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+--- Thread: Life in ALT Limbo (/thread-4829.html)
Life in ALT Limbo - RisuMiso - 2010-01-16
This is a decent distance university. http://www.athabascau.ca/ One of my friends is finishing her master's degree through them. In Tokyo there is Temple University and Sophia University, which both offer programs in English.
Another option is to teach English or whatnot until your Japanese improves. When you are fluent you could always go to a Japanese trade or technical school if that sort of work interests you at all.
About the list I made, I had them from when I was job hunting. Some of them did sound bad to me too, but I didn't want to look at them all again to see which was which.
Life in ALT Limbo - vrtgo - 2010-01-17
Hey Jarvik, what's happening in Higashi Betsuin? I found the kaikan website but not any kind of schedule or calendar.
Life in ALT Limbo - coverup - 2010-01-17
vrtgo:
I work as an ALT through JET, and in my free time at school they let me study Japanese... I'm not crazy about this job or Japan's educational system, but at least I get paid to prepare for what's coming next. Plus I'm surrounded by Japanese people to interact with and learn from all day. I keep the paychecks coming in while setting myself up for my next line of work. Just have patience and keep your eyes on the prize.
I was an art major too, and I have no other special qualifications, besides my letter saying I passed JLPT2 which won't arrive until Feb. (joke)
Life in ALT Limbo - Thora - 2010-01-17
gavmck Wrote:I moved to Japan 18 months ago on a haiguusha visa.quick aside: I remember thinking 配偶者 might be an amusing word for people still thinking in terms of RTK keywords. 出来ちゃった結婚?
Life in ALT Limbo - Javizy - 2010-01-17
Is ALT and tutoring the best kind of English teaching work available? Even if you have relevant qualifications in addition to a degree and high-level JLPT, etc? Is there anywhere that actually teaches English in the country?
Life in ALT Limbo - vrtgo - 2010-01-17
AFAIK, for Eng. teaching work, the ideal is to find placement teaching at a university. As for eikaiwa work, one makes more money than ALTs, but the hours are nighttime and on Saturdays, and it doesn't give you time to study on the job, the way ALT work does. I wish I'd applied for JET. I think it looks much better on a résumé, considering it's a reasonably well-respected, longstanding gov't program. They pay better, too. The idea of going into the ALT system through a private dispatch co. for another year is distasteful to me now, but it isn't out of the question, yet.
I'm thinking Womacks is right: I should study something more marketable; it's not enough to speak good Japanese. Hells, my engineer buddies in Nagoya pull in much better income, and they don't speak a lick of Japanese. I'm going to need some hard skills to add to my soft degree, if I hope to have a career. That's not just applicable to life in Japan--that's a rule for anywhere. God, I'm worried. I'm turning 28 this month and I'm already feeling over the hill, out of escapes. =(
Life in ALT Limbo - mirina - 2010-01-17
You're an art student, right? Then... why not work freelance? You got an art degree for a reason, didn't you?
Life in ALT Limbo - ocircle - 2010-01-18
mirina Wrote:You're an art student, right? Then... why not work freelance? You got an art degree for a reason, didn't you?Ha! If only that was so easy!
Man, I'll be lucky to earn a total of $1000 from my "skills" in my lifetime.
Life in ALT Limbo - thurd - 2010-01-18
Vrtgo: Situation you describe is nowhere near as dramatic as you think it is. You're already there (in Japan), have native English and a job. What I wouldn't give to have such problems....
On another note I'm always curious what goes through the mind of people majoring in arts. There's about 1% you will make a decent living from it afterwards, so it's just like saying "I'm going to be unemployed after I graduate"... Seriously though if you're not in this 1% get a skill thats at least a bit useful. Language teaching is a good place to start I think since you're already doing that and are willing to learn Japanese so maybe languages are your thing??
Life in ALT Limbo - Jarvik7 - 2010-01-18
@thurd: They are probably studying something they enjoy instead of spending 4 years in hell so that they can spend the rest of their lives doing a job they hate
There are plenty of jobs for arts majors. What is most important for many jobs is having a degree - what the degree was in doesn't matter as much.
Life in ALT Limbo - esgrove - 2010-01-18
It feels like I woke up in the middle of the night and wrote the first post and forgot about it. This is very similar to my life. I'm an art major currently working as an ALT near Nagoya.
After almost 3 years of this same work, I'm looking forward to not renewing my contract in the spring and starting freelance. I have no idea where to start, but any suggestions people could write would be appreciated. I figure if I make at least 200,000 a month it should be sufficient. How much should I charge?
