Post Partum

Now that I am back home, I don't feel as happy as I thought I would. I thought that returning home would free me from the Eikaiwa Blues, but some lingering sadness still hangs about me. What's more, after finding out that Japan is not what it's cracked up to be, I am not completely sure if I want to continue studying Japanese. I've spent about 4 years doing it, so stopping would be a great waste.

I guess I feel guilty in some ways too. I have a background in East Asian Studies, but when people ask me what I like about Japan, the only answers that come to mind are "the yogurt" and "the vending machines". That's all.

I suppose I could still use my Japanese in California or Hawaii. I don't think I will come back to Japan again. I see no point in it. And I am so sorry to find myself typing this.

Have any of you experienced something similar once you quit and went back?
The Plaid Knight

I have often thought that maybe studying Japanese was a waste of time. Maybe I should have never done it. But by the time I started thinking that, I was in my early 20's and had spent 3 years in Japan, had been studying the language, culture, etc since I was 11 and was fluent. So it is kind of hard to change your life when you are so arse deep into something. And after all that time and effort spent on learning about Japan, and fighting to be treated as a normal person rather than a leper.

But I eventually found my way and am somewhat settled and content now. I guess you have to do the same, whether that means leaving it all behind or dealing with it.
MacGyver

If you don't like what you're doing with you're life then change it. That's probably one of the things you based your moves to and out of Japan on. The days of making a life/career choice at age 22 and sticking by it until you die are long gone. You may have spent a few years living here and studying the language but if you decide not to use your skills and experiences directly in a job it doesn't mean they're a waste. You still have them and they will benefit you in some way in the future.

As always, find out what you want to do, plan it and go for it. If it doesn't work out, try soemthing else. The biggest thing about moving home is that you should have a plan and a realistic idea of the good and bad points of both Japan and your home country. In Eikawa there are NO skills or experiences that you can apply positively at home or that will help you get any kind of job beyond maybe doing a bit of fill-in ESL teaching.
TomCruiseAura

Hey Dude,
What are yuou crying about man? You know where your heart is, and you know where your balls are. And, right at the moment they're located somewhere in your trachea. So, instead of giving yourself some form of oral/ball/gonad-sack related relief each time that you inhale, come the fvck back to Japan. We miss you already.

I can imagine myself right now back home. I would be sitting on the crapper, taking a drag out of some shvtty Mild Seven compromise, wondering whether I should jack off or not, but being so depressed that I could even get it up! Here in Japan, things are different. I am a pervert. I am an alcoholic. I am heading for a double lung extraction and replacement, and my dick is hanging on by a thread. Just the way I like it.
Skweekah

I have a numbnuts story for you JB. A very close mate of mine spent a number of years here teaching at various places including NOVA, high schools, and business classes, and about 2 years ago he pulled up stumps and went home for good, he said. He said he would never come back to Japan to work. At first I thought, for a number of reasons, that he would be back. And I was almost right, when 18 months ago he came back for a month to test the waters looking mainly for non-teaching jobs, or very highly paid teaching jobs. He had a number of interviews but didn't get anything. So he went back home again.

For the 2 years he has been home, he has just been teaching EFL part-time at language schools. He can't get a full time job because he doesn't have teaching qualifications, and only has a bottom-rung ESL teaching certificate. To teach full time at most language schools in Australia, you either need a degree in teaching, preferably in TEFL or TESL, and preferably an MA in TEFL or TESL. Or a high level teaching certificate (forget the name) that takes a year or so to get. Anywho, he has been coasting along picking up jobs on contract (course based) so when the usually 3 month course is done he has to wait and see whether he can get another contract later on, usually starting a month or so after the previous one finished.

Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with teaching ESL/EFL at private institutions back home (contrary to popular opinion); the money is much better, and usually the schools are more professional with motivated students. So what's wrong with this picture? My numbnuts friend has been teaching half-arsed for 2 years knowing fully well that he has to go back to school if he wants to get a full time gig yet he doesn't know if he wants to have a career in ESL/EFL. He has looked around for jobs doing other things, but as he has limited experience in anything other than EFL/ESL, and his uni degree is in Japanese Studies, he has been unsuccessful. So he knows he has to go back to school to be considered for anything other than ESL/EFL. So he knows what he has to do but he doesn't know what he wants to do. He has been home for 2 years and he still hasn't figured it out. You would think he would have by now.

So the lesson to be learnt here is have a plan when you go home. Don't do what my friend did which was just go home and see what happens. He was sick of Japan (he had been here 6 years) and wanted to go home so he did without doing anything in terms of ground work. He literally just packed up and left. He had some ideas about what he wanted to do, but when they fell through (didn't get an interview, or failed the interviews) he didn't have a back up plan. So he has been teaching for 2 years part time and unless something happens and he gets his shite together, he will be teaching part time for who knows how long. My concern is that he will be caught doing what he is doing now by external forces (eg., he is talking about buying a house) before he gets his ##### together.

Before some of you insinuate that he is a loser, I'll admit I draw a damning picture of him. However, he is a smart guy, and he did gain a lot out of his Japan experience. He met all sorts of different people while he was here, and speaks, reads, and writes Japanese very well. He would be level 1, with a little brushing up. His problem is that he is rudderless. He needs to decide what he wants to do. And that is certainly true for a lot of us who come over and teach English. What is the next step when we go home? Whatever it may be, we need to have plans, otherwise we're gonna get stuck in a rut. As much as that is commonsense, I have seen more than one person fall into that trap.
MacGyver

I have been reading this forum and while half of you think I am just blowing my own horn, I can tell you 4 years after the fact what generally happend to all the English teachers I have known who returned home.

First of all, my heart goes out to post partum since I know what it is like to be back home after you have centered your adult working life around Japan. All I can say is make new friends, try different jobs and move around. It eventually get better and it took me a good 6 months to get over the blahs.

Also, the guy who wrote the story about the guy who went home then came back, I know several guys who did the same. They usually became disenchanted with life back home and found that it "lacked" certain things. Lots of times they just could not get over the fact they were regular joe blows back home. It is true.

Now when I left about 5 other really rock solid guys left around the same time. The great thing is that our experience there brought us together and has kept us in touch here. Mind you, these are all smart guys 4 years later who spoke Japanese well and spent at least 5 years in Japan and somehow managed to escape getting married.

One Canadian-went back to get MBA, graduated and finally (after looking for a year) this year found a job as an intern.

Three Americans - rode the internet boom ,that died. One is now in Atlanta working as a salesman, one is unemployed in Boston and looking for work. One is living in hawaii and works as a waiter in a Japanese rest.

One Aussie - went back to western Australia and grows his own now mostly.

So you can see, many different paths. The only thing we had in common is that we schlepped around Japan as eikaiwa senseis, drank, partied, got laid and made money. The real world is a FAR cry from Japan. We found out people actually pay you on your SKILLS not the fact that you can speak English. As the years wore on we buried our experience in Japan further in our resume. What will happen is that you will end up talking about it for about 1 minute in the interview then it is all about what skills you have now. Trust me on this one. Sure you can teach back in your own country, but like most of you, that idea did not appeal to most of us. You can continue teaching in other countries (if you are not too culturally fatigued)or you can just try to make a new life. The ironic thing is that while we all look back and say it was a good experience, NOT ONE OF US WANTS TO WORK THERE AGAIN. Yeah, maybe if we sink into a depression here in the US, but otherwise it is something best left in the past. Yeah you can marry, yeah you can "choose" to live your life there (we used to tell ourselves that one too), yeah you can get lost in the seedy underworld, whatever.

Anyway, for what it is worth,I just wanted to share what happend to 5 guys who were very much like you guys....

Peace out
NYCchinpo