Current Events > Pros and cons of teaching English in Japan

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://youtube.com/shorts/qH2YRDg9uE8?si=SxlvlagizC1-7a5w

Cons: good sushi and clean street
Pros: daily mandatory kisses from yakuza

Japan's work culture is a major turn off.

As noted by the Gaijin Smash blog, if you're Black, the kids will constantly ask about your... size.

mystic_belmont posted...

Japan's work culture is a major turn off.

Also, this.

Solar_Crimson posted...

As noted by the Gaijin Smash blog, if you're Black, the kids will constantly ask about your... size.

Wow...

Its great for tourism, not great to live in. Its a work-addicted bureaucratic nation of depressed cynical racist pencil pushers, with a lot of strife between the older generation who cant find a way out of getting the nation to not die a slow death and the youth who has given up all hope. It is exactly the same here in The Netherlands and a few other European countries. Some places are too xenophobic in nature and you will not be happy there.

Pros: Surrounded by hot asian women everyday.

That's the one thing I miss about my homeland after visiting it >_>

Solar_Crimson posted...

As noted by the Gaijin Smash blog, if you're Black, the kids will constantly ask about your... size.

i remember this guy wow what a throwback

I know a guy who went to Asia to teach English. He worked in Japan, South Korea, and Thailand and said he liked Thailand the most.

Did she say 10 days off a year?

That can't be right.

LeoRavus posted...

Did she say 10 days off a year?

That can't be right.

That's probably vacation days

Solar_Crimson posted...

As noted by the Gaijin Smash blog, if you're Black, the kids will constantly ask about your... size.

Can you whip it out and chase locals down the street, pretending you are Godzilla?

mustachedmystic posted...

Can you whip it out and chase locals down the street, pretending you are Godzilla?

https://youtu.be/lhJ3s1LNe7M

LeoRavus posted...

Did she say 10 days off a year?

That can't be right.

That's what I get a year working in corporate in America. 80 hours of PTO. That's 10 days.

Didn't watch the video, but one of the complaints I've heard from people who have taught in Japan (and Korea and China) is that you're also expected to participate in mandatory unpaid "promotional events" for your "school" (often a subsidiary of another company). That may or may not be in the fine print.

brestugo posted...

Didn't watch the video, but one of the complaints I've heard from people who have taught in Japan (and Korea and China) is that you're also expected to participate in mandatory unpaid "promotional events" for your "school" (often a subsidiary of another company). That may or may not be in the fine print.

So it's really more of a work culture thing. Other countries can also be collectivist instead of individualistic but they place value on family and friends, not the work place

Get fingers poking into your ass.

SaikyoStyle posted...

I know a guy who went to Asia to teach English. He worked in Japan, South Korea, and Thailand and said he liked Thailand the most.

My understanding from many people whove done the Asian teaching English circuit is that the best place to go is Vietnam, with Thailand being a close second.

Foppe posted...

Get fingers poking into your ass.

My Korean friend used to do that to a bunch of us in college and yell "Dong Chim!" >_> It was funny lol. We all started doing it to each other after that

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d467bfbb.jpg

NeonBoobs posted...

My Korean friend used to do that to a bunch of us in college and yell "Dong Chim!" >_> It was funny lol. We all started doing it to each other after that

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d467bfbb.jpg

Korean suffering from hemorrhoids likely because of this

WesternMedia posted...

@ssjevot

I don't teach English or know people who do, but it seems like a bad job.

Zwijn posted...

Its great for tourism, not great to live in. Its a work-addicted bureaucratic nation of depressed cynical racist pencil pushers, with a lot of strife between the older generation who cant find a way out of getting the nation to not die a slow death and the youth who has given up all hope. It is exactly the same here in The Netherlands and a few other European countries. Some places are too xenophobic in nature and you will not be happy there.

This is just racist nonsense though.

As far as the work culture stuff goes. The US works more hours on average. We have 13 national holidays, most people have 10-20 days off paid leave (I get 20), most people are just working a regular 8 hour day. The crazy horrible stories you hear about overwork at black companies are real, but stuff like that happens everywhere. You are just focused on Japan and assuming that is normal because it's a media narrative online. The fact is they aren't actually working insane hours, the US works more hours, the US has a higher suicide rate, you just don't know that because the memes online have replaced facts.

ssjevot posted...

