1) My name is Erica Williams. I’m 33 years old and grew up in Burlington, Vermont. I was always interested in Japanese culture such as Bonsai, J-pop, pottery, and animation. I started to practice Karate in my early twenties which led me to visit Japan in 2010. In order to prepare for that trip I studied a summer Japan course taught by Suzuki-sensei at UVM. Before that I had no college education and was working in banking. After 3 weeks traveling around Japan I became determined to spend more time there and returned 1 year later as a Japanese Language student at a school called IC Nagoya. I worked as a Man to Man English instructor while studying Japanese for 2 years. During that time I was able to discover what I wanted to do for a career and decided to get a college degree. I entered Nagoya Women’s University in 2013. I graduated in 2015 with a degree in early childhood education, and a variety of teaching licenses.
2) I’ve had 2 jobs during my time in Japan. The first was at Gaba Man to Man Eikaiwa and I found their advertisement on Gaijin pot.com.
I currently work at a company that runs child care facilities around Tokyo. I found the job through daijob.com.
3) At Gaba the interview was held in English and was very similar to all interviews I have ever had in America. But we did have to complete a written test which checks our lesson planning skills as well as spelling and grammar. At my current job I had two interviews, one in English and one in Japanese. The English interview consisted of questions about why I wanted the job and my educational experience. The Japanese interview included questions about how long I wanted to stay in Japan, what are my future plans as far as work after marriage, I was asked why I prefer “hoikuen” childcare over “yochien” kindergarten, and asked to give a general self-appeal statement.
4) The placement was very easy,and the company paid for my transport for interviews as well as moving expenses from Nagoya to Tokyo. They also paid a housing allowance while I was living alone.
5) In my first job I was an “itaku gyomu” contracted employee. The plus side was I could make own schedule any time during business hours. The down side is that I only got paid when students booked my lessons, also there is no paid sick leave, etc. You get paid when you work. Being technically self employed can have pros and cons as far as taxes are concerned too. I was required to wear a suit at all times and my students ranged from teenagers to seniors, but primarily high level business men. With my current job I work at the main office one day a week. The other 4 days I am going from school to school, teaching at 2 schools per day. I wear a company t-shirt and sports wear inside the schools. I am required to keep my hair tied back and am not allowed to wear accessories or nail polish. I am required to speak English only in front of the children but the children speak Japanese to me so conversational level Japanese is a must. I also create the curriculum for the English program, write the monthly newsletter to parents and conduct a lot of meetings. For this part of my job business level Japanese plus knowledge of industry terms in required. Because I have a teaching shift I don’t work overtime most days, but when I work at the main office I usually stay late. Its normal to work until about 8pm. There are also occasionally recruiting events and events related to the company farm on weekends, which I get paid overtime to work.
6) I really enjoy working with Japanese people! Because I am always traveling from school to school I don’t have set “coworkers”. So I never have to join hours social events. Our company doesn’t seem to have much of an after hour obligation anyway. A lot of people are surprised that I can speak Japan and I often get asked the same questions again and again, but that’s to be expected I guess. In general everyone is very kind and I haven’t had any big culture shocks or anything.
7) I have a few tips for anyone who wants to work in Japan. If you plan to stay in Japan long term try to work as a 正社員 or permanent employee. Foreigners are sometimes seen as a commodity. A lot of foreigners come and go and are easily replaced. I got a teaching license in Japan to make myself valuable as an employee. Make sure you don’t wear too much perfume or cologne and keep up with general hygiene. I’ve seen a lot of foreigners who are not up to Japanese hygiene standards. Study 敬語! You don’t always have to be a polite speech perfectionist but saying a little keigo at the right time goes a long way! Keep smiling! I went through a lot of tough times where I made mistakes and was under a lot of pressure but a lot of people told me that my smile saved the day. It really makes a difference!
Erica-san is a super lady with KARATE skills, and she passed the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 1 in 2014.