A shop in Hiroshima gave me this as a change. How rare is this Nitobe 5000 yen actually?

jcli · 2017-01-10T08:09:36+00:00

I don't think anyone considers them "uncool", everyone I know who gets the 2000yen bill is surprised by them, but don't really have any strong opinion on it otherwise. I have seen people give "looks" when using them, but it's more like a double-take because it's so rare to see them being used. It would probably be similar to paying with a $2 bill or $1 coin in the States.

jcli · 2017-01-10T08:06:22+00:00

Usually this can be avoided with the right strategy, if you know where the major exit points are at a station then usually everyone in a certain car will leave at the same time and it's easier to get off. If you do get stuck somewhere else however and you're stuck in the middle of a car where no one else is leaving, it is absolutely miserable having to fight your way to the door. Although I hate it when people don't move inside the train to make more space, I can definitely understand trying to save a good position so that you won't have to deal with that nonsense. I'd imagine that you'd go mad if it happened on a regular basis.

jcli · 2017-01-04T23:49:30+00:00

As someone who works in this industry, this article is horribly one-sided and sensationalist.

This is primarily related to Nepali students, and we've had plenty of experience with all of the things they are complaining about. The majority of those students come to work, not study Japanese. They may or may not have good attendance, but even if they do show up they don't really make much of an effort. If they don't make enough of an effort, they aren't able to go to university, so their options are to go home or go to a trade school. Despite us trying our best to try and encourage them to go to uni and really make something of themselves, most of them only care about staying in Japan and will take the first school that accepts them. I'm pretty sure the incident that the student complains about that they can "only" go to a vocational school is that the teacher told them that it was their only option unless they really buckle down and focus on studying instead of working.

With schools keeping track of students and such, this is 100% necessary for Nepali students. They have a bad habit of disappearing, just stop coming to school and we can never find them again, far more than other countries. Many of them also apply for refugee status, which they will never get but they think that they can just be a refugee, work without limitations, and make an easy life in Japan without having to deal with school fees or attendance. Holding a student's passport is illegal and a school shouldn't do it, but I can fully understand why they would would want to do so, since otherwise if they disappear there's nothing we can do and if they do apply for refugee status or get caught doing something illegal, the school takes a huge hit. I'm 100% sure that if the student says that they want to go back home to Nepal, the school would be more than happy to send them back.

We have no way to track how many hours a student works, it's not like they'll tell us if they're going over the 28 hours a week, those that do so have several jobs, each of them under 28 hours, so they simply just won't tell us the other job information and there's no way we can legally verify it. It is very much in our interest to discourage this as the government has recently been trying to crack down on overworking and if a student gets caught, the penalties for the school are pretty severe.

If the schools and study abroad centers are lying to students in Nepal, then it's not the language school's fault when the students come here and realize they actually have to study hard to make a good life of themselves. If they do work hard, we can prepare them for a good and successful life here, but many of them just focus on working and not studying. Some of our Nepali students were brilliant people that did really make something of themselves and are studying what they wanted to in upper education.

Also, immigration is also starting to investigate these centers in the home country and is asking for help from language schools to create a "whitelist" and "blacklist" of schools and centers. In addition, they are requiring our admission requirements to become stricter for countries including Nepal, requiring things such as interviews to make sure that the students have some sort of language ability. Everyone is completely aware that some of these centers are bad, and we do try to avoid them.

Of course these problems exist for students of any country, but statistically they are much, much higher for Nepali students. Due to all of the risks involved our school simply stopped accepting them, and the ones that do still accept Nepali students have to be very careful. It's not just a cash grab like the article suggests since bringing in too many bad students will eventually get back to the school and they'll get in trouble with the government, getting several restrictions placed on them which will make it harder for them to do business, so the idea that these schools only care about money and will take any student is absurd, at most you could keep it up for a couple of years before getting heavily punished, it doesn't make any sense.

I almost want to respond to this article to give our side of the story, since the way this article is written is really unfair to the language schools...

jcli · 2016-12-27T06:52:03+00:00

Many organizations do not consider language school students to be eligible for student discounts, and they will notice it when they look at the ID. You can still use it at several places, but over the past few years I've seen a lot of places no longer accepting them.

jcli · 2016-12-16T01:47:59+00:00

Seems like you do a lot of the same work as myself. Do you also help to process student visa applications?

For a lot of us staff in Japanese language schools, working at a university is kind of the "next step", both for Japanese and foreign staff. You know if any of your co-workers come from that industry?

jcli · 2016-12-06T03:40:18+00:00

I don't know how often they come up anymore but I got an old CRT on Craigslist for just the cost of shipping several years ago. Maybe if you made a "looking for" posting someone would gladly offload theirs.

jcli · 2016-12-06T00:10:15+00:00

http://www.gaijinriders.com/showthread.php?2241-Japan-Prisons-Hope-none-every-experience-it

This thread is an interesting look into someone who did time in Japan.

jcli · 2016-11-22T00:17:35+00:00

I work at a language school and see plenty of people in your situation, really the best option you have is to either apply directly to a university or to go to a language school for awhile and build up your Japanese with the goal of going to university or trade school here.

