My thoughts on doing an English part time job in Tokyo
Why I decided to teach children English
When I decided I was going to move to Japan for a working holiday, I knew that to support myself. After a bit of research, it seemed I had two choices: I could teach English to adults or I could become a babysitter and teach English to children.
I have always enjoyed working with children – I worked as a live-in Nanny in London for a couple of years after university and I also used to help run a local Brownie group. I babysat a lot during my teenage years, but I wasn’t sure that it was what I wanted to do in Japan. I was coming to Japan firstly for pleasure, and I was worried about the lack of freedom I would have in being a babysitter (often you have to work evenings and weekends).
On the other hand, I couldn’t think of anything better than spending my time with children. Children are wonderful – smart, funny and happy. I love entertaining children and I relished the opportunity to teach them a little English.
My other option was becoming an English teacher for adults. There were definitely less positives with this option, but I was mainly interested in this as I have never done it before. I wanted to try something new and this seemed like a good opportunity to do so (as if moving to Tokyo wasn’t different enough!). I did a lot of online research about teaching English and applied to some companies, and I also came across Little Hug. Both options seemed realistic for me to do so I started the application process with both. After looking on the website and speaking to their staff, I knew Little Hug was an opportunity I wanted to pursue.
One of the main positives for me was that by becoming a babysitter, I would get to work with children in their homes. I really enjoyed traveling to parts of Tokyo that I wouldn’t otherwise have seen. It was so interesting to see the “real” Tokyo, and not just the parts that you see as a tourist. I was also really interested in seeing what a Japanese home looked like, as I envisaged them to be very different to homes in the U.K.
A final reason I decided to become a babysitter was because I love to see children learning. Knowing my time in Japan was going to be short, I knew I would be more likely to see improvement in the language skills of children in that time I had compared to adults. Working with children is very rewarding as you get to see the difference you’ve made. It was lovely to see the language skills of the children develop throughout my time with them.
Living in Tokyo and working with Little Hug was an amazing experience and I am so happy I made the choice to join their company.
Message written by an English babysitter, who worked with Little Hug since October 2017. She had excellent organizational skills. Thank you very much for assisting us!