Life in ALT Limbo - mirina - 2010-01-18
ocircle Wrote:Study marketing (on your own, I mean; don't pay for it)? There are millions of businesses that use artwork in their logos, commercials, et cetera. Obviously there's work out there, and obviously people are getting paid.mirina Wrote:You're an art student, right? Then... why not work freelance? You got an art degree for a reason, didn't you?Ha! If only that was so easy!
Man, I'll be lucky to earn a total of $1000 from my "skills" in my lifetime.
esgrove Wrote:It feels like I woke up in the middle of the night and wrote the first post and forgot about it. This is very similar to my life. I'm an art major currently working as an ALT near Nagoya.I work in freelance and I make about $400 a month (I could a lot make more, but I choose to work shorter days because of a nerve disorder). Granted, I write, so it's a little bit of a different animal, but I think the general process is similar.
After almost 3 years of this same work, I'm looking forward to not renewing my contract in the spring and starting freelance. I have no idea where to start, but any suggestions people could write would be appreciated. I figure if I make at least 200,000 a month it should be sufficient. How much should I charge?
There are a couple of ways you can go about finding jobs:
(1) There are a lot of sites that post freelance jobs. Most of the time, you submit a copy of your resume, and a portfolio of your work. If they like you're stuff, they'll contact you. A lot of the time, the amount of pay you're expected to receive is already posted, but you can always try to negotiate a better deal. If you're just starting out and have little experience, however, I wouldn't try to do the latter until you have a more substantial resume.
(2) Sell commission work. When you're writing, you submit proposals to editors of publications to see if they're interested in publishing your piece, but I'm not exactly sure how this works with art. Perhaps you can submit work to art galleries?
(3) Brush up on your marketing skills. It sucks, but 90% of making it as a freelancer is about marketing, finding jobs and getting your name out there. The remaining 10% is doing the actual work. Even if your artwork isn't fantastic, if you are skilled at marketing yourself, you'll be way more successful than someone with amazing artwork, but whom has poor marketing skills.
Life in ALT Limbo - esgrove - 2010-01-18
Actually, I wasn't talking about freelance art work. Even though my degree is in studio art, I never wanted to use it to be an artist. I just wanted to gain perspective and improve my abilities at art (also it was a fun and easy major). I'm not a very good artist, and I don't think anyone should pay me money to make art. I'm currently focusing on my Japanese study.
Thank you for all of your advice, anyway.
Life in ALT Limbo - mirina - 2010-01-18
esgrove Wrote:Actually, I wasn't talking about freelance art work. Even though my degree is in studio art, I never wanted to use it to be an artist. I just wanted to gain perspective and improve my abilities at art (also it was a fun and easy major). I'm not a very good artist, and I don't think anyone should pay me money to make art. I'm currently focusing on my Japanese study.Oh, when you said you were an art student, and then talked about freelance, I thought you meant freelance art. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
Thank you for all of your advice, anyway.
Life in ALT Limbo - Jarvik7 - 2010-01-19
Not all art degrees are about creating art. An arts degree is another name for a humanities degree. I have an art degree and I can't draw/sculpt/paint to save my life and I loathe creative writing.
I DO freelance, but it is for something unrelated to my degree (I earned a certification in translation at the same time as my degree).
Life in ALT Limbo - Thora - 2010-01-19
'art major', not arts degree. I suspect marina knows the difference. ;-) So do you have a B.A. in art then? In addition to your certificate.
Life in ALT Limbo - Jarvik7 - 2010-01-19
arts major means the same thing..
At every university I've ever been to, majors where you actually MAKE art are called "fine arts". My arts degree must be cruder stuff
Life in ALT Limbo - Thora - 2010-01-19
art, not arts. Esgrove said s/he was an 'art major'. marina understood that means majoring in fine arts. It's not Bachelors of Art. Perhaps you just misread it. It's not important. It happens to the best people sometimes. jk
edit: btw, you have an arts degree, not art degree (just in case you have an interview or you're translating or something...) ;-)
Life in ALT Limbo - coverup - 2010-01-19
Jarvik, what certification did you get? I don't know which country you attended uni in, but if there's something where I could get a simple certification in JP->EN translation I would be interested since that's the career I'm pursuing.
Life in ALT Limbo - mirina - 2010-01-19
Jarvik7 Wrote:Not all art degrees are about creating art. An arts degree is another name for a humanities degree. I have an art degree and I can't draw/sculpt/paint to save my life and I loathe creative writing.The OP said he was an art student, and esgrove said the post reminded him of himself, as well as the fact that he was an art major. Add to the fact that he spoke of freelance, I don't think it's that out-of-left-field that I assume he was an artist, and was planning on doing freelance art.
