Your last sentence was my entire point to the poster who keeps bringing this up.
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Planning to move to Japan but I don't know if moving like this is a bad idea Up: Update from OP
- Thread starter David
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If one are from Peru it seems to require JLPT N2:
http://www.pe.emb-japan.go.jp/itprtop_es/00_000239.html
You don't need to leave the country to change visa status. I moved from tourist to humanities visa three years ago.
Most English schools require you to be a native speaker, but there are some that don't and the day care jobs usually aren't too picky either.
Sounds like this will be a massive downgrade in your lifestyle. Hope you're prepared for that.
If I was to give you a solid recommendation David : save some money. Come to Japan on a student visa and go to a language school full-time. As a student you're allowed to work part-time so you can still work in a bar or whatever you want to do. Get n2 or n1 level jlpt. Then find a job in your current industry.
Most English schools require you to be a native speaker, but there are some that don't and the day care jobs usually aren't too picky either.
Sounds like this will be a massive downgrade in your lifestyle. Hope you're prepared for that.
If I was to give you a solid recommendation David : save some money. Come to Japan on a student visa and go to a language school full-time. As a student you're allowed to work part-time so you can still work in a bar or whatever you want to do. Get n2 or n1 level jlpt. Then find a job in your current industry.
This is the way to go. See every country! Though I don't know what kind of visa power a Peruvian passport has.
Meh, Fiverr is bottom of the barrel work. Better to go with UpWork or find clients himself through his own site and promotion.
I think this is great advice.
Going on a student visa also means he can have a lot of fun and will have time enough to travel around and indulge a little bit. Going to Japan and working from the off, without having been before, will probably be quite disillusioning for him.
Yooo so it seems like if I were to learn Japanese I could be eligible for immediate PR. Nice to know I guess hah.
Lol some people really are obsessed with Japan. This plan is ridiculous. Learn Japanese and have a job secured. Countries like Japan are not like USA or uk where you can get by without knowing the native language.
You are still young, so I strongly suggest you learn Japanese while you have a job in Peru. Start right now, take it seriously, and gradually you will be in a better position to make a gradual move. It may take years before you make the move, but if you take this seriously you will make connections by then, and the next thing you know you have professional connections there before wven moving. Try to visit the country as often as you can even if it's just for vacation. Within 10 years you'll know it better than the average local.
Don't let people here claim it's dumb to want to live in Japan, the country has a high standard of living and good longterm prospects. Plus knowing Spanish on top of English and Japanese is another plus, every country needs some Spanish speakers.
But learn the language at home while you have a job and start making connections.
Don't let people here claim it's dumb to want to live in Japan, the country has a high standard of living and good longterm prospects. Plus knowing Spanish on top of English and Japanese is another plus, every country needs some Spanish speakers.
But learn the language at home while you have a job and start making connections.
From my experience, some companies will be willing to hold at least the first round(s) of interviews through Skype. Though you'll most likely have to meet with them face to face before closing the deal. So *if* you go through with this, at least make sure that you have several "final interviews" lined up before going to Japan. My philosophy was that if a company doesn't want to organize anything through Skype, you probably don't want to work there anyway. The interviewing process can take weeks, if not months, so best to get most of it out of the way before traveling to Japan. And yeah, I'd recommend not quitting your job before landing a new one.
Engineers are a hot commodity in today's market, so like someone else suggested, check Daijob to see if there is anything matching your skill level.
If you end up going for a teaching job, JET is a safe bet. Although it'll be very difficult for a non-native. Be critical of other English schools - some of them are terrible.
I think Japan can be a wonderful country, but not speaking the language is going to make it extremely difficult to fit it. Learning to speak proper Japanese should be your main priority.
If I were you, I'd plan a trip to Japan first. Travelling in Japan is always a good time. If you keep a critical eye out, you'll get a better feel for how it would be to blend in.
Engineers are a hot commodity in today's market, so like someone else suggested, check Daijob to see if there is anything matching your skill level.
If you end up going for a teaching job, JET is a safe bet. Although it'll be very difficult for a non-native. Be critical of other English schools - some of them are terrible.
I think Japan can be a wonderful country, but not speaking the language is going to make it extremely difficult to fit it. Learning to speak proper Japanese should be your main priority.
If I were you, I'd plan a trip to Japan first. Travelling in Japan is always a good time. If you keep a critical eye out, you'll get a better feel for how it would be to blend in.
It sounds like you are being hasty and irresponsible because you have a romanticized view of a country you've never been to.