This is just racist nonsense though.

How is it a racist to say certain cultures are completely fucked? Its discrimination at most, but racism? You think I say this because I hate other colors or something? I know Japan well, I know Europe well. I know how these cultures operate and I know how screwed they are in the near future.

Teaching English is basically a stepping stone for other ventures unless you are really passionate about being a teacher.

kage_53 posted...

Teaching English is basically a stepping stone for other ventures unless you are really passionate about being a teacher.

Yeah, in many places in Asia, its a way to get your foot in the door. However, many places have slim pickings for foreigners if you dont want to teach and youre never going to make great money in teaching purely from the TEFL stuff. There is good money to be made, but not through that avenue.

Zwijn posted...

How is it a racist to say certain cultures are completely fucked? Its discrimination at most, but racism? You think I say this because I hate other colors or something? I know Japan well, I know Europe well. I know how these cultures operate and I know how screwed they are in the near future.

I'm an immigrant married to an immigrant in rural Japan. I live with my wife's family who are also immigrants. What you described is a stereotype and not reality. You do not know Japanese culture well. What you know is racist shit you read online. Racism exists in Japan, but their culture isn't fucked, and we are much safer there from a hate crime than we would be in America. No one was attacking Chinese people in the streets during the pandemic. It's ridiculous how all these white people post online about how racist Japan is when they don't even live there or speak the language. You don't know shit about it.

NeonBoobs posted...

My Korean friend used to do that to a bunch of us in college and yell "Dong Chim!" >_> It was funny lol. We all started doing it to each other after that

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d467bfbb.jpg

https://twitter.com/brutalfightz/status/1723793682724536589

ssjevot posted...

I'm an immigrant married to an immigrant in rural Japan. I live with my wife's family who are also immigrants. What you described is a stereotype and not reality. You do not know Japanese culture well. What you know is racist shit you read online. Racism exists in Japan, but their culture isn't fucked, and we are much safer there from a hate crime than we would be in America. No one was attacking Chinese people in the streets during the pandemic. It's ridiculous how all these white people post online about how racist Japan is when they don't even live there or speak the language. You don't know shit about it.

I dont know shit about America, Im a European who deals with Japanese people enough to be told what they think of foreigners. I have also personally seen the black vans, you know the ones Im talking about. Its possible that the people I know themselves are racists in a bubble but that seems weirdly unlikely to me. Also Japans culture is fucked, the demographic crisis is worsening harder than the stance against immigrants is bettering. Japan is on the verge of a demographic collapse, together with South Korea and a few European nations. I was never talking about hate crimes or being attacked, Im talking about acceptance.

Zwijn posted...

I dont know shit about America, Im a European who deals with Japanese people enough to be told what they think of foreigners. I have also personally seen the black vans, you know the ones Im talking about. Its possible that the people I know themselves are racists in a bubble but that seems weirdly unlikely to me. Also Japans culture is fucked, the demographic crisis is worsening harder than the stance against immigrants is bettering. Japan is on the verge of a demographic collapse, together with South Korea and a few European nations. I was never talking about hate crimes or being attacked, Im talking about acceptance.

Japan takes in the most immigrants in East Asia. The inability to take in more immigrants to meet quotas currently is due to low wages from the weak yen. Most immigrants until recently were from China but now it's Vietnam. Yeah right wing extremists exist, that's what the black vans you are talking about are related to and those people are a loud minority, not normal people. You are racist because you apply a stereotype based on one group of people and assume that's the whole country. Far right parties get a couple percent of the vote at most. The moderate right gets about 35% every election. You think even the 10% voting communist or far left parties are the racist stereotype you posted about the black van guys you read about online? Do you think everyone in your country is a neonazi? Because I can find plenty of pictures and articles about them online.

ssjevot posted...

Japan takes in the most immigrants in East Asia. The inability to take in more immigrants to meet quotas currently is due to low wages from the weak yen. Most immigrants until recently were from China but now it's Vietnam. Yeah right wing extremists exist, that's what the black vans you are talking about are related to and those people are a loud minority, not normal people. You are racist because you apply a stereotype based on one group of people and assume that's the whole country.

