are there part-time ALTing jobs....i am actually a teacher here in New York.....i could learn a lot just watching others teach ....or can I? I'm thinking of a way to work in Japan and enjoy our new child while living with my wife's folks in Shizuoka

There are part time ALT gigs I believe.

I'm sure since you're a teacher you would find being in a japanese school interesting. Though, you won't have the same responsibilities (such as discipline, dealing with parents, etc.) And because of cultural differences many of the things you learn for dealing with Japanese kids won't be applicable to American kiddies. One example that springs to mind is that you probably can't use rock, paper, scissors as successfully in an American classroom. ^__^

to thegeezer, a third neutral country is an option that takes work but should work out in the end. My gf is qualified as a Japnese teacher (to teach as a foreign language). Friends in her proffesion have lived all over the place, mainly in Asia. If she does uch a couse, you could easily both live in Malaysia, Singapore etc where the quality od life is pretty good. We plan to do in the near future and should be great for both of us.

hmm thanks for that information.. i hear the test to become a japanese teacher is either hard or lengthy..is that true (just out of curiousity mind)

It is a little long and expensive but i'm not sure how hard it is. The actual test involves very little to do with real teaching, alot of linguistics etc. So it just depends how good you are at that.

I remember someone being successfully recruited as an English teacher on this site. A friend of mine from Australia is looking to work in Japan for a short period of time (several months but not a year). Which companies would be open to recruiting teachers on that sort of time scale?