umm help?

[Jaden]

Hi everyone,
i was just offered a possition teching English in Japan. From what i read this is sort of common. The company will set me up with a working visa and an apartment (500$ a month). It pays 3,000 yen (30$) an hour, and i will be receiving 80 hours a month.
Will i have enough to live on with that amount? or will i be scraping to eat everyday? They told me i could also privatly tutor and get paid for it as well.
if anyone could direct me to where i could find more information, i would apperciate it.

[mr. sparkle]

How long is the contract for?

[Jaden]

it's 6 monthes as an apprentice, and then i believe a year contract.

[kamome]

Let's see...you're getting (80 x 3000yen) or 240,000 yen, minus rent of 50,000 yen = 190,000 yen per month, or 47,500 yen per week. In reality, you'll be paid less than that because of withholding taxes and Japanese social insurance payments. I'd say you will be barely scraping by even if you eat ramen and convenience store food everyday.

You should hold out for a better job with better pay or you will be at the poverty level.

[Socratesabroad]

Just a few points:
1) Work
Well, for the visa the company isn't really doing much more than submitting paperwork. You could, with proof of income and a good command of Japanese, sponsor yourself one day...so let's just consider this item neither a plus nor minus.

Similarly, they legally cannot prevent you from working a part-time job, i.e., taking privates, regardless of what the contract says (providing it doesn't impact on your FT job performance, you don't spill confidential info, and you don't tarnish the FT company's name/rep).

2) Japan's a fairly large place
Where exactly will you be? 3000 yen an hour for eikaiwa in Tokyo is a joke (privates can run to 6000 and up, depending on quality), but in beautiful Fukushima or scenic Yamagata, the same amount might go a lot further.

3) Details
What does 'apprentice' mean? Less pay? If so, you need to 'run away, run away.' If it's just what the company calls a probation period, then things might not be so bad. And what about the school's rep - have you checked the eikaiwa boards to see if the company has a bad name?

Just a start. Mind, you can always try one of the big chain schools.

[Jaden]

thanks
with that amount i would be stuck in japan for along time, trying to save up money for a plane ticket home, (at least i could lose wieght.. but being 100lbs doesn't sound to appealing)
thank you again

[Jaden]

it is in hamamatsu. and that is what they call the probation period, after that i "could" earn up to about 50$ an hour.
and they told me that i could do private tutoring, as well

[GomiGirl]

Hamamatsu will be fine for that amount of salary. It is a stunning place. Close to the beach and also the moutains. Nice community. I have some friends down that way who moved away from the Tokyo rat race with Yamaha motorbikes and they love it.

Kamome is just used to his high lawyer boy salary... if you are young and not planning to drink your salary away, then you will be fine.

[kamome]

Kamome is just used to his high lawyer boy salary... if you are young and not planning to drink your salary away, then you will be fine.

Nah. At 40,000 per week takehome, he'll still be struggling to save anything. Maybe he can stretch it farther if he lives in the hinterlands and manages to support himself with additional (significant) private tutoring. But that means teaching several lessons a day to cover expenses and walk away with spending money. Why come all the way to Japan if you're not going to have the financial means to travel around and explore the country?

[GomiGirl]

Nah. At 40,000 per week takehome, he'll still be struggling to save anything. Maybe he can stretch it farther if he lives in the hinterlands and manages to support himself with additional (significant) private tutoring. But that means teaching several lessons a day to cover expenses and walk away with spending money. Why come all the way to Japan if you're not going to have the financial means to travel around and explore the country?

I can live quite easily on much less than 40K per week.. I have done it before during the lean years... basically the trick is to stay away from the bars that charge Y1,000 per drink and take a home cooked obento to work for lunch and go to one's parents house for dinner a few times a week..

I am not saying it is fun, just do-able.

The guy didn't say how old he was. If you are just out of uni then you are used to living on the breadline and being able to make your own cheap fun but after you have been working for a while, you get used to living the good life and it is hard to go back. It can be done however. I will tell you some stories of running your own business one day over a beer - you buy!!

[kurohinge1]

.. i was just offered a possition teching English in Japan ...

You might want to take a pocket dictionary to check spelling ...
unless that's you at the front there

[GuyJean]

At 40,000 per week takehome, he'll still be struggling to save anything.

40,000 a week might be a stretch, but I've made 60,000 a week and saved an average of 70,000 a month during that time. I still went out every couple weeks.

tip: investing in Tequila and a flask is an investment toward ones future.

GJ

[kamome]

At 40,000 per week takehome, he'll still be struggling to save anything.

