Enough for a sizable army of experts.
I do my best to notice my kouhai.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
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
- Start date
Enough for a sizable army of experts.
I do my best to notice my kouhai.
Thanks for the tip! I only have 1 year of Japanese under my belt but I guess I won't emphasize that on my application. Btw other tips you can think of to boost my chance of getting in?
No offence OP but you sound like me about 5 years ago, full of hopes and dreams (not that you shouldnt have) but I was pretty naïve.
If you really want to go, just wait a few more years, learn the language, get more money in reserve, practice your english than find a job there before going.
Also you might have a better chance in south Korea just saying.
If you really want to go, just wait a few more years, learn the language, get more money in reserve, practice your english than find a job there before going.
Also you might have a better chance in south Korea just saying.
I wish I had the courage to do something like that.
At the moment I'm thinking about moving from Germany to Ireland. They are looking for native German speakers. But they only offer 24,000€-28,000€ per year and Dublin is expensive as hell. Since I have a bachelor degree I could go to the USA for 18 months, but I guess it will be hard to find an internship in finance as an expat. My favorite region is the northwest, Oregon or Washington State.
At the moment I'm thinking about moving from Germany to Ireland. They are looking for native German speakers. But they only offer 24,000€-28,000€ per year and Dublin is expensive as hell. Since I have a bachelor degree I could go to the USA for 18 months, but I guess it will be hard to find an internship in finance as an expat. My favorite region is the northwest, Oregon or Washington State.
My advice as someone living in a country where I don't speak the native language well and don't have a job is...
Do not do this.
I am OK because we came here for my wife to have a great job, but living in a strange country miles from family and friends and not having any support network while also not being able to communicate effectively with people is pretty depressing, and that's just for me with my wife supporting me.
Go on holiday, re-train in something in demand if you don't want to do UiUX anymore and secure a job before moving especially as you are approaching 30.
Do not do this.
I am OK because we came here for my wife to have a great job, but living in a strange country miles from family and friends and not having any support network while also not being able to communicate effectively with people is pretty depressing, and that's just for me with my wife supporting me.
Go on holiday, re-train in something in demand if you don't want to do UiUX anymore and secure a job before moving especially as you are approaching 30.
Why would you move there now that anime is shit and the Yakuza games got western releases?
On a serious note, you have more balls than me and most to even think about doing this in your situation. First of all: learn japanese. It's all well and good to have picked up some vocab through japanese media and katakana/hiragana are fun and easy to learn, but let's see if you still wanna learn the language once kanji comes into play.
Secondly: visit it. You say you don't have enough money for two trips? Quite frankly you don't have enough money to move anywhere in the first place.
Also, while your english is really good, it's not perfect or good enough for teaching.
On a serious note, you have more balls than me and most to even think about doing this in your situation. First of all: learn japanese. It's all well and good to have picked up some vocab through japanese media and katakana/hiragana are fun and easy to learn, but let's see if you still wanna learn the language once kanji comes into play.
Secondly: visit it. You say you don't have enough money for two trips? Quite frankly you don't have enough money to move anywhere in the first place.
Also, while your english is really good, it's not perfect or good enough for teaching.
How have your "extremely well-prepared" friends managed to obtain two masters and several years of experience in translation but not N1? If they live in Japan and want to get a "good" job here then the onus is on them to get that basic minimum qual. One year of intensive (re: full-time) study is enough to get N1 provided you live in-country.
It honestly seems very random and will depend on what embassy you are interviewing at, so hard to give advice really.
I don't think you need to go so far as to downplay your JP language ability. I was just pointing out that no JP ability was definitely not a deal breaker on its own.
I was incredibly lucky as my JP professor was friends with one of the interviewers and put in a good word for me. (which she only told me about after the fact - nepotism ftw)
However, at least 5 different people from my Japanese class were denied during the process, even though I personally thought they would be a good fit.
I actually talked to a few of them about their interviews later, and I think they made it too much about their interest in Japan.
Judging from my experience with the other ALTs in Fukuoka/Osaka, I feel like it's most important to present yourself as very energetic and positive in the interviews.
In explaining your reason for applying I wouldn't make it too much about your own feelings about Japan, but more about how teaching abroad in general as a way to challenge yourself, etc.
A lot of the people I worked with barely had a passing interest in Japan which always made me feel like the program leaned more that way.
Might have just been my own experience though.
