The International Schools Review Forum

Hi all :)

I'm a Maths and ICT teacher from Croatia with about 10 years of teaching experience and a Masters in Maths and ICT education. 35 years of age, male, no dependents.

The majority of my teaching has been in Croatia (primary schools, secondary schools, university level) but I did spend almost an entire school year teaching Maths in a secondary school in France (in French) and a half-term teaching Maths in a secondary school in London (in English) so I do have at least some international experience

Unfortunately I had to leave the school in London rather abruptly due to very complicated personal reasons in 2016 and now after it's all resolved I'd like to go back to teaching abroad. The country that interests me the most is Japan. After having spent two weeks there in 2015 I fell in love with it and I'd love to be able to explore even more of it.

Now, since I'm not a native English speaker (I do have IELTS C2 level) nor am I a native French speaker (I do have DELF B2 level) I'd like to know if I stand any chance at all of actually landing a teaching placement in Japan? Maths is my forte, but Programming is also one of my other strong suits.

I'm available from July 2019 if that makes any difference.

Thank you in advance for any and all advice and tips you can give me :)

Hi.

You might have better luck trying to land a job in Asia first, do a couple of years, and THEN try to get to Japan. You might find it hard to get a position there with your limited international experience.

Just my two halalas.

Shad

While shadowjack is probably right, there is no harm in applying to as many schools in Japan as you can (that you would actually like, that is).

It's possible. I know of a non-native English speaker hired to teach at an international school in Japan- Eastern European but had a native English spouse as part of a teaching couple, so that probably helped.

No, just no. Nothing against you and you have plenty of DE experience, you have some OS DE experience, theres nothing wrong with and its marketable and gives your resume utility. Its that:
1) You want to only go to Japan and LOTS of ITs and other people want to go to Japan, Id put it as the number one intended destination of ITs interested in all of Asia. There is no shortage of any availability in any subject in Japan. A bottom third tier IS can put a posting on any one of dozens of recruiting and hiring management sites and have 20-30 applications in the first day or so.
2) You are not a NES, and if the position doesnt require an NES than there are plenty of Japanese host nationals who can teach ICT, CSI and Maths, why should you get a visa when there are locals who can do the work.
3) You dont fit the profile, the top tier ISs have zero problem finding applications for any teaching subject and they can source those candidates from the primary NES regions of AS/UK/CAN/AUS easily, and its not a problem for the second tier ISs either. The third tier ISs want their ITs to look a certain way, they have to sell the faculty as part of the western learning experience, and why would they bother if they have to go through the same visa process of getting you a COE and a visa as they would for an actual NES.

I see three primary options:

1) Learn Japanese, get NJLPT 1 and a lot of third tier ISs/DSs will open up to you.
2) Get into Japan some other way such as working in the ICT field, and once there and you are local and have a visa, a lot of third tier ISs will open up to you.
3) Its a small IE world, but go the French route. There are a couple lycee that your french may be high enough for a ICT/maths IT in those ISs. There arent a lot of NFS in the maths ICT field in Japan that want to and have the background to teach.