Advice Before Deciding to Teach English In Japan, China or Korea

I recently graduated and thought that it might be a fun experience to teach English in Asia, specifically Japan, but I was open to the idea of teaching in China or Korea as well. I applied for a handful of jobs and found out that because of the differences in when the school year actually starts, I was a bit late. I will most likely be applying again for the next school year, but I wanted to talk about a few things you should look out for when applying abroad.

First if you are looking for a job, 9/10 times you will need some sort of college degree just to pass getting the working visa. There are exceptions but the vast majority of the time you need at least something to show them. You don’t need prior teaching experience, but if you are looking for one of the better well paying programs, it will give you a head up above the competition. It goes without saying that you will need a visa so if you are offered a job and don’t have one it can take sometimes 2 months to have it delivered, so you might want to get it before applying. Many of the jobs that I applied to were looking to find someone ASAP.

If you are someone from a western country that doesn’t like to try new foods or has a very strict diet, living somewhere else can be very expensive. In Japan for instance, there are many western food stores in big cities, but they carry a hefty premium on the price of goods. You could also order online, but you will be spending much more than you should on groceries. This goes for all products you may be used to in your country, more often than not you will have to find some alternative or substitute. If you are someone who must have everything one way and find change hard, you might want to think twice about teaching long term. So whats involved in actually getting the job?

I was actually given a few job offers to teach, but they were through private companies, not through government programs like JET, which not only pay you much more, but will actually train you a bit and help you arrange housing. There are a large amount of private companies involved in the English teaching market that can offer you work visas. Getting the visa is the hardest part, so after you finish your first contract, you will probably want to find a better job on your own. English teaching companies know the hardest part is getting the Visa and they use this to their advantage in hiring you.

They often offer a very low salary, especially for main cities and often you won’t make enough to actually cover the costs of everything you want to do. If you choose to go with a private English teaching company and don’t have extra money to bring with you, just know for the first year things are going to be very tight. I was given 4 offers from 4 different ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) companies In Japan and the average money after expenses I would have at the end of the month would only be around $200 and that is if I was frugal. It might be better in Korea or China, but the Alt companies in Japan will offer you the bare minimum for a job, while making thousands on recruitment fees. After the first year you can usually find a better program that pays more.

The biggest thing you need to know is that the experience you are earning may be fulfilling as a life experience, but if you are looking to get into another industry back in your home country, it doesn’t usually transfer too well. Most people who teach in another country have plans of moving back to their own country in the long term. If you plan on staying, you might want to think about studying the language and getting certified to a level where you can actually get a better paying job. Overall the experience is most likely going to be beneficial to most, but you need to look past the adventure part and see if you can actually survive in the country when you get there. Hopefully in a year I might be along side with you.