I DO freelance, but it is for something unrelated to my degree (I earned a certification in translation at the same time as my degree).
Further, unless you preface "art major" with "liberal," I'm going to assume you're talking about art-art. I majored in English lit., but I would never refer to myself as an "art major."
Life in ALT Limbo - vrtgo - 2010-01-20
Thurd et al., here, you can pick my brain for a bit.
Lately, I'm thinking about things like Haiti, American politics and environmental issues. I think about the changes that the world needs to see, and the enormous obstructions to those changes, which are too complicated to discuss in this thread.
Learning languages is something I can do. I've studied French, Khmer and Japanese, and progressed with those languages during my studies, but being conversant doesn't put one in demand, professionally. It'd be great if we could just study our brains out with the Japanese, and land solid jobs on that merit, but I don't think everyone's fit or inclined to be a professional translator.
It had to be art for me, rather than, say, surgery or accounting. Art was the furthest thing I could think of from climbing a corporate ladder--my disgust with the corporation is boundless, at times. I studied performing arts and was making ends meet as a DJ back home, but only *barely*, so decided it'd be better to get a real job for a while, which led to this Japan adventure.
It really has been difficult--ALT work is not a real job. Well, it's not a career: there's no promotion track or hope for a raise. I am not climbing the corporate ladder; instead I am on the bottom rung feeling stuck. Alarms in my head started going off early into the contract, indicating that the ALT gig is not the right track, and telling me that AJATT will not advance me toward a comfortable lifestyle. Living in Japan is cool, but let me say again that it sucks something fierce to be just skating by in this country, financially. The Japanese all seem so affluent and status-fixated, and I feel the same kind of pressures to succeed, which doesn't work in a dead-end job. I can't afford to travel, or enjoy much of what Japan has to offer. ALT pay really is lousy. Never have I felt like such a cog in the machine.
Lately, I've been slipping with the Japanese studying, just keeping up with Anki reviews. I think I'm getting to that age when securing good employment and settling in to a more comfortable life takes precedence over almost everything else, and so it seems childish to study something so hard if it won't help my career. Besides, I wouldn't want to work at a Japanese company. The unpaid overtime that is nearly universal at Japanese offices is beyond batsh*t crazy. I cringe at the thought of becoming a careerist, though. It's just that, more than ever, I realize I need hard skills, and learning languages and being a killer DJ will not take me very far. My grades in uni were iffy, so it's tough to imagine what kind of graduate program would take me, let alone what path would profit a performing arts guy. My passion is not in anything profitable. Hence, the anxiety.
Life in ALT Limbo - vrtgo - 2010-01-20
Gosh! I sound so negative. It hasn't been all bad. Nara and Kyoto were both pretty cool, and there are lots of smart, cool nihonjin to meet and chat with. Japan will be a difficult place to leave, if that's what happens. The country is structured for comfort, convenience and safety above all. I just had to put in a couple good words for Japan, here.
Life in ALT Limbo - Grinkers - 2010-01-21
My advice would be try specializing in two things. Japanese by itself isn't very employable, but if you specialize in something else as well as Japanese, it could prove very useful. For example it's very hard to be a great translator, but it's not as hard to be one of the most knowledgeable translators in politics/environmental issues. Or perhaps it's not very hard to be one of the best Japanese speakers among English natives in politics/environmental issues. Or some other combinations.
For me, I'm hoping I'll be one of the best Japanese speakers among English native programmers/mathematicians. Currently my Japanese and technical experience are both way under what I want, but even now I have lots of people asking me for translation/editing help with technical related writing from Japanese > English.
Keep in mind I don't have much experience in this at all, but just from my observations. I wouldn't give up Japanese yet, but keeping it your only focus seems very hard career wise.
Life in ALT Limbo - esgrove - 2010-01-22
Sorry to be a source of confused speculation. I have a Bachelor's of Arts with a concentration in Studio Art. So I spent most of my time in college drawing and painting naked people.
Being an ALT is pretty dead-end work. It's one of the few jobs that you can work for three years straight, and not only not advance in any way, but actually end up getting paid less. At least for me it's pretty easy and there's a lot of extra tmie for studying, but I'm so sick of it I'm quitting and risking financial jeopardy by having no concrete employment.
Life in ALT Limbo - slivir - 2010-01-22
vrtgo Wrote:Besides, I wouldn't want to work at a Japanese company. The unpaid overtime that is nearly universal at Japanese offices is beyond batsh*t crazy.Seriously. No way would I want to work a proper career job in Japan. Bugger that off for a joke.