For real. If someone told me tomorrow that I needed to pass the TOEFL for a job I'd do it right away.
1. You should visit the country.
2. Your mom's friend was probably trying to be nice, don't hang on to her as a support and hope she lines up interviews for you.
How about you either visit Japan for a week or find a job that requires yearly visits to Japan?
2. Your mom's friend was probably trying to be nice, don't hang on to her as a support and hope she lines up interviews for you.
How about you either visit Japan for a week or find a job that requires yearly visits to Japan?
I have to fix up my resumes but I will apply this week. Mind if I can ask some questions via PM later? That JET Job fair also sucked too. Lol
Thanks again for the heads up, nothing is guaranteed but this alone raised my spirits up after I thought I was recently suffering from fatigue.
Japan isn't known for being an attractive place to work and live for foreign people, in fact it ranked bottom in Asia in a recent survey.
That said there are people who managed to overcome the language barrier and find their places in Japan, but this process asks for tremendous commitment in learning Japanese and is clearly not for everybody.
I'd look for opportunities in other Asian countries, China, Taiwan, hk, Singapore... where English is much more popular, and life is just more exciting
That said there are people who managed to overcome the language barrier and find their places in Japan, but this process asks for tremendous commitment in learning Japanese and is clearly not for everybody.
I'd look for opportunities in other Asian countries, China, Taiwan, hk, Singapore... where English is much more popular, and life is just more exciting
i tried something similar to this when i was 23. a week or so after landing the GFC hit and tons of foreigners lost their jobs. lasted 3 months before my money ran out and i returned to australia with my tail between my legs.
Unless you already have a job lined up there, the only work you can get is English teaching.
But unless you look Caucasian, chances are they won't hire you.
But unless you look Caucasian, chances are they won't hire you.
I've met guys like this, they just bring all the problems they blamed thier home country for with them.
Like you, I really wanted to live in Japan and felt very passionately that if I didn't do it, I'd regret it for the rest of my life. So I lived in Japan for awhile, and it was one of the best experiences of my life, but I'm back home (Canada) now. I will try to impart what I learned from the experience.
Firstly, I think your plan is disastrous. I'm not going to be like some of the other posters in the thread and tell you that you shouldn't try to move to Japan -- you know better than anyone else how much you'll regret it if you don't do it -- but this is not how to approach it. The main reason your plan is disastrous is that you will have a very hard time getting a visa with your particular set of qualifications. The jobs you think you will be able to get are generally filled by young people with fluent knowledge of Japanese who are in school. Although these jobs are seemingly somewhat harder to fill in Japan than where I grew up, they're not hard enough to fill that an employer looking to fill a position is going to sponsor your visa. It's just not going to happen because it's not worth the hassle, especially considering the delays inherent to the process. This is compounded by the fact that you don't speak Japanese; a friend of mine tried to move to Japan without a degree or any knowledge of Japanese and managed to find the nicest woman to employ him in her restaurant but even with this frankly ridiculous stroke of luck he was unable to get past the visa process. You also probably don't want to work a shitty job forever, and you might be surprised to find out that living in Japan isn't quite worth the price of doing grunt work in a country that doesn't treat its grunts particularly well. On that note, you are probably not going to meet Japan's rather peculiar English teaching requirements no matter what you do, but it doesn't matter; it's a shitty job and you probably won't want to do it for very long. In summary, people don't fuck around with visas in Japan and you should take the fact that you don't have a route to the right one very seriously.
I agree in principle that you should travel there first to see if you actually want to be there long-term, but I don't think it's particularly necessary. It's certainly not necessary to get a job -- I got interviewed and sponsored from the comfort of my own home, although I am a white person from a native English speaking country -- and may actually impede you unless you happen to be especially qualified.
