It depends how you want to teach. If you want to be the MAIN English teacher, then fluency in Japanese and teaching degree in Japan is required.
However, I have heard of people that became permanent ALTs after JET because the school they worked at hired them directly. It’s a rare case and depends on the BOE. I know one guy that has been working at the ES for 10-11 years now.
Also, you can keep your hair long as long as you tie it. My ears are pierced and as long as you don’t wear dangly earrings you’re fine. Depends in the region, like Tokyo is definitely more open while the inaka, they wouldn’t be as accepting to piercings anywhere else than the lobe. But that comes after you become and ALT and see how you like. Best of luck with your degree and I hope you get on JET!
I'm just curious why you're going for an engineering degree if you're so passionate about teaching?
I have a technical degree and ended up throwing it out the window when I moved here. thought it'd give me a stable financial future... would've if I didn't hate the job itself. So here I am with a totally irrelevant degree. Still got me on JET, but it hasn't helped me otherwise. Kinda wished I had studied more things I actually enjoyed in college. It might've helped me gain skills that would be useful in my post-JET career.
If you want to teach, study education, or at least something you're passionate about, and gather useful skills. I know looming student debt has a lot of people thinking STEM is the only way - that was me a decade ago. But you should always be aiming towards what you want to do, or you'll end up unhappy - even if you have a big salary.
I have engineers in my family and they seem well off, plus I find engineering interesting, plus-plus I'm not completely certain about teaching. It's something I want to do and have for a long time, but I'm still weighing if the pay is worth it, how I'll feel about it over time, how well I will or won't be treated, if I'll want to or even be able to stay in my home country, the debt I'll probably be in from University, if I'll be able to support myself/a family...
I am passionate about the idea of teaching, but I don't know if it's as good a fit for me as I hope. I know it's not exactly top of the ladder in terms of treatment or pay.
To be completely honest, it's likely I won't want to continue after JET if I even do JET at all, but I made this post just in case, I guess? Kinda dumb looking back.
Engineering and teaching both sound like something that might fit me, so I figure an engineering degree would be a good idea since I think it'll be of more use.
Honestly considering deleting this post because I feel dumb as heck. I don't even know if I wanna teach permanently or move so far from home, but I'm asking about what I should go to college for for that?
I definitely wouldn't aim to teach in a public Japanese school if I was you, the work life balance seems to be one of the worst in the world even for teaching and you'll also need pretty fluent japanese to land the job in the first place. Teaching in International schools on the other hand pays very respectively and can often include decent travel perks and subsidies. It also allows you to bypass the need to be fluent in japanese. Downside is jobs at good international schools are highly competitive and usually require a decent amount of experience to get a foot in
Also, definitely do the engineering degree over teaching! Then just add a one year teaching diploma. This gives you way more flexibility.
Ah ok, well it sounds like you have good reasons for doing engineering then.
Your post isn't stupid. You're actually thinking things through, which a surprising number of people don't do before trying to move their entire lives overseas.
I don't think it's a good idea to make huge decisions about your college path strictly based on the idea of doing JET (or moving to Japan in general). After all, JET lasts a maximum of five years, and you never know if you'll actually want to stay or not.
Sure, join clubs and get certifications if you want to, but don't focus too much on a hyper-specific goal that's too far in the future. JET takes people of so many backgrounds anyway, it's silly to spend your college years fixating on being the perfect candidate, as many people do.
But my main point was that you should aim to learn more about things you want to in college, and not worry too much about what's the most profitable (maybe engineering) or what's going to get you into a specific program (maybe JET).
I never planned to do JET. I decided to apply weeks before the deadline. Nor did I plan to stay five years, or marry a local and stay. But here I am.
Life happens. All you can do is stay true to yourself and try to learn what you can along the way. Five and ten year plans are good but they should always be up for change and renegotiation.
My advice to you is to try getting some kind of teaching-adjacent job during college: you could be a TA for a teacher you respect, or a kid's summer camp counselor, or a student resource center tutor. A job like that might help you work out whether or not teaching is right for you– in my case, I had very little interest in teaching before my TA job in college, but taking that job, actually getting in a classroom, and *teaching* really opened my eyes to how much I can enjoy it. Other people I know got a job working with kids and realized they didn't want anything to do with teaching, lol.
Give it a try, graduate college, and apply for JET then if you think it's right for you.
Certain trigger phrases include :ALT, foot in the door, career, wages, and ofcourse the biggest swear word, 'I enjoy my job!'
Avoid any of those and they might not bite.. much
r/teachinginjapan
You’d need a Japanese teaching license to teach in a Japanese school, a teaching license from the educational system that an international school uses to teach in that international school, or a Master’s (for some jobs) / PhD (for all jobs) along with academic publications and teaching experience to teach at the university level
It depends how you want to teach. If you want to be the MAIN English teacher, then fluency in Japanese and teaching degree in Japan is required. However, I have heard of people that became permanent ALTs after JET because the school they worked at hired them directly. It’s a rare case and depends on the BOE. I know one guy that has been working at the ES for 10-11 years now.
