Freelance English teacher (Non-native)

Hello everybody!

Couldn't find any info about the matter from here or google either, so I try asking for here if anybody has any kind of clue.

So I am planning on moving to Japan with my Japanese wife within a year from Finland. So visa matters would be solved with spousal one and I know that there is possibilities for non-native to teach English in Japan, but it's not walk in a park.

So one thing what I have thought also is starting to be freelancer in English teaching. But I have no idea does this mean that I have to start a own business at this point if I want to do it full time? Also, how the taxation is done in freelancing?

Another question concerns on being a non-native. What do Japanese people think about non-native freelance teachers? I consider myself as a fluent speaker and I have a university degree from Finland in business IT.

Hi there,

I am not sure about establishing a business as a freelancer though I could find out because I have a friend from Switzerland who is doing that. I know he has to pay tax just like any other business and he mentioned the accounting is not difficult. He does it himself. Then again, he is fluent in Japanese.

But I can answer your second question. As a non-native speaker, there would not be any issue: you can teach English. No problem. Some people may be "kibishi" (strict) and want a British or American. But it is just a matter of preference. You would have no problem, except for the fact that many gaikokujin want to do the same are you do.

Feel free to PM me if you want to know more.

All the best

Hello, jailu85.

As for spousal visa.
It is not easy to obtain spousal visa than you think.
In the case, your wife does not have work in Japan, how can you sustain your living in Japan ?
Maybe, you are going to earn necessary money to sustain your life in Japan.
But, even if you make this kind of statement, immigration bureau of Japan will not trust it.
So, you need to find a someone who can be your guarantor in Japan.
The guarantor needs to have stable income in Japan.
If you can find such person in Japan, there is a possibility that you obtain status of residence in Japan.

As for taxation in the case of freelancer, if your wife can assist you, you can solve it.
And you can find some information relating to managing a business in Japan.
http://japanhousesaitama.lawyerjapanese.com/saitama/

Hi, Scrivener Aki

Yeah, I am aware of that guarantor is needed and for us in this case, it would be my wife's parents or her brother. What I have found is that as long there is a guarantor with steady income, everything should be ok? Or is there some things that have to keep in mind?

And what I have thought about the case doing business as a freelancer, I could only think one business model to start. That would be sole proprietor in this case, what is more simple in taxation and way of control. Of course tell me if I'm wrong :D.

Aleksi

Hello, Aleksi

It is nice that you have already known the necessity of guarantor.
I think you can achieve your purpose.

Other than guarantor, you need to prepare a lot of documents.
Just in case, you can find necessary documents in this page.

http://japanhousesaitama.lawyerjapanese.com/saitama/how-to-get-spouse-...

Yes, sole proprietor style should be simple as for taxation.

And if you earn a lot of money ( over 10 million yen per a year ), it is better for you to form legal entity.

Aki

Thank you Aki for the very infromative website. This will be very handy when the time comes.

Hope you all the best for now :)

so I try asking for here if anybody has any kind of clue.

? I consider myself as a fluent speaker

No offense, but it's quite obvious that you're not a native English speaker. There are jobs in Japan where a fluent, but non-native, level of English would be very helpful, but you may have trouble getting hired at a school if there are any native speakers of English as part of the screening process.

Yes, I admit that there was a mistake or two. But writing in a hurry can do that.

Becoming a freelancer of any kind means that you become a "kojin-jigyou-nushi". You fill out a form at your local tax office, and you file your tax every year around this season which is February to March.

But I have to agree with Umami Dearest about your fluency. It's okay for you to volunteer for some homework help, but I would have second thoughts about professional work. Why not simply teach Finnish or whatever you are truly good at?

Hi Uco

I have considered teaching Finnish, but it's hard to think of it as a primary language to teach. I don't see that much demand for that. That's why I think about English teaching also. Do you really have to speak native English even if you work example, in a kindergarten or in eikaiwa schools? With eikaiwa I mean more like conversational schools what is not focused mainly on grammar.

This is the thing I have been trying to find out because whenever you ask for somebody, the answer changes. Others say you don't have any chance or the chances are almost none and others say exactly the opposite.

And I am not going to be living in the Tokyo area. Where I go, is going to be near Osaka/Kobe. The city is called Sanda if anybody knows.

First of all, I am not a native English speaker myself (I'm Japanese), so do forgive me if anything I write is misleading.

But let me be frank. Your posts have a lot of basic grammar mistakes. In other words, many Japanese adults can speak/teach that much English and more, so I can't really say you are a qualified teacher of the language. Being native or not is not an issue here.

