Any Duders Teach English in Japan?

Any duders here who are English teachers in Japan? Or have in the past? I hadn't even realized until recently that they hire foreigners in Japan that often to teach English as a foreign language; even when English teachers from Japan wrote in to the Bombcast I'd assumed they must be fluent Japanese speakers.

So after after hearing about ALTs and eikaiwa and doing some research, I decided this is something I definitely want to try to do. Teaching in general is something that has appealed to me, but unfortunately my philosophy degree hasn't done me any favors towards trying to become a teacher. If any duders here can give me any advice on this, either in this thread or via PM I'd really appreciate it! Some questions I have are:

Have you worked as an ALT or eikaiwa (or something else), and what is your opinion in comparing them?

How much fluency of Japanese is needed or preferable? I know for eikaiwa there are plenty of teachers who barely speak Japanese and the language used at work is English, but what about day to day life? For ALTs I've heard everything from "needs basic fluency in Japanese" to "willing to try and learn."

How helpful is getting TEFL? I imagine it's most helpful for working as an ALT or a smaller eikaiwa company as the larger ones seem to be more interested in clueless foreigners.

On that topic, any thoughts on the bigger chains like Aeon vs smaller ones? Aeon and ECC seem to be the easiest ways to apply as they recruit here in U.S. and Canada, but I do imagine that with how much easier it is to apply without taking a trip to Japan there must be more competition for positions.

I'm a bit nervous about Aeon, both because of some horror stories I've read (though I imagine those come from most places), but also because of their exclusivity contract. As I understand it, it's not exactly the best-paying job, so trying to find some extra work on the side would probably be helpful... if it weren't for that exclusivity bit. Also I've heard that "once you work at Aeon and leave you can't work at any other eikaiwa" so that's a bit... intimidating. Not to mention that at the larger chains you're supposed to be a salesman, marketing their materials, and as someone currently selling books I can fairly say I dislike being a salesman, especially if it makes me feel like I'm taking advantage of someone.

Is all ALT recruiting done in Japan or are there companies that recruit in the U.S. and Canada?

Given that most companies seem to mainly recruit in Japan, is the best route then making a (week-long?) trip to Japan and booking a bunch of interviews in that time? How is it getting a working visa after getting a job there and finding a place to live?

At the moment teaching as an ALT sounds a bit more appealing to me than working at eikaiwa, I'd really want to immerse myself in Japanese culture, try and learn the language through immersion; the more flexible schedule also is appealing. Not to mention that I actually like kids (unlike just about all my friends), and would probably enjoy trying to teach children. However it does sound a bit harder to become an ALT than working at eikaiwa since knowing more Japanese is much more useful and a TEFL is worth a lot more.

Lastly, if you teach in Japan or did in the past, did you enjoy it?

I'ma send you a PM so check it soon.

@depecheload: Do you mind sending it to me as well?

I work at a mid-sized eikaiwa in northern Japan currently and it's fine, the pay is slightly better than what most alt positions offer and the types of classes you get to teach much more interesting - kids, adults, companies, etc. I've never worked as an alt myself but friends who have say it's a bit dull, and you usually won't have much control over your class content (exceptions do exist). If that's not so important to you though and you want to just enjoy immersion in the culture than alt is great!

I'd advise you to avoid the bigger eikaiwas. Unless you plan just a year in Japan. The job just isn't as flexible or fun and usually much more stressful.

I didn't do it but I know a few people who teach/thought over there through the TEFL program. I can't say much about how they went about getting a job there but I believe it was done through their college degree and the TEFL program. They all studied communications in college.

Regarding their experiences though, they both had widely different experiences. The pay for both of them was decent, accommodation was taken care of for at least the first year so they didn't have to pay anything towards rent. One got sent to a city, the other got sent to a small town. The one who got sent to a city loved it, has met and married over there and is planning on living there now. He's still teaching english to college kids.

The other who was sent to a small town hated it. The town had very little in the way of services and entertainment and although it was nice and picturesque that's not what that person was after. So after the year was up she packed it in and moved home.

@hawkster201: I should've realized that there is much more freedom in how you teach at an eikaiwa, whereas as an ALT you're literally just an assistant, so I guess actually teaching is probably more fun at an eikaiwa than as an ALT, so teaching at an eikaiwa is sounding more appealing to me now.

If eikawas are anything like Korean hagwons, they differ drastically from one to the other. Many are great and will pay you properly and on time with all deductions above board. Some will take those deductions and not actually pay your pension, taxes or health insurance with them and you'll only find out once you go to leave the country and can't get your pension back or worse, end up in the hospital stuck with the bill. Some just won't even pay you as happened to a couple friends of mine who left here after six months having only been paid for half of those. The best thing you can do to protect yourself is Google whatever school you are applying to and see what other people have to say about it. Not other schools in the same chain, but the actual branch you'll be working at.

That said, things are much better (in Korea) these days. I've been here twelve years and complaints of shady hagwon owners have gone down quite a bit. The labor board has been doing something it seems. Japan has been in the ESL business for longer than Korea. Presumably they've ironed out more of the difficulties.

I'm currently working as an ALT, sent you a PM

@cat_herder: do you mind sending it me as well?

Well I started a TEFL course, that should help :)

In regards to how much Japanese you need to know, it depends on where you go.

Obviously knowing Japanese will increase your enjoyment anywhere in the country, but if you don't know any, your best bets are the tourist trap cities, most obviously Tokyo and Kyoto (though not excluding Osaka, Yokohama and others).

I think it's a good idea to learn Japanese, I mean at least make an effort to.

There's some people that come over to Japan and after two years don't seem to have attempted to learn the language at all. I just think that's lazy and makes you look bad! You'll also have to depend on others a lot more and use bad translation apps to figure out what flavour stuff in the supermarket is.

@wynnduffy: I'm attempting to learn Japanese, I've almost memorized the first 100 kanji, I should be able to relearn hiragana and katakana again fairly quickly. I kinda suck at trying to teach myself languages, which is part of why I want to try and try to learn via immersion over there.

Also the idea of being a teacher has always appealed to me so that's a plus.

I think the immersion thing is kind of a farce, I mean, you can pick up when people say what things, but you're not going to understand the nuances without hunkering down with some grammar books.

One of the best things to do is get vocabulary under your belt, by having lots of vocab you can understand what's being spoken about but by having mostly just grammar you're still clueless as to what's being said.

I recommend Core 2k/6k.

It's unfortunate Duolingo doesn't have Japanese because that app is great at easing people into a language. I've become surprisingly OK at Norwegian because of it.

Hi there @belegorm . A few years experience working in Japan here. I've sent you a PM.