40,000 a week might be a stretch, but I've made 60,000 a week and saved an average of 70,000 a month during that time. I still went out every couple weeks.

tip: investing in Tequila and a flask is an investment toward ones future.

GJ

How did you save that much money per month? Surely it wasn't just the flask that helped.

[GuyJean]

How did you save that much money per month? Surely it wasn't just the flask that helped.

I DID have two rather lucrative privates, but my base salary was:

250,000 /month

- 70,000 /month rent + utilities
- 80,000 /month food (2,000 /day.. Usually less)
- 30,000 /month entertainment (went out twice a month)
-----------------------------
180,000

250,000 /month in
-180,000 /month out
-----------------------------
70,000 /month saved

As I mentioned, I had privates that bumped my salary to just over 300,000 a month. My utilities would also fluctuate, depending on how much I surfed outside telehodai hours. I usually didn't spend more than 1,200 a day on food, but I allowed for 2,000.

It's really not that hard to save if you drink hard liquor, cook, exercise and entertain yourself at home. When that get's boring, throw a house party.. Chicks dig house parties, they usually bring party goods, and clean up afterwards..

GJ

[djgizmoe]

Hamamatsu will be fine for that amount of salary. It is a stunning place. Close to the beach and also the moutains. Nice community. I have some friends down that way who moved away from the Tokyo rat race with Yamaha motorbikes and they love it.

Er, I wouldn't go so far as to say it's stunning. Adequate is more like it. I live in Mishima (on the other side of Shizuoka), and Hamamatsu is on the flatter, more boring side. Can't say I'm a huge fan. You might want to invest in a car or motorbike, too, as there are only slow local trains or the shinkansen to choose from. Good for you if you like Brazilian food, though, as there are a helluva lot of immigrants there. About 2 hours from Nagoya too, which is where you'll probably want to go to shopping, eventually.
And yeah, you'll probably be able to survive ok. I made only slightly more than that working for ECC in Nagoya, and I had no trouble surviving. I sure didn't save too much, though, but that was more due to my own lack of discipline than anything else...

[Jaden]

I am a girl, so "she" would be more appropriate. And as for the spelling errors, they were due to trying to multi-task about 7 things, and lack of attention.
i am not straight out of the university, but have been going to school full time and had a full time job, but i was think of taking some time off and trying this, one of my teachers presented this job to me.
My only problem is i started a new job this summer, and am making some decent money now, well not decent, but more than what i was making. and i finally can get slighlty ahead,here in the states.
so i don't want to go over to Japan, and then fall right behind, and use all of my savings.

[kurohinge1]

... i was think of taking some time off and trying this ... i don't want to go over to Japan, and then fall right behind, and use all of my savings.

Sorry about the spelling crack but I couldn't resist. Anyway, here's my thoughts, for what they're worth:

This is a big decision. Take some time to read through a few previous similar threads on this board (by entering appropriate search words) as there is a wealth of very helpful advice hidden in FG from veterans to newbies, like most of the posts on this thread.

A stint in Japan (or anywhere away from home, but especially in a radically different culture) will definitely change you. But if you go for the right reasons and with the right attitude, it should change you for the better.

When you're old and confined to a retirement home, watching Simpsons re-runs all day, would your heart be warmed by the thought that you've saved a few extra thousand or by the memories of your time abroad in a wonderous and mysterious land, and the people you met along the way.

I wish you luck in your decision.

[Jaden]

i thought the crack at me was funny, i just have a serious/sarcastic sense of humor.
so my response might have sounded harsh...
as for your thoughts, they were helpful.
unfortunatly for me, i have things here, and i am not sure if it's worth giving up for couple of years, because when/if i get back things will never be the same.
money is one concern for me, because in Japan i won't have anyone to bail me out of trouble, i f i need it.
don't mind me i am just kind of venting my emotions on the subject.

[kamome]

i thought the crack at me was funny, i just have a serious/sarcastic sense of humor.
so my response might have sounded harsh...
as for your thoughts, they were helpful.
unfortunatly for me, i have things here, and i am not sure if it's worth giving up for couple of years, because when/if i get back things will never be the same.
money is one concern for me, because in Japan i won't have anyone to bail me out of trouble, i f i need it.
don't mind me i am just kind of venting my emotions on the subject.

OK, so it kind of sounds like you don't have any particular passion for working in Japan and that this was just another job offer. If that's how it is, I would definitely advise you not to come over here to teach English on that kind of salary. As kurohinge says, it's a big decision to move here and you have to be coming for the right reasons and with the right attitude. I remember my first trip to Japan for a 1-year stint and meeting so many other casual English teachers who were hating life--and they were making more money than you would be making on this job.