Dude, I temporarily moved to another state on a whim (though I did have a job lined up) and that ended up being a questionable idea. Take your time, visit, study the language, get a job secured, then go. If you really want to make it to Japan, you're going to have to put some serious effort into it.
I would advice to at least check your embassy's website for help. You can do whatever you want, yet you should have at least some foresight. Last thing you want is to be in a place that isn't what you expected, and no one to help you there.
This is still a long shot, but probably your best bet. Quite a few Japanese gaming companies are interested in hiring more foreigners and will sometimes even fund Japanese language classes to help them acclimate. Most are still going to prefer at least conversation level Japanese though for obvious reasons.
That might actually not be a bad plan...or just move to some other country in Asia that's not too far from Japan. Then you can visit Japan regularly without much effort. It would almost be like living there.
Step 1) Learn language
Step 2) Secure job
Step 3) Secure apartment
Step 4) Truly contemplate if living there is what you want (culture, career progression, relationships, family, cost of living vs income, friends etc)
OP you have an advantage: a family friend who is willing to help. Even if it all falls apart and is a huge waste of money you can return home.
But if you want to make the most of this opportunity then do your best at 1) and 2).
Step 2) Secure job
Step 3) Secure apartment
Step 4) Truly contemplate if living there is what you want (culture, career progression, relationships, family, cost of living vs income, friends etc)
OP you have an advantage: a family friend who is willing to help. Even if it all falls apart and is a huge waste of money you can return home.
But if you want to make the most of this opportunity then do your best at 1) and 2).
OP, I live here teaching English now, and let me tell you, moving here WITH a stable job that helped set up housing and helps with rent and other things was still insanely difficult for someone with a little Japanese under his belt and a plan for moving and moving home. Your plan sounds like a surefire way to end up homeless and miserable. You really, REALLY underestimate
A) Culture shock. It is real and you will feel it. It will rattle you, upset you, send you on emotional roller coasters. Being in a new environment is something you don't understand until you experience it.
B) Not being able to communicate is insanely frustrating.
C) You will not learn Japanese through osmosis. You might get better at it, or recognize more, but you will quickly learn how difficult this language is shortly after moving here. You will need to study hard while living in Japan.
D) There is a lot of casual racism ingrained in this culture.
Please think of a more solid plan before you go. Living in Japan is a great experience, but you need to have the right framework to go. Jumping on a plane and hoping you'll find a job - hell, SELLING ALL OF YOUR STUFF to go and do this - is a disaster waiting to happen.
Look into programs like JET and Interac.
A) Culture shock. It is real and you will feel it. It will rattle you, upset you, send you on emotional roller coasters. Being in a new environment is something you don't understand until you experience it.
B) Not being able to communicate is insanely frustrating.
C) You will not learn Japanese through osmosis. You might get better at it, or recognize more, but you will quickly learn how difficult this language is shortly after moving here. You will need to study hard while living in Japan.
D) There is a lot of casual racism ingrained in this culture.
Please think of a more solid plan before you go. Living in Japan is a great experience, but you need to have the right framework to go. Jumping on a plane and hoping you'll find a job - hell, SELLING ALL OF YOUR STUFF to go and do this - is a disaster waiting to happen.
Look into programs like JET and Interac.
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Anime avatar and "My mom is friends with a Japanese lady"... don't try moving to Japan. It's gonna be a huge mistake.
what this guy said.
jet has a relatively good support network and a whole heap of other stuff and it was still one of the most frustrating and difficult times of my life for a good long while until i got my head in the game properly and worked through some mental shit. And that was with having a good set of escape options, a supportive family and friends back home and close by, etc, etc.
op seriously think over what the fuck you're doing and why.
Fuck it man, do it. Do what you want, pursue your dreams.
So many of us sit around doing jack shit that we actually want to do cause we are scared or not wise.
Could be, may very well turn out that its a debacle and goes horribly and you make a mess of it, or it works out. Life is full of people pursuing crazy dreams and failing, but also those who succeed.
The great Jim Carrey once said:
'You can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.'
So many of us sit around doing jack shit that we actually want to do cause we are scared or not wise.
Could be, may very well turn out that its a debacle and goes horribly and you make a mess of it, or it works out. Life is full of people pursuing crazy dreams and failing, but also those who succeed.
The great Jim Carrey once said:
'You can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.'
This is the type of garbage advice that people who come from a rich family vomit out. Unless OP has money, the "Just go for it" advice is a sure way to amass a shitload of debt.