That's not racism, that's discrimination. It has nothing to do with a certain people or skin color, but with cultural factors. Those are not the same things at all.

Far right parties get a couple percent of the vote at most. The moderate right gets about 35% every election. You think even the 10% voting communist or far left parties are the racist stereotype you posted about the black van guys you read about online?

I do not think those leftists are the ones in black vans, no. I also do not think that moderates are necessarily accepting. I'm not saying everyone is racist, I am saying that there is a certain stance against immigrants with not being fully accepted, which is what I meant in the first case with not being happy there. Maybe you found a place where you can be happy, but forever being treated "different" is not my idea of that.

Do you think everyone in your country is a neonazi? Because I can find plenty of pictures and articles about them online.

Hope you have an hour to kill. I live in The Netherlands, one of Europe's most racist countries. Our biggest party by far for years is an anti-Islam and immigration party that was the basis for other etnofascist parties like Greece's Golden Dawn and Germany's AfD, and spawned many other evils like FVD which was another huge party before the pandemic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_for_Freedom
https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/y3jvxx/and_here_is_baudet_hoping_putin_will_murder_more/
https://nltimes.nl/2023/04/11/racism-anti-semitism-misogyny-homophobia-former-fvd-workers-describe-leader-baudet
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2021/02/thierry-baudet-at-centre-of-new-racism-row-after-ew-publishes-whatsapp-chats/

Our biggest national holiday revolves around a white Saint who has black Moroccan slaves that scare children and kidnap them. The UN has criticized this holiday for ages but it's considered national heritage and you can not say anything negative about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

It is not safe to be openly queer. Our own LGBT monitor removes us from the list of guidance countries, violence against LGBT is increasing.

We had black people in a zoo 70 years ago.

Our own fucking government collapsed over a huge scandal where our IRS created an entire complot where they implicated non-white parents in a child benefits fraud scandal. People lost their houses, marriages, kids and some their lives over it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_childcare_benefits_scandal

The government got away with it by the way. Is everyone here neonazi? No. Is it a majority racist shithole on the way to hell? Yes.

Pororin posted...

Korean suffering from hemorrhoids likely because of this

gotta love normalizing sexual assault

Guy who doesn't live in Japan attempting to argue from an authoritative position with a guy who actually lives there. This is a peak CE moment if I ever saw one.

Ultima_Fury posted...

LMAOOOOOO

mystic_belmont posted...

Japan's work culture is a major turn off.

Isn't it all of Asia basically?

TripleDouble posted...

Isn't it all of Asia basically?

My work-life balance has dramatically improved since moving to Asia so Im going to lean towards no.

mystic_belmont posted...

Japan's work culture is a major turn off.

Compared to Italy any countrys work culture is a major turn off.

ssjevot posted...

As far as the work culture stuff goes. The US works more hours on average. We have 13 national holidays, most people have 10-20 days off paid leave (I get 20), most people are just working a regular 8 hour day. The crazy horrible stories you hear about overwork at black companies are real, but stuff like that happens everywhere. You are just focused on Japan and assuming that is normal because it's a media narrative online. The fact is they aren't actually working insane hours, the US works more hours, the US has a higher suicide rate, you just don't know that because the memes online have replaced facts.

I can't find the study again (ok I probably could if I looked but I'm busy atm) but I remember seeing a thing that put teaching in japan at the top of total work hours compared to teaching worldwide, while at the same time near the bottom of time actually spent teaching. Which I guess can get you lots of time to prep for high quality lessons but the working time was honestly absurd

and it sort of balances out with what my brother's said about his experience teaching english there, there's a lot of time when they want you around and "working" when there isn't really any work to do

ScazarMeltex posted...

Guy who doesn't live in Japan attempting to argue from an authoritative position with a guy who actually lives there. This is a peak CE moment if I ever saw one.

Oh nice a gal villainizes an entire diverse nation over cherrypicked examples and personal experiences while undermining someones positivity and suddenly shes the bad one eh?

You bet your ass this is a cowards way of crawling back and sort of apologizing by the way.

kirbymuncher posted...