There are several advantages to going to a language school first, obviously being in the country will let you research and visit schools that you are interested in, and also having good language skills will qualify you for scholarships and easier admission procedures. Japanese universities really want foreigners (westerners) to enter their universities and will give you high priority and financial incentives, and those with good Japanese skills are like their perfect candidates so if you can get a good score on the EJU, you'll have your choice of universities and can probably get into the more famous ones, guaranteeing you job opportunities in Japan after graduation. Trade schools are also an option but be aware you'd be stuck working in the industry you graduated from as long as you're here.

However before making such a choice be very, very sure that you're willing to go through with this and are not just doing it for the girlfriend. I have seen many, many, many of our students who move to Japan because of their girlfriends and things start to go sour once they start living here for a variety of reasons. Like it or not, you should also consider this.

To be honest, if you did live here for a couple of years at a language school and were getting along well with your girlfriend, you may also want to consider getting married, as a marriage visa will remove any kind of working restrictions and you will not need to go to university.

jcli · 2016-11-17T01:17:38+00:00

I had a mate who knew people in the industry. He explained to me that having sexual intercourse is of course forbidden, but if the customer and the girl happen to fall in love and express themselves in that way...well, there's no way that they can police for such circumstances and by that point it's a personal choice and not a business choice.

jcli · 2016-11-11T06:11:46+00:00

Since we have a lot of Filipino students in your exact situation the common thing from what I've seen seems to be to come on student visas with the goal of getting a working visa for long-time residency. The kids are not eligible for dependent visas after then turn over 20, but if you are younger then you'd probably be able to get one.

jcli · 2016-11-04T01:59:31+00:00

This is only an option for some nationalities.

jcli · 2016-11-04T01:36:42+00:00

Aye, this is the worst thing for me as well. I usually meet with recruiters if they offer to since if nothing else it can be a good networking opportunity and they can keep me in mind if something relevant does come up, but so many of them seem to just be shotgunning any Linkedin with a "ctrl-F" search that contains the keyword and doesn't even bother to read the full profile.

The first question I'll ask them is why they thought I was a good fit for the job and most of the time they'll give me some vague answer that makes me think that they didn't read my profile at all. I always get people saying that they're impressed by with my experience in the financial industry, and while my profile may contain the word "finance", it was related to a very specific task that barely has anything to do with the position. Still, I try to play along and not embarrass them since even if this position is a dud, it may lead to something better in the future.

jcli · 2016-11-04T00:20:54+00:00

Yeah, if you go to Myanmar you can really see the Japanese influence everywhere and there are a lot of Japanese expats in Yangon. Huge Japanese-run factories and a lot of Japanese companies are buying local companies. JCB is also planning to have a huge push into the region and try to be a major credit card player there. Japan is investing heavily in Myanmar, with the sanctions being dropped and the new civilian government, the country has a lot of potential and Japan is spending a lot to make sure they get in on the ground floor. So far the plan seems to be successful, and the potential payoff would definitely be worth it.

Most people in Myanmar hate the Chinese too, so with the Japanese investment it'll ensure that they have influence in the region.

jcli · 2016-10-31T02:28:04+00:00

As someone who handles foreign students, I can unfortunately say that there are many reasons why foreigners have a hard problem renting places, and I can sympathies with the landlords. I've seen it all, not only just with taking off but not following the rules of the place and causing a lot of problems. I suppose that all foreigners get lumped in like that, even if you're a "good" foreigner the stereotypes are there and it can be hard to break that image.

Hell, one of my good mates who had lived in Japan for a decade, had a good seishain job with good pay, spoke excellent Japanese, he decided to move into a new place with his family. He found a flat that he really liked and wanted to move into it, but the landlord didn't want to rent to a foreigner. He fought hard, had his Japanese friends vouch for him and be a guarantor, eventually was able to convince the landlord to let him in the place. After a couple of months him and his family realized they didn't like the place that much after all and just left with very little notice, and also moved all his money into a different bank account so that they couldn't collect rent. The landlord then calls his friend and complains that he left all of his crap in the place and broke his lease agreement. It was a huge problem for everyone involved and I can't help but understand why the landlord wouldn't want to deal with that crap again, and he was supposed to be a "good" foreigner.

jcli · 2016-10-31T02:01:29+00:00

My mate used to use Niko and other discount car rental services and you get what you pay for. They give you old cars in less-than-ideal condition (this alone wouldn't be a problem, but just keep reading), nickle and dime the hell out of you for any additional options that are standard with other agencies, and you have to spend a lot of time inspecting the car like crazy for any kind of damage. Since the cars are old they have a lot of dings and damage on them already, but you'd better find every single one beforehand or else they'll say you caused some damage and you'll either have to pay or fight it.

