Teaching French in Japan?

Hello All,

My question is similar to the last one (posted on 2007), but under different circumstances. I am a Romanian, having a strong background in French language(university and post university studies), and I'd like to know if it's possible to get a job as a French teacher anywhere in Japan.
The thing is that I did teach French in Romania but in private only, so I have no certified experience in that.
Are there any chances to make this dream come true, or it's a big "No way"?
What do you think?

Thank you very much, and have a great day!

Compared to English conversation lessons, the demand for French language in Japan would be less, I'd say.

Rather than that, one question comes to mind: are you a native speaker of the French language? I think that's the first thing schools would look for in a teacher. If you mean that you "majored" in the French language or French literature, that means you learned it as a second (or maybe third, I don't know) language. If you mean that you attended a university where the lectures were conducted all in French, or possibly attended a university in France, that would be a strong plus.

Hello AK,

Thank you very much for your reply to my previous question.
I am not a native speaker of French, but I attended a university where the lectures were conducted all in French indeed (Romania is a Latin country, so many people speak French since kindergarten (we have a very high-level of this language). As well, I hold 2 Master degrees, both conducted entirely in French, by French teachers and researchers.
Anyway, I had the impression that Japanese people are quite fond of French culture so there is be a certain interest in "French", which was obviously wrong.
My question would be: who is interested to learn French there and why? And are there real chances for me to teach this language, or the demand is already covered?
Thanks a lot, and have a good day!

My german friend who is not a native english speaker but speaks it fluently was told that she could not teach english because it wasnt her first language however good she was at it.
But then in the end she still got an english teacher job in kyoto alors moi jte conseille d'essayer t'a rien a perdre bonne chance!

My Ghanaian friend did give private home lessons of the French language using her student visa, but I don't think she made much money out of it. It was just one of her many jobs she had.

I had numerous opportunities to speak French in Japan.I even found cafes and pastries shops where the Japanese staff spoke some French. By the way in France people have a specific regional accent and vocabulary depending on the region where they live. just like in many countries--including Japan--

How many language can you speak? French is not in demand, but if you can speak several languages, maybe French can be one of the languages you can teach. English is the most popular language, but now, a third language like French is also being offered.

One month ago a friend of my parents was giving french lesson to a japanese girl.
She stayed only one week in France but she was really eager to learn our language.
In her short journey I had the opportunity to ask her if there was a lot of people willing to learn french in Japan. She told me the interest for France was getting more important but that there was more japanese people interested in learning spanish and italian than french, because it's less difficult.
But I have the same ambition as you and I won't give up, I wish you will be able to fulfill your dream.

Hello!
I am French Canadian and I was wondering the same thing (if it was possible to teach French in Japan). At first, I thought I could teach English but after looking at many websites, I think you really need to be a native speaker. I started learning English in grade 4, but it doesn't seem to be good enough for them, unfortunately. So I was wondering if any of you knew of a website or any resource where it's possible to find a French teaching job?! Ok, I don't think so but I'm trying... :)

Claudia, of course you could teach French in Japan but it likely depends on the type of French you speak. In many countries around the world people in some regions of a country speak a regional variation of the language that people from other regions of the same country have trouble understanding, due to a very different accent and vocabulary, and foreign students have even more difficulty understanding it. This is also the case in Canada and France. A Parisian has trouble understanding the French spoken in many regions of France, including the South. Any foreigner who learned French in Touraine (France) or Courmayeur (Italy) would have trouble understanding someone from Lac Saint Jean and vice versa. By the way I speak both standard French (from France) and one of the many regional variations of French that often don't look that French at all(we call un chien "lou canh" and un chat "lou gat")

Mon Dieu, c'est bizarre!
Évidemment je peux parler avec mon gros accent québécois, mais je suis aussi capable de bien parler et évidemment, je n'enseignerais pas aux enfants un québécois plein d'expressions incompréhensibles pour bien des gens...!!
Mais connais-tu des instituts ou des écoles en particuliers où il est possible d'enseigner le français? Je suis vraiment extrêmement intéressée.

Oups, j'ai eu le malheur d'utiliser des accents sur les lettres dans mon message et ils se sont transformes en signes japonais ou chinois ou je ne sais trop!!! Trop drole!

Claudia: voici un adresse generique: http://www.ambafrance-jp.org/article-imprim.php3?id_article=...
ou Google Alliances Francaises au Japon. Il y en a dans plusieurs villes et il y a aussi des etablissements scolaires . En passant, tous ceux d'entre nous qui parlent le Francais "standard" en "deuxieme langue", pour ainsi dire, se doivent d' expliquer aux etudiants etrangers avec un bon niveau de Francais qu'il ya tout un tas de variations en France et a l'etranger qui sont culturellement and historiquement legitimes. Le monde Francophone n'est pas seulement Paris. Just like there are many legitimate variations of English, Spanish, Japanese etc.

Merci beaucoup red frog pour le lien, je leur ai tous écrit!

Hi everybody !
I am French girl from France but actually I live and study in Japan. And I can say that it is possible to find people who wants to learn French in Japan. It can be highschool students, university students, even workers, housewives, or just curious persons... Sometimes they learn for their studies, or for their work, or simply for their general knowledge. A lot of previous french exchange students told me that they could teach French when they needed to get extra cash. But of course, it is only for EXTRA CASH. Don't expect to get a huge salary.
You NEED TO BE a native or nearly native speaker. You can check the following website but they want you to BE IN JAPAN already.
http://www.findateacher.net/

If you got a diploma for being a teacher and if you are native speaker maybe you can find a real job in some schools (but in this case I think that you need to speak japanese well too).

Of course the demand of french teachers is smaller than the demand of english teachers but IT IS WRONG to say that Japanese don't want to learn French ;) In Japan, you can teach all the languages as you want if you are native speaker.

It is only my point of view. You can check this other website.

http://www.teachinginjapan.com/


I hope that my answer is helpful !

Gambatte !

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