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    Thread: Teaching English in Japan
Post: Teaching English in Japan

Under the old pay system JETs were doing pretty well. Most could afford to have a fun time and still be able to send quite a bit of money back home thanks to the strong yen. I'm sure even under the n...
mutley JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 33 6,063 2015-07-09, 8:02 am
    Thread: Need some honest insight: Too old to become a tranlator?
Post: Need some honest insight: Too old to become a tran...

It's certainly not uncommon to become a translator at an older age, especially a freelance one, but that is usually because the person can offer experience in a particular field that a fresh graduate,...
mutley General discussion 27 6,092 2015-02-13, 9:55 pm
    Thread: The Post-JET/ALT Job Hunt - Now What?
Post: The Post-JET/ALT Job Hunt - Now What?

I think the most frustrating thing about ALT work is the lack of progress. There is basically no career progression and as an assistant, even if you manage to make improvements to class, you could be ...
mutley JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 36 8,695 2014-11-15, 8:46 pm
    Thread: Translation and Interpretation - on their way out?
Post: Translation and Interpretation - on their way out?

Surely whether your comments are written in plain form or -masu form depends completely on where they are written.
mutley JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 23 5,175 2014-09-04, 10:53 pm
    Thread: Translation and Interpretation - on their way out?
Post: Translation and Interpretation - on their way out?

It's quite hard to distinguish between the causes and effects of falling translation rates. For example, does a company like mygengo cause lowering of rates or is the company itself a result of intens...
mutley JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 23 5,175 2014-09-03, 10:51 pm
    Thread: Translation and Interpretation - on their way out?
Post: Translation and Interpretation - on their way out?

I really can't imagine machine translation making much of a difference at the more specialized end of the market anytime soon. It's more likely to have an effect at the lower end of the market where a...
mutley JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 23 5,175 2014-09-01, 7:16 am
    Thread: Rate of Pay for Freelance translation
Post: Rate of Pay for Freelance translation

Stansfield123 Wrote:Just out of curiosity, how many words does the average translator get through in an hour? In the same way as rates I would have thought that there is a massive amount of variation ...
mutley JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 8 4,766 2014-03-12, 10:59 pm
    Thread: Rate of Pay for Freelance translation
Post: Rate of Pay for Freelance translation

3 yen/word is certainly on the low side. 0.09-0.13$ quoted below is probably more like what a professional translator would need to be making in order to support themselves as a full-time freelanc...
mutley JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 8 4,766 2014-03-11, 10:57 pm
    Thread: For those working in Japan...
Post: For those working in Japan...

KanjiCrosser Wrote:Just out of curiosity, what are some examples of these smaller targets to aim for? Some targets that I have made toward reaching the goal of English teaching include getting my B.A....
mutley Off topic 32 6,808 2013-10-02, 10:40 pm
    Thread: For those working in Japan...
Post: For those working in Japan...

I first came to Japan when I was 19 (volunteer work) and then again at 24 (ALT work). The original plan was to spend a couple of years travelling and deciding what I wanted to do with my science degre...
mutley Off topic 32 6,808 2013-09-27, 9:31 pm
    Thread: JLPT advice/study tips ?
Post: JLPT advice/study tips ?

I don't know anything about US schools so I can't really comment on that, but in terms of JLPT, aiming to improve by about 1 level each year is quite possible. For example if you're around level 4 now...
mutley JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 8 4,032 2013-06-03, 4:03 am
    Thread: Are you still teaching English?
Post: Are you still teaching English?

I did my time on JET too. In general my job was a lot of fun, but like a lot of english teachers the general attitude towards english teaching got to me more and more after a few years. I never intend...
mutley Off topic 34 12,865 2013-04-12, 10:47 am
    Thread: What is the most useful Japanese test?
Post: What is the most useful Japanese test?

For translators (or perhaps more accurately for people trying to get their first translation job) having JLPT level 1 is of some use for showing that you have at least reached some minimum required st...
mutley JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 20 6,608 2013-04-10, 11:00 pm
    Thread: What is the most useful Japanese test?
Post: What is the most useful Japanese test?

JLPT is by far the most widely recognised, though obviously a good mark on the BJT would also look impressive. I don't think either is that well known by Japanese employers other than those that reg...
mutley JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 20 6,608 2013-04-10, 5:59 pm
    Thread: Moving to Osaka?
Post: Moving to Osaka?

Yeah, as dismox said rent isn't too high in Osaka, especially when compared to Tokyo. About 40,000 a month would get you something really quite basic, 60,000 might get you something a bit newer and in...
mutley Off topic 6 3,200 2013-03-30, 9:02 pm
    Thread: Moving to Osaka?
Post: Moving to Osaka?

