Those of us who live in the Niseko area fully recognise that this isn't what you might call 'real' Japan. There are of course many foreigners living here who are completely fluent and most them are doing very well for themselves.
I guess I was just pointing out that it's not absolutely essential to live here and be fluent. I would love to be able to find time to study more but frankly with full time work, a 13 month old daughter, an active outdoors lifestyle and a little socialising on the side there's just not that much time left over to do it!!

[ThisOtaku]

I absolutely love this thread! I wish it would have been around last year when I was having trouble deciding on what it was I wanted to do.

-- No, correction; how to do what I wanted.

Ever since I was seven I've been determined to go to Japan and possibly live there. In my senior year of high school I thought I would just graduate and move. Of course that was impossible but it was a nice dream.

It took me a year to finally bite my gums and return to school and get a higher education. I have to say, the next four years are going to be quite interesting for me but I'm determined to do this.

As for degrees, I've decided to get a B.A. In Linguistics with a Minor in Translation so that I can have more opportunities when I move to Japan on my first Eikaiwa with getting a different job if I'm not cut out for teaching.

As for learning Japanese, unfortunately, the university I'm attending does not offer Japanese and the Linguistics degree does not accept Japanese as a language so I'll have to juggle learning Japanese on my own and learning the required French or Spanish. Most likely Spanish since it's easier for me from my Hispanic background.

I don't think I have the right to judge the people wanting to move to Japan on their reasons so all I do want to add is that I'm wishing you luck and speed as I know it feels like it'll be forever before you can make the move!

ロイ

[GoNative]

I do find this idea of loving Japan from afar with a wish to live here without ever having actually been here previously somewhat perplexing. Although I've now lived here over 5 years and certainly do love it my only dream from childhood that was realised here was to live somewhere that gets snow to sea level.

So I find it a little hard to understand what it is about Japan that people think is so amazing that it's become their lifes dream to live here? Is it just that it is so different that you think it must be better? One thing I do know for sure is that most peoples perceptions of Japan from overseas do not really reflect the reality of what it's like to live here.

[WingsToDiscovery]

Originally Posted by GoNative

I do find this idea of loving Japan from afar with a wish to live here without ever having actually been here previously somewhat perplexing. Although I've now lived here over 5 years and certainly do love it my only dream from childhood that was realised here was to live somewhere that gets snow to sea level.

So I find it a little hard to understand what it is about Japan that people think is so amazing that it's become their lifes dream to live here? Is it just that it is so different that you think it must be better? One thing I do know for sure is that most peoples perceptions of Japan from overseas do not really reflect the reality of what it's like to live here.

I've always wondered the same thing.

[Realism]

今生きているのが日本をして、毎日就職し、日本語を勉 強しつづける。

lol

Got carried away there. But right now I'm living in Japan. In the midst of finding a job. My Japanese is good enough....right now everything around me is in Japanese. I listen to Japanese 14-16 hours a day (podcast, TV, radio, anime), and write only in Japanese....and only visit Japanese websites. Being fluent is something I strive for.

But right now I also would love to have a job to support myself. I don't want to live with my aunt for too long. I don't think it's fair to her or me. At least I cook my own food so she doesn't have to do it for me....

I don't know if I can get a job teaching English. Even though my English is completely fluent. My pronounciation is not that good....I don't have an "American" or "White" accent. And if I do teach English, I don't want it to hinder my Japanese studying.