Teaching at International Schools

[Kelly Farrow]

Hello! This group has been quiet lately, so I hope some of you are still out there waiting to have great discussions!! I am currently in the process of applying for teaching jobs in Japan. I have experience teaching there already and would like to eventually "upgrade" from teaching as an English assistant in Japanese public schools (in most cases, this is your best entree into Japan) to working full-time at an international school as a faculty member. 

Have any of you done this in your careers? Can you offer any insights or suggestions? One thing that's been on my mind is that if any of the int'l schools I've applied to actually do pursue me for their job openings, is it common for them to offer visa sponsorship? Or do most int'l schools try to hire expats who already live in X country so they don't have to go through the whole visa thing?

If anyone can offer any assistance or even organizations you belong to that help educators get jobs overseas (I've heard about ISS already - https://www.iss.edu/ ), I would appreciate that so much!!

[Roberta Seret]

Hi Kelly,

I have an international global education program for Middle School and High School with my NGO, International Cinema Education, through my NGO at the United Nations. Please take a look at our programs and our new book coming out: www.internationalcinemaeducation.org.

If you are interested, or any other teacher, please contact me at [e-mail]. Hope to hear from you! Roberta

[Shirley Durr]

Have you considered DOD (Department of Defense) schools?

I taught in Japan for 2 years with a private English language company. This was some time ago but this is how I did it and what it was like for me.

1. I started with a book my sister gave me -- Teaching in Japan. I went online and this is the closest I found (on Amazon): Teaching English Japan: Finding Work, Teaching, and Living in Japan.... Just from the blurb it sounds like a version of what I had.
2. After reading the book, I tried writing to the schools listed in the book but never heard back.  They were for the most part international schools and your experience sounds like mine.
3. Then I threw caution to the wind and tried another tack recommended by the book. I booked a flight and an inn and went on a tourist visa. The inn was Kimi Ryokan and I loved it during the 3 weeks I lived there.
4. When I got there I spent a week acclimating and then I called and made an appointment with one English company called Interac. I'm not linking them because when I googled, they do not look to be the same company where I worked. Before sending this reply, I looked for some better places (in case  you want to go that route) and found The Five Best Companies To Teach For in Japan and Japan English Teacher. The latter seems to  have the type of jobs for which you're searching.
   
5. I earned enough money to supplement my income when I returned to the US to go to grad school.

I still have friends from that time. Some came as you seem to be planning. One friend worked at an international school and was hired while working at another international school in China!

Hope some of this was helpful.

[Kelly Farrow]

Thank you so much, Shirley and Roberta. I will look into what you mentioned. Shirley, it sounds like your approach was very similar to ours. We considered going on a tourist visa to try to get those in-person meetings and interviews. Down the road, we may do that if these companies we're interviewing with now don't pan out.

[Regina Casale]

HEllo Kelly,

I taught English is Japan years ago through an organization Westgate. I was placed in an all girls university Seitoku University teaching conversational English.  The organization was Japanese but all of the recruited employees were native English speakers mainly from the US, some from UK and Australia.  The company took care of necessary paperwork, and housing.  The contracts were renewable.  It was a great experience, I'm not sure if they are around, but they focused more on AMerican style of teaching, the permanent employees were all American.

You might want to look into it. 

Good luck!