This is SH again. I have couple of queries I like to ask you about. I do have some concept what I should, but I like to get more suggestions and hope you can point me in the right direction.
1) Are you now a permanent resident of Japan? If not, do you intend to get permanent residency? Please share with me any information you know, typically about us Singaporeans getting PR in Japan.
2) Moonlighting while working as an ALT. Because an ALT’s pay is so marginal, it seems like moonlighting is the only way to save real money and to recoup the heavy start up costs invested in coming to Japan. I really wish you can give your insights on this.
Eg.
Are ALTs allowed to seek part time work on top of their day time teaching jobs? How can an ALT who wants to work on the sideline find part time work? What are the legalities involved?
3) Lastly, what are the avenues you know for a gaijin to find jobs? Does the fact that as Singaporeans, we are multi-lingual come into play in this?
Because as you should know, working as an ALT is a dead end job with no job security.
If I want to prolong my stay in Japan, I need to source for other jobs that have more stability.
It will be cool if you can open a thread on this, but if you don’t want to leak too much info, you can just PM about it too.
PS: I tried to ask an Ang Moh who stayed in Osaka for 15 years on the above, he wanted to charge me a fee for it to have a Skype session with him {=_=|}
Thanks Bro.
SH sent me another mail asking a few questions, and I’ll reply with what I know. If you have any additional information or notice that my response is inaccurate, please feel free to correct me in the comments section.
1) Are you now a permanent resident of Japan? If not, do you intend to get permanent residency?
– No, I’m not. If possible, I would like to but I’m not eligible to apply at the moment. I’ve read the Japanese immigration website and spoken with a few other foreigners to confirm that permanent residency application requires the applicant to have resided in Japan for at least 10 years, and among which, have worked for at least five (and of course have duly paid your taxes, pension, and at least the required basic national insurance).
2) Are ALTs allowed to seek part time work on top of their day time teaching jobs? How can an ALT who wants to work on the sideline find part time work? What are the legalities involved?
– ALTs are typically hired as either dispatch or contract workers. To be frank, I’m not sure about the exact legalities involved although I believe dispatch workers are allowed to do part-time work. So should contract workers be unless stated in the contract. When I was working under a dispatch company as an ALT, I also did part-time teaching for Aeon’s Corporate Division. My part-time work with Aeon continued even when I was hired as a contract worker under the Board of Education (BOE). Many other ALTs were also teaching on the side and the Head at the BOE didn’t stop us even though she knew about it.
3) Lastly, what are the avenues you know for a gaijin to find jobs? Does the fact that as Singaporeans, we are multi-lingual come into play in this?
– I’ve posted a number of job searching websites somewhere in this blog. I don’t remember where but maybe you’d like to try searching. Speaking several languages definitely puts you in advantage, although it doesn’t mean you will be scored too highly over other candidates unless the position specifically states that they require your skill sets. Not every company requires you to speak English or Mandarin. In fact, your Japanese language skills will probably be more important unless the position doesn’t require you to use much Japanese.
1) Technically its 5 years to get a PR I think.
2) Moonlighting is legal from immigration pov. Its the contract(s) you have with your employer(s) that are going to be a problem
3) I have shared abit on my own blog/site. Just be prepared to be faced with many doubts from potential employers and better to have near native fluency (this does not necessarily mean jlpt1 certified).
5 years is for naturalization. PR requires 10 years.
Hi, this is SH again.
Actually I already know of the information that Gaijinhan / Victor shared about the first 2 questions. However, I thought that being there physically, you could shed more light on the topic.
Victor, please provide me a link to your blog.
My Japanese proficiency is definitely no where near native level. Its tough because there is just not a proper environment here to improve my Japanese fluency.
While I can understand and comprehend what my Japanese sensei had taught in class, , the lack of the need to use the language has resulted to inadequate practice. And language this sort of things, you really need to be exposed to an environment where you are compelled to practice and thus you can learn.
Hi SH!
Just two points which I would like to contribute, on top of Jin Han’s post.
