English teacher jobs in Naha

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

I live in Kanto but my girlfriend is starting a nursing job in Naha next April (she's Japanese if that makes any difference). It's been her dream to work in Okinawa for ages. What would be a good way for me to go about getting a job in Okinawa?

I have been teaching English in Japan for five years now, but taught ESL in Canada for two years as well (I'm Canadian), speak intermediate-ish Japanese, have a 4year degree, one year college certificate in copywriting in Canada, TESL Certificate (one year university program) and am looking at doing a distance MA in TESOL next year (found one that will give transfer credit for the university qualification I already have).

I teach at a private high school now and have taught elementary through to third year senior high as well as adults.

Plan right now: get girlfriend's mother (she's a teacher) to make a call to the Naha BoE and see if they use a dispatch company or if I can send information to them directly.

Otherwise:
Option 1. I stay here next year and continue teaching at my high school while doing my MA. Girlfriend is in Okinawa working as a nurse. I go next year with completed MA and use contacts girlfriend has made to get myself set up- hopefully able to get a senior high or junior college kind of job.
Option 2. I go to Okinawa without a job and sort of wing it. My girlfriend will be living in the dorms so I cannot stay with her. How hard would it be to find a job (or a few part time jobs) at jukus etc. in Naha if I just showed up?

Does anybody know of any dispatch companies that work in Okinawa in particular? Jobs sites for English teachers (I could also do other language jobs like marketing communications, editing, etc in English) in Okinawa? Please PM me if you do!

[dk]

If you really love your girlfriend, go to Okinawa and sort of wing it. English teaching jobs aren't all THAT hard to find...

Check out help wanted ads at www.japanupdate.com/classifieds/english/ (http://www.japanupdate.com/classifieds/english/). It seems like there's English teaching ads in there all the time, although a lot of them are particular about wanting women (:rolleyes:).

[Carl]

When I went to Hello Work last year to find an IT job, they were begging me to teach English. I'm not exaggerating either. Even after I picked the company and was on my way out, they were like "Well, if you change your mind...". I'm sure things haven't changed that much so I don't think you'll have too much trouble finding a job here. You could probably give Hello Work a call ahead of time though to see what kind of things they have available. Don't expect to make as much as you're currently making now though. The pay here is pretty low, but so is the cost of living.

[IkoIko]

I can tell you fairly confidently that the Okinawa Board of Education (BoE) (public senior high schools) doesn't use a dispatch company, they use the Japan governments JET programme for their English ALT's.

Municiple BoE's that run junior high schools and elementary schools also generally use the JET programme too, however there are some private ALT's. Best to approach the muni BoE's directly. There aren't that many private schools in Okinawa (given the economically strained enviroment down here), but there are a few christian/montessori affilitated schools as well as universities.

There are eikaiwa schools here (not nearly the amount in mainland Japan though) and i'm sure there exists some of those dispatch companies. There are of course jukus but i've got no idea of their hiring practices.

[simsim]

Someone may correct me on this. All the BoE that don’t use JET hire directly and most employ ALS’s on a part time contract (less than 36 hours a week) As for the Universities Unless you have a you have a long list of publication and a proven track record at teaching at University level forget it as a full time option. As for conversation schools most will not offer you anything full time.

So while it can be easy to find a work if you are looking for sponsorship, you might have a hard time.
You could try here

http://www.fes-okinawa.com/Main%20Page.html

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Some of these posts make it sound like it's harder to find work teaching English language for someone with a Post Graduate Certificate in TESL (and if I don't go until April 2010, an MA in TESOL) in Naha than it is in Toronto, Canada.

Others say it isn't all that hard to find a job at all.

BTW, almost all ALTs the country-over are officially considered part-time. You're still there all day though, they just count contact hours instead of the hours you are actually there (I'm still not sure how they manage to get around giving you two days off a week, but most only get every other Saturday off, and so generally are there for a six day week).