I’m having lots of interviews and finding that the people who interview me are looking positively at my time teaching English in Japan. After analysis, I can agree. There are stories about teachers who come back to their country four years behind other graduates in their career. Personally I found I had more transferable skills coming back than I had when I left there. Especially:
Presentation Skills: Teaching a lesson is a 45 minute presentation which I did 5-8 times a day.
Leadership Skills: Leading up to 40 students through activities.
Teamwork: Experience of working in a cross-cultural team.
The thing I got the most out of it is LEARN JAPANESE!!!. This skill alone sets you apart from 98% of the other jobhunters on the market. You should be aiming for at least level 3 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. Each level up you pass, there are 4, the greater your ability to get jobs where you can use that skill and the better your time in Japan will be too.
Tags: Japan, jlpt, quaisi, transferable skills
I’m pleasantly surprised to hear that, though I’ll probably be a TEFLer forever…
TEFLtastic blog- http://www.tefl.net/alexcase
good luck with the hunt.
language skills are a PLUS. world’s getting smaller. everyone’s doing business with everyone else.