That said, if you have special skills such as negotiating business in English, perhaps you can teach about negotiation. In that case, small grammer incorrectness won't be an issue as long as you can teach how to bring up a conversation to succeed in negotiations. Or if you're an artist, maybe you can teach art. Students will be able to learn art and experience basic English conversation with a foreign person at the same time. Or perhaps you can be a teacher of the Finnish language, who can speak a little bit English. Those were the things I was trying to say.

Anyway, I wonder what your current profession is. Perhaps you can utilize that profession in Japan, rather than to focus on language-teaching alone. And of course, there are many other jobs available like restaurant work. By the way, I notice that a church in Kobe teaches Finnish taking 1000 yen per lesson.

I don't have any idea about Kindergartens and eikaiwa schools. But as suggested, there are enough foreign teachers who can speak grammatically correct English, so I don't know what your chances are. But of course, if your wife earns enough, you don't really have to worry about your income.

Wish you best of luck.

Think about it this way: if you wanted to find a language teacher, would you want one who had a complete grasp of the language, or one who did not know all the correct grammar? How would you feel teaching others when you know you might be teaching them wrong? I don't think it's fair for you to teach students when you don't know all the grammatical rules yourself. Small mistakes can take a huge amount of time and learning to correct if you learn it wrong the first time.

Yeah i understand this situation. I have been thinking mainly teaching because of faster embloyment, possibly. I am just learning japanese and other jobs can be hard to find.

I work now as a product manager for a big PC retail company in Finland and to continue with PC periphials in Japan can be challenging with lack of japanese skills.

Of course i could provide services for foreingners, but is there enough demand for that to make a living?

Now i admit that there was at least one mistake again :D

I mean peripherals

Now i admit that there was at least one mistake again :D

Well I counted at least eight mistakes in that one posting.

Again, with all due respect, I think I'd be annoyed if a friend or family member of mine was paying good money to learn English from you. I speak Japanese as a non-native, and I would never think of moving to Finland to teach Japanese there - it wouldn't really be fair.

And as I said, there are other job possibilities, and presumably you will eventually learn Japanese and widen the field of possibilities.

Wow!

Eight mistakes? Now i have to ask that how should be that writen then?

Geez, everybody's jumping on you huh? There are plenty of non-native teachers of English in this country who find jobs just fine. At the very least, you'll probably do a lot better job than some of the Japanese teachers of English I've worked with who teach in public schools!

Also you'll find that a lot of parents just aren't that picky. Kids go to certain English schools for a lot of reasons: their friends go there; it's close to their house; it was the first school that showed up when the parents started looking... I'm sure "native English speaker" is a bonus, but it is often just one part of what people look for here.

In my city, for example, there are several English schools but they are mostly staffed by Japanese teachers; at a few of them a native speaker comes maybe once a month at most. In the elementary schools in my area as well there are at least two teachers who could be considered "non-native" English speakers, one from The Philippines and one from Peru.

Anyway, if it is something that worries you, why not take one of the English tests like TOEFL? If you have that as a certification, even as a non-native English speaker it proves your abilities, and people can decide whether to take classes from you or not based on that.

First of all, I just want to let the OP know that I'm not trying to jump on him. All I'm saying is that he may be able to have better opportunities in other fields rather than English-teaching, and Umami Dearest is probably saying the same thing.

Also, I wouldn't count people from the Philippines as "non-native". English is the official language used for their government, which is probably the reason that a lot of Japanese people willingly learn English from them (especially through cheap Skype lessons and such). But again, I don't even think that there will be a problem just because a teacher is non-native.

So I agree to the idea of presenting some kind of an official score such as that of TOEFL. That way, students will know what kind of a teacher they are dealing with. I'm sure a lot of people won't mind brushing up their communication skills with foreign residents who speak inaccurate but comprehensible English. It's just that it doesn't sound right to pretend that you speak perfect English when you don't.

But then, if your TOEFL scores happen to turn out low, then I don't know what your chances are as an English teacher. Perhaps you can try contacting Finnish residents in Kobe such as those from the church.

Actually i have planned to take the test before coming. But example that one sentence that i wrote earlier (8 mistakes) i would like to see the correction. I am not trying to be mean, but just want to know my mistakes then.

And the other thing that teaching language when not being a native. Example, here in Finland and many other Scandinavian countries, teacher can often be a non-native. This is because non-native can understand the struggle of learning better then native. Maybe my idea of teaching can be different then.

If I could teach somebody privately, I wouldnft focus only on grammar even itfs important. I think understanding the language and make yourself clear is more important, because itfs the real language people use and what I have heard on my travels/work when speaking with natives. I hear a lot of English every day because of my work and I can say that even natives donft always speak by the book, they make mistakes or use several kinds of slang.

"But example that one sentence I wrote earlier" typo :D