My guess would be that the work visa thing is also a bit of a gray area in Japan. If your clients and payments and so on are outside of Japan the Japanese government pretty much has no way of knowing ...
mutley Off topic 6 3,200 2013-03-29, 7:23 pm
    Thread: Advice [Volunteering/Experience]
Post: Advice [Volunteering/Experience]

There are definately some translators out there working for very low rates or hourly wages, but my guess is that those jobs are mostly taken by people like students or housewives who are just trying t...
mutley General discussion 12 2,270 2013-03-27, 8:57 am
    Thread: Advice [Volunteering/Experience]
Post: Advice [Volunteering/Experience]

There are plenty of things you can do to help your chances before visiting Japan. Obviously practicing translation is one of them. Any odd jobs or even volunteer work for a charity would be useful, al...
mutley General discussion 12 2,270 2013-03-26, 5:21 am
    Thread: best job for a foreigner in japan
Post: best job for a foreigner in japan

Yeah, you need to be more specific about your skills and what you want to do. The question should not be "what is the best job for a foreigner in Japan" and more like "what is the best job to aim for ...
mutley General discussion 12 2,954 2013-03-18, 10:37 pm
    Thread: JLPT 2012 Results!
Post: JLPT 2012 Results!

I guess it's all just speculation, but having worked in Japanese elementary schools for 4 years and seen the mistakes young students make on even very simple kanji I very much doubt an average 3rd gra...
mutley JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 96 25,545 2013-02-05, 8:49 am
    Thread: Advice on becoming a Japanese to English Translator
Post: Advice on becoming a Japanese to English Translato...

You seem to have a pretty good grasp of the situation, and you're right that you should probably try learning for at least 6 months plus before re-evaluating a little bit. A lot of people who become g...
mutley General discussion 19 5,135 2012-11-26, 6:00 pm
    Thread: Advice on becoming a Japanese to English Translator
Post: Advice on becoming a Japanese to English Translato...

I think the first thing to be clear about is that in terms of time investment vs financial benefits trying to become a translator from scratch when you're in your 50s is probably not the best choice. ...
mutley General discussion 19 5,135 2012-11-22, 9:17 pm
    Thread: JLPT exam rules (kanji shirt)
Post: JLPT exam rules (kanji shirt)

Having applied for jobs in Japan with JLPT 1 on my resume I think it helped at least to some extent. Some companies use it as a base level of what they're asking for in terms of language, though I dou...
mutley General discussion 29 6,053 2012-11-05, 5:55 pm
    Thread: I want the truth about teaching English in Japan.
Post: I want the truth about teaching English in Japan.

How it looks on your resume is going to depend on what sort of skills you can say you picked up in your time as an English teacher. For the first year or two these skills are pretty obvious: experienc...
mutley JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 65 24,906 2012-08-14, 3:42 am
    Thread: 2012 JLPT Study Thread
Post: 2012 JLPT Study Thread

I think most of the N1 stuff is pretty common especially if you read material aimed at adults or listen to news reports. Usually when N1 stuff is brought up in conversation as being really obscure peo...
mutley JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 297 78,502 2012-06-28, 10:52 pm
    Thread: 2012 JLPT Study Thread
Post: 2012 JLPT Study Thread

I think once someone has reached a level where they can pass JLPT 1 then they are very much functional in the language, though not necessarily fluently. This means that they then have the freedom to g...
mutley JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 297 78,502 2012-06-28, 6:10 pm
    Thread: Another thread about the Japanese economy
Post: Another thread about the Japanese economy

I always seem to get the impression that the real problem for many people in Japan at the moment is not an absolute lack of jobs, but more a lack of good jobs (fewer 正社員 jobs and more バイト style jobs)....
mutley General discussion 27 5,221 2012-06-05, 5:17 pm
    Thread: How best to find a translation job in Japan?
Post: How best to find a translation job in Japan?

I'm applying for translation jobs in Japan at the moment. I think so far I've sent out about 7 resumes to different companies only one of which I knew was definitely looking to recruit someone. I thi...
mutley JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 6 4,950 2012-05-21, 2:08 am
    Thread: Relevance of old tests?
Post: Relevance of old tests?

Firstly, because of the change in the scoring system you can't really say clearly what % of questions you need to get right on the new test to pass. Scoring 100/180 ~ 56% does not mean that you only g...
mutley JLPT, Jobs & College in Japan 9 2,757 2012-04-19, 5:45 pm
    Thread: What's the test like for MyGengo.com?
Post: What's the test like for MyGengo.com?

The first bit is five multiple choice translations of sentences. Usually most of the options are quite obviously poor translations, for example with confusing grammar, poor word choice or translating ...
mutley General discussion 4 3,658 2012-04-15, 6:44 pm