I head out next year. I have been studying Japanese off and on for the past 4 years. I am not fluent but seem to have gained a functional understanding and can JUST hold a basic conversation. I was surprised during my interview process that I was able even to hold any Japanese conversation. My goal for going to Japan is to use it as a chance to hone my language skill. I plan to go in with pretty basic expectations.
Thanks for your comment! Those sound like very solid and realistic expectations. For me, even at the ability I am at now, I find that my conversation skills depend on who I talk to. Some people are easier than others and some topics are easier than others. I'll always say that at the dentist I am fine but at City Hall I'll struggle because of what I need to get done. The nice thing is that if you're doing the ALT thing, that you're not expected to speak Japanese to anyone on the job, and any pressure to be proficient in Japanese would be to simply help you function in your every day life. Including myself, I know a number of foreigners who studying Japanese by themselves, despite living in Japan. There are walls everywhere. If you ever need a conversation partner, pick a randomly elderly person and they'll be happy to help.
Thank you for your video. I am scheduled for my ALT interview soon and I am a little bit nervous. I don't have any teaching experience but I do have a 9 years experience in working in a private preschool and enrichment center in Singapore as a Administrator. Your video gives me confidence to do my best in the interview. Thanks!
To me you show that you were willing to do what it took to do to get the job that you wanted. Also you work to get that position. And I think you did quite well.
My interview will via Microsoft teams. Apparently borderlink will ask for a 3 minute lesson in english and the interviewer will act as the student and can use him to stimulate the mock class.
Best of luck with your interview! I still feel that even though this video is 2 years old, the information in it still holds true. One thing in reflection I would add though, is that gestures are important. This applies even to adults. If there is an opportunity to use your hands to convey a concept, do it!
you’re great, thank u so much for this video u push me up to aim high I am a Filipina with a bachelors degree, married to a Japanese ,for many yrs. I’ve worked as a factory worker, but when I saw this video I said to myself why should I try to get an ELT job I will apply you’re advise hopefully I can😊😊😊
Best of luck! When I was an ALT I definitely knew some Filipinas so if this is a job you want to try I definitely think you might have a chance! If you are already in Japan I think your chances are really good. You should hurry and apply before Japan opens up its borders!
Best of luck with that interview! My advice is to always read every part of your contract! I know of an Eikaiwa that hired someone from Nepal to teach English and the working hours were terrible. This doesn’t mean that non-native English speakers can’t speak perfect English or teach it, and it’s not like many ALT companies can be completely trusted, but few hire non-native speakers so I would be cautious of working conditions. Best of luck with your interview!
Thanks for your service and for your comment! I know not everyone's placement is going to be sunshine and rainbows and every prefecture has its good points and bad points. For me, what's more difficult than a rural area is a rural area that gets REALLY COLD. Would love to get your perspective on the bright side of Aomori considering I've only mentioned one negative experience my friend had.
@@MyRadicalKanjiWorld One of the advantages it had was cooler summers compared to southern parts of of Japan. Summer temperatures wouldn't start or last as long as other places. The rural aspect of Aomori is what I liked about it. After I left that location, I got Tokyo (after several other assignments) and the things I enjoyed about Misawa weren't available or very expensive there.
@@camkels6396 I wish I could appreciate the rural aspect the way you can. I’m a city boy at heart. Right now I’ve got a happy medium where I’m in a large “Inaka” but close to the city when I need it. You certainly can’t beat the low cost of living in those rural areas!
@@MyRadicalKanjiWorld I like driving and I like cold weather (I was stationed in some cold places which made me used to cold weather and over time the only thing I liked about the summer was I could ride my motorcycle) so rural areas seem like the way to go. Most of my hobbies are also outdoor-ish hobbies (ie hiking, camping, off-roading, shooting, etc) which lean me to more rural areas.
Been here for over 5 years now and I can't say that I am homesick for America, but at the same time every year here makes you more and more aware of the things Japan will never change and that you will always be an outside, and that will eat away at you over time. You will always be able to find people from your home country here and my recommendation would be to network with them and that should help. Sadly that's not uncommon at the schools as an ALT or in Japanese business culture. You will find a lot of the Japanese just associate among themselves and most non-Japanese wind up forming their own groups.
