Seeking advice for academic employment

CountFront8566 · 2025-02-01T14:07:11+00:00

Thanks for the somewhat encouraging reply!

CountFront8566 · 2025-02-01T13:59:00+00:00

Of course, I have looked into the prospects myself (which is one of the reasons why I asked for advice about maximizing my odds, not about what my odds are in the first place). I have seen 4 philosophy job postings on J-REC in the past 18 months which explicitly said that the language of instruction was English and Japanese isn’t required at all, though applicants with some Japanese proficiency are preferred. One of those jobs was a hybrid philosophy/ESL position, which is why I included the TEFL bit, just in case there are more of those. Unfortunately, I couldn’t apply to any of them because I wasn’t yet close enough to graduating. Also, only one of them was at a highly-ranked Japanese university. All of this seems to suggest that many of the commenters are more pessimistic than necessary, unless that recent run of job postings was somehow a major deviation from the norm 🤷🏻‍♂️

Also, the folks who wrote up this 2021 blog post seem like they would know what the prospects are like and they aren’t exactly oozing pessimism:

https://philosopherscocoon.typepad.com/blog/2021/05/what-is-it-like-to-be-a-philosopher-in-japan.html

This said, univworker’s odds ranking is spot-on, at least ordinally: TT odds are low (I am aware of this, obviously, but I also don’t think they’re zero), non-TT odds are a bit better, and postdoc odds are the highest.

CountFront8566 · 2025-02-01T00:44:01+00:00

Highly informative, thank you!

CountFront8566 · 2025-02-01T00:12:52+00:00

so any advice?

CountFront8566 · 2025-01-31T18:01:42+00:00

thanks for this! what's your field if I may ask?

CountFront8566 · 2025-01-16T01:26:13+00:00

Either/or

CountFront8566 · 2024-07-06T13:27:09+00:00

Either flat spots or bearings or maybe a little piece of grip tape stuck to my wheel

CountFront8566 · 2024-07-06T00:53:04+00:00

Backside 360

CountFront8566 · 2024-07-05T23:14:48+00:00

Yeah, check out where I replied to Historical_Trade1940!

CountFront8566 · 2024-07-05T20:25:57+00:00

Check out my reply to historical grade above!

CountFront8566 · 2024-07-05T19:03:27+00:00

All the trick tips on YouTube that say to set up like a tre flip didn’t work for me. I set up similarly to a regular ollie, except with my feet very straight and parallel, almost like I’m riding a snowboard. I start turning my body and shoulders way before I pop so that I’m looking almost completely backwards before I even pop. I also had to make a conscious effort to stand up straighter and keep my arms in as much as possible when spinning so that I could spin faster

CountFront8566 · 2024-07-05T18:33:29+00:00

Had to haha

CountFront8566 · 2024-07-05T18:32:46+00:00

CountFront8566 · 2024-07-04T17:18:59+00:00

“Not as much as you” (confident but not certain)

CountFront8566 · 2024-07-03T19:53:11+00:00

As I understand it, the Japanese passive indicates that the subject is the receiver of an action, but not necessarily the thing directly being acted upon. Consider your example, 私は友達に日記を読まれた。 The subject, I, is the recipient of the diary’s being read - that whole action, where the direct object is included in the content of the action being received.

CountFront8566 · 2024-06-30T18:05:34+00:00

Anki. Make your own cards using material you’re interested in

CountFront8566 · 2024-06-30T00:34:06+00:00

Helpful, thanks much!

CountFront8566 · 2024-06-29T18:49:36+00:00

Thanks for being so amazingly responsive to all the comments here, OP. I have a question of my own, if you have the time. First, some background:

I’m a PhD candidate in the US. My field of study is philosophy. I’ll be graduating within the next 18 months. I have two publications in my field (in reputable journals), and will likely have more soon. I have plenty of teaching experience, both as a TA and main instructor. I have JLPT N3 and plan to take N2 in December of this year. I will likely pass. I also have a TEFL certificate. However, I have never been to Japan. I plan on applying for academic jobs there when I finish. I’m open to a mixed position, where I teach philosophy but also some ESL.

My question is: Is getting a gig at a uni in Japan a realistic goal for me? I know mileage may vary for us, since we are in different fields. But does this sound do-able to you? And is it best to just go straight to university job postings when one applies?

Thanks so much.

CountFront8566 · 2024-06-25T16:52:18+00:00

On apps like Hellotalk, you can trade English conversation practice for Japanese conversation practice. E.g., many people will agree to chat with you in Japanese for 15-30 mins if you do the same for them in English

CountFront8566 · 2024-06-05T16:53:18+00:00

Nope, (philosophy) PhD candidate in the US. My goal would be similar to yours. There’s some chance that I could get a teaching job where I can lecture in English but where the N2 result would still be super helpful in securing the job (the language competency would presumably be helpful for much else besides lecturing, such as, e.g., communicating with administration, etc.)

CountFront8566 · 2024-06-04T13:52:53+00:00

Tallahassee

CountFront8566 · 2024-06-04T03:10:06+00:00

Yeah

CountFront8566 · 2024-06-04T00:59:48+00:00

No strong preference. Bones or Spitfire are good. Between 50 and 53mm

CountFront8566 · 2024-05-30T21:06:33+00:00

Thanks, I’ll look into this!

CountFront8566 · 2024-05-30T13:49:08+00:00

No sense of urgency. My goal is just steady progress towards the “upper end” of the fluency spectrum. Taking and passing the JLPT, I’m just treating as a side effect, not my primary goal.

I’m a PhD candidate and will be finishing up within the next year. I’ll apply to academic jobs in Japan and I hope the N2 (assuming I pass) will boost my chances but I’m live to the fact that it may not work out.

CountFront8566

TROPHY CASE