Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone could please help me with a question that I have and any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Well, I have been training as a professional ballet dancer all of my life and I am now going to be 19 years of age and will be coming to the end of my dance training and now I see this as a chance for me to pursue my 'real' passion which is for the far east, in particular China, Japan and South Korea. I would love to be able to work in one of these countries, but I have no degree as I have been training all of my life. I have 2 A levels and a national diploma in professional dance. However I no longer want anything to do with dancing and would like a 'normal' job in a not so normal country.
I was just wondering if anyone knew of any job possibilities I could pursue with no degree or 'formal' qualifications except an immense passion for the far east and a willingness to learn and adapt to new surroundings.
I am desperate to leave my old life behind and to move abroad as soon as possible.
Please write back with any suggestions.
Many thanks
Mason.

Hello
If you are really interested in teaching, I can offer you a job in Kazakhstan (Central Asia).
If you want to have a lot of fun, to travel, to know new culture, to try yourself in teaching english, than it is for you.
Unfortunately, I can't propose to you a good salary (like in US or Europe) , but it will be much more enought to live here.
If you interested, I am ready to answer any questions. My e-mail baitassov@hotmail.com
Regards,
Timur

I'm currently teaching in Beijing, and I think in your situation, teaching English may be feasible for you here, but in general, to get a working visa in China, you HAVE to have a accredited bachelor's degree. However, I, for instance, am on a short term business visa, even though I will be here probably 2 years at least, so there are ways of getting around it. Teaching English is the easiest way to get a job in Asia for a young person like yourself, and once you find an in (if you don't want to continue teaching), then it is relatively easy (at least here in China) to find another job. The company just basically has to sponsor you in order to stay for any length of time, so it's important to find a company that really values you enough to go through the visa process.

Now that said, I can't promise you it will be easy. Even though I said English teachers are in high demand, there is also quite a large supply of young recent college graduates to fill those jobs. I know three 19 year olds who came over and volunteered (teaching english) for 6 weeks, so that's also an option if you'd like to try it out and see if you like it.

Also, you might want to think about getting your TEFL certification. Again, in China, for most English-teaching jobs, an online certification is fine (I got mine through i-to-i and found it quite good), but I think other countries (like Japan for instance) want you to either have a higher ranking TEFL cert, or experience, though I'm not totally sure on that one... someone else may be better at helping you there.

Anyways, traveling will be rewarding beyond belief, and will change your life forever. Good luck!

You can get a working holiday visa for Japan without having a degree. With this you can apply for jobs in Japan prior to going or wait till you get there and find a job then. My then girlfriend had no degree when we went to Japan on Working Holiday Visas a couple of years ago. She applied for jobs advertised on the internet, got interviewed by phone and had a job arranged with accommodation for the both of us before we went out there. I got myself a job once we'd arrived...no dramas.

Hideo, did your girlfriend have any Japanese language skills at all? I always wonder how much of a requirement local language skills are for these teaching jobs.

Thanks!

Hey Shawnosaurus — I haven't worked in Japan, but have worked in South Korea. While knowing the local language is helpful, it's by no means necessary, as you'll be dealing with staff and recruiters who can speak English — and your students will too, to varying degrees of proficiency.

Regardless, you'll pick it up once over there; by no means does a lack of local language skills hurt your ability to get around or land a job — in my experience; however, the situation in Japan may be different, so I can't speak to that!

Shawnosaurus wrote:Hideo, did your girlfriend have any Japanese language skills at all? I always wonder how much of a requirement local language skills are for these teaching jobs.

Thanks!

Not really no. We both had some of the basics but nothing more than that when we arrived. Neither of us taught in a High School or Junior High, where I would imagine there would be a greater need for a bit of Japanese skill. We were both in private English conversation schools and therefore worked entirely in English, although of course we picked up a certain amount of Japanese as we went along.

I would say it definitely helps to have an understanding of Japanese - firstly because knowing how hiragana works phonetically will mean you pronounce people's names correctly, secondly because it will help you to understand why certain mistakes keep cropping up, or why they struggle to pronounce certain sounds.