work rejected.

Pennies
Jyh Wei just informed me that I could change my pennies for vouchers at Sainsbury, Meadowhall.

Work
Jyh Wei also told me that Vietnamese noodles bar is hiring people. They’re paying 35 pounds to work from 1PM to 10:30PM including 2 hours break and free food and drinks. I tried applying today. Initially, they were reluctant to talk to me as I was speaking English to them. As soon as I speak Cantonese, everything seemed smooth. Unfortunately, they’re not hiring anymore. I explained to them that a friend of mine told me that the restaurant is hiring. They seemed puzzled and asked me whether do I have experience. Mmm, the only experience I have in a restaurant is when I worked as a dishwasher at a coffee shop when I was 12 years old. The lady who was interviewing me seemed pretty interested in hiring me (she kept on asking me questions) but due to my lack of experience, she repeated that they’re not hiring anymore. I gave them my number and told them to call me if they need me. I hope they’ll call.

Japan
I’ve always wanted to visit Japan. I want to experience their culture and lifestyle. And now, I’m thinking of teaching English in Japan after I graduate. It sounds like a good idea where I’ll be paid in Yen, be able to improve my Japanese, check out Japanese girls and so on. However, there are plenty of hurdles for me. Firstly, they need at least a degree from any western post secondary education in order to apply for a work visa. That sounds okay since I’ll be graduating from University of Sheffield.

2. What do I need to DO to get my Work Visa?
There are basically two ways to get a work Visa to teach in Japan:

a) The first option is to arrange employment from your home country. The Japanese employer will then handle the arrangements for you. The new teacher will send their ORIGINAL college degree to the Japanese employer who will, in turn, take it to the local Immigration Office in Japan. A Certificate of Eligibility will then be sent to the foreign recruit in her home country; she then presents (either in-person or by certified delivery) her Passport and this Certificate to the Japanese Embassy or Consulate in her home country. The Work Visa will be stamped in the new teacher’s Passport. This writer has undertaken this process twice and each time it has taken about four or five weeks to complete though I have been told by reputable sources that this period can be considerably shorter as well as somewhat longer.

b) The second option is to come to Japan on a Tourist Visa in order to search for employment. If a teacher secures a job offer while in Japan on a Tourist Visa, the new teacher MUST leave the country in order to secure a Work Visa. Most teachers go to Korea, as this is usually the cheapest and quickest option. Obviously, if one has a Working Holiday, Spouse, or Student Visa, there are other issues involved; this page is intended for teachers who are thinking about coming to teach in Japan full-time over a longer term. Coming to Japan to search for employment is obviously a much more expensive option than securing employment from abroad. Living in Japan as a “job-hunting” tourist can be a very expensive undertaking, and this writer would not come over here to look for a job with much less than 4-5,000 US dollars and a valid credit card, but, of course, there are others who’ve arrived in Japan with less. For more information, check out the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Online Visa Section

3. Where can I find the companies that recruit foreign teachers from abroad?
Like the answer given to the question above, there are basically two options concerning the TYPES of employers who hire English teachers from abroad.

a) The private language schools: The big three in this arena are AEON; GEOS; and NOVA though there is hundreds of smaller operations in Japan. These organizations are FOR-PROFIT businesses, and, as such, they operate from the same premise that literally millions of other businesses operate from: Decisions in these businesses are made with an eye on the bottom line, so if you decide to work in this arena, just be aware that the institutional culture will reflect the fact that these “schools” are, in fact, large for-profit Japanese corporations. This answer is in no means meant to criticize these organizations one way or another but hopes to inform young teachers about the reality of the EFL work environment in Japan.

b) The Japanese Public School System: This option also has a large player: The JET Program– though there are similar, smaller programs operated by individual cities and prefectures in Japan. When a teacher is accepted into the JET Program, she is assigned to work as an “Assistant English Teacher” in the Japanese Public School System. These teachers work the same schedules and at the same schools as Japanese teachers; therefore; one is placed within the education bureaucracy, which has its own set of unique issues that are different in kind from the “business-related” issues mentioned above. The JET Program recruits a large number of teachers, and I have been told that the lead-time is longer for JET than for the private language schools, but I cannot state this with certainty. JET teachers do observe national holidays as they work the school calendar. I have personally spoken with JET teachers who have been placed away from the urban centres, so this is a real possibility.

One of the possible ways to work in Japan is to apply to the Japanese Exchange and Teaching (JET) programme. The only problem is, JET doesn’t recruit people from Malaysia! One of the main prerequisite is that I must a citizen of the participating country.
I’ll decide this in details after I graduate from Bar school. I hope that Malaysia will join the JET programme. If it happens, aaah, /me daydreams.

Check out some old Sheffield pictures
http://www.sheffgen.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/photos/unerversityold.htm
http://www.sheffgen.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/sixties_pics/brookhill60s.htm

Rest of the pictures are here
http://www.sheffgen.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/photos/sheff_old.htm
– 10:50PM