My name is Monica. I studied Japanese at UVM for around 3 years, or up to the Semi-Advanced classes with Ueno-Sensei, and my study at UVM was my only real exposure into the Japanese language. I also did a short intensive Japanese program abroad at Rikkyo Daigaku in the summer of 2016 for three weeks. I\u2019ve lived my life so far with a lot of variety. Due to my father\u2019s position in the US Air Force, I\u2019ve lived all over the United States and in Canada. That being said I relish a change of scenery and a change of pace. After my graduation in May 2018, I was ready for a new adventure. I graduated with a double major in English and Asian Studies, a double minor in Japanese and Linguistics, and a UVM certified TESOL certificate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My new job is with Universal Campus at the M. School just outside of Kobe.\u00a0 Universal Campus is a branch under the Kyoshin Corporation.\u00a0 Funny enough I didn\u2019t find the job, the job found me.\u00a0 I was applying for a bunch of positions through gaijinpot.com and I posted my resume as searchable on the website, so company\u2019s could contact me about their job opportunities as well.\u00a0 I got a message from Universal Campus inviting me to apply and only a short time later the interview was scheduled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was very worried about the\ninterview process. It was going to be a\nskype call and I couldn\u2019t reserve a private, professional room since the time\nwas so late. I had to settle for my\nroom. I put my laptop on my bed and\npositioned it at a blank corner of the wall with no posters or decorations then\nI had to kneel to be in the camera\u2019s frame. \nLooking back it was the strangest interview I\u2019d ever done. I was worried\nfor nothing though, the interview process was relatively painless. Over half the interview we talked about the\ncompany\u2019s expectations and whether I thought I\u2019d be able to cope. \u201cWill you need to go home anytime other than\nthe three weeks vacation?\u201d \u201cOur company will not be able to assist with opening\na bank or finding housing, is that alright with you?\u201d After that she asked me\nquestions about teaching kids. \u201cWould\nyou be comfortable singing songs?\u201d \u201cWould you be comfortable teaching this age\nrange?\u201d \u201cWhat experience do you have teaching kids?\u201d I was able to draw examples from my classes\n(Japanese Teaching Practicum) and even talk about helping out with my 3 (then\n2) year-old sister. Then she said something in Japanese and I understood so I\nnodded. She looked very surprised and\nasked me if I could speak Japanese. She asked me a basic question in Japanese I\ncan\u2019t remember exactly but I think it had something to do with hobbies. I told her that I understood her but I am\nnot very confident in my speaking abilities because I wasn\u2019t able to formulate\nan answer very well. She thanked me for my time and said they\u2019d send me a\npersonality bubble quiz to fill out. The\nnext day I filled out the bubble quiz it was one of those quizzes with\nstatements and answers of 1-5 (Strongly disagree-Strongly agree). Unfortunately I think some of the statements\nmay have been translated poorly so it was hard to know what they meant. I was able to understand most of them, but\nevery so often I had to guess what the statement meant. Once I completed the bubble quiz, it was\naround a week later when I got an email that I got a position. It was for Spring 2019, so she said she\u2019d\ncontact me again in November to do VISA work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Despite the fact they emailed me to tell me I had a position, when November rolled around I had quite a scare.\u00a0 This story is really just an email nightmare. The woman, who had originally contacted me, emailed me before Thanksgiving to say that the teachers in Japan were still deciding whether to renew their contracts and she\u2019d contact me later whether a position opens.\u00a0 I was very upset at the time.\u00a0 After Thanksgiving, I followed up to ask if a position had opened and she responded that all positions were full but she could recommend me to another sister company Hoppa (more of a preschool).\u00a0 Here I thought I had completely wasted months I could\u2019ve been job searching because I thought my job was a sure thing. I emailed to say that I was disappointed there were no open spots through their company but would love to be considered for the other company.\u00a0 She then responds that actually <\/em>a position might open and essentially \u201ccheck back with me in a week\u201d.\u00a0 I checked back in a week as requested and she said that the original position she was talking about was filled but there was a slot open in M. School. I snagged the opportunity as soon as I got the email. So even though we were set to start VISA work in November we actually started in December and at the moment I\u2019m still waiting for my certificate of eligibility to go get my VISA.\u00a0 It\u2019s been a long, painstaking process but I\u2019m excited to say I finally have a real job in Japan.\u00a0 I\u2019ve signed the contract and everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company isn\u2019t paying for my\nmoving process. I have to find my own\napartment, put down a deposit and buy my own plane ticket. But at least transportation to work is free,\nI get a stipend of up to \u00a530,000 for transportation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My name is Monica. I studied Japanese at UVM for around 3 years, or up to the Semi-Advanced classes with Ueno-Sensei, and my study at UVM was my only real exposure into the Japanese language. I also did a short intensive Japanese program abroad at Rikkyo Daigaku in the summer of 2016 for three weeks. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":357,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106582],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teaching-english-in-japan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/ksuzuki-workinginjapan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/ksuzuki-workinginjapan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/ksuzuki-workinginjapan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/ksuzuki-workinginjapan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/357"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/ksuzuki-workinginjapan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/ksuzuki-workinginjapan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/ksuzuki-workinginjapan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions\/310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/ksuzuki-workinginjapan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/ksuzuki-workinginjapan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/ksuzuki-workinginjapan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}