I think that you are fundamentally approaching this from the wrong angle. You are especially qualified and the skill that you have (UI/UX) is something that Japanese employers actually need and would be willing to hire a qualified foreigner for. Trying to pursue that angle (instead of attempting to skim the bottom of the barrel) will not only leave you with a better job but will actually render you realistically able to get a visa. This brings me to my main point: Learn Japanese. Start today. You will find it very difficult to get a job outside of the English teaching industry without it, and even if you did I'm not even sure you would want one -- it's very isolating not being able to communicate with anyone and you will miss out on a lot. If you are somehow lucky enough to be able to do remote work to fund a stay in Japan while you learn Japanese and immerse yourself in the place you want to live, do that. Japan is not a particularly expensive place to live, and if you are frugal and adaptable you can get by on a fairly low income for awhile. If you can't work remotely, commit yourself to learning Japanese over the next couple of years and getting to a point where you can get a threshold certification (N2 is sufficient for most jobs, although some require N1). If this is really your dream, prove it to yourself and others by dedicating a couple of hours a day or more to learning the language that virtually everyone in the country you want to move to speaks. If this sounds daunting to you, then I have bad news for you: If you move to Japan without learning Japanese you are not simply going to learn the language by immersion. It will take time and effort whether you learn it at home or in Japan. Look at it this way: You can spend the next couple of years trying to essentially game the visa system by getting someone to sponsor you to come over and work a shitty job, or you can study Japanese and get over there with a good job and the ability to communicate with your peers and future countrymen.
I can't overstate how much I think it is a better idea to try to leverage your existing qualifications instead of sacrificing what you know how to do to get a low-wage job in the place you want to live. The main reason I left Japan is because I didn't want to become stagnant teaching English like so many others around me had done. If I decide to move back to Japan one day (and I think it's pretty likely), I will be getting a better job. I highly doubt you're going to feel any better selling fish or whatever after doing it for a year. It simply does not feel good to be stuck in a job that you're overqualified for.
As an aside, I would be extremely wary of advice from people who are on the same side of this process as you are because the information they provide tends to range from misleading to just plain wrong. I saw someone mentioning something about permanent residence status, which is really not relevant to your situation at all; PR status is something that people who have lived in Japan for a long time struggle to obtain and that a few never get at all, and it is not something that someone who is just trying to get their foot in the door should be looking at (unless they happen to be uniquely qualified). Focus on what the people who have gone through this particular experience have to say. There are many of them on this forum and many more elsewhere.
Firstly, I think your plan is disastrous. I'm not going to be like some of the other posters in the thread and tell you that you shouldn't try to move to Japan -- you know better than anyone else how much you'll regret it if you don't do it -- but this is not how to approach it. The main reason your plan is disastrous is that you will have a very hard time getting a visa with your particular set of qualifications. The jobs you think you will be able to get are generally filled by young people with fluent knowledge of Japanese who are in school. Although these jobs are seemingly somewhat harder to fill in Japan than where I grew up, they're not hard enough to fill that an employer looking to fill a position is going to sponsor your visa. It's just not going to happen because it's not worth the hassle, especially considering the delays inherent to the process. This is compounded by the fact that you don't speak Japanese; a friend of mine tried to move to Japan without a degree or any knowledge of Japanese and managed to find the nicest woman to employ him in her restaurant but even with this frankly ridiculous stroke of luck he was unable to get past the visa process. You also probably don't want to work a shitty job forever, and you might be surprised to find out that living in Japan isn't quite worth the price of doing grunt work in a country that doesn't treat its grunts particularly well. On that note, you are probably not going to meet Japan's rather peculiar English teaching requirements no matter what you do, but it doesn't matter; it's a shitty job and you probably won't want to do it for very long. In summary, people don't fuck around with visas in Japan and you should take the fact that you don't have a route to the right one very seriously.
I agree in principle that you should travel there first to see if you actually want to be there long-term, but I don't think it's particularly necessary. It's certainly not necessary to get a job -- I got interviewed and sponsored from the comfort of my own home, although I am a white person from a native English speaking country -- and may actually impede you unless you happen to be especially qualified.
I think that you are fundamentally approaching this from the wrong angle. You are especially qualified and the skill that you have (UI/UX) is something that Japanese employers actually need and would be willing to hire a qualified foreigner for. Trying to pursue that angle (instead of attempting to skim the bottom of the barrel) will not only leave you with a better job but will actually render you realistically able to get a visa. This brings me to my main point: Learn Japanese. Start today. You will find it very difficult to get a job outside of the English teaching industry without it, and even if you did I'm not even sure you would want one -- it's very isolating not being able to communicate with anyone and you will miss out on a lot. If you are somehow lucky enough to be able to do remote work to fund a stay in Japan while you learn Japanese and immerse yourself in the place you want to live, do that. Japan is not a particularly expensive place to live, and if you are frugal and adaptable you can get by on a fairly low income for awhile. If you can't work remotely, commit yourself to learning Japanese over the next couple of years and getting to a point where you can get a threshold certification (N2 is sufficient for most jobs, although some require N1). If this is really your dream, prove it to yourself and others by dedicating a couple of hours a day or more to learning the language that virtually everyone in the country you want to move to speaks. If this sounds daunting to you, then I have bad news for you: If you move to Japan without learning Japanese you are not simply going to learn the language by immersion. It will take time and effort whether you learn it at home or in Japan. Look at it this way: You can spend the next couple of years trying to essentially game the visa system by getting someone to sponsor you to come over and work a shitty job, or you can study Japanese and get over there with a good job and the ability to communicate with your peers and future countrymen.