Thank you for your comment! 1. Find any job posting for a teacher in Japan and that posting will tell you the required qualifications. 2. Most anyone can do assistant language teaching (ALT) work if they are a native speaking of English and have a Bachelor's degree in anything. 3. Being an official teacher and not an assistant would require a higher level of qualifications, most likely, at least, a degree in education from an accredited university.
Being an ALT is a good way to get into Japan and that is why I think many people take the job. The salary is not what I would call good for those wanting to live in the country long term. Also I believe you have to be in the country minimum 5 years before you can apply for permanent residency. I am married to a Japanese national and am in Japan for my 4th year and I still am renewing my VISA year by year. An ALT job can get you a 1 year work VISA but you have to be in the country a long time before you can get permanent residency. I hope this helps! Thanks for your comment!
Will keep that in mind! Thank you for your comment! Something I can give you right now, though, is that for the interview they wanted like a 5 minute intro, and then when I was brought to all my schools by my Board of Education that I had to give the same intro. Professional Japanese intros are short. People have work to do so you don't want to take up too much of their time. It's mostly just your name, where you are from, and how long you have been in Japan. Maybe you can state a hobby or favorite food. Finish with a "yoroshiku onegai shimasu" and you're golden. After that, if the door is open to any questions they want to ask you if they want to keep talking.
My pleasure. Unfortunately I really couldn't say. At my interview there were about 12 people. Everyone did a great job and did a lot of similar demo lessons. Honestly I think it is fair to say that most people pass their interview. This is a job that only requires a college degree, and as I mention in the video, recruiters are looking at your energy and your unique teaching style. They film you so that Boards of Education can look at you and see if you would be a good fit for them. Even now with the pandemic there are always advertisements for ALT positions in Japan. ALTs come from many native English speaking countries. I think it is less of a "will I pass the interview" situation and more of a "are their jobs available?" situation. If you are a native speaker of English and have a bachelor's degree, as long as you do your best, passing an interview should be no problem!
Enjoyed the video. Some comments on it: The turnover isn't as high as it was when you came, so don't count on that to propel you, you sill have to bring your A-game. You got those schools you mentioned because you probably had enough energy but not enough skill. If a person has experience teaching irregular verbs, they'll pull it off in a fun way and get that high school assignment. Japanese is important. The problem with the non-Japanese-speaking applicant is that their available options are already occupied by a large number of English teachers who are already competing for the available jobs in those main cities.
Thank you so much for your comments. Did my best to not mention the company by name to give anonymity 😉 I agree A-game is important. It is a professional interview, but I still think many people overthink it. You invest a week in grooming new teachers which is definitely why I said personality is important. I knew some first year teachers who got the big city jobs but had zero Japanese skill.
@@MyRadicalKanjiWorld It's true, personality is important, but you'd be surprised at how many people don't bring it. It's a funny thing too how some of those non-speakers get big city assignments, often it's requiring access to some very specialized high-level medical care.
Thanks a lot. Very encouraging. I'll be applying for ALT positions next year, so trying to prep as much as possible. Also, do you think they like candidates who already have experience teaching/living in a different country?
Thanks for your comment! If I'm being honest with you, if you have experience teaching in another country AND you have a certification under your belt like a CELTA, you'd wouldn't be limited to the bottom of the barrel ALT jobs. There are a few jobs that pay slightly better than those at the bottom and they are very competitive. I honestly don't think previous experience matters too much with a company like Interac or JET because they most likely get saturated with applications year round and everyone is going to get the same pay regardless. Your experience definitely doesn't hurt and I can't say for sure that it won't help your chances. Personally, as someone who has been in Japan for 4 years now, the demand is there. The government just posted an article a week ago about how bad student English levels are compared to where the government wanted them to be. I've been in Tokyo for almost 9 months now and I am shocked at the lack of English ability here. There is definitely a need for ALTs! In my opinion, there is enough turnover with these ALT jobs, that as long as you have a bachelor's degree in anything, especially given you have ESL teaching experience, I don't see why you couldn't get a position if you applied. The application process takes like 9 months so it would just take a while from interview to stepping foot in the country. Hope this helps!
