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A Cautionary Tale About Teaching in Japan

odinigh
Feb 19th, 2020
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  1. odinigh 12/11/2019
  2. How long did it take to secure your new teaching job?
  3.  
  4. Rokudaime 12/11/2019
  5. Hmm, 3 months maybe? Roughly. Maybe a bit less. I did everything from using work agencies, to applying by myself on various online job websites for Japan, such as Gaijinpot, to contacting the Norwegian embassy in Japan and asking them if they knew about any jobs, to contacting the Norwegian chamber of commerce in Japan, and asking them the same thing. I really tried. But in the end, none of those things got me the job. In the end, I got the job through a staff member at my Japanese language school, who is in charge of helping students at the school to find work. A former teacher at the school, who now works as a teacher at the English school I'm going to be working at, contacted her and asked her if any of her students were looking for work, and she told her about me, and gave her all my info (that I gave to her). Then, they contacted me and set up an interview, and then after the interview, I immediately got the job
  6.  
  7. odinigh 12/11/2019
  8. That's impressive man, congratulations
  9.  
  10. Rokudaime 12/11/2019
  11. Thanks! : )
  12.  
  13. odinigh 12/11/2019
  14. What did they expect from you in your interview?
  15.  
  16. Rokudaime 12/11/2019
  17. Well, it seemed it was kind of urgent for them, so they probably weren't being too picky. But, they wanted to make sure I'm not planning to just work there for a short time and then leave, but of course, I would tell them that isn't my plan whether it actualy is or not. : P Now I AM planning on staying there for a long time, but if the job ends up being shit, I'll leave of course, but I'm not going to tell them that, obviously. Other than that, their school has pupils of all ages from 0-80, so they wanted me to be aware of that. It's not what I most would have wanted, but I needed a job, so I didn't want to be picky. It's already hard to find a job when you live in Japan, and finding one from abroad is many times harder, so I wasn't gonna let it go. They didn't really ask me any difficult questions, unlike one of the other jobs I interviewed for, who wanted me to do a really difficult demo lesson. : P
  18.  
  19. Oh, and they wanted to know my qualifications of course. They also asked me how come my English is so good even though I'm not a native, so I answered that.
  20.  
  21. odinigh 12/11/2019
  22. How much Japanese do you actually know to where they hired you on the spot?
  23.  
  24. Rokudaime 12/11/2019
  25. Well, I passed the N4, and I've taken the N3, but I won't get the results until February next year. I feel confident I did well on the vocabulary section and the listening section, and grammar was probably fine, but the problem is reading, I was too slow, so I don't know how that went...We'll see. If I had to say, I'd wager a guess that my speaking ability is around N3, and the teachers tell me I'm good at speaking as well, but my kanji skills are pretty awful. I'm really bad at kanji, which of course also affects my reading.
  26.  
  27. odinigh 12/11/2019
  28. Did they actually know good English?
  29.  
  30. Rokudaime 12/11/2019
  31. The interviewer spoke entirely in English, and she pretty much understood everything I said, so her knowledge was there for the most part I guess, but here pronunciation was pretty bad, if I'm honest. : P The staff at my Japanese language school that speak English are way better.
  32.  
  33. odinigh 12/11/2019
  34. Your Japanese language school?
  35.  
  36. Rokudaime 12/11/2019
  37. Yes, I've been studying at a Japanese language school in Tokyo since January this year.
  38.  
  39. odinigh 12/11/2019
  40. When did you move to Tokyo?
  41.  
  42. Rokudaime 12/11/2019
  43. January 15th.
  44.  
  45. odinigh 12/11/2019
  46. Where were you before Japan?
  47.  
  48. Rokudaime 12/11/2019
  49. At home in Norway. Living with my parents for the past 6 months. Before that I was studying teacher studies in a different part of Norway.
  50.  
  51. odinigh 12/11/2019
  52. You mind if I post some of this on the blog for the christmas post? :D
  53.  
  54. Rokudaime 12/11/2019
  55. Lol, sure, be my guest. : P
  56.  
  57. Rokudaime 12/11/2019
  58. Well, my job is in Osaka, not in Tokyo, where most of the other Doki people who live in Japan are, so it'll be interesting to see how it goes I guess, and how long I'll end up sticking around.
  59.  
  60. odinigh 12/11/2019
  61. How many Doki people do we have in Japan? Are we ready for our hostile takeover?
  62.  
  63. Rokudaime 12/11/2019
  64. Yes, master, all the preparations are complete!
  65.  
  66. >>> TIME SKIP HERE <<<
  67.  
  68. Rokudaime 01/01/2020
  69. Question. When you said "You mind if I post some of this on the blog for the christmas post?", which blog did you mean? Because I remember you saying that, I decided to check the Doki site, but I don't even see a christmas post, that's why I ask. : P
  70.  
  71. odinigh 01/01/2020
  72. It's almost like I didn't finish preparing the release I was going to make for Christmas :(
  73.  
  74. Rokudaime 01/02/2020
  75. Haha, I figured as much. : P
  76.  
  77. >>> TIME SKIP HERE <<<
  78.  
  79. Rokudaime 01/22/2020
  80. Turns out the school where I started working is a really shitty and unstable place where you can't really reasonably make a living. What's worse, when I said I want to quit, the boss threatened me, saying I have to stay for a year and pay rent for a year, or I'll be in legal trouble, according to the contract. Looks like I've managed to land myself in one of those black companies the Japanese talk about. :neutral_face: So, it's unfortunate, especially since it cost me (and my parents) time and lots of money, but I'm going to just run away, and go back home to Norway. There's no way I'm slaving away for them for a whole year on no pay. Don't know if I'll ever return to Japan for anything except for vacations. :neutral_face: We'll see I guess. I'm getting on the plane half a day from now, so they'll be none the wiser before it's too late to even try to stop me. I might get blacklisted for future work visas by immigration though, which kind of sucks, but oh well...
  81.  
  82. odinigh 01/22/2020
  83. That kind of thing should definitely be illegal
  84. But why risk going to the police, you know?
  85. When you can just yeet home :D
  86. I just don't see why you should let yourself get entrapped in their shit
  87.  
  88. Rokudaime 01/22/2020
  89. Yeah. It's insane. Never thought something like this would happen. Oh well. shrug
  90.  
  91. odinigh 01/22/2020
  92. 6 weeks going from "Yay I got a job in Japan" to "Fuck this shit I'm out"
  93.  
  94. Rokudaime 01/22/2020
  95. Lol, yeah. That 180'd fast...Fuck...
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