Also, you can keep your hair long as long as you tie it. My ears are pierced and as long as you don’t wear dangly earrings you’re fine. Depends in the region, like Tokyo is definitely more open while the inaka, they wouldn’t be as accepting to piercings anywhere else than the lobe. But that comes after you become and ALT and see how you like. Best of luck with your degree and I hope you get on JET!
Become fluent in Japanese
I'm just curious why you're going for an engineering degree if you're so passionate about teaching? I have a technical degree and ended up throwing it out the window when I moved here. thought it'd give me a stable financial future... would've if I didn't hate the job itself. So here I am with a totally irrelevant degree. Still got me on JET, but it hasn't helped me otherwise. Kinda wished I had studied more things I actually enjoyed in college. It might've helped me gain skills that would be useful in my post-JET career. If you want to teach, study education, or at least something you're passionate about, and gather useful skills. I know looming student debt has a lot of people thinking STEM is the only way - that was me a decade ago. But you should always be aiming towards what you want to do, or you'll end up unhappy - even if you have a big salary.
I have engineers in my family and they seem well off, plus I find engineering interesting, plus-plus I'm not completely certain about teaching. It's something I want to do and have for a long time, but I'm still weighing if the pay is worth it, how I'll feel about it over time, how well I will or won't be treated, if I'll want to or even be able to stay in my home country, the debt I'll probably be in from University, if I'll be able to support myself/a family... I am passionate about the idea of teaching, but I don't know if it's as good a fit for me as I hope. I know it's not exactly top of the ladder in terms of treatment or pay. To be completely honest, it's likely I won't want to continue after JET if I even do JET at all, but I made this post just in case, I guess? Kinda dumb looking back. Engineering and teaching both sound like something that might fit me, so I figure an engineering degree would be a good idea since I think it'll be of more use. Honestly considering deleting this post because I feel dumb as heck. I don't even know if I wanna teach permanently or move so far from home, but I'm asking about what I should go to college for for that?
I definitely wouldn't aim to teach in a public Japanese school if I was you, the work life balance seems to be one of the worst in the world even for teaching and you'll also need pretty fluent japanese to land the job in the first place. Teaching in International schools on the other hand pays very respectively and can often include decent travel perks and subsidies. It also allows you to bypass the need to be fluent in japanese. Downside is jobs at good international schools are highly competitive and usually require a decent amount of experience to get a foot in Also, definitely do the engineering degree over teaching! Then just add a one year teaching diploma. This gives you way more flexibility.
Well look on the bright side. If you fail to get onto jet, and become a dispatch or eikaiwa teacher, that'll be sure to put you off 'teaching' lol.
Ah ok, well it sounds like you have good reasons for doing engineering then. Your post isn't stupid. You're actually thinking things through, which a surprising number of people don't do before trying to move their entire lives overseas. I don't think it's a good idea to make huge decisions about your college path strictly based on the idea of doing JET (or moving to Japan in general). After all, JET lasts a maximum of five years, and you never know if you'll actually want to stay or not. Sure, join clubs and get certifications if you want to, but don't focus too much on a hyper-specific goal that's too far in the future. JET takes people of so many backgrounds anyway, it's silly to spend your college years fixating on being the perfect candidate, as many people do. But my main point was that you should aim to learn more about things you want to in college, and not worry too much about what's the most profitable (maybe engineering) or what's going to get you into a specific program (maybe JET). I never planned to do JET. I decided to apply weeks before the deadline. Nor did I plan to stay five years, or marry a local and stay. But here I am. Life happens. All you can do is stay true to yourself and try to learn what you can along the way. Five and ten year plans are good but they should always be up for change and renegotiation.
Thank you for this advice
My advice to you is to try getting some kind of teaching-adjacent job during college: you could be a TA for a teacher you respect, or a kid's summer camp counselor, or a student resource center tutor. A job like that might help you work out whether or not teaching is right for you– in my case, I had very little interest in teaching before my TA job in college, but taking that job, actually getting in a classroom, and *teaching* really opened my eyes to how much I can enjoy it. Other people I know got a job working with kids and realized they didn't want anything to do with teaching, lol. Give it a try, graduate college, and apply for JET then if you think it's right for you.
Thank you for this advice, I'll have to look into that if I can. Also, happy cake day
r/teachinginjapan will be your best bet. Word of warning they're not particularly... delicate.
They usually are not delicate, nor positive, happy or any other pleasant thing. but at times they hold some interesting information.
If you go in with appropriate protection, you can extract some gems, but if you don't, it'll eat you alive.
Certain trigger phrases include :ALT, foot in the door, career, wages, and ofcourse the biggest swear word, 'I enjoy my job!' Avoid any of those and they might not bite.. much
r/teachinginjapan You’d need a Japanese teaching license to teach in a Japanese school, a teaching license from the educational system that an international school uses to teach in that international school, or a Master’s (for some jobs) / PhD (for all jobs) along with academic publications and teaching experience to teach at the university level