[ SECRET POST #3150 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3150 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 032 secrets from Secret Submission Post #450.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: Working in Japan

[herpymcderp]

I worked in Japan for a year as an English teacher, but I'd need more information than that to properly give advice. Where will you be working? Is it a private school or a school that caters to public schools? What age range will you be teaching? Do you know where you'll be living yet?

All of those things go into what you can expect from your experience.

Re: Working in Japan

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I don't actually have a placement yet, so I'm not sure. So far, I've been told that I've been accepted and that I should expect a placement starting in February. I'll be teaching all ages (it's with ECC).

Re: Working in Japan

[herpymcderp]

Okay, so a chain school.

I don't want to be an immediate downer, but a lot of people in chain school situations do not enjoy the classroom part of their jobs. You will get prepackaged lesson plans and you won't be able to deviate much from them or offer much in the way of your own material, and this is often a problem if your particular classes aren't learning as fast as they should or you run into issues with the curriculum. If you are a young, attractive female and are placed into a business English classroom... you are probably in for a rough time and a year of being constantly hit on by salarymen who don't want to learn English and just want you to write reports for them.

On the other hand, it means you will always have foreign coworkers to travel with, hang out with, and generally bond with. The bad part about teaching in independent schools that cater to public classrooms and private schools is that if you aren't fluent in Japanese then you likely won't be making many friends with coworkers and Japan can get very lonely when you don't have an opportunity to make friends.

Dating is also usually a difficult proposition for gaijin women in Japan (not sex, mind you) so I'll just warn you about that right off the bat. Also, if a Japanese guy offers to buy you a drink he's soliciting sex. Many are the women who get to Japan and are very confused when they accept a drink from a strange man only for clothes to start coming off fairly shortly afterward lol.

Hopefully you get placed in one of the larger metropolitan areas near a gaijin bar. If you want to meet people (either foreigners or Japanese people who have travelled outside of Japan and are thus seeking to befriend foreign people in their own country), those are usually the best places to do so. If you get placed in a rural area, you might be in for a very lonely time.

As for fitting in... if you're not fluent in Japanese and can't speak a word of it, you're in for an easier time of it socially than you will be if you do speak Japanese. People won't expect you to know any social rules if you speak no Japanese, and they'll be willing to let things slide. Be very observant either way, and try to learn what the proper gestures and manners are, and it'll go a long way toward having your Japanese coworkers/associates like you.

cont.

Re: Working in Japan

[herpymcderp]

cont.

To really get the most of your time in Japan, give yourself plenty of time to explore and have fun and make sure you try absolutely everything new that catches your eye. That said... combinis might seem like a great place to eat at first, but they basically all sell junk food, and many an English teacher has been shocked to realize they've gained 15lbs in a few months just eating from convenience stores. If you're really down on your coin, you can also just hit up one of the department store style food courts (usually found under major train stations) for the free samples and essentially be able to have a free lunch.

The best way to keep yourself healthy in Japan is to learn to cook and to find a 100Y store that sells fruits and vegetables; otherwise, buying them can be prohibitively expensive. If you're a coffee drinker, you might want to drop the habit before you get to Japan. Coffee runs from $25-$50/lb there, and although there are coffee chains that sell really interesting drinks and snacks (my favorites were Seattle's Best and Tully's Japan operations) it isn't really tenable to keep up a morning coffee habit. Switch to green tea while you're there.

Finally, Japan has some great places to visit that take a while to get to, so while you're there make sure to get the seishun juuhachi kippu (seishun 18 ticket) which gives you free travel on all JR rail lines throughout Japan. It's an extremely economical way to travel during Golden Week, and a tradition amongst English teachers who don't want to spend money. A warning: travel from Tokyo can take quite a while if you are wanting to visit Kyoto on the SJK fare, so make sure you have something to do on the trains.

Hotels are expensive to stay in, and hostels are few and far between, so the best place to stay overnight (or in a pinch) is at a manga kissa. A flat rate gives you a few hours of stay in a booth which often has reclining chairs for people to sleep on, and unlimited drinks from the self serve soda fountain.

Above all, this is going to be a rare experience in being a minority (if you aren't one already). Cherish it. It will give you an incredible perspective on how it is to be a exoticized, demonized, treated as a status symbol, and so much more. It will be a genuinely life-changing experience, and while that may be uncomfortable at times, you will thank yourself for doing it later in life, I can promise that.

Re: Working in Japan

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you much for all of this advice! You've been extremely helpful (and a lot more honest than my ECC contact!).

Re: Working in Japan

[herpymcderp]

Glad to help out. I don't want to make it sound like it will be a bad experience, but in the spirit of transparency I wanted to make sure I mentioned the potential bad parts along with the good.

It will be worthwhile though, if that's what you're wondering. Definitely that.

Also a really great chance to have a lot of NSA sex with people and discover that part of yourself, if that's what you're into. ;p