Can a person teaching english make enough money to live comfortably? Does it depend whether they live in the city or country?
What does the average traditional type home in the countryside go for? I have always thought it would be amazing to live there.
Can foreigners with just a high school education find work other than teaching english? Any advantages to being a foreigner looking for work? Is it hard to find work in he entertainment business i.e. voice overs, commercials, etc.
[/quote]
I made eighty grand a year teaching English to private students in my house. I worked twenty-four hours a week, and my income was exempt from US Federal taxes because I was a foreign resident. Plus I deducted operating expenses (rent, electricity, advertising costs, phone bills) so I ended up paying no Japanese income taxes either. Yeah, it’s a good gig. Or at least it was while I was there. Cortes can tell you what it’s like now.
If you don’t mind living in a REALLY rustic traditional farmhouse (tatami mats, no insulation in the walls, shoji screens on the windows, lots of insects), you can live very cheaply indeed. At one point I lived in a gorgeous, massive 200-year old house on about an acre of land, with a thatched roof and huge cypress posts and beams throughout the place. It was cold as fuck in the winter, and impossible to keep clean, the thatch was home to every species of small mammal and insect in the region, AND local legend said it was haunted, but it was only about 200 bucks a month for rent. [/quote]
80k working 24 hours a week, sign me up NOW. Were these children? Adults? Wealthy? Were you fluent at this time?
Can a person teaching english make enough money to live comfortably? Does it depend whether they live in the city or country?
What does the average traditional type home in the countryside go for? I have always thought it would be amazing to live there.
Can foreigners with just a high school education find work other than teaching english? Any advantages to being a foreigner looking for work? Is it hard to find work in he entertainment business i.e. voice overs, commercials, etc.
edit: Is a 2 year degree worth anything? I have never seen it mentioned.
[/quote]
Yes, it is possible. The salaries have gone down a lot however in recent years. There is a lot more money to be made teaching for yourself , but it will take a while to build up your student base. Rent is MUCH cheaper in the countryside.
2.I bought a house in the country. From my balcony I can see mountains, tea fields, and a river. My house is relatively new (6 years) and quite modern in style though. I paid 28,000,000 yen for it.
The majority of English speaking foreigners I know over here teach English but in the time ive been here I have met restaurant owners, bar men, clothing store owners, a japanese style topiarist, gym instructor, and yoga instructor. I guess anything is possible IF you have the skill, a handle on the language, and can promote/sell yourself well.
[quote]maverick88 wrote:
Cortes, I noticed you said you knew no Japanese before going, what made you decide to go to Japan? Same question for Varqanir.[/quote]
As I think I mentioned in this thread, I had about the equivalent of 2 years of college-level Japanese instruction before getting on the plane, all of which was pretty much worthless once I actually got there. After the first three months of living there I could converse pretty freely, and after 15 years there I was frequently mistaken for a native Japanese speaker on the phone.
Which made for much hilarity when I finally said my name. After about five seconds of shocked silence, the voice on the other end of the line would invariably say, “Ga…gaikokujin desu ka?!” (“You…you’re a foreigner?!”). I always grinned at that. I sometimes wonder how an educated Japanese person would react if, after speaking fluent, unaccented English with a Caucasian American, he gave his name, and the American said “holy shit, you’re Japanese?! Coulda sworn you were white.”
As for what brought me to Japan, it was pretty simple. The works of James Clavell, Hayao Miyazaki, and Akira Kurosawa. Specifically, Shogun, Laputa and Seven Samurai.
Were these children? Adults? Wealthy? Were you fluent at this time?
[/quote]
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
It was hardly a turnkey operation: I opened my little school after having taught for years at other private eikaiwa (conversational English) schools throughout Tokyo and Chiba, and also after a seven-year career as a copywriter in a Tokyo advertising company, so I had a pretty good foundation for the teaching and the marketing sides of things. And that 24 hours doesn’t count the time I spent writing ads, printing hundreds of fliers, putting them in every mailbox in the neighborhood, and answering hundreds of phone calls.
[quote]maverick88 wrote:
Cortes, I noticed you said you knew no Japanese before going, what made you decide to go to Japan? Same question for Varqanir.[/quote]
As I think I mentioned in this thread, I had about the equivalent of 2 years of college-level Japanese instruction before getting on the plane, all of which was pretty much worthless once I actually got there. After the first three months of living there I could converse pretty freely, and after 15 years there I was frequently mistaken for a native Japanese speaker on the phone.
