I had to do a paper for my high school computer competency class about my future career- what the relevance of a college degree would be to it and why I chose that path for myself. I sort of drug my feet on it, but when I sat down and did it today, it really reminded me why I’m working so hard and what for. Needless to say, I was happy with how it came out and thought I’d share it with my lovely followers.

                                          Teaching in Japan

            It can be said that many children grow up with unrealistic dreams- to be princesses, knights, and kings and any storybook character that was ever dreamed up. I, however, never had such aspirations. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to teach English in Japan. To say that my coming semesters at ODU are unbearably exciting hardly does justice to the years of anticipated waiting and pre-studying I’ve done for the position. Still, to follow will be a very brief overview of why I believe a college education will be helpful to my career choice.

            My fascination with Japan started out the way many younger children’s brief interaction with the culture does- by watching Japanese animation as a child. I was a part of the golden age of anime, the Sailor Moon kids, the Pokémon players, and even the Yu-Gi-Oh junkies being the best and easiest to make friends a child could have had at the time. Then, I started to read Japanese comic books and my world was opened yet again. Whereas anime had always been published mostly to market and to look good as a cereal box toy, manga had all sorts of cultural nuances and deeper meanings that were glossed over in the translations and sometimes production of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons. I devoured volume after volume, spending my allowance just as fast as I could earn it to get that little fix of a different place where society was beautifully (if, perhaps, sometimes frustratingly) structured. It was beautiful in its surface simplicity. Every action had what felt like a normal and complimentary gesture to go with it and while it all seemed to come so naturally to those born there, I became obsessed with the meaning and ceremony behind each bend of the waist and bow of the head. Through a little research, I discovered the easiest ways to make it overseas to live permanently were either with the military or moving to teach for a living. Naturally, with my love of language and of helping fellow students, teaching seemed the best and brightest option. The end result is where I am today- anxiously awaiting the classes I have assumed would begin the turning point in my life for the last ten years.

            One of the easiest ways to begin work and life in Japan is to go through the JET program. It is an organization in league with the Japanese government made specifically to introduce many cultures to the shores of Japan. To do this, teachers, translators, and even fitness instructors are taught and then sent overseas to fill positions all over Japan. Of course, like any job or job placement service, there are requirements. In this case, one is to have a four-year college degree. The “what” seems immaterial- one must have completed a successful bachelor’s degree to get a working visa in Japan.

            Teaching in Japan went through a “golden age” in the 90s. Any native English speaker, without any experience, could go to Japan and, upon arrival, have prospective employers clamoring to give them a well-paid position. Nowadays, especially in the face of an economic downturn, that bubble has long since burst, leaving many to fight a little harder for good prospects. It is not impossible to get a job, but the days of just waltzing overseas and expecting to be comfortably employed on sight are gone. This makes a good and relevant college education absolutely indispensable to those who plan to teach English in Japan. I believe that my minor in Japanese Studies at ODU covers more of the “relevance” issue, while my major in Business English covers more of the “good” aspect.

            Japanese Studies is my main focus, simply because the most sought after and necessary trait of the teachers-to-be in Japan is being a native English speaker- not having a degree in English. Most job positions call for a basic understanding of Japanese language but little else. As a requirement for ODU’s Japanese Studies minor, one is required to complete to upper level Japanese language courses. Of course, the prerequisites for those are basic Japanese. It is my hope that through diligence and hard work, I will have a much more fluent understanding of Japanese to bring along with my degree and will, therefore, be better suited to a position in the JET program than an applicant that just has the basics required for admission. Other benefits are the electives required to graduate, some of the best being Japanese Religion and Philosophy and Japanese Politics.

            For a student who has held the same aspiration for so many years, I am still hopeful that my quest to live and teach in Japan will turn out even more fruitful than I could have ever imagined. The college education I am just halfway to completing, both in form and richness of content, will be one of the most useful tools for my accomplishing this goal. Though the exactness of what is to be is still vague at best, perhaps it is best to take the words of Eleanor Roosevelt to heart- “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” My dreams have always been very beautiful to me. It is my sincere hope that even as I begin to merge reality in with fantasy, what I have done and will do will become what I have always imagined they would.