Need advice for a friend
 

Hello everyone,
I don`t really post much here but I love the forum and I got a lot of useful help here. I just moved to Japan in the beginning of August and i`m just now starting to get the flow of things.
I have a friend that wants to work in Japan too but there`s one problem. She`s from HK. Since English teaching seems to be the vast majority of jobs out there I have no idea what she can go for. I don`t even know where to start looking.
She said she heard that to be a teacher in Japan you need child care certification and it was easy to get in Japan. Is this true?

If anyone can help me I would like to what jobs are available for people from Hong Kong. Or at least know where to look. Any helpful answer will be apprieciated. Thank you everyone.

Child care certificate? I work in a elementry school and have friends who work at kindergardens, never heard of needing that.

From Hong Kong...well that's a sticky area. Was she taught in English through her education? Because that's what counts as fluent.

Does she know Mandarin? It's possible to get a job teaching Chinese...I'm pretty sure this would be mandarin though rather than cantonese.

Other ways to get a job in japan...well you're very limited as to what jobs you can be sponsered for, that's why the vast majority of people are english teachers cos it's one of the few jobs we can legally do (unless you have a japanese spouse).

If she is from HK then it is very likely that she have a vast majority of english understanding, the problem is whether she can speak fluently?.. in term of grammars and written skills, i dont think it will be a problem at all.

Her English might be perfect, but Japanese want to learn English from native speakers from English speaking countries. (read: America, UK, Austalia, Canada, etc. The West). She should look into teaching Chinese.

Thank you everyone. I also suggested teaching chinese but she says people in HK speak Cantonese and not manderine. I`ve been her friend for over a year and I can tell you no one will hire her to teach English. I was hoping I wouldn`t have to go back to her with bad news because she wants to come here so badly. Maybe her only other option is to enroll in a study abroad program.

ok thanks again everyone!

oh and thanks for the thread on translating/interpreting work. My ultimate goal is to become a translator so i`m here to perfect my Japanese.

There are Chinese schools much like the plethora of English schools in Japan, but they are a bit harder to find. Her best chance would be to a) have awesome Japanese ability and work in translating/tour guide of some sort, b) know Mandarin and work in one of these Chinese schools, c) find a school that teaches Cantonese which I would assume there is at least one or two in cities like Tokyo, Osaka, etc., or d) get a job with a Chinese firm that will place her in Japan.

I have never heard anything about having a child care certificate making it easier to find a job in Japan. Maybe it would if you were Japanese or in her case working within the Chinese community (second largest percentage of foreigners in Japan after Koreans).