@@fetalgiraffe7 best advice is to go to GaijinPot jobs and look for places offering above the norm for salary. Bottom of the barrel often offers ¥2.4-¥2.5 million a year or somewhere near ¥240,000 a month. Anything around ¥300,000 will most likely require extra qualifications. Best advice is just search for teaching positions based on salary.
hiiiiiiii your video was helpful!! I wanted to ask how the hiring going for April 2022 ? like if they are accepting people from aboard due to covid 19 ?
Hi Niharika! Thanks for your post! Since I don't work for Interac now I only know what other people have told me. Because of COVID, many teachers who were supposed to come last April or this August were postponed until April 2022. I don't know if they are accepting new applications now. In the news everyone is talking about the Delta Variant and rising COVID cases so, just my opinion, I don't see a rush to open up the country just yet. My best advice is to apply so at least if you seem like a good candidate you can get on a company's radar and then if they have a position open, maybe you can get here when the country opens back up!
Thanks for the comment! For the no experience part, as long as you have a Bachelor's degree in anything there are companies that will hire you. What I can tell you from my experience is that I have a friend from Lithuania who speaks fluent English, but since Lithuania's native language is not English, she cannot get a job as an English teacher in Japan. These English dispatch companies are usually very strict on this point, that they only hire people whose country's native language is English.
Under that shiny veneer of a modern, civilized, advanced society Japan can be brutal to foreigners. A small minority of Japanese still live with a middle-age mentality. The Japanese penal system seems stuck in the 18th century. Incarcerated people, both Japanese as well as foreign nationals are treated not much better than animals. They are fed with poor foods discarded by supermarkets. They often sleep on bare floor with not much more than a thin cover as a blanket. Foreign nationals staying in Japan, for whatever reason, should never commit any kind of crimes, even minor ones, for example overstaying their visa, drunken in public, traffic infractions etc. Once they are caught up in the Japanese legal system they may never see the end of it. In detention, prisoners don't have any way to access what is common in the West such as legal assistance, visits from family and consulate, decent foods etc. Although Japan needs foreign workers, it is not easy to get a work permit. Foreign workers are paid much less than their Japanese counterparts. They are usually assigned to the hardest kind of labour work. They live in run-down dormitories with nothing more than a bed and communal amenities. The lack of language skills brings isolation and loneliness; combined with long hours in the factories, poor living conditions, little social interaction eventually get to these unfortunate foreign workers. Suicide is rampant in the foreign worker community. Think twice before taking the plunge to venture to Japan to live and work. The whole idea of going to Japan to teach English and come back with a sizable fortune in your pocket to start a new life back home could simply be a pipe dream, as it often turns out to be.
Thank you for comments Anthony! What is ironic is that this video is all about prepping for that interview to get you here, and yet in my Teaching English in Japan playlist I touch on so many of the cultural, physical and language challenges one faces while actually here. It's been almost 5 years here for me now and I'm still here but it's because I'm willing to accept the pros and cons over that of America. It doesn't mean that the negatives of living here aren't super depressing, though! And to your point, when I encounter a situation that could lead to a potential confrontation, should I intervene, I often tell myself that if anything was directed at me I'd likely just have to sit there and take it. I have heard those horror stories from people who Japan judges as guilty first, before being found innocent (one of them has shared his story with me in my comments and I can't imagine what that was like for him), and I feel like even if I was attacked, should I defend myself, would people point the finger at me and then even if found innocent, would I have lost everything like my job at that point. The other challenge for me is that no level of fluency in Japanese will ever allow a non-Japanese person to insert him or herself into the hierarchical structure here. Although I study Japanese regularly, I find myself falling out of love with it, as the Japanese language is about group harmony, and if I mastered it, I would be expected to show subservience to those who outrank me or are older than me, and yet not receive the level of respect from those beneath me that I would be given, should I be Japanese. This adventure is definitely not for the faint of heart!
I’ll be curious to find out where they place you. I know Interac covers a lot of land and the reason they’re so big is because they cover a lot of rural areas. They definitely do have positions in the big cities AND I know first year ALTs that have gotten them. But still, knowing Japanese might make it more comfortable for them to really put you in the sticks!
