How does my Japanese girlfriend make money online?

October 7, 2011 7:58 PM

I met my girlfriend in London about 2 years ago. Since then, we have (temporarily) gone our separate ways due to visa issues mainly. Now she is back in Japan and she has had several crappy jobs. I want to help her get a job teaching English/Japanese online and I was wondering if anyone knew of any good ways of promoting her. Her English is very good, she lived in London for 12 years and only hung out with native speakers. I have encouraged her to look for a similar job teaching/translating in Japan and we'll see how that goes but I just need some ideas to help her get as many students as possible. Thanks.
posted by locussst to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

I'm not sure about teaching English online (I believe Japan Times, GaijinPot and Daijobu all have classified aimed at Japanese folks, and I know a Canadian English speaker in Tokyo who does teaches over the Internet (MeMail me with you would like a connection), but I can tell you that translation (ie, translating written documents, not interpretation) is not easy to break into, and it will take a considerable amount of focus and effort on her part to succeed.

That said, if she has the inclination, she could always try to find work as an editor, checking Japanese copy against the English source. Once again, not easy to get this work, and it will rely on personal connections and pounding the pavement.

Just trying to provide a reality check here.

Getting back to English teaching, it may be worth looking into ECC. It's a franchise, it's highly structured, and it can be done out of your living room. My wife taught ECC for about 5 years. It was a lot of fun, but it doesn't pay much. It was okay in our case, because we ran a cram school, and English conversation was our way of drawing in students would continue with us for 5+ years as they studied to get into good high schools and universities.

Your girlfriend could also consider joining a tutoring service. My wife did that too, when we were separated for a time during the late 90s (my visa ran out).
posted by KokuRyu at 10:01 PM on October 7, 2011

There's nothing on the GABA (http://teaching-in-japan.gaba.co.jp/) website that says that she can't teach English there, but just in case, I think they also teach Japanese!

Perhaps she can check out language schools? Japan Times definitely has a list.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 5:29 AM on October 9, 2011 [1 favorite]