Some Questions

[crosso]

Hello everyone,

I have a few questions about possibly moving to Japan.
First things first, some info: I'm 17, and Australian. I visited Japan last year (2010) for 2 weeks with my Japanese class (I've been learning Japanese for two years) and I absolutely loved it.

I have to make some decisions in the next 3 months regarding my career.
The university I'm going to has a diploma of languages which i plan on taking up along with a bachelors degree of 3 years, making it a 4 year course.

I can't decide which degree though. I was thinking teaching or business. Teaching would allow me to possibly be an english teacher in Japan for a while and then return to Australia and be a Japanese teacher, where as business would make more money in the long run, but probs won't help in getting a working visa for Japan

So I need some advice. What course do you recommend I take, teaching + japanese or business + japanese. Either way, Japanese course is only 1 year long and I also plan on accelerating my linguistic skills by learning Japanese outside of university.

I was also thinking of deferring my university for another year to take another holiday to Japan by myself or with just one friend to determine how well I'll make it without being in a huge group of travelers like my last trip there.

What do you guys think?
Thanks

[tazzy]

You don't need a teaching degree to be a teacher in Japan for a while.
Wait, scratch that, to be a teacher in Japan you need a properly accredited Japanese teaching degree (i.e. very hard for you to be a 'proper' teacher here).
To be an assistant teacher or somesuch in Japan, you don't need a teaching degree. I know lots of people in such jobs and they did a vartiety of courses- graphic design, physics, history, etc...
And some of these gigs (e.g. the Jet programme, you should look into that) pay just as well as new teaching jobs- others of course pay quite awful, I've a friend who works for a company called interac and...yeah, he isn't happy.

And no, business most certainly does not make you more money in the long run. Studying 'business' doesn't mean you'll be a big businessman. It is a valid degree, but doesn't give you any special leg up over people who did other stuff. In fact, sorry to say but in my uni it had a bit of a reputation as a drinking degree.

All depends on what you want to do in the future. Do you want to be a teacher? Then totally yeah study teaching, it won't hurt your chances of coming to Japan for a few years. Will boost your chances of getting a job perhaps (if not one as an outright teacher).
Or do you want a job for a company doing....whatever it is people who work in normal offices do? Then study whatever interests you, if this matches up with what business courses teach then great, study that, some people do it for genuine reasons. All too many kids though think studying business is the route into business whilst in actual fact 90% of degrees do much the same thing only they give you a more interesting 3/4 years of uni in the meantime.
My best friend studied computers because he thought it would be more useful in the future than his real interests in politics and history- he had a miserable time at uni, graduated with low grades and has had a right pain getting a job...other friends who studied less immediately practical subjects like literature and the like though, and managed to get good grades due to enjoying their subject, have done pretty OK.

And I'd greatly recommend against taking a gap year unless you really do have something awesome to do in that year which will really help your future career/you really need to work and earn money for school/your parents are mega rich and can get you a job at their company whenever you want.

[crosso]

Sorry about the slow reply friend. I completely forgot I posted this.

Thankyou for the great advice. I've taken it in aswell as talking to a careers advisor at my old school. I think a gap year will help me decide which career path i want to follow. (eg going to Japan for a long holiday to see if I enjoy yhe culture enough to devote my career to teaching it) Money for university isn't a problem, as the government here will pay for it and will not make me pay the money back until I have a job where I'm earning over $50,000/year.

I'm still very un-decisive when it comes to what i want to study. I get my exam results back in a week which will give me a guideline on what I can and can't study. (ie not scoring high enough marks). Teaching Japanese may not be my number one passion, but it is a realistic career I can see myself enjoying. I made great friends with some of my teachers and the majority of them seemed to enjoy their career as they were in subjects they enjoyed. I loved studying Japanese in highschool so maybe continuing my studies and teaching Japanese here in Australia would be a good idea for me. The problem is it's a salary state-wide. I'm not sure how well I'll be able to live on that amount of money. But then it is something I enjoy..

Another option was psychology. It interests me a lot but the course seems very rigorous and the outcome isn't guaranteed.

Just some thoughts.

[Gunner]

Hey mate (fellow aussie).

If you're planning to take a gap year, why not get a summer job, save up some money and go to Japan on a working holiday visa if you're interested in seeing how you feel about living there. That's the best way to do it and also make the most of a gap year instead of wasting it, like many people unfortunately end up doing.