@@MyRadicalKanjiWorld funnily enough, my recruiter suggested I redo my introduction in English but I decided against it out of a bit of laziness but now you've got me wondering lol. I saw your video about your first placement and just had to Google it - you were quite literally on one of the southernmost parts of japan, excluding the islands. I love nature so hopefully I get a rural placement with nice scenery. At the very least, I'll be able to drive around in my spare time and take in the sights. Thanks for your replies!
@@masterp443 my pleasure! Thanks for your comments. I will say that seeing such a beautiful blue ocean on my drive to work most days was certainly fulfilling. I definitely don’t take it for granted but socializing was a challenge and getting to the nearest big city took a lot of time and money!
I head out next year. I have been studying Japanese off and on for the past 4 years. I am not fluent but seem to have gained a functional understanding and can JUST hold a basic conversation. I was surprised during my interview process that I was able even to hold any Japanese conversation. My goal for going to Japan is to use it as a chance to hone my language skill. I plan to go in with pretty basic expectations.
Thanks for your comment! Those sound like very solid and realistic expectations. For me, even at the ability I am at now, I find that my conversation skills depend on who I talk to. Some people are easier than others and some topics are easier than others. I'll always say that at the dentist I am fine but at City Hall I'll struggle because of what I need to get done.
The nice thing is that if you're doing the ALT thing, that you're not expected to speak Japanese to anyone on the job, and any pressure to be proficient in Japanese would be to simply help you function in your every day life.
Including myself, I know a number of foreigners who studying Japanese by themselves, despite living in Japan. There are walls everywhere. If you ever need a conversation partner, pick a randomly elderly person and they'll be happy to help.
Thank you for your video. I am scheduled for my ALT interview soon and I am a little bit nervous. I don't have any teaching experience but I do have a 9 years experience in working in a private preschool and enrichment center in Singapore as a Administrator. Your video gives me confidence to do my best in the interview. Thanks!
I'm glad I could help with this video. I'm sure you'll do great in your interview! Best of luck!
Thank you for the detailed advice!!
My pleasure!
Happy to watch your video
Thank you for watching!
Thank you so much am encouraged
My pleasure!
I agree with you. The hardest part is teaching the direction demonstration part. They did not have props and that is where they missed a turned.
Thanks for the comment! And I think as long as you do your best for that demo you did just fine!
Love this
Thanks!
To me you show that you were willing to do what it took to do to get the job that you wanted. Also you work to get that position. And I think you did quite well.
Thank you very much!
Very informative, thanks a lot mate.
My pleasure! Thanks for the comment!
THIS IS A GREAT VIDEO!
Thank you! Almost 4000 views and 135 LIKES!!! Definitely one of my most successful videos!
My interview will via Microsoft teams.
Apparently borderlink will ask for a 3 minute lesson in english and the interviewer will act as the student and can use him to stimulate the mock class.
Best of luck with your interview! I still feel that even though this video is 2 years old, the information in it still holds true. One thing in reflection I would add though, is that gestures are important. This applies even to adults. If there is an opportunity to use your hands to convey a concept, do it!
Good luck with your interview!
@@MyRadicalKanjiWorld thanks for the tip.
My pleasure!
Thank you for sharing
My pleasure! Thanks for watching!
Cool video!
Thanks!
you’re great, thank u so much for this video u push me up to aim high I am a Filipina with a bachelors degree, married to a Japanese ,for many yrs. I’ve worked as a factory worker, but when I saw this video I said to myself why should I try to get an ELT job I will apply you’re advise hopefully I can😊😊😊
Best of luck! When I was an ALT I definitely knew some Filipinas so if this is a job you want to try I definitely think you might have a chance! If you are already in Japan I think your chances are really good. You should hurry and apply before Japan opens up its borders!
One ALT company doesn’t even ask for native English speakers, so I have an interview with them tomorrow.
Best of luck with that interview! My advice is to always read every part of your contract! I know of an Eikaiwa that hired someone from Nepal to teach English and the working hours were terrible.
This doesn’t mean that non-native English speakers can’t speak perfect English or teach it, and it’s not like many ALT companies can be completely trusted, but few hire non-native speakers so I would be cautious of working conditions.