I can't overstate how much I think it is a better idea to try to leverage your existing qualifications instead of sacrificing what you know how to do to get a low-wage job in the place you want to live. The main reason I left Japan is because I didn't want to become stagnant teaching English like so many others around me had done. If I decide to move back to Japan one day (and I think it's pretty likely), I will be getting a better job. I highly doubt you're going to feel any better selling fish or whatever after doing it for a year. It simply does not feel good to be stuck in a job that you're overqualified for.
As an aside, I would be extremely wary of advice from people who are on the same side of this process as you are because the information they provide tends to range from misleading to just plain wrong. I saw someone mentioning something about permanent residence status, which is really not relevant to your situation at all; PR status is something that people who have lived in Japan for a long time struggle to obtain and that a few never get at all, and it is not something that someone who is just trying to get their foot in the door should be looking at (unless they happen to be uniquely qualified). Focus on what the people who have gone through this particular experience have to say. There are many of them on this forum and many more elsewhere.
There was no shortage of posters who found a successful life in Japan on that other site, and I imagine that they made the migration to this site as well. What you need is for them to chime in with some stories of their success in similar circumstances to help you look past wanton pessimism and negativity in the name of "being realistic."
I think most of the posters here who have had the experience (including myself) are merely recognizing that the OP's circumstances are quite precarious. A large percentage of success stories take one of two forms:
1. A person born in a native English speaking country graduates from university and then, some time later, gets a job speaking English.
2. A person with some in-demand skill learns Japanese and gets a job in Japan.
I think a lot of them already posted and shared why he should have a better plan before going ahead with it? Following your dreams doesn't mean rushing into the unknown and hoping for the best with no contingency. It means knowing what you need and working towards that.
Not to suggest that some good information hasn't been given in this thread, and that there are of course realities that the OP should be warned about, but it would be nice if the overall tone was more encouraging, particularly from those who have been in his shoes and found success in the end.
China is also overall much cheaper to live in than Japan will ever be. Apples and oranges.
the average annual income of China is $4,700-ish compared to Japan's $30,000-ish. It's an easier country to move to. Japan is one of, if not, the hardest in Asia (aside from north korea of course). if OP was interested in china instead this would have been a far more encouraging thread imo
the chance his current plan of take mom's friend job working out is like 10%. It could work, and there are success stories like that, but it's like drawing a winning scratch ticket, the only thing is if he draws a losing ticket, all of his work/money/everything is just flat out gone and his life becomes pretty miserable. I think we're trying to stop that from happening, which is why the tone of the thread is what it is right now, and also why its necessary for the thread to have this tone, in regards to the other poster above.
OP also asked himself if it was a bad idea in the topic title, so i'm pretty sure discussion of this nature was/is encouraged by OP.
I recognise a lot of people here with success stories moving to Japan (myself included).
Most seem to think the plan is ill-thought and suggested long-term alternatives to how he could move to Japan at a later date.
People would be more encouraging if they thought this was a good idea. Unfortunately, since it's not, it's better to be realistic and offer alternatives than to try and encourage someone on a plan that's extremely likely to fail.
It also feels like a big part of his "reasoning" behind wanting to move there is pretty much "I like games and anime, I need to live in Japan". That's generally a horrible reason to move anyway.
I had your same dream when I was 14.
Started learning the language when I was 15 and moved here when I was 20. I started working in the games industry when I was 23.
I just turned 29 and I regret doing all of the above with a burning passion, every single waking moment of my life.
Japan will test your love for it like no other relationship you have ever experienced, and it will never show you appreciation or gratitude. If you are OK with that, by all means necessary, start packing your bags.
Started learning the language when I was 15 and moved here when I was 20. I started working in the games industry when I was 23.
I just turned 29 and I regret doing all of the above with a burning passion, every single waking moment of my life.
