Is my dream of teaching Eng. over?

My dream is to teach English in Japan and South Korea one day. I moved to America and became a citizen when I was 9 years old from the Philippines. Its been 12 years and I graduated from an American university with a bachelors degree in English. From what I researched, I will be denied a visa because English is not my first language, but tagalog is. Is my dream over?

Are you a US citizen? if so and with most of your education done in the USA you should be OK. but being a university graduate would be better. Also it looks like there are too many candidates for fewer teaching jobs and, frankly, you will make more money in the USA! on the other hand, as a life experience, it would be good for you to spend a few years in japan, even if you have to live cheaply..

Japan Immigration doesn't deny visas based on what language you speak.

You are confusing it with getting hired and finding a sponsor.

Two different things.

If you don't have a visa yet, you need a company to hire you (they become your sponsor), if you meet all the *company's qualifications*, and then they will sponsor your visa, Immigration doesn't care what language you speak, only the company/school that hires you does.

Any case English teaching these days isn't like how it used to be back in the "old days" the economy's gone bad, and everyone is hurting, including English instructors.

I know Filipinos, Indians, Pakistanis and Africans in Japan teaching English, most without the amount of time living in a country like the States. Provided you don't have a strong Tagalog accent and interview well, you have as good a chance of getting a job as any other English speaker.

As above, it's not as easy for everyone these days, but it's by no means impossible.

if your english is good you won't have any problems.

if you have heavily accented english, even if grammatically perfect, you will have a hard time getting hired. i have found most eikaiwa to discriminate a bit against philipinos mostly due to the sheer number of philipinos applying for work.

so if you have an accent work on getting rid of it, and try to apply for jobs at more upscale places instead of the mcdonalds style franchised english schools.