Move to Japan Perm. and go to school?

Hi,
okay so here is my situation. I am 21 and since i was about 16 i have wanted to live in japan. not just vacation there or study abroad but live. Ive been doing some extensive research and i want some peoples opinions. I found a website that has all of the pros and cons to teaching English in Japan http://www.all-about-teaching-english-in-japan.com/ and i think i want to do it. now as i stated before, i don't want to go to japan for just a few years, i want to live there, and become a resident if at all possible, but you see, i don't want to teach English for the rest of my life. my big question is, how difficult would it be to live in Japan as an American, teaching English, while going to college for computer science??? is it even feasible?? should i even try??? i understand that it wont be easy, but i really don't want to stay in the states much more. i plan on getting a degree in teaching English, and then maybe a certificate and then going through one of the big companies to get to Japan. that will take maybe 2-3 years, and in that time i can work on my Japanese. I'm already learning and have had a semester of basic Japanese at a local college. if anyone can help me with this I would Greatly appreciate it. Arigato ^_^

-Matthew

I'm just curious, what's makes you think that life in Japan is better/more suited for you than in the states? Not trying to be negative or anything, I'm just curious because personally, I lived and worked in Tokyo for a couple years, it was good for a while but I was beyond tired towards the end with everything from commuting to work in packed trains to some aspects of the work culture really, really drained me...

Considering your current circumstances, your best option is probably to: get a BA in computer science and start looking from a job from there. You're not going to find anything good with only a certificate. Japanese companies could find people with the exact same qualifications and qualities from Japanese people and they wouldn't have to bother with work visas, etc. You need to make yourself stand out and a certificate won't do that.

- Teaching English would be a full-time thing (otherwise you would not qualify for an employer-sponsored working visa), so going to college at the same time sounds quite difficult, actually not possible, I might say.

- By the way, if you have a bachelor's degree in any field, you do not *need* a teaching degree to teach English if you are a native speaker of English.

- Also, to get to permanent resident status, it takes many years of living and working in Japan - so it's nothing you can "get" immediately.

- You would need to think in stages - coming to Japan to visit, if you have not been here yet, to see if you like the place; if you do, and if you already have a bachelor's degree now, maybe (when the economy gets better, when it would be easier to find teaching positions) teach English for a few years to get a feel for *living* in Japan.

- As for studying, you might want to think about attending a language school to bring your Japanese language skills to a level where you can study computer science or other subjects completely in Japanese, then apply for a university in Japan. All those courses cost quite some money, so you would want to plan well. Good luck with everything!

It is possible to study and teach English part time, but tuition here is expensive, and you would need a lot of funds saved to even qualify for a student visa, not to mention excellent Japanese skills to study undergraduate computer science here.

I agree with the above- it is not really a great idea to decide you will move permanently to a country you have never set foot in. Chances are the reality is quite different to what you have imagined.

It doesn't matter how many novels /manga /websites /reference books you have read, how many dramas/movies/documentaries/anime you have watched or how many Japanese people you know where you are now (all the usual reasons we see when people claim they know all about Japan without having been here)- you still don't know what day to day life is like here, especially as a foreigner.

Don't burn any bridges, don't tell anyone you are leaving your home country permanently- think of it as indefinite. That's what I do, and I've been here 11 years.

You may well like it, but you may also change your mind once you have lived here a while.

Thanx much guys for your feedback so far, i kno it seems like a crazy idea, and i will plan on taking a vacation there first :) but its something that i have wanted to do for a long time now. as far as the computer science degree, i know it would be easier to get one here then to do it there as a foreigner in Japan. The way i see it, if i can do this, if i can actually pull it off, i can say i tried right? worst comes to worst i cant do it or i dont want to and i have to come back to the states, but how many people can say they get to pursue their dream? :D i also know that you dont need a certificate or degree to teach in Japan, in most places, but id like to refresh my knowledge in the knitty gritty crap of the english language and maybe take sum classes on teaching, for personal comfort reasons, plus it would give me a few years to really think about this, save money, and work on my Japanese. :D

-Matthew

Hey there! Yuppers, going to school in Japan would be awesome. You should try for a student visa, and then apply for part-time work with Gaba (just one-on-one teaching). You'd need an "instructors visa" to teach in schools, and if you got one of those--say with Interac, or Heart--you wouldn't have time for university. Regardless, I recommend saving money!!... As for working in Japan--hells no! You won't do ANYTHING but teach English. Aaaannnnd! don't let anyone tell you that the kids here are better, well-behaved, polite, blah blah blah, cuz it's a big lie. It's an awful awful job, and it makes me want to shoot myself in the head. I've been doing it for 2 years, and I've yet to have any luck. I came here a positive person, and now, I think I've aged by 40 years. I'm going home at the beginning of January--Yippee!!!!! But anyway, yeah, going to school here would be fun. My friend recently wrote an article about applying to university in Japan. First, you'll need some Japanese skills. JASSO website will give you some idea.(http://www.jasso.go.jp/eju/k_shikenmondaisample_kizyutu_e.html ) And if I remember correctly, you need to take the Examination for Japanese University (EJU) Admission for International Students. It's standard for university admissions here. This examine is administered only twice a year, so apply on time. Once you receive your scores from EJU you can begin applying to school. Get applications from all the schools you're interested in(a student told me that Tokyo has 167 universities). Every school has its own deadline. Next, you may consider applying for scholarships. I'm sure there are lots out there. Go to school, but don't waste your time at a horrible job. And actually, school might open the job door for you, just by getting to know people. Good luck!

Hello again, not to beat the point... but yeah, you'll probably change your mind about the place after awhile. But! That's not a bad thing. Life abroad really makes you appreciate your home country. If I stayed at home, I would have felt bored, but because of so much travel I can't wait to go home! I want a real job, to speak English, to understand the world around me, to hang out with my mom, to eat the food I like, to pay normal prices, to not be squashed by a million drones, and to not feel so angry by all the effed up ppl in Tokyo--and there are a lot!! lol!!