Best of luck with your interview!
great video
Thank you sir!
I would love to get Aomori, I was stationed in Misawa for 2 years so I know what to expect living in that area.
Thanks for your service and for your comment! I know not everyone's placement is going to be sunshine and rainbows and every prefecture has its good points and bad points. For me, what's more difficult than a rural area is a rural area that gets REALLY COLD.
Would love to get your perspective on the bright side of Aomori considering I've only mentioned one negative experience my friend had.
@@MyRadicalKanjiWorld One of the advantages it had was cooler summers compared to southern parts of of Japan. Summer temperatures wouldn't start or last as long as other places. The rural aspect of Aomori is what I liked about it. After I left that location, I got Tokyo (after several other assignments) and the things I enjoyed about Misawa weren't available or very expensive there.
@@camkels6396 I wish I could appreciate the rural aspect the way you can. I’m a city boy at heart. Right now I’ve got a happy medium where I’m in a large “Inaka” but close to the city when I need it. You certainly can’t beat the low cost of living in those rural areas!
@@MyRadicalKanjiWorld I like driving and I like cold weather (I was stationed in some cold places which made me used to cold weather and over time the only thing I liked about the summer was I could ride my motorcycle) so rural areas seem like the way to go. Most of my hobbies are also outdoor-ish hobbies (ie hiking, camping, off-roading, shooting, etc) which lean me to more rural areas.
Hope you’re able to make your way back someday!
How do you deal with loneliness or when you feel homesick when in Japan
Been here for over 5 years now and I can't say that I am homesick for America, but at the same time every year here makes you more and more aware of the things Japan will never change and that you will always be an outside, and that will eat away at you over time. You will always be able to find people from your home country here and my recommendation would be to network with them and that should help. Sadly that's not uncommon at the schools as an ALT or in Japanese business culture. You will find a lot of the Japanese just associate among themselves and most non-Japanese wind up forming their own groups.
What happen if you don't have teaching license in your home country but you are a teacher, can you still teach in Japan?
Thank you for your comment!
1. Find any job posting for a teacher in Japan and that posting will tell you the required qualifications.
2. Most anyone can do assistant language teaching (ALT) work if they are a native speaking of English and have a Bachelor's degree in anything.
3. Being an official teacher and not an assistant would require a higher level of qualifications, most likely, at least, a degree in education from an accredited university.
Hi :> Nice Blog! Very helpful. Is an ALT can be a road to permanent residency?
Being an ALT is a good way to get into Japan and that is why I think many people take the job. The salary is not what I would call good for those wanting to live in the country long term. Also I believe you have to be in the country minimum 5 years before you can apply for permanent residency. I am married to a Japanese national and am in Japan for my 4th year and I still am renewing my VISA year by year. An ALT job can get you a 1 year work VISA but you have to be in the country a long time before you can get permanent residency.
I hope this helps! Thanks for your comment!
I feel you I honestly just told them I have zilch Japanese 😂😂
lol
please make more examples of Japanese introduction. thanks man.
Will keep that in mind! Thank you for your comment!
Something I can give you right now, though, is that for the interview they wanted like a 5 minute intro, and then when I was brought to all my schools by my Board of Education that I had to give the same intro. Professional Japanese intros are short. People have work to do so you don't want to take up too much of their time. It's mostly just your name, where you are from, and how long you have been in Japan. Maybe you can state a hobby or favorite food. Finish with a "yoroshiku onegai shimasu" and you're golden. After that, if the door is open to any questions they want to ask you if they want to keep talking.
@@MyRadicalKanjiWorld thank you for the good advice man.. i'll follow your instructions.thanks again.
@@wasabiboysinterestinglife My pleasure!
Thanks for this tips. Out of 100 interviewees, how much number passed the interview?
My pleasure. Unfortunately I really couldn't say. At my interview there were about 12 people. Everyone did a great job and did a lot of similar demo lessons.
Honestly I think it is fair to say that most people pass their interview. This is a job that only requires a college degree, and as I mention in the video, recruiters are looking at your energy and your unique teaching style. They film you so that Boards of Education can look at you and see if you would be a good fit for them.