I can't find the study again (ok I probably could if I looked but I'm busy atm) but I remember seeing a thing that put teaching in japan at the top of total work hours compared to teaching worldwide, while at the same time near the bottom of time actually spent teaching. Which I guess can get you lots of time to prep for high quality lessons but the working time was honestly absurd

and it sort of balances out with what my brother's said about his experience teaching english there, there's a lot of time when they want you around and "working" when there isn't really any work to do

Teaching in Japan is a really bad job in general. They have a huge issue with turnover. And every job definitely has a lot of doing nothing at work, Japan has among the lowest productivity per hour worked in the OECD. My wife works a regular 40 hour week but she does maybe 10 hours of actual work. She has been on a combination of maternity leave and other parental leave for about 1.5 years now, but the company honestly probably isn't losing out on much. She used to work from home a lot and I would see her playing games on Steam. I definitely feel bad for any of the people working at black companies or any other jobs that require absurd hours.

kirbymuncher posted...

I can't find the study again (ok I probably could if I looked but I'm busy atm) but I remember seeing a thing that put teaching in japan at the top of total work hours compared to teaching worldwide, while at the same time near the bottom of time actually spent teaching. Which I guess can get you lots of time to prep for high quality lessons but the working time was honestly absurd

and it sort of balances out with what my brother's said about his experience teaching english there, there's a lot of time when they want you around and "working" when there isn't really any work to do

Dont know if they have the same experience in that as here but there was some research here about workplace effectiveness and it turned out that, for office jobs at least, productivity on 5 and 8 hour work days was the exact same with some evidence that working less also increased the quality of work as well.

Zwijn posted...

Oh nice a gal villainizes an entire diverse nation over cherrypicked examples and personal experiences while undermining someones positivity and suddenly shes the bad one eh?

You bet your ass this is a cowards way of crawling back and sort of apologizing by the way.

Fair nuff Apologies for misgendering you btw, I still tend assume that most people on these forums are dudes unless they have an explicitly feminine sounding name.

divot1338 posted...

Compared to Italy any countrys work culture is a major turn off.

To be fair that might explain why a lot of Mediterranean countries economy is constantly in shambles. Heck one country even hovered near bankruptcy for a while.

NeonBoobs posted...

https://youtu.be/lhJ3s1LNe7M

lmao. that clip is always entertaining.
damn it doesn't go to the best part :(.

SaikyoStyle posted...

I know a guy who went to Asia to teach English. He worked in Japan, South Korea, and Thailand and said he liked Thailand the most.

Thailand's probably got not only some of the most beautiful landscapes, but it's people are legitimately nice.
Not forced-to-be-nice-because-their-culture-demands-it like in Japan.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and teaching English in Japan is loltier-worthy for any longterm commitment. Especially if they have a kid with a leftover woman (Let's face it: most foreigners can only get with leftover or the undesirable women in the country: the actually attractive ones get with the attractive Japanese dudes. Most just think they're hot 'cause they fetishize all Asian women, ugly or pretty--can't tell the difference), and the kid gets older, and their crappy salary can't give them everything they want, so they end up getting a divorce with that leftover woman 'cause she starts realizing she f'ed up marrying them, so now they're divorced with the same crappy salary, have to give money to the woman to the kid--
Yeah... it's pretty bad :x

Though SOME move into a new field. Unfortunately, the very few SOME took notes on being fluent from anime and... well, that's only gonna get you an equally crappy job 'cause they don't speak the same way. At all.
The second they hear that anime Japanese from their mouths, they're immediately written off 'cause they just sound weird or like idiots.
... Though that WAS funny to hear about in our HR department when I worked in Japan xD How anyone could possibly think anime Japanese is the same as spoken Japanese, and is a good way to learn the language, is mind-boggling :/

Revisited posted...

To be fair that might explain why a lot of Mediterranean countries economy is constantly in shambles. Heck one country even hovered near bankruptcy for a while.

Greece was so bad that the EU was falling apart. Theyre straight up useless economically.

kingdrake2 posted...

lmao. that clip is always entertaining.
damn it doesn't go to the best part :(.

Enjoy.
https://youtu.be/9uuIVn5cq5U?si=23onKKJGcsHhukWH

That lady is a streamer. She's hot. She's marrid.

lennethsoki posted...

the actually attractive ones get with the attractive Japanese dudes. Most just think they're hot 'cause they fetishize all Asian women, ugly or pretty--can't tell the difference)

Bruh what? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder >_>