what should i expect?

Hey : )
I'm justin, I'm getting my TESL (ESL teachers license, and I'm gonna go work in Japan for a year or so, kind of like a vacation as soon as I'm done with education and all
i'll be about 21 when i get there, but what i want to know is:
how would Japanese people in general react to someone like me
-6'1
-canadian
-christian
-musician
-ESL teacher
-working class
-etc.

I'm not really insecure or anything wondering "are they gonna like me?" I'm just curious about how they might react to somebody like me, as opposed to the average Japanese person

any answers would be appreciated



~Justin~

Justin, I've said it before if the NOVA company implodes Like I think it will, the Job market for english teachers in Japan is going to be very difficult if impossible, as you will have thousands of jobless english teachers filling the ranks of the other big 3 companies and smaller companies.

As far as how people would react, there are many threads on, height, religion etc, many recent.

You sound like a fairly standard English-teaching foreigner to be found all over Japan. How the Japanese react to you will depend mostly on your personality, not your religion or your height.

In big cities people are very accustomed to seeing foreigners around, so you won't be a curiosity at all, even to the kids.

To increase your opportunities to interact with Japanese people learn as much Japanese as you possibly can.

If you are planning to come to Japan any time in the next 6 months, you will face the problems mentioned by John- with the imminent collapse of Nova 5000 English teaching jobs have been wiped out and at the same time more than half of those teachers are lookign for a new job, making competition incredibly tight, even for those with teaching experience in Japan and visas.

If your plans are further into the future then you will probably be fine, although the loss of all the Nova jobs probably means it will never be as easy to just walk into an English-teaching job here again.

thats interesting, i've been doing a little research about the subject but i didn't realize what exactly was going on with NOVA
i still have a few years of university left before i leave though, so i guess i'll wait and see what the situation is then

I think anyone thinking of english teaching in Japan right now should grab it right now or wait a bit. If NOVA goes down, initally I think the job market for english teachers will be nil, will have to wait a while after things calm down and someone goes and takes NOVA's place. Who knows maybe NOVA would somehow someway get their act together, but i'm not too sure from what the news is reporting.

how long do you think it'll be until things have calmed down/stabilized
going now really isn't an option for me, so do you think it'd be, well, easy enough to get a teaching job a few years down the road?

A few years and everything will be back to normal I think its safe to say.

I never even considered what John mentions previously, I see now the problem thats going to happen hehe.

The job market for inexperienced teachers is very tight right now. I have spoken to a few people who arrived with Nova quite recently and are about to pack up and go home because there are hundreds of applicants for each job they apply for and they are very lucky if they even get as far as the interview stage.

Hundreds of teachers have quit already and most of the rest are looking for jobs.

thats not so good to hear
but when i've got my bachelors after university, in about 4-5 years, do you think it'd be logical for me to even pursue the idea of teaching in japan?

That is the situation right now. If you come to Japan in 4-5 years, it will most likely be all settled down with new schools opening to take up the slack left by Nova.

If you want to come to Japan and teach in the future, by all means do so. Have a look into the JET programme if you haven't already- you could be a good candidate for that.