(upbeat music)
(speaks in foreign language)
- And hello.
My name is Valerie Wonderland coming at you
from the beautiful land of the rising sun, Gifu, Japan.
One thing I just wanna get out of the way real quick
is I've been really excited to do this
'cause it's definitely been a minute
since there's been a Japan story takeover.
And I love teaching in Japan,
and I'm excited to share this experience
with people who also wanna teach in Japan.
So let's do it.
I've been here since December.
I quarantined in Tokyo for two weeks
before going to training
and then starting my job here in Gifu in January.
So I'm from Philadelphia.
I've been teaching overseas since August, 2018.
From August, 2018 to April, 2019, I lived in Osaka, Japan.
I moved back to America to look for a job in South Korea.
And I lived in South Korea too.
I lived and taught in South Korea.
And also I took the online TEFL course, super worth it,
definitely does not compromise quality in any way.
And I found this job on GaijinPot, GaijinPot.com.
And I applied in June.
And I knew I was gonna have to wait because of 'rona
and everything.
And I'm amazed that I made it here when I did,
because I don't think if I came in December,
I would have made it here at all.
Borders are shut tight.
Nobody's coming anytime soon.
But that doesn't mean you can't still wait
and still look at Japan
and consider it as an option in the future.
10 out of 10 recommend.
About working in Japan,
you can either come here as an ALT,
usually with a dispatch company like Interac or ALTIA,
or you can work at an eikaiwa,
which is like an English conversation school
or private academy type thing.
I worked previously for Interac when I lived in Osaka.
And this time I work for ALTIA as an ALT.
As an ALT, which stands for assistant language teacher,
your job is you're dispatched by the dispatcher
to public schools, wherever your area is.
And you work with your Japanese teachers of English
on what they need, you're an assistant language teacher.
They may ask you to plan the lesson with them.
They might just ask you for some activities.
They might not ask you for too much.
But it's a really great way, I think, I like this job,
to immerse yourself in their world
and also do your thing and teach English
and be your cultural and language ambassador.
I don't wanna drag on this preamble or anything
for too long.
So if you just have any questions, just please drop them
in this box I'm posting right here.
It also just feels good to dress smart,
you just feel professional.
So real quick, before I leave for school,
I'll give you an apartment tour.
If you decide to go the company housing route,
and usually your employer
will either help you look for an apartment
or they will provide you with the company housing,
it's usually going to be a Leopalace.
Quite modest.
So we open the door.
We go inside, and right here, right here,
is where you take off your shoes.
And there's a right and a wrong way to do it.
Step out of them like this.
And they gotta face this way.
From here, I've got my hallway, snacks, fridge,
oh, sorry, fridge, microwave, they came with the place.
Wet area, I've got a washing machine,
shower and sink in here.
By the way, my favorite thing about this bathroom,
the shower, my favorite thing about this shower
is the soap thingy is right there where you can't reach it
if you're sitting in the tub
or if you are washing your face at the sink.
You gotta reach under.
I don't know whose idea that was, but it's pretty dope.
So anyway, this is pretty typical.
There's a really big tub in the shower area.
And the shower is here.
In Japan, bathing is for relaxing.
So you shower first and then you bath.
This is very common in Japanese houses and apartments.
Toilet, of course, we need that.
And you may have noticed that there's no dryer.
Well, you don't need one because let's go through here,
let's go through here,
you instead hang all of your laundry on a pole.
And if you look down the line here, everybody's got a pole.
You can take your clothes to the laundromat
and actually dry them, fair enough.
But it's not very common, so people just hang
their laundry outside.
And it's kind of relaxing, but it's also kind of tedious.
So back here, though, my very modest kitchen.
Just two burners and a sink, cabinet.
But wait, where's the counter space?
Doesn't she need to cut vegetables?
Well, here's the counter space.
I cut vegetables here.
Told you, Japanese apartments are small.
You just get all...
And now, living space.