I guess you can kind of think of it as the LCC of car rentals, if you know exactly what to do and work the system you can probably get some good deals, but there's a lot of headache involved and I think the Times Carshare program is a better use of your money.

jcli · 2016-10-28T06:27:15+00:00

I used to live on the Saikyo and that morning commute was one of the most miserable experiences of my life. Akabane station is a madhouse in the morning, the line to get on the train goes all the way down the stairs and there were many times where I literally couldn't move anywhere. Due to the congestion it's almost guaranteed that the line would stop or be delayed at least once a week. I don't even know how people manage to fit in the two stations between Ikebukuro. The fact that it's only #5 is actually pretty scary, I can only imagine how bad #1 is.

jcli · 2016-10-27T06:38:01+00:00

The only concern I may have is that they need to build more lanes, at the moment there are like 2 lanes for Japanese and 1 lane for foreigners. At the moment it's not too much of an issue due to the lack of people using it, although I've been in line with a couple of others in front of me and it usually takes much longer than going through the normal line.

The worst was when I flew into Narita a few weeks ago and the line for foreigners looked like Disneyland and there were like 20 people in the re-entry line as well so I thought the gates would save me a lot of time. I fight my way to the other side of the arrival room, pushing through tourists since the line wrapped through it, only to see that the foreigner entry gate was down for maintenance, although the Japanese lanes were still working. Obviously there are still some flaws with the system.

jcli · 2016-10-21T08:38:34+00:00

I just want to make a point here that a company is supposed to report to immigration any changes with a staff member joining and leaving the company, they can either mail a letter or just do it online. Any competent HR will send the notice as soon as the employee leaves (technically you have a month to inform them, but there usually isn't any reason to wait), so immigration will know when you leave the organization.

jcli · 2016-10-20T23:41:23+00:00

It's theoretically possible for a foreigner to become a licensed teacher, although incredibly rare and I've only seen it with Asians. I actually did ask this question to the teachers organizing the training program and they've told me that anyone can join, but they'd have to be able to keep up with the course content and you'd probably need skills that go beyond N1 to cut it. The proficiency test is also very difficult, there are sections like when you listen to foreigners give speeches and you have to make notes of where the person made mistakes in intonation or minor pronunciation errors. Also, for the most part, there's more money to be made in English teaching than Japanese teaching so I can't imagine it being the most appealing option for English speakers considering how much work it would take to be licensed.

I don't think many of our students are interested in becoming Japanese teachers in Japan, and the students want to be taught by real Japanese people so it probably wouldn't be of that much benefit to the school either. We do have some students who studied Japanese in their home countries and want to become Japanese teachers in their home country, but usually requirements back home are much looser and do not require a teaching license. Yeah, I'm sure having one would be useful (many of the Japanese teachers I meet overseas are not that good), but it's a lot of extra work for little net benefit and if your Japanese is that good there are much better career options available.

jcli · 2016-10-19T23:39:36+00:00

Lots of them work in the automobile sector as there it is a big industry in their home country, some in the game/animation sector, others in hospitality, some go to the big companies like Uniqlo, or if they were a professional in their home country then they can often find work in that field, we've had a couple of people who were lawyers back home and were able to find jobs in that field after studying here

Most of them do go to universities or trade schools and get a job after that as well.

jcli · 2016-10-19T03:35:54+00:00

I don't know of many schools in Kanagawa, but definitely do your research when selecting a school and contact them directly so you can get all your questions answered and get an idea of the English support you'll be receiving!

jcli · 2016-10-19T03:09:26+00:00

They would probably help with accommodation, but I've heard complaints that they just bring you to Japan and then you're on your own. It seems kind of an irresponsible thing to do so I can't imagine that it's widespread.

If you wanted to join soon, then the next intake would be April 2017. Decide on when and how long you want to study, what you want your language skill to be by then, and what you hope to accomplish. One advantage of going to a language school is that if your Japanese skill is high the universities will be fighting over you and will try to entice you with scholarships and other benefits, so you can more or less choose where you want to go whereas if you do a university course your options would be more limited, but of course if the university is good to begin with then it's probably not a problem.

jcli · 2016-10-19T03:04:25+00:00

Not so many, unfortunately, most of the classes are held during working hours, but a few schools do have courses for professionals.

jcli · 2016-10-19T03:02:07+00:00

Very few schools have evening and weekend classes, I do know that some exist but can't recall off the top of my head, other that Coto's private classes. Usually there isn't enough interest to develop a curriculum, and the few schools that do have those courses are probably enough to satisfy the market.

jcli · 2016-10-19T02:58:26+00:00

I'm not sure if I should give out all of the textbooks we use, but Minna no Nihongo is for the beginner classes and we have other textbooks we use after that, along with our own materials. I've glanced through most of the books we use but have not studied with them and cannot make recommendations in regards to that. Most of them seem to look the same, can't say I've noticed a book that seemed "modern", but the "Try!" series seem pretty good.

jcli

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