Which made for much hilarity when I finally said my name. After about five seconds of shocked silence, the voice on the other end of the line would invariably say, “Ga…gaikokujin desu ka?!” (“You…you’re a foreigner?!”). I always grinned at that. I sometimes wonder how an educated Japanese person would react if, after speaking fluent, unaccented English with a Caucasian American, he gave his name, and the American said “holy shit, you’re Japanese?! Coulda sworn you were white.”
As for what brought me to Japan, it was pretty simple. The works of James Clavell, Hayao Miyazaki, and Akira Kurosawa. Specifically, Shogun, Laputa and Seven Samurai.
[quote]maverick88 wrote:
Cortes, I noticed you said you knew no Japanese before going, what made you decide to go to Japan? Same question for Varqanir.[/quote]
As I think I mentioned in this thread, I had about the equivalent of 2 years of college-level Japanese instruction before getting on the plane, all of which was pretty much worthless once I actually got there. After the first three months of living there I could converse pretty freely, and after 15 years there I was frequently mistaken for a native Japanese speaker on the phone.
Which made for much hilarity when I finally said my name. After about five seconds of shocked silence, the voice on the other end of the line would invariably say, “Ga…gaikokujin desu ka?!” (“You…you’re a foreigner?!”). I always grinned at that. I sometimes wonder how an educated Japanese person would react if, after speaking fluent, unaccented English with a Caucasian American, he gave his name, and the American said “holy shit, you’re Japanese?! Coulda sworn you were white.”
As for what brought me to Japan, it was pretty simple. The works of James Clavell, Hayao Miyazaki, and Akira Kurosawa. Specifically, Shogun, Laputa and Seven Samurai.
[/quote]
How old were you when you first moved there?[/quote]
Twenty when I first went there, twenty four when I went there for good.
As I think I mentioned in this thread, I had about the equivalent of 2 years of college-level Japanese instruction before getting on the plane, all of which was pretty much worthless once I actually got there. After the first three months of living there I could converse pretty freely, and after 15 years there I was frequently mistaken for a native Japanese speaker on the phone.
Which made for much hilarity when I finally said my name. After about five seconds of shocked silence, the voice on the other end of the line would invariably say, “Ga…gaikokujin desu ka?!” (“You…you’re a foreigner?!”). I always grinned at that. I sometimes wonder how an educated Japanese person would react if, after speaking fluent, unaccented English with a Caucasian American, he gave his name, and the American said “holy shit, you’re Japanese?! Coulda sworn you were white.”
[/quote]
LOL great story.
One of my proudest “silly” moments in learning Japanese was when I called a gym to ask when the “training room” (weight room ) was open. I must have mis-pronounced the katakana “training” but done alright with the rest, because the guy on the phone started screaming at me. He’s telling me how badly I misspoke and basically tearing me a new one. I take the phone away from my head and look to my gf ( now wife) who is giving me a “wtf is going on look”. The guy was still yelling on the phone. Baka pride swelling in me, I realize… He thinks I am Japanese! Lol
After he finished I said thanks and hung up. At the time I had thought about switching to English to tell him off, but I decided that that experience was too rich to complain. I don’t know that I will ever get the opportunity to know what it’s like to be the uncool kid in Nippon again.
As I think I mentioned in this thread, I had about the equivalent of 2 years of college-level Japanese instruction before getting on the plane, all of which was pretty much worthless once I actually got there. After the first three months of living there I could converse pretty freely, and after 15 years there I was frequently mistaken for a native Japanese speaker on the phone.
Which made for much hilarity when I finally said my name. After about five seconds of shocked silence, the voice on the other end of the line would invariably say, “Ga…gaikokujin desu ka?!” (“You…you’re a foreigner?!”). I always grinned at that. I sometimes wonder how an educated Japanese person would react if, after speaking fluent, unaccented English with a Caucasian American, he gave his name, and the American said “holy shit, you’re Japanese?! Coulda sworn you were white.”
[/quote]
LOL great story.
