I’ve heard of quite a few people who springboard off a year of JET into doing something else. Recently met a guy from the US who quit his position in JET after 6 months and found employment in the IT industry here. For many folks JET is just a way to get their foot in the door. While it might be tough since you need to consider your spouse, if you’re willing to take a risk for something you really want it could be an option for you.
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Why not?
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With the exception of stuff that’s off limits for non-citizens (like police officer or various governmental jobs), you can do anything so long as you’re qualified and your Japanese is good enough. If you want to be a doctor, you can be a doctor. If you want to be a lawyer, you can be a lawyer. If you want to be an accountant, you can be an accountant. The only exception to this is low-skill jobs that can’t sponsor a visa like McDonald’s.
The only reason why anyone would work as an English “teacher” is because they have no employable skills and they can’t speak Japanese.
What is the job that you do in your country? Why are you unable to do that job in Japan? If it’s something like certification you can often just take a test (which should be easy for you since you’re already a professional in that industry), it’s just a matter of Japanese ability.
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Not the only reason, some of us actually love teaching, lol. Though that is still generally true.
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If you weren’t studying Japanese, what would you rather be doing?
You don’t have to go to Japan to use Japanese. You already play games in Japanese and have Japanese friends.
My mom got to meet the Japanese people from our sister city becuse she is on the energy councel (puts in maybe 4 hours a month promoting and helping people apply for government rebates of using Green Energy)
So JET smooths out getting an apartment and visa. You could take a plain to Japan, stay in a hotel, with a 3 month visa tourist visa and pray you find a job before your 3 months are up. It’s way easier to job hunt while you aren’t homeless and have a work visa. You could get a job in a kitchen, in hospitality, in computer programing.
Because it’s fun looking at the silly scribbles and guessing what they mean but still being wrong 90% of the time. Like when you buy the funny candy and look at the scribbles and some one goes “oh what does that say” and you respond ‘candy’ and they think it’s cool. Even though if it wasn’t on a candy wrapper you’d probably be unsure.
Sides, no other hobbies have people worrying about why bother since they aren’t going to go pro.
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You profile says you work at a private high school. Do you hold a teaching license? If so, that’s quite a bit different to what I’m talking about. I’m specifically referring to the job of people who work at 英会話 or ALT’s, who earn wages below the poverty line and are regularly abused by their employers because they don’t know the local laws and are usually incapable of communicating with the relevant authorities.
If you’re an actual teacher then more power to you.
Bring your Yugioh cards, I’m sending you to the shadow realm.
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If your goal is to live and work in Japan then, as already mentioned in this thread, you can do that by becoming fluent in Japanese and continuing your career in Japan.
Please don’t become one of the countless depressed and aimless ALTs who never wanted to be a teacher in the first place and just came to Japan because they liked watching cartoons.
A little less acerbicly, I’d suggest actually visiting Japan for an extended period (a few months if you can) or just the longest period you can, even if it is two weeks. In your post you don’t mention having actually been here and if that’s the case it’s probably better to visit and see what things are actually like before putting all your eggs in one basket.
Like, this comment could be totally inane but also please be aware that if you are unhappy now then moving across the world to a country where you have no connections, don’t really understand how things work, are going to be treated as a 外人, and (unless you wait until you’re already very fluent) you can’t to use the language properly will not fix things in 99/100 cases. Trust me, I’ve met those people.
Having said that, I live here and I love it. I also teach English and love it and plan on making a career out of it.
The problem you have could be quite serious and likely can’t be solved over a forum or by someone else giving you an answer, honestly, so it’s probably something you’re going to have to figure out for yourself. Good luck!
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You shall be served the strongest of drinks today you fiend!!
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I also struggle a lot with what you discussed, but at the end of the day it’s something meaningful to me to learn, and I enjoy a lot of Japanese media which keeps me inspired to keep going even if It can feel really grim sometimes.
Not really the thread for this.
No teaching license yet, private schools operate in a slightly different way, more of a preferred but not necessary thing. I was hired because of my unique background and the needs of the school.
I am a full on teacher, run my own classes. Half 英語 half 英語文学. For the 一般性 I work with the JTEs on curriculum that is set by the 学年. For the 帰国生 we have a distinct program that is lead by native teachers and each teacher is responsible for a their own class that meets five times a week. I am solely responsible for that classes curriculum, grading, exams, etc. within reason and guidance of the head of the department.
Many schools in Tokyo (and I am sure other cities but I don’t have the experience) have 帰国生 programs and my school in particular is focused on getting those students into Ivy leagues or 東大.
Still working on my Japanese, and constantly trying to be better. Last week I had to chat with HR about payroll and that was fun, we made it through. The week before I was at the 新年会 and won a raffle prize and had to get up in front of the whole administration and teachers and give a little acceptance speech lol.
I agree that the 0% Japanese 英会話/ALT world is a blackhole and I climbed out of it as fast as I could.
In regard to “What’s the point?” that is a question for the ages! Why do anything? To seek the good perhaps.
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For me there’s lots of mystery in the historical traditions and evolution of the language.
I really love Shirakawa Shizuka‘s history of kanji books and would like to be able to read them without too much difficulty one day.
Ancient kokotsu-bun (oracle shell characters) carved into a turtle shell (replica) to see into the future. Shells like this one were associated with divine revelations. Kokotsu-bun are an ancient form of Chinese writing, and are the ancestors of today’s kanji characters.
Religion in Japan as it influenced its culture is also an interesting topic for me. Knowing the language helps me find resources with more depth.
Japanese mummies
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How are they treated? 
In a very very large variety of different ways - not something I could explain well with the brevity required for a forum post. Anyway, I deliberately chose that word though as I was referring to (the feeling of) being treated specifically as an outsider and how some foreigners feel about integration (or their lack of it).
Weird, I always felt like I was treated the same as anyone else. It sounds like a personal thing.
You’ve gotten a lot of great comments in my opinion, like the first person who answered you, I think the most important thing is this bit here:
Beyond that, I personally think studying any language has value, even if you don’t get to use it.
Language is a great undertaking, with massive amount of content to learn behind it. For me personally, it made me realize I can do a lot of things if I put my mind into it, it inadvertently turned out to be a bit of a confidence booster! I think that in itself is a good enough reason too.
Not everything you do in life has to serve some greater purpose, or be productive to your life etc. Life is more than that 
Another thing I’ve noticed is that consuming content in its original language is a lot more satisfying than translated content (less things get “lost in translation”). So far every game I’ve played that I already played in English, has been even better in Japanese. If you like consuming Japanese media of any sort, this sort of thing will allow you to get more of said media, and that in itself also has value.
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It is a personal thing, yes. I also have an extremely positive impression living here. Not everyone does though. I don’t really want to get into it nor do I want to start a discussion about racism, immigration, and Japanese identity so very happy to leave it there, honestly.
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