Leopalace's usually come with a loft here,
or my last Leopalace didn't have this.
So I just rolled out my futon on the floor,
just in the middle of the floor.
A couple of chairs, closet.
I have a lot of space under here.
And of course my laundry pole is outside.
Now, you may be wondering, she doesn't have anything.
She doesn't have an area rug.
She doesn't have a couch.
She just have this.
Well, I like to dance.
And when I considered getting an area rug or a couch
or things to fill the space here, I was like,
"Well, I don't have room to dance then."
I may not have a mirror, but I do still like to dance.
So in any case, we'd better get to school.
I'm gonna drop another disappointment bomb.
I'm super not allowed to take you into school with me
or just like film anything like middle of my school
and my kids, or like anything like that,
because the student's privacy is taken super seriously.
And I get that too.
So I'm gonna have to catch up with you guys after school.
So please ask questions though, and I'll get to them
when I come back.
And I'll take you probably on a grocery shopping trip
and I'll probably take some pictures on my way to school.
I got a pretty scenic drive here.
When I lived in a more metropolitan area like Osaka,
I just actually lived next to my school.
So I walked to work and my cohorts took the train.
But living in a more rural area, this is my baby.
It gets me from point A to point B.
It doesn't have a USB,
it doesn't have aux, which is cool, that's fine.
It gets me from point A to point B.
And if I wanna listen to tunes,
I bring my Bluetooth speaker.
I'm listening to a lot of math rock lately.
Math rock, you know, I'm K-Pop trash too.
Let's go home.
I pulled over because I had to take a picture of this one.
I cross this beautiful river every day.
I'm an urbanite, and I will always be an urbanite,
but I really live among some of the most majestic mountains.
Just look at this countryside.
I relish it.
I hope you didn't miss me too much
'cause I sure missed you.
I'm getting gas right now.
And in Japan, kind of like in New Jersey,
they pump your gas for you.
And they even do this nice thing
where they clean your windshield as well, and your gear
and your window.
It's kind of nice.
And now I get change.
(speaks in foreign language)
Though I do live in what's considered rural Japan,
I'm not out in the sticks.
I am fortunate enough to live near this mall.
It's apparently the only mall in this area
without having to go to the next town over.
I get home from work.
I shower.
I cook.
And I just immediately get back into my pajamas.
So while I'm digesting what I've just eaten,
and I did eat all of that kimchi fried rice,
I will look at and respond to your questions.
Never a bad time my friend,
especially since you can do it remotely, just do it now.
No harm done.
And that way you'll be ready to go when things do reopen.
I work for my company actually, not at my school.
My company provided me with a car.
I have an international driving permit,
which allows me to legally drive in Japan for a year
with my US driver's license.
And then after the year, well,
you're really supposed to get this done
before you let your permit expire,
you go get your Japanese driver's license,
which I'm going to have to do pretty sooner
rather than later.
Working for a dispatch company is kind of a gamble this way
because after you sign your contract,
you're not sure at the time, they'll tell you later,
what your position exactly is going to be
and what schools you'll be at.
You can definitely submit a preference
and tell your company, oh, I feel more comfortable working
in junior high schools or I really like elementary schools.
But there's no guarantee.
You could be at one school, you could be at two schools.
You could be at five schools.
When I worked in Osaka, I had just one school.
And here, I work at three schools,
and I travel to them throughout the week.
Yeah, last time in Osaka, I had a junior high school,
and this time I have two junior high schools
and one elementary school.
And every couple of weeks,
I'll actually be visiting a couple of kindergartens
in the morning.
I love this question.
I could talk about it all night.
So if Oscar, you actually wanna talk about it more
or anybody else for that matter, I would love to.
This goes for any country you're seriously thinking
about teaching and living in.
If you're seriously considering coming to Japan
and to teach English, start studying Japanese right now;
stop watching me and go start studying Japanese right now.
To make a long story short,
when I first moved and started working in Osaka,
I only knew katakana and hiragana,
didn't know anything else about Japanese
except the go-to survival words and phrases.