Even now with the pandemic there are always advertisements for ALT positions in Japan. ALTs come from many native English speaking countries. I think it is less of a "will I pass the interview" situation and more of a "are their jobs available?" situation.
If you are a native speaker of English and have a bachelor's degree, as long as you do your best, passing an interview should be no problem!
@@MyRadicalKanjiWorld this is gold‼️
@@eps-topikmastery231 thank you!
Sir how i can be an English teacher in japan i have done my hons &masters in english literature and languages
Assistant Language Teachers usually require that your home country's native language be English and that you have at least a bachelor's degree.
Enjoyed the video. Some comments on it: The turnover isn't as high as it was when you came, so don't count on that to propel you, you sill have to bring your A-game.
You got those schools you mentioned because you probably had enough energy but not enough skill. If a person has experience teaching irregular verbs, they'll pull it off in a fun way and get that high school assignment. Japanese is important. The problem with the non-Japanese-speaking applicant is that their available options are already occupied by a large number of English teachers who are already competing for the available jobs in those main cities.
Thank you so much for your comments. Did my best to not mention the company by name to give anonymity 😉
I agree A-game is important. It is a professional interview, but I still think many people overthink it. You invest a week in grooming new teachers which is definitely why I said personality is important.
I knew some first year teachers who got the big city jobs but had zero Japanese skill.
@@MyRadicalKanjiWorld It's true, personality is important, but you'd be surprised at how many people don't bring it. It's a funny thing too how some of those non-speakers get big city assignments, often it's requiring access to some very specialized high-level medical care.
Thanks a lot. Very encouraging. I'll be applying for ALT positions next year, so trying to prep as much as possible. Also, do you think they like candidates who already have experience teaching/living in a different country?
Thanks for your comment! If I'm being honest with you, if you have experience teaching in another country AND you have a certification under your belt like a CELTA, you'd wouldn't be limited to the bottom of the barrel ALT jobs. There are a few jobs that pay slightly better than those at the bottom and they are very competitive.
I honestly don't think previous experience matters too much with a company like Interac or JET because they most likely get saturated with applications year round and everyone is going to get the same pay regardless. Your experience definitely doesn't hurt and I can't say for sure that it won't help your chances. Personally, as someone who has been in Japan for 4 years now, the demand is there. The government just posted an article a week ago about how bad student English levels are compared to where the government wanted them to be. I've been in Tokyo for almost 9 months now and I am shocked at the lack of English ability here. There is definitely a need for ALTs!
In my opinion, there is enough turnover with these ALT jobs, that as long as you have a bachelor's degree in anything, especially given you have ESL teaching experience, I don't see why you couldn't get a position if you applied. The application process takes like 9 months so it would just take a while from interview to stepping foot in the country.
Hope this helps!
@@MyRadicalKanjiWorld Very helpful. Thanks !
@@MyRadicalKanjiWorld Also, do you have any examples of companies offering jobs for those with experience?
@@fetalgiraffe7 best advice is to go to GaijinPot jobs and look for places offering above the norm for salary. Bottom of the barrel often offers ¥2.4-¥2.5 million a year or somewhere near ¥240,000 a month.
Anything around ¥300,000 will most likely require extra qualifications. Best advice is just search for teaching positions based on salary.
@@MyRadicalKanjiWorld Alrighty, will keep my eye out for those. Thanks!
hiiiiiiii your video was helpful!! I wanted to ask how the hiring going for April 2022 ? like if they are accepting people from aboard due to covid 19 ?
Hi Niharika! Thanks for your post! Since I don't work for Interac now I only know what other people have told me. Because of COVID, many teachers who were supposed to come last April or this August were postponed until April 2022. I don't know if they are accepting new applications now. In the news everyone is talking about the Delta Variant and rising COVID cases so, just my opinion, I don't see a rush to open up the country just yet.
My best advice is to apply so at least if you seem like a good candidate you can get on a company's radar and then if they have a position open, maybe you can get here when the country opens back up!
@@MyRadicalKanjiWorld Thank you so much :D
@@nihari_in_oxford My pleasure!
Thanks for this bud.
My pleasure!
What are the chances of being hired as a non native with no experience?