Firstly, I’m not of the opinion that the ALT job is a dead-end job. It can be fulfilling and rewarding. I speak from personal experience. The Japanese government has rolled out a new policy that will allow ALTs to obtain teaching licenses and hence take on classes by themselves. If this doesn’t sound promising for ALTs, I don’t know what is. Let me link you here https://dperkins.org/arc/2014-10-13.teacher%20certification.html and here https://dperkins.org/arc/2014-10-17.tokyo%20certification.html. Please read them carefully and follow the links if you wish.
Next, I noticed that you said how there is no proper environment to improve your Japanese fluency. I understand your frustration. Now, I don’t mean to shoot you down but I believe you can create your own environment. I know several people, myself included, who have gotten our Japanese to a high proficiency by being conscientious about our Japanese study and surrounding ourselves with Japanese as much as we can. We then came to Japan (either on holiday or to work) shocking the Japanese with our language ability. It happens. It’s very possible. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I believe you just need to try harder.
May I also give some advice? You said you are looking for job stability so as to prolong your stay in Japan. If, PRIOR TO YOUR ARRIVAL IN JAPAN, you are thinking of 1) having a stable job that is not an ALT job and 2) staying in Japan for a long time, you must be prepared to work your ass off and get your JLPT N1 before you even think about boarding the plane because most jobs of that nature require you to be exceptionally fluent in Japanese.
Otherwise, you can comb the internet for jobs that outstation in Japan. Another way is to marry a Japanese citizen, then find a job there. However, if you just want to live in Japan and not think about years and years of job security, I believe you will have a lot more options in the English-teaching sector.
If you really wish to come to Japan, please keep your options and your mind open. I wish you the best of luck and that you will get to come here someday.
Thank you Lydia for your insightful reply.
I will definitely study the links you provided in great detail.
Actually I have a job offer with a dispatch company for an ALT position and I am now waiting for them to provide me the official contract. They are now applying for my instructor visa.
My biggest worry now is : not having enough funds to make my move to Japan (I guess i have to ask my parents to loan me some money, I sure do hope they are willing to) and not getting a job offer eventually. The dispatch company will only give me an official contract, provided that they get a confirmation of location from the Japan Board of Education.
I’m not very sure what that implies, please correct me if my intepretation of the situation is wrong. I surmise that means they are currently bidding for the ALTs tender from the BOE, and they will only be able to have positions if they get awarded the tender by the BOE. So, in the event that my dispatch company does not win the tender, I will end up with no job at the end of the day. I really really hope that doesnt happen.
This is also why I commented earlier that working as an ALT has no job security:
1) There is a strong preference for Native English Speakers. As Singaporeans, we are not considered native speakers and therefore we are second rated behind ang mohs. This affects a lot on the chances to be hired / recontracted.
2) Strong competition from other applicants and between dispatch companies. There are constantly fresh people coming in to compete for available ALT positions. Also, because of the ever going bidding war between dispatch companies, there is no guarantee you will get the job even if you passed the job interview for ten, twenty dispatch companies if none of them wins the bid for the BOE’s tender.
3) Only knowng your employment placement at the last minute. Because of the selectivity of the BOE, the dispatch companies are awarded the tender only 1 month or even a few weeks before the actual job starts.
This poses a big problem for those ALTs who intend to switch jobs to a different dispatch company, especially if it is in a different prefecture and they have to move over on very short notice.
If they do not get a job offer eventually at the new company they applied for, and if they do not get recontracted with their current company, they are screwed.
Therefore, I cannot rely on just working as an ALT to hope to prolong my stay in Japan. The ALT market is simply too volatile. There is just too much uncertainty involved.
Does anybody know if the employment circumstances as an Eikaiwa differ from that of an ALT? Please enlighten me.
But as all aforementioned, you need to have a tip top Japanese proficiency to be able to get considered for other work posts in Japan.
Its difficult for me to improve my proficiency simply because of:
1) Costs. Japanese courses/ related materials are generally pricey. You have to pick a good school too. You very likely have to spend a bomb to attain to N2 / N1 level. Its very hard to self study because you absolutely need a guide to explain to you
2) Lack of time to devote. A huge chunk of my daily time is devoted to work and trying to survive. Sucks to be a Singaporean. That really does not leave me with a lot of spare time to brush up my Japanese skills.
