She’s always had a passion for teaching and is quite the expert as she studied Education and has taught in various locations.
Now, she’s busy changing the lives of 5 year old by teaching them English in the classroom.
Andy’s been an ESL teacher for one year and initially went over to Japan on a Specialist in Humanities Visa.
Some pros about Japan living include: beautiful landscapes, convenient transportation and a welcoming community. Whereas cons are the language barrier, frequent earthquakes and bureaucracy… (Imagine paying for a pension you’ll likely never use!)
When asked about her favourite teaching memory, Andy said: “Looking back, my best memories were the small, joyful moments shared with my kids; funny little stories they told me; card they made me; a sunflower brought to school for the classroom and seeing their English improve.”
We asked Andy some questions about living and teaching in Japan so that you can get an idea of the process – we hope you like it!
“I actually studied Education at university, but my main goal of coming to Japan was not really the teaching part of it. I just really wanted to travel to Japan and thought teaching English would be a pretty good/easy way to do so.
Surprisingly, the teaching English part of it ended up being my favourite part of this whole experience. Japan is a beautiful country with so much to explore, but the connections I made with the kids in my class made teaching one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.”
“I would say generally it is super easy to find work as an English teacher in Japan. The question is, how many of these jobs actually provide a good working environment?
I have heard about a lot of companies that seem pretty great at first, but turn out to be pretty bad. Definitely do your research and look at teacher reviews on websites like Glassdoor.”
There is a super helpful website called Gaijinpot.com! You create a profile, where you include personal information as well as your CV and then you can actually directly apply for positions through the website.
The school where I work is owned by a super big company (they own about 12 different kinds of English schools and loads of different branches).
First, I had an interview with a recruiter from this big ‘umbrella’ company. The guy who interviewed me was super friendly and helpful and it was pretty pleasant- except for the part where I had to wake up at 5am to do the interview!
After my initial interview, I received an email telling me I had made it through the first phase of the interview process and the next step would be for me to have an interview with the selected school where I would potentially be working. I then had an interview with the school. Three people interviewed me which was slightly scary in the beginning, but they were super nice and really tried to set me at ease.
After that interview I got an email about a week later saying I got the position! And voila!
I think if it seems too good to be true, it usually is. Meaning, if the benefits seem almost unbelievable and the interview process is super short and easy- that’s a big red flag.
Always always look at teacher reviews for any school you want to apply to work at. This is a super helpful way of separating the good schools from the bad ones.
A good school will make you feel like they actually WANT you to work for them. For me this means being very communicative as well as supportive throughout the entire process.
Because I work at a kindergarten, there are only in person positions available, but online positions can be found elsewhere.
A lot of English language schools in Japan have also started setting up online classes, especially since the start of the pandemic. Although, for a lot of these companies / schools, you still need to be based in Japan.
‘Westgate’ is a good example of a company that I know offer a competitive salary and pretty good benefits.
I work from Monday to Friday. I start work at 08:30 and end at 17:30 (with an hour lunch break) every day. There are some weeks where I need to work on Saturdays as well, but I do get paid overtime for it and it’s only required probably once every two months or so.
The workload is quite a lot, but if you manage your time well, it is possible to get everything done throughout the day. However, there are busier periods (ex. end of the semester when report cards are due) where I would need to work later than 17:30, but my school is really good with making sure I get paid for any overtime I do.
In order for you to legally work in Japan using a work visa, you need to earn atleast $1825 per month. I earn about $2280, but after taxes, pension and insurance are deducted, it’s about $1900.
When I arrived in Japan, my company kindly helped me set up a Japanese bank account, so my monthly salary gets paid into that account on the 25th of each month. Getting paid on the 25th is pretty standard for most contract workers in Japan.
It’s bit hard to give an exact estimate, but a few things to keep in mind: Tokyo is very expensive, if you choose to live in a city right next to it like Kawasaki or Saitama, the amount of money you will spend on rent will be way less.
I would say paying around $640 per month for rent is average (for a room in a three bedroom apartment for example).
Public transportation in Japan is amazing, but not cheap. Companies are required by law to cover your travel expenses to and from work though, so that is super helpful. Keep in mind that if you want to do a lot of traveling in and around your city, transportation alone will eat up a significant amount of your budget.
Eating out and partying in Tokyo is super expensive. For most cheaper restaurants I would say paying around $10 for a meal is the average. Most (if not all) clubs and DJ bars ask entrance, which can be anything from $10 to $30 and it usually includes 1 drink.
Speaking of drinking, at bars most cheaper drinks like beer cost about $5, and other drinks are around $8 to $10.
Even though a lot of these things are quite expensive, for me at least, it’s possible to pay all my bills (taxes, pension, health insurance, phone bills) and still be able to do grocery shopping, eat out once a week, and still have money left over to put towards my savings.
Go online! I highly recommend Bumble BFF and MeetUp. I have met some super cool people and made some amazing friends with there apps.
Push yourself out of your comfort zone. Don’t be shy to ask for directions etc.
Think about what interests you and sign up for a club.
Take online language lessons to make it easier to connect with other people.
would highly recommend visiting Mount Takao and seeing the cherry blossoms during cherry blossom season (they only come out and last for about two weeks out of the whole year).
Good news for all the vegetarians! All the veggie burger restaurants are amazing!
You have to visit as many parks in Japan as possible! Some good ones are: Shinjuku Gyoen, Yoyogi park (where these old school music lovers get together on weekends and play music; people practice playing saxophone…) and Negishi forest park.
Search over 1000+ Lessons from our extensive library.
