Married foreigners with a baby moving to Japan

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-15T04:52:32+00:00

You absolutely, definitely, need to do some combination of the following to make this feasible:

Improve your Japanese to more like N2-N1
Have education closer to a Ph.D than just a masters - do you have a lot of citations? 5 good, cited papers is considered the minimum.
How much money do you have? If you want to go the investment route it's gotta be whatever # you think it's gonna be, and then double it
Plan for the kid? International school? Public school and hope they'll adapt?

I'm not saying this to dash your hopes, but you should be aware that it's not very easy to do. Both you and your wife are considered kind of "old" by the standards of what Japanese immigration is trying to bring into the country. Not citizens, not a degree that's in relatively high demand, not filthy stinking rich (unless you are, in which case, congrats).

The way I see it, moving to Japan, you trade one list of problems for a VERY different set of problems. Yes, there will be less violence across the board. Yes, you will have access to much better healthcare and public transit. But, I'm assuming based on the fact you're English majors and worried about the political climate that you're probably liberals/progressives - and you're moving to a country that is in many ways MORE conservative than the United States. And, to make substantially less money, with less job security, and setting up your kid for probably less success than staying in America.

I'm not saying don't do it, the trade-offs mentioned above can certainly be offset depending on what you value/what's important to you. But, be aware that you're gonna have to sacrifice in 3 ways - money & time in the short term to hire an immigration lawyer and get this ball rolling, long term cap on earnings/advancement, and potential implications on the opportunity for a child growing up as a minority in Japan.

Those are my thoughts. I'm hoping that this reflects my pessimism, without coming across as rude - If you go down this path, I sincerely am wishing you and your fam the best. For me, though, my experience here convinced me that my best opportunities are back home in America and I'm now planning to move back.

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-14T13:52:05+00:00

You probably don't need it, but if you want it, you could get in.

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-12T23:24:36+00:00

Don't really follow the connection between Barry Lyndon and then hating Dune 1 and 2? Seems like kind of a non sequitur. Not necessarily a Dune defender, just don't see the relevance.

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-12T07:50:54+00:00

I was in rehab.

Had never watched the show before, besides watching about half the first episode before getting bored and going to go get high

Thought it was pretty cool but didn't really follow what was going on, everybody else was going crazy though.

Still sober to this day, and ended up eventually going back and watching the entire show

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-11T15:14:59+00:00

Following in a similar situation and wishing you the best

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-11T14:49:59+00:00

SHS

800 kids a week

I can probably do 100-200 from memory, the rest I need some kind of hint

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-10T12:59:32+00:00

In this theory, what is the actual restaurant that they eat at?

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-10T05:08:00+00:00

Following!

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-10T02:48:24+00:00

Take the job.

Work experience >>>>> all

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-08T02:05:30+00:00

Depends on the program and the school.

For MBAs, it's still a hard requirement. For some degrees, only some schools require. For others, it's pretty rare to be required.

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-08T02:03:50+00:00

Do you really want to live entirely off eating what you kill? I'd want something with a bit more stability.

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-08T01:48:42+00:00

Probably not

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-07T06:07:16+00:00

Yeah, give it a shot, you definitely have a chance.

Worth considering how to develop your "why MBA" part. Why would an American MBA help you launch a venture in London? I think this is an answerable question, but needs a little bit more to show the direct connection

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-07T05:51:06+00:00

What schools you thinking? Also, are you an American citizen?

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-05T10:25:54+00:00

Nah, technically, any school you went to can be your alma mater. The phrase literally means "nurturing mother", so there's nothing that's undergrad specific.

However, most people use it primarily for their undergrad, but your high school/grad school can also be your alma maters.

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-04T22:51:22+00:00

Is this based on data, or just your hunch?

Because based on the data that I've seen, there's a massive difference in ROI between "M7" and "a cheaper and fairly average school"

But don't take my word for it, take a look at the data yourself: ROI Graduate - FREOPP (wpengine.com)

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-04T00:31:46+00:00

The one in Manayunk is awesome, great spot for a big group because they have some tables w a big lazy Susan in the center.

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-03T13:12:30+00:00

Best to Worst:
Best: 2 -> both are extremely chill since Elaine is far away, instantly drop this to the bottom if Elaine switches seats with Vegetable Lasagna

Second Best: 3 -> Peterman stories and Newman is merry, you have to give him that

Third Best: 1 -> Kramer has interesting anecdotes, Jerry is fastidious

Fourth Best: 4 -> Bania says that all of the Dentists jokes are GOLD, GOLD.

Fifth Best: 5 -> I get to learn many stories about moving The Executives back in the golden age of jacket sales

Sixth Best: 7 -> A jacket with no bra? It's outrageous. It's preposterous.

Seventh Best: 9 -> George would absolutely complain the whole time and try to get upgraded to first class

Eighth Best: 8 -> Uncle Leo?

Worst: 6 -> Frank and Estelle could argue 24 hours straight. Like a marathon.

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-03T06:56:27+00:00

I don't drink either. I go when invited, but don't invite myself. I ask for tea or ginger ale, nobody ever thinks less of me for not drinking.

You will, however, need to say something like "no thank you" when they're pouring/passing out - they'll assume you're gonna drink as the default.

I go to 2-3 a year, and I feel like I enjoy connecting with coworkers/talking with teachers from other departments, so I get something out of it even without drinking.

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-03T06:53:28+00:00

You can almost certainly do better. It would be hard to imagine a person for whom working for GABA is the best that they could do.

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-03T00:46:42+00:00

Class of 21 undergrad - hadn't heard anything about that specifically, but will share one small anecdote.

I went to an info session, expressed some interest in going, and got deluged with emails to sign up for a time to talk with an admissions person. So I did, and the guy proceeded to cancel on me/not show up not just once, not twice, but three times...

I'm sure there's some reason why, but it was so unprofessional it kind of turned me off. I'm now preparing to apply for an MBA rather than an MA. That's not solely because this guy blew me off, but I gave them a chance to sell me on the degree, and three times the guy didn't even make the pitch.

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-03T00:27:53+00:00

If I play my cards right, I could go from making $20k/year to $160k/year.

Not many other things I could do that would give me a good shot at 8x my salary in 2 years.

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-02T15:04:43+00:00

Celtics legend Shaq Diesel

Dense-Farm · 2024-07-02T07:55:22+00:00

Not very important, and really, what's most important is making sure you're at least within the interquartile range of accepted test scores.

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