And then when I started studying Japanese,
I felt tremendously less isolated
and the more comfortable I was talking to my teachers,
who weren't necessarily my Japanese teachers
of English, and the more I felt like I started to fit in
and people were more comfortable talking to me too.
And it just took a lot of pressure off,
and I felt better,
and it just felt more accomplished and right.
So you can never, ever, ever, ever, ever go wrong
studying the language of the country
that you're intending to live in.
Of course.
So basically everything here is business as usual,
but with a mask.
I still go to school every day.
Everything's open.
People wear masks outside, though,
everyone's pretty good about that.
And the countryside where I am
isn't really having any problems.
I haven't heard anything about cases too much around here
or at all.
And any of my cohorts, there are no cases in their school,
they haven't had to close.
Not in mine, everyone's good.
But it's places that are more densely populated,
like Tokyo and Osaka, that are having problems.
Again, borders are shut tight.
We're trying to control this virus.
Good question.
I think anybody here has at least heard of,
if not already looked into, the JET Program.
I know people who've worked for it.
They've said it was really great.
They had a good experience.
And Interac has mixed reviews.
And although that's true, honestly,
everyone's situation is different.
I didn't have a bad experience with Interac.
And if you really want my honest opinion,
I think they're a great company to work for,
just to get into Japan and just get started here.
So don't cross that off your list.
Good questions about expenses.
So that was that last slide.
I'd say having lived in both Korea and Japan,
it's a little bit easier to save money in Korea,
but you can definitely pull it off in Japan.
You can totally save money here.
Whether your mother's ever told you so or not,
the grind never stops.
I teach by day and I teach by night.
I'm a VIP kid teacher.
This is my setup.
This becomes my classroom in about three minutes.
And I teach sometimes four in a row
and sometimes on the weekends too.
Honestly, I don't really consider it work.
It's just really easy and cool.
So I don't really consider it work.
It's awesome.
Especially there is a persistent global pandemic
and you're having trouble finding work,
just work from home, super dope.
And if you really want, I can give you my referral code,
just DM me.
All right.
Oh, by the way, classes are only 25 minutes long.
The four in a row isn't really that outrageous.
Anyway, I'm gonna go teach.
Hang tight.
I just had one class.
Thankfully, I needed time to do this.
I'll answer a couple more questions
and I'm probably just gonna sign off for the night.
I'm not gonna bore you people any longer.
Pre-COVID, yes.
Teachers on different occasions would plan an enkai
or a nomikai, and go out and drink together.
But now is not the time for that because of COVID.
But yeah, it's normal.
Actually, I'm gonna make that the last question,
and any other questions I got that were repeats,
I'm just going to DM you.
And honestly, if you have more questions,
you just wanna talk, I love talking to people about this,
just DM me.
I'm gonna put my @ in the next slide.
I'll put it right here @vallysonwonderland.
And last thing I'll leave you with
is I don't think anybody who's taken
over a TEFL Academy's story has ever ended with,
this is a terrible experience,
I don't recommend it for anybody,
this is garbage, hot garbage.
No.
Even if you do decide after a year or two, like,
oh, this isn't for me, or it's just not your thing,
cool, it's fine.
But I think living overseas
and learning to speak a language, just immersing yourself
in a culture that's not the one that you were born into,
is such a sobering, enriching experience.
I think anyone seriously considering this
would be remissed to go back on and I'm not gonna do it.
I'm gonna say you should certainly do it.
I support it.
The world and all these different places
and all these languages, I'm a lingual file,
it's just so amazing to me.
I can't imagine living a life where you aren't
at least curious about it.
But that's just me.
Anyway, you have my @.
Hit me up anytime.
This has been really awesome and fun.
None of it went according to plan.
Not that it went according to plan,
but I had a great time with this
and I love talking about it.
So anyway, stay safe, stay healthy.
Out.
(upbeat music)