Has anybody talked about the salaryman grind over in Japan? OP I feel like you're not ready for 12-14 work days with the language barrier and a huge need for cash to stay afloat. You're gonna go home at 9 pm and lay in bed and wonder what you're doing with yourself, then wake up at 6 and do it all again.
OP, I would absolutely advise you to NOT do this. Instead, I would recommend saving up funds for the next 1 or 2 years, and then take a vacation to Japan for a week or two. When I was younger, I romanticized the idea of living in Italy. I saved up my funds and then took a month vacation to travel around Europe. During the trip, I learned that I didn't quite like Italy as much as I had imagined.
It'd be one thing if you were a native english speakers, the plan could be viable in that case, but as it is I would really advise against it.
It's extremely unlikely you'll find an English teaching job as a non-native, you'd need to have perfect english with an American accent and a lot of luck.
No part-time job would be willing to sponsor you a visa either.
Finding a job in UI/UX with only english is possible, but it's not assured so I wouldn't recommend dropping your job for it.
My best advice is to echo the suggestion to save some money and go to a language school, that will let you take your time to search for a job over a large period of time while improving your Japanese, and also give you a chance to see if living in Japan really is for you or not.
In the meantime save money and study Japanese every single day. I can't underline how crucial it is to know Japanese if you want to be in Japan, English jobs exist but they're rare, hard to find and, most often than not, pay awfully. Stop by the Era Japanese learning community sometime.
You don't have to give up your dream of moving to Japan, but you're still young and you should take your time to come up with a plan that will maximize your ability to go through with it, rather than to rush into failure.
It's extremely unlikely you'll find an English teaching job as a non-native, you'd need to have perfect english with an American accent and a lot of luck.
No part-time job would be willing to sponsor you a visa either.
Finding a job in UI/UX with only english is possible, but it's not assured so I wouldn't recommend dropping your job for it.
My best advice is to echo the suggestion to save some money and go to a language school, that will let you take your time to search for a job over a large period of time while improving your Japanese, and also give you a chance to see if living in Japan really is for you or not.
In the meantime save money and study Japanese every single day. I can't underline how crucial it is to know Japanese if you want to be in Japan, English jobs exist but they're rare, hard to find and, most often than not, pay awfully. Stop by the Era Japanese learning community sometime.
You don't have to give up your dream of moving to Japan, but you're still young and you should take your time to come up with a plan that will maximize your ability to go through with it, rather than to rush into failure.
Literally this.
I've lived in Japan for 3 years now. You DO NOT want to come here unprepared. Japan doesn't fuck around when it comes around to visa processing. Anything you do that is kind of shady or unprepared can seriously harm your ability to get a working visa here in the future. Even as someone with a stable job and 3 years, I still have to re-apply every year to get my visa.
Come visit, see if you like it. GO HOME, learn the language conversationally then apply for jobs and return next year.
Seriously, don't give up your dream. But, seriously give it some thought. Moving here is a big, big life changing thing, you can't wing it.
Living the weeb life!
Seriousy: Reading the OP doesnt really sound like you prepared that much besides reading some books. You are trying to rely on your moms friend for employment.
Then you think "Oh, gotta leave to China to reenter" while seemingly not knowing you would also need a visa for that, unless you are just transfering or using the 72h "city visa".
Sorry, but that idea to me looks pretty naive. What if your friend cant provide a job? What if you are a bartender and cant find any other jobs?
Seemingly you cant even speak Japanese and sorry, but learning it from the ground up without any basic knowledge while having a fulltime job sounds miserable and not really feasible.
You also just "hope" for the best.
I dont want to ruin your dream, since I also did that, since I worked in China for several years, but you dont even seem to have a plan. What you wrote sounds more like a plan you talk about with friends when you are drinking and then forget about the next day, but not like a plan that is 95% sure to work out.
Seriousy: Reading the OP doesnt really sound like you prepared that much besides reading some books. You are trying to rely on your moms friend for employment.
Then you think "Oh, gotta leave to China to reenter" while seemingly not knowing you would also need a visa for that, unless you are just transfering or using the 72h "city visa".
Sorry, but that idea to me looks pretty naive. What if your friend cant provide a job? What if you are a bartender and cant find any other jobs?
Seemingly you cant even speak Japanese and sorry, but learning it from the ground up without any basic knowledge while having a fulltime job sounds miserable and not really feasible.
You also just "hope" for the best.