One of my proudest “silly” moments in learning Japanese was when I called a gym to ask when the “training room” (weight room ) was open. I must have mis-pronounced the katakana “training” but done alright with the rest, because the guy on the phone started screaming at me. He’s telling me how badly I misspoke and basically tearing me a new one. I take the phone away from my head and look to my gf ( now wife) who is giving me a “wtf is going on look”. The guy was still yelling on the phone. Baka pride swelling in me, I realize… He thinks I am Japanese! Lol
After he finished I said thanks and hung up. At the time I had thought about switching to English to tell him off, but I decided that that experience was too rich to complain. I don’t know that I will ever get the opportunity to know what it’s like to be the uncool kid in Nippon again.
[/quote]
Can a person teaching english make enough money to live comfortably? Does it depend whether they live in the city or country?
[/quote]
You betcha. The industry standard for starting pay is 250,000 yen/month. This is $2500/month. Now if you live in Tokyo or Osaka this is not going to go as far as it will in the countryside, but $30,000 a year should be more than enough for any single man to live on.
Varq covered this, but be careful before you start with thinking it would be “amazing.” The rustic, natural beauty is certainly there, but so is the deathly cold winter, hellishly hot summer, the lack of insulation, the BUGS EVERY WHERE, the lack of MANY common amenities that I am almost certain you now take for granted like good toothpaste, a clothes drier, three-pronged electrical outlets, more than one electrical outlet in a room, DUST FUCKING EVERYWHERE, real solid hardwood floors or carpeted concrete, and nosey, invasive neighbors who make your business there business and don’t have anything better to do so take more interest in your business than you probably do, yourself…to name just a few! I actually could go on, forever. Varq’s description of an old Japanese style house was spot-on. I lived in one over a hundred years old myself, for almost five years. The first few months are pretty cool, especially if they happen to be in spring or fall, but let me tell you, the novelty wears off pretty quickly.
I will say that I miss the river that quite literally ran through my back yard. I really, really miss sitting in that river in the middle of August and just cracking a beer and letting the ice cold water wash over my shoulders after a kettlebell workout. I really miss that, and I’ll have it again, but I’m not ready just yet.
It’s not nearly as easy, but it IS possible. You need to use gaijinpot.com and scope out the smaller, independent, hungrier schools (which is what you should be doing anyway). NON-MISFIT Native English speakers are at a serious premium here. Trust me, I’m an employer, they are VERY few and far between. Remember, it’s not your average hard-working American Joe who packs up all he owns in a single suitcase and sells the rest, and moves to a country halfway across the world to work. A country whose language he does not speak, whose culture he does not know, and whose future is completely uncertain. To be honest, I’d choose any ten Japanese over one American. (side note: The only people I’ve known to work as hard and loyally as the Japanese, who are WONDERFUL employees, are Mexicans, who are also WONDERFUL employees).
I will admit, I also am a proud misfit, but I’m on the good end of the bell curve. Most of the people who come here gravitate from the other side, because they did not fit in in their home country. But Japan is VERY accommodating of Westerners of every stripe.
It’s better than no degree, and enough to get you a job at some places. And one job is all you need. After you get a visa, residency status, and just an inkling of experience, you become infinitely more hirable than someone who has never worked in Japan and lives outside the country (It’s a pain in the ass to go through the visa sponsorship process, hold the new employee’s hand as he adjusts to life here, and trust that he is going to be reliable without being able to speak to him face to face, or that he will adjust to life here at all in the first place. Many do not. ).
[quote]gangstpmp3 wrote:
Thanks Cortes for providing a window into a world I’ve been interested in since i was a kid.
I have to go to that side of the world soon.[/quote]
Yeah, thanks Cortes.
We’ve all learned so much!
;-)[/quote]
What can I say? I do what I can.
Why don’t some of you old-timers take Quasi’s advice and actually contribute something to the fucking thread, eh?