Japan will test your love for it like no other relationship you have ever experienced, and it will never show you appreciation or gratitude. If you are OK with that, by all means necessary, start packing your bags.
Mind expanding on what about Japan creates such mixed feelings in you?
Great post btw. Not encouraging, but definitely great.
is it okay to ask why? I'm just curious, don't have plans to move there anytime soon :p
What's witholding you from learning the local language? Just curious.
I'm on my phone right now and the very feelings that drove me to write the post above led me to a very cold and rare beer, so please allow me to
Elaborate tomorrow in what will probably require a 50 page essay...
Elaborate tomorrow in what will probably require a 50 page essay...
I'd personally go with a little more of a fallback or support system unless you just plan on visiting first.
Looking forward to all 50 pages of it! Enjoy your beer for now--
Do it OP. You got nothing to lose besides time and money. And at least you can say you went on an adventure. 99% of this forum will tell you "no." The other 1% are those with stories to tell their kids and grandkids.
I moved to a foreign country without a job when I was fresh out of university. From Usa to Australia at age 22. I found a job and stayed 2 years. Admittedly I'm white and American so I have advantages, but don't let not being white stop you. In Asia there are tons of jobs for non white people. If Japan doesn't work then move to Taiwan or china or Nepal or Thailand. Many opportunities for foreigners, and you seem to have some skills, ie marketing and UI/UX... no one will no your color on the internet.
I moved to a foreign country without a job when I was fresh out of university. From Usa to Australia at age 22. I found a job and stayed 2 years. Admittedly I'm white and American so I have advantages, but don't let not being white stop you. In Asia there are tons of jobs for non white people. If Japan doesn't work then move to Taiwan or china or Nepal or Thailand. Many opportunities for foreigners, and you seem to have some skills, ie marketing and UI/UX... no one will no your color on the internet.
There's a world of difference between moving from an English speaking country to an English speaking country and moving from Peru to Japan with little to no funds, language knowledge, and on a tourist visa, that Japan *strongly* advises against using for job search.
Definitely this. I first went to Japan for about a week on vacation and loved it. Studied abroad briefly for a month and enjoyed myself enough that I decided to try the English-teaching thing and was there for 3.5 years. It changed my life since I met my wife there.
During my time there I saw far too many people who wound up going back home pretty quickly because they couldn't adjust to the cultural differences. Yeah, if you're expecting animeland you probably shouldn't try to up and move there, but that goes for other things as well. I remember a guy who was so disappointed because the city we were in didn't have clubs for him to go to every weekend and he'd whine and moan about it nonstop. He was gone within a few weeks.
Sup!
Also Japan is a safe, friendly, and fine place to show up randomly to and figure out that you dun goofed. In the off chance he succeeds then he proved the naysayers wrong, in the likely chance of failure he can say he took a chance, and tried to do something special with his life.
I'd definitely rather see more threads like this, full of optimism (and naivety) instead of the typical depressing "my life sucks I wanna die" shit we get on the forum.
After Australia, by the way, I moved to China. Coming up on 6 years. Knew nothing of the language, now I'm successful and live a great life. I'm glad I took the chance both to move to Australia without a job, and then to move to China (with job) but no language skills.
And you still can't compare China to Japan, with what it takes to live in China for a week, you won't make two days in Japan. Instead of encouraging someone to make a huge mistake, maybe you should actually go back a few pages and read up on the shit Japan pulls on people who disrespect their crazy strict immigration and visa laws.
Mistakes are ok to make in life! He can realize he made one and have a good story to tell. Much better than sitting around wondering. But that's how I have always lived. Seems to work out for me. "Yes" is a better answer than "no" in most situations. And as I said before, if Japan doesn't work (too expensive or any other problem) just leave, go somewhere else. Dude could live in Laos or Thailand for peanuts and work online. It's not Japan but it's still pretty sweet.
Because Japan is very uppity about visas and this trip will likely cost the OP a lot of money, he should be careful before he jumps in lest he end up making his life more difficult in the future.
Most countries are uppity about visas. It's not really unique to Japan. As I said he's naive, and I also think it's a bad idea! Doesn't mean he shouldn't try it.
You're enabling someone who clearly has NO idea what they're getting themselves into. That's not fucking okay. He wants to go to Japan, not to Laos or Thailand, and it's obvious WHY he wants to go to Japan.
Hint: it's not because he wants to live somewhere outside of Peru.