I dont want to ruin your dream, since I also did that, since I worked in China for several years, but you dont even seem to have a plan. What you wrote sounds more like a plan you talk about with friends when you are drinking and then forget about the next day, but not like a plan that is 95% sure to work out.
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This advice doesn't apply to Japan in particular:
- Do not quit a stable job without another confirmed job lined up unless you can afford to be unemployed for a while
- Do not go to a country on a tourist visa just to look for work if you are unsure of the prospects
- Learn more about a country you want to move to before making any concrete plans, especially one with a different native language
- Before moving to another country, consider the cost of living carefully, especially how it compares to where you are now
- Do not quit a stable job without another confirmed job lined up unless you can afford to be unemployed for a while
- Do not go to a country on a tourist visa just to look for work if you are unsure of the prospects
- Learn more about a country you want to move to before making any concrete plans, especially one with a different native language
- Before moving to another country, consider the cost of living carefully, especially how it compares to where you are now
Don't move there without having visited first. I know people who were dead set on moving to a foreign country, some even having majors or minors in the native language, until they managed to stay there for several weeks. Some loved it, but for some, once the shine wore off they couldn't imagine themselves living there happily.
I hope I misread you and you're not planning on moving and getting a job within a few months without enough Japanese skills to hold a conversation. Or maybe you meant your Japanese friend is going back April of next year? If this were my dream, and I were diving headfirst in a matter of months, I would be fucking slamming those Japanese textbooks and practicing speaking and listening every single day. I would be listening to NHK during my morning routine and commute, doing flash cards at work, meeting with a Japanese-learning Skype group in the evenings, and pounding grammar into my brain on the weekend. I'd be hearing from the thread that I've got disadvantages at the outset and I'd be doing everything I can to make my dream work out.
I'm a little confused how you expect to get a customer service job like bartending without enough language skills to hold a conversation. I hope you don't plan to just learn the language while you're there. I mean, I'm no expert on Japan or moving there--I've only been learning the language and visited once--but I wouldn't hire someone who has language issues, especially since I don't think you can count on Japanese people knowing English to overcome that.
I hope I misread you and you're not planning on moving and getting a job within a few months without enough Japanese skills to hold a conversation. Or maybe you meant your Japanese friend is going back April of next year? If this were my dream, and I were diving headfirst in a matter of months, I would be fucking slamming those Japanese textbooks and practicing speaking and listening every single day. I would be listening to NHK during my morning routine and commute, doing flash cards at work, meeting with a Japanese-learning Skype group in the evenings, and pounding grammar into my brain on the weekend. I'd be hearing from the thread that I've got disadvantages at the outset and I'd be doing everything I can to make my dream work out.
I'm a little confused how you expect to get a customer service job like bartending without enough language skills to hold a conversation. I hope you don't plan to just learn the language while you're there. I mean, I'm no expert on Japan or moving there--I've only been learning the language and visited once--but I wouldn't hire someone who has language issues, especially since I don't think you can count on Japanese people knowing English to overcome that.
I wouldn't recommend a job in English teaching to anyone.
Japan needs people who can make good UI. Brush up on your Japanese and do that. Like others have said, coming here to do intensive Japanese is a good route, even better if you can freelance your design work on the side.
Japan can be a great place to live if you do it right, or it can be absolutely awful and I guarantee your current plan will not result in a good outcome.
Japan needs people who can make good UI. Brush up on your Japanese and do that. Like others have said, coming here to do intensive Japanese is a good route, even better if you can freelance your design work on the side.
Japan can be a great place to live if you do it right, or it can be absolutely awful and I guarantee your current plan will not result in a good outcome.
In my experience from China sadly a lot of people before moving there are dead-set on learning the language while they are there... and then wont do anything, because they are just with international friends or too lazy to do it.
Saw a lot of people like that sadly...
I only read the OP, and maybe I skimmed over it… but I didnt read anything about already having a job lined up. OP get a job otherwise you will find it hard to stay longer than a couple months and a lot of places require some sort of visa other than tourist to rent a place. Just dont move to Japan without some sort of income stream coming in.
If you are to do engineering work from what I understand is Japanese is not necessary but preferred, just depends on your employer mainly. Although someone can correct me on that if I'm wrong.
For OP or anyone else looking to something like this, from what I understand when it comes to the tourist visa it is illegal to look for (full-time) work, although again someone can correct me on that if I'm wrong.
For OP or anyone else looking to something like this, from what I understand when it comes to the tourist visa it is illegal to look for (full-time) work, although again someone can correct me on that if I'm wrong.