[quote]maverick88 wrote:
Cortes, I noticed you said you knew no Japanese before going, what made you decide to go to Japan? Same question for Varqanir.[/quote]
I had always been interested in other cultures, other languages, and world travel, ever since I was young. As a dilettante, I studied all sorts of different languages throughout college: Portuguese, Latin, Spanish, Russian, Italian, French, and of course a little tiny bit of Japanese. I wanted to get out and do something after I got my degree, but I really didn’t know what it was I wanted to do. Only that I wanted to do Something. I wanted to do something meaningful, to give my life purpose, and to make something of myself and to do it in a big way. So I figured the best way that I could do that would be to sell everything I owned and move as far away from my present position as I possibly could, with no hope of coming back, to a culture I knew nothing about, with a language I didn’t speak, and people I didn’t know. (oh, and the language happens to have the pretty well deserved reputation of being the hardest in the entire world to learn.) (^^)b
I was already fascinated with the rustic beauty of Japan, as well as the romantic idea of the samurai, and I had developed a healthy appreciation for the culture via Beat Takeshi and Akira Kurosawa (same as Varq: The Seven Samurai, Ran, Kagemusha, Ikiru, along with a host of others and anything starring Toshiro Mifune…Kurosawa was then and is still my favorite director, Mifune my favorite actor). I was browsing the internet one day and stumbled upon an online ad that said something along the lines of: Work in Japan. No Experience Necessary. See the World. Get paid. Live an Adventure…or at least that’s how I remembered it. It spoke to the deepest part of me.
About two months later, at 26 years of age, I was on a plane for Kansai, and I’ve not been able to escape since. (^_~)
Were these children? Adults? Wealthy? Were you fluent at this time?
[/quote]
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
It was hardly a turnkey operation: I opened my little school after having taught for years at other private eikaiwa (conversational English) schools throughout Tokyo and Chiba, and also after a seven-year career as a copywriter in a Tokyo advertising company, so I had a pretty good foundation for the teaching and the marketing sides of things. And that 24 hours doesn’t count the time I spent writing ads, printing hundreds of fliers, putting them in every mailbox in the neighborhood, and answering hundreds of phone calls.
[/quote]
Good thing you added this, Varq. Anyone who thinks they can just come here and go into business for themselves doesn’t know the first thing about Japan or business, and is in for a very nasty surprise.
You can make GREAT money here teaching on your own, like, crazy money. But you need to put in your full apprenticeship first. And you need to pay attention. I would not suggest anyone go it alone without at least 4 years of very dedicated, single-minded experience under their belt, studying the language, the culture and the business model of a successful language school owner in equal parts. Trust me, it’s no piece of cake, and it is ANYTHING but easy money.
[quote]Cortes wrote:
You betcha. The industry standard for starting pay is 250,000 yen/month. This is $2500/month. Now if you live in Tokyo or Osaka this is not going to go as far as it will in the countryside, but $30,000 a year should be more than enough for any single man to live on. [/quote]
What kind of lifestyle does $30,000 a year get you? Is that an after-tax number?
It’s been a few years since I lived on $30k a year here (pre-tax), and it wasn’t a particularly great lifestyle; definitely nothing I’d consider “more than enough”. So I’m curious what that lifestyle would be like in Japan.
Is that something like a small 1 bed, 1 bath apartment with a small kitchen, and onsite laundry facilities (but not in the apartment)… buying groceries and cooking every meal, with enough extra for 1 meal out a week… using public transit only… and with not really any money left over to save or invest?
[quote]Cortes wrote:
You betcha. The industry standard for starting pay is 250,000 yen/month. This is $2500/month. Now if you live in Tokyo or Osaka this is not going to go as far as it will in the countryside, but $30,000 a year should be more than enough for any single man to live on. [/quote]
What kind of lifestyle does $30,000 a year get you? Is that an after-tax number?
It’s been a few years since I lived on $30k a year here (pre-tax), and it wasn’t a particularly great lifestyle; definitely nothing I’d consider “more than enough”. So I’m curious what that lifestyle would be like in Japan.
Is that something like a small 1 bed, 1 bath apartment with a small kitchen, and onsite laundry facilities (but not in the apartment)… buying groceries and cooking every meal, with enough extra for 1 meal out a week… using public transit only… and with not really any money left over to save or invest?
More or less than that?[/quote]
A lot of the assistant language teacher jobs (working alongside a Japanese teacher in elementary, junior, or high school) now pay less than 250,000 yen a month. That used to be the minimum and was set by law. It got revised several years ago. I’ve seen some ALT gigs pay as little as 210,000 a month.
When I first got here I was making 285,000 a month. I paid basically no tax in my first year (you will get hit up for more in your second year though) and managed to save 1,200,000 yen in that first year.
I live in a pretty quite/rural part of Japan and was renting an apartment in the biggest city of the prefecture. I had a 2 bedroom apartment with a living room, dining room/kitchen, and a parking space (which you pay extra for) and it was costing me 59,000 a month.