Thanks for the comment! For the no experience part, as long as you have a Bachelor's degree in anything there are companies that will hire you.
What I can tell you from my experience is that I have a friend from Lithuania who speaks fluent English, but since Lithuania's native language is not English, she cannot get a job as an English teacher in Japan. These English dispatch companies are usually very strict on this point, that they only hire people whose country's native language is English.
Under that shiny veneer of a modern, civilized, advanced society Japan can be brutal to foreigners. A small minority of Japanese still live with a middle-age mentality. The Japanese penal system seems stuck in the 18th century. Incarcerated people, both Japanese as well as foreign nationals are treated not much better than animals. They are fed with poor foods discarded by supermarkets. They often sleep on bare floor with not much more than a thin cover as a blanket. Foreign nationals staying in Japan, for whatever reason, should never commit any kind of crimes, even minor ones, for example overstaying their visa, drunken in public, traffic infractions etc. Once they are caught up in the Japanese legal system they may never see the end of it. In detention, prisoners don't have any way to access what is common in the West such as legal assistance, visits from family and consulate, decent foods etc. Although Japan needs foreign workers, it is not easy to get a work permit. Foreign workers are paid much less than their Japanese counterparts. They are usually assigned to the hardest kind of labour work. They live in run-down dormitories with nothing more than a bed and communal amenities. The lack of language skills brings isolation and loneliness; combined with long hours in the factories, poor living conditions, little social interaction eventually get to these unfortunate foreign workers. Suicide is rampant in the foreign worker community. Think twice before taking the plunge to venture to Japan to live and work. The whole idea of going to Japan to teach English and come back with a sizable fortune in your pocket to start a new life back home could simply be a pipe dream, as it often turns out to be.
Thank you for comments Anthony! What is ironic is that this video is all about prepping for that interview to get you here, and yet in my Teaching English in Japan playlist I touch on so many of the cultural, physical and language challenges one faces while actually here. It's been almost 5 years here for me now and I'm still here but it's because I'm willing to accept the pros and cons over that of America. It doesn't mean that the negatives of living here aren't super depressing, though!
And to your point, when I encounter a situation that could lead to a potential confrontation, should I intervene, I often tell myself that if anything was directed at me I'd likely just have to sit there and take it. I have heard those horror stories from people who Japan judges as guilty first, before being found innocent (one of them has shared his story with me in my comments and I can't imagine what that was like for him), and I feel like even if I was attacked, should I defend myself, would people point the finger at me and then even if found innocent, would I have lost everything like my job at that point.
The other challenge for me is that no level of fluency in Japanese will ever allow a non-Japanese person to insert him or herself into the hierarchical structure here. Although I study Japanese regularly, I find myself falling out of love with it, as the Japanese language is about group harmony, and if I mastered it, I would be expected to show subservience to those who outrank me or are older than me, and yet not receive the level of respect from those beneath me that I would be given, should I be Japanese.
This adventure is definitely not for the faint of heart!
@@MyRadicalKanjiWorld Well said! Thank you.
Your conspiracy theory may have some weight to it... my placement will likely be rural and I did give my introduction in Japanese... hmm 🤔
I’ll be curious to find out where they place you. I know Interac covers a lot of land and the reason they’re so big is because they cover a lot of rural areas. They definitely do have positions in the big cities AND I know first year ALTs that have gotten them.
But still, knowing Japanese might make it more comfortable for them to really put you in the sticks!
I should also state there’s a difference between “rural” that’s an hour away from a big city, and “really rural” which would truly be no man’s land.
@@MyRadicalKanjiWorld funnily enough, my recruiter suggested I redo my introduction in English but I decided against it out of a bit of laziness but now you've got me wondering lol. I saw your video about your first placement and just had to Google it - you were quite literally on one of the southernmost parts of japan, excluding the islands. I love nature so hopefully I get a rural placement with nice scenery. At the very least, I'll be able to drive around in my spare time and take in the sights. Thanks for your replies!
@@masterp443 my pleasure! Thanks for your comments. I will say that seeing such a beautiful blue ocean on my drive to work most days was certainly fulfilling. I definitely don’t take it for granted but socializing was a challenge and getting to the nearest big city took a lot of time and money!