3) Lack of an environment / peers to practise with. It is exceptionally tough, especially for those who are self studying, when you have no one else to practice together with you. You wouldn’t know if you’ve made a mistake or if you intepreted something wrongly.
4) I am not a big fan of anime or drama. This may sound strange to many Japanese lovers, but I don’t know much about anime, nor am I motivated to and I find myself having to struggle to watch it because a lot of times I find the themes too childish for my taste or the storyline not interesting enough to capture my attention. Therefore I kind of lost this avenue to do improvement. Though I think that watching anime is not a proper way to learn / improve Japanese.
I do however like reading manga. I like reading even 少女漫画。One of my ex senseis did mention that reading mangas is a good way to improve your Japanese. I will appreciate if somebody could share some titles that are great for Japanese improvement.
I do know of a 日本語交流会 that happens once or twice every month, but it is for anybody of any level to participate. I am skeptical that joining this activity will yield any results in improving. Perhaps somebody can also provide some tips of what they do to improve their Japanese language.
Anyway I like to give an update on my work status at Resorts World Sentosa. Initially I thought I could work with them all the way til the end of February. However I think I overestimated my level of tolerance.
The job at RWS is already very humbling, and physically demanding, but now it has also become a demeaning job to work in. I have to take arrogance, mockery and insensitive remarks from condescending China people who for some reason think that they can lord over me because they are a team leader and I am a part time worker there.
So i decided that to the hell with it, i will go work someplace else where I can preserve some sanity and dignity. I will be starting work at a retail outlet this coming Tuesday. I will continue working here until its time I make my move to Japan.
If by any chance, that I do not get a job offer from the dispatch company, I will then look for a full time job.
Adding on to Lydia’s point about fluency, I can personally attest to it. I got my JLPT1 within 4 years after I started learning it “officially”. I was still in university at that time and had never studied abroad. There are many ways to get there and Singapore differently isn’t the worst of places to do it.
There are books from Taiwan that explain grammar very well. Ikoma’s JLPT1 “drill course” was excellent in my opinion. The Book Off at Central Mall in Clarke Quay has some good reading material you can just sit down and read for free. There is a meetup group for Japanese learners with a very dedicated teacher who can help you with smaller group lessons (I am not his student but he is a peer of mine who built up his own Japanese skills while helping others). There’s of course the world wide web where you can “immerse” yourself in the language. Many many more things you can do. If you think you have exhausted all means, just try asking others and they might have an idea that you have not tried yet.
The things I listed above are of course just the things that came to my mind right now. I don’t know how to summarise it better because it feels so distant now. Anyways, I’m sure you will find your own way. Its sometimes a chicken-and-egg problem but as cliche as it may sound, you will just have to “fake it before you make it”.
All the best.
Exposure to the perceived ideal language learning environment is more of a convenience than an essential tool required to improve one’s language abilities.
You will be arriving in here with a less-than-comfortable amount of money but will somehow make things turn out fine. Possessing that same level of determination in improving your Japanese language ability to near native level prior to your arrival would have worked wonders for sure.
SH:
Actually, you could just click on my gravatar and access my blog and linkedin profile from there. I’ve kept everything pretty open (I think)
Anyways, for convenience’s sake, I will just paste my link here. I hope Jinhan is okay with this.
My blog: http://www.victorayechan.com/
Again, I have kept it very open and you can contact me from there if you want to know more about anything (since I’ve not written anything in the blog since forever).
I hope it helps. Getting a nice-looking resume out in Japanese is the very first step to convincing the potential employer that you do “speak/read/write Japanese”. It doesn’t matter what your actual fluency is (just yet), but it is a good and surefire way to pass the first round of screening.
Hi Victor, I tried adding you on Facebook but it seems you have not logged in for close to 3 months !!
Please let me know if there is any form of contact you use more frequently.
Do you use LINE?
Hi SH,
My notifications are screwed up lately. I didn’t see your message until I tried to send you one.