Interview About my Job as a Teacher

A guy named Jeremy S. sent me an e-mail saying that he likes my videos, and wants to come to Japan. I encouraged him to come! He said he wants to, but he's still in school. But would I be willing to do an interview for him? He has to interview someone with his dream job. Well, how could I turn that down, especially from someone named Jeremy!

Here are his questions and my answers:

What do you do?
I teach English to Japanese kids, age 2-11.

Why do you do it?
I love kids, I love learning, and I wanted to live in Japan for a year.

How long have you been doing this?
Seven months, so far.

How much is the pay?
260,000 yen per month. That’s about $27,000 per year. In addition to that, they pay for my transportation to and from work (my train and bus tickets).

What type of education do you have?
I have a BS in Psychology from Duke University.

How far do you travel each day to get to your work?
About 5 minutes by bicycle, 20 minutes by train, 5 minutes by foot. Total about 30 minutes. Once each week (on Thursdays), I take an hour’s worth of trains, plus another 20 minute bus ride, and about 20 minutes of walking. Thursdays are about 1.5 hours of travel.

How old are the kids that you teach?
Age 2-11. The youngest ones (under 5 years old) come in with their Moms or Dads.

What subject do you teach?
English.

Is it fun?
Very, very fun. It’s especially fun because, when we’re not teaching, we write our own original kids’ music and even make fun videos! We even do a podcast on iTunes, which helps parents learn to have some basic English conversations with their kids.
Check out our music videos on YouTube here: www.youtube.com/SuperSimpleSongs
And here’s our podcast: http://www.kodomoeikaiwa.podomatic.com/

Is it suitable for any one or just certain people?
Well, you have to like kids, because otherwise you will go crazy. That means you have to be okay with your students sometimes drooling, pickin’ boogers, tugging on your shirt and/or climbing on their Mom during class. If you like kids, and you’re willing to work hard and have fun, then it’s a great job.

Thanks for interviewing me, Jeremy S.! I hope this was helpful.

-Jeremy C.