My name is Stephanie. I graduated from UVM in 2007 with a\nmajor in English and double minor in Japanese and Film\/TV Studies. I started\nstudying Japanese in High School. While I was an undergrad I worked as a\nstudent assistant for international student exchange programs at Saint\nMichael\u2019s College during the summer. The groups I worked with were Japanese\nHigh School students from Kanazawa Technical College. I helped in their\ncommunication classes, as a chaperone on field trips, and as a conversation\npartner. In addition to studying Japanese at UVM, this is what drew me to the\nidea of teaching English in Japan. However, from my experience as a student\nassistant, I knew that I wanted to get more teacher training before applying\nfor jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I decided to go to graduate school for a Master\u2019s in TESOL\nat Saint Michael\u2019s College, so that I could continue to work with the\ninternational students in the Intensive English Program. This also meant that I\nwas able to maintain my connection with Kanazawa Technical College, who recruit\nTESOL graduates to work at their school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I started working at Kanazawa Institute of Technology (the\nuniversity connected to the technical college) in 2010. Although they actually\ncame to Vermont to interview on campus, I did my interview on Skype. It was a\nlittle strange to have an interview online at the time, but I already knew the\ndirector since he had chaperoned the SMC exchange program for several years.\nThe interviewers mostly described the details of the job (working hours,\nteaching responsibilities, extra-curricular English activities, salary, etc.)\nand asked if I could agree to their expectations. The entire interview was done\nin English. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My interview was in early May, and I received an official\njob offer a few weeks later. However, it was near the end of July\/beginning of\nAugust when I received my certificate of eligibility. I had about 5 weeks to\nget my VISA sorted and book my plane tickets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The university covered travel and shipping expenses, and\nthey helped me find an apartment when I arrived in Japan. They told me to\nprepare enough money for the deposit and key money, but didn\u2019t specify that I\nshould have it all available in cash. I would recommend that if you are moving\nto Japan for work and planning to get your own apartment, bring a LOT of extra\ncash. I had a hard time since I couldn\u2019t transfer money to my new bank account,\nand I had to pay the deposit for the apartment before I got paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I first started teaching, I had a bit of culture shock.\nIn my teacher training, we had emphasized clear communication and openness to\nask questions. I was used to sharing my ideas with colleagues and getting constructive\nfeedback, and I expected that as a new teacher there would be some guidance or\nmentoring to introduce me to the way things worked at the university. However,\nthis was not the case, and I sometimes felt that I was left to figure things\nout on my own, because I was at the bottom of the hierarchy. This improved over\ntime, and there were other teachers who were supportive once the semester\nstarted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For anyone interested in working in Japan, I would recommend\nlearning as much as possible about the school\/company before you start. You\nneed to be patient, and it may take some time before your questions are answered\nclearly. If you are planning on teaching English and you are able to talk to\nyour future coworkers ahead of time, I\u2019d recommend having a casual chat with\nthem about what to expect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are interested in teaching, I also highly recommend\ngetting a TESOL certificate or degree. Not only will it open up more\nopportunities for different types of jobs, but you will be much more prepared\nand confident when you start teaching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My name is Stephanie. I graduated from UVM in 2007 with a major in English and double minor in Japanese and Film\/TV Studies. I started studying Japanese in High School. While I was an undergrad I worked as a student assistant for international student exchange programs at Saint Michael\u2019s College during the summer. The groups […]<\/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-317","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\/317","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=317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/ksuzuki-workinginjapan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/ksuzuki-workinginjapan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions\/318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/ksuzuki-workinginjapan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/ksuzuki-workinginjapan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/ksuzuki-workinginjapan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}