Jonathan Higgins

I’m looking to offer free accommodation for about 5 weeks in southern Nagano-ken in return for teaching 3 or 4 small classes daily in my private English school. I imagine this might appeal to an undergraduate student interested in spending the summer in Japan, and with an eye on applying for JET in 2010. Dates approximately July 20th through August 22nd.

My house is western-style and FULLY air-conditioned. The classroom is attached to the house. It’s large and modern with flat-screen TV, DVD player, computer, large library of textbooks. I’ll provide support for the classes but I’m not a control freak - you teach what you want. My students are children and adults. You must be a native English speaker though. I’m British but I teach a very international curriculum.

About 90% of the local JETs are leaving this July so there’ll be plenty of new faces in town. Plus about twenty American university students come to the city from July to study puppetry prior to performing at an international festival held in the city in the first week of August. The students stay for about two months.

Plenty more details available if you PM me.

loljapan

I don't think an undergrad could do this without the appropriate visa could they?

Trivial

Undergrads can get working holiday visas, I believe. And yes, students can work up to a certain number of hours a week.

Timoshi

No money changes hands, so technically it's volunteering.

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patjs

I think if you aren't being paid then you'd be fine on the 3 month tourist visa.

Sounds like something I would have been interested in as an undergrad

Jonathan Higgins

I have considered the visa thing. I'm aware of several other teachers around the country that have done similar things. I think the trick is NOT to make a habit of it.
There are plenty of language schools that exploit the 3-month tourist visa for profit. I'm not interested in doing that.

I AM interested in trying to offer my students something a little different, and maybe offer a fun experience for an undergrad. I can't help them get to the country but once they're here I'll do what I can to minimize their expenses - including airport pick-up and deposit.

Anyway, there's only been one enquiry from this group plus one other from a different group so the whole venture might not get off the ground. Which considering I thought it up over breakfast ten days ago should be expected!

Neb

I think it's a great idea. It's definitely something I would have considered doing when I was in Uni, you just gotta give it more exposure, get it out there. Maybe contact a university directly (or look up a Japanese professor from the university and then contacting them, and they could offer the idea up to their students).

Ruairi

I also think it's a good idea. If I was an undergrad and was in a position to avail of the opportunity (i.e. could organise the visa and afford the flights) I would have jumped at the chance.

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dzozef

Hello, I found this by accident. But is the offer still on?. I'm an undergraduate studying liguistics/language acquisition. I've taken a couple years of Japanese, and I have experience as a teaching assistant.

Thanks

Trivial

You should Private Message him.

hammer

Argh I wish I saw this earlier. I have made a whole bunch of preparations for my JET application this year but this would of been pretty awesome.

Trivial

Send him a message; the offer hasn't been closed as far as I know.

Jonathan Higgins

Hey everyone,

Many thanks to those who responded. To those who've messaged me I must apologize and say I confirmed our guest on Monday and he'll be staying with us from mid-July through mid-August.

He's already here in Japan - visiting friends in order to take the JPLT (level 1 no less!!!). I didn't get his details through this forum, but it was from another teachers' board - one of the Yahoo AJET groups - so this does match the ideal criteria I set i.e. 2009 graduate contemplating working in Japan 2010 - he's also a former exchange student who studied in Aichi-ken for a couple of semesters so he actually knows my area.

My son thinks it's cool there's going to be house-guest - but he's a little worried he'll have to relinquish sole control of the television and is concerned about showing his bottom to strangers after taking a shower. I told him not to worry - there aren't many people left in the world that haven't seen his bum so he should be grateful for this opportunity!

Thanks again for the responses.

curtaineater

whoever took that spot is in over their heads with that bottom stuff...

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Jonathan Higgins

Update.

Well, our homestay guest came and went, and then came back again! He arrived July 22nd and stayed until August 25th. During that time he team-taught with me for about ten days and then I left him to his own devices.

During his stay the local board of education advertised for two AET positions to commence late-September. Our guest applied and was successful. He popped back to the US at the end of August and returned last week - we agreed he could stay here for one more week because his new apartment was not yet vacated.

He's working as an AET at two local junior high schools with weekly visits to a couple of elementary schools.

He's happy, we're happy, the BoE is more than happy (the guy has Level 1 proficiency so they can quit with the painful facial expressions when trying to explain things at the monthly BoE/AET meetings).

Good result all-round.

Now to convince my wife to repeat it next year

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Neb

haha, thats great. Glad to hear it was a success.

patjs

LOL epic fail

word

heehehehehehahahahha

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UPGRAYEDD

what?

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patjs

argh it got deleted!