Teaching English in Japan

[Audion]

My current goal in life is to teach English in Japan. However, I've only ever completed a few quarters at my local community college and I need a bachelor's degree in order to get a work visa. My question is; what is the cheapest/fastest degree I can get online to fulfill that requirement? My areas of interest are Japanese language, business, comp sci. If there was a way to get a bachelor's degree in Japanese that would probably be preferable since I could then study the language like I am currently already doing and have it count towards the degree. I live in Washington, USA and when I did attend community college I did so on financial aid (fafsa). Do any of the routes people are getting degrees in use it? I could pay someone like $20 using paypal to teach me the optimal route. I would be grateful for any help or pointers in the right direction. Thanks!

[KayV]

Here is a degree plan originally created for a former student who was interested in teaching English in Costa Rica. Replace the Spanish with the Japanese you've taken as much as possible. The main points to note are that you will have some English classes, some psychology classes, and some classes with the word "education" in them. TEFL recruiters like to see this.

As always, we can customize your plan if you post your classes taken and number of hours, etc. Also, if there are any classes for which you'd like to find alternatives to a particular class listed, just let us know. There are almost always other options.

Oh, and the TECEPs are TESC's in-house credit by exam option. Taking 24 hours from TESC (7 TECEPs plus Capstone) lets you enroll in the Pay Per Credit plan, which eliminates the enrollment fee.

TESC BA Humanities
(for teaching ESL)
I. General Education Requirements
1. CLEP College Composition 6 (or 2 TECEPs)
2. TECEP Applied Liberal Arts Mathematics 3
3. TECEP Technical Writing 3
4. TECEP Computer Concepts and Applications 3
5. CLEP Humanities 6
6. CLEP Social Sciences 6
7. SL Intro to Environmental Science or TECEP Nutrition 3
8. DSST or SL Human/Cultural Geography 3
9. SL Cultural Anthropology 3
10. SL/CLEP Intro to Sociology 3
11. TECEP Environmental Ethics or DSST Ethics 3
12. LIT-205/206-CE American Literature 6
13. DSST ART-166-DE Art of the Western World 3
14. Any General Ed TECEP 3
15. Any General Ed TECEP 3
16. Any General Ed exam 3


II. Area of Study: Humanities (33 credits, 18UL)
A. Literature (12)
1. LIT-208/209-CE English Literature 6
2. LIT-291/292-CE Analyzing and Interpreting Literature 6
B. Communications (12, 9UL)
3. TECEP Public Relations Thought & Practice (COM-210-TE) 3
4. SL Business Communications (COM-300) 3UL
5. Saylor Managerial Communications (COM-373) 3UL
6. Penn Foster Interpersonal Communication (COM-330) 3UL
C. Philosophy (3UL)
7. SL PHI-384 Business Ethics 3UL
D. Religion (3UL)
8. SL or DSST REL-405 Intro to World Religions 3UL
E. Liberal Arts Capstone LIB-495 3UL


III. Free Electives (in which we impress the TEFL recruiter)
1. CLEP Spanish Language 12 using spanishhour.com (any language will look good)
2. SL/CLEP Intro to Psychology 3
3. CLEP Human Growth and Development or DSST Lifespan Psych 3
4. CLEP Intro to Educational Psychology 3
5. DSST Foundations of Education 3
6. UExcel Literacy Instruction in the Elementary School 6
If you don’t want to take the Spanish exam, you could finish those 12 credits with anything, including the no-cost TEEX Cybersecurity series for 6 hours, NFA for 3 hours, and Kaplan PLA for 3 hours.

[KayV]

And of course if the above doesn't interest you, you could complete a BSBA in General Management fairly quickly through Sanantone's plans on the wiki. That could include Computer Science in business electives and Japanese in your general ed requirements and electives.

[Audion]

First of all thanks a ton for the help.

I did not consider a degree in humanities although it does seem like a decent path. The only objection I have to that is I am unsure of all the jobs you'd be able to get from it and if they fit with what I want to do in life(programming/business) and if I'd even want to get another bachelor degree. Do you know an estimation on how long something like those courses take/cost? Since I am still a noob to all this I will let it digest some more as I don't really want to dedicate time to something that I will not use in the future.

[sanantone]

These should give you an idea of how cheaply you can complete a degree under the Per Credit Tuition Plan.
http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...post174813
http://www.degreeforum.net/excelsior-tho...post172163

TESC does have foreign language programs, but does not offer the required courses.
Thomas Edison State College: Foreign Language

Here are the foreign language tests for which TESC awards credits.
Thomas Edison State College: Other Exam Programs

Look at the degree plans under "Sanantone." The BSBA in General Management and BSBA in CIS might be of interest to you.
TESC Degree Plans - Degree Forum Wiki

[Audion]

Is there a general guide to obtaining credits this way that I am missing? I seem to be overwhelmed with acronyms(I've seen the wiki page) not knowing exactly where exactly to begin if I want to start this second.

[cookderosa]

My current goal in life is to teach English in Japan. However, I've only ever completed a few quarters at my local community college and I need a bachelor's degree in order to get a work visa. My question is; what is the cheapest/fastest degree I can get online to fulfill that requirement? My areas of interest are Japanese language, business, comp sci. If there was a way to get a bachelor's degree in Japanese that would probably be preferable since I could then study the language like I am currently already doing and have it count towards the degree. I live in Washington, USA and when I did attend community college I did so on financial aid (fafsa). Do any of the routes people are getting degrees in use it? I could pay someone like $20 using paypal to teach me the optimal route. I would be grateful for any help or pointers in the right direction. Thanks!

Welcome to the forum! The information here is free. Save your $20, you can use it for a Peterson's practice exam. Seriously, figuring this out isn't hard- if this mother who never went to college figured it out (I did) you can (and will) too!

[Audion]

Wow, that's really nice and gives me hope. I seem to have found the information I was looking for after more searching, ty. I guess for the moment I will just research more plans and see which ones are the cheapest and fastest.

[KayV]

Audion, it sounds like the BSBA would be a better fit for you than a BA Humanities. Do you have any college credits already? List them and we can show you where the would fit in your degree plan. Also, do you have a preference for testing out (CLEP/ DSST/ TECEP) versus online classes (Straighterline and Saylor), or do both options work for you?

[Audion]

Audion, it sounds like the BSBA would be a better fit for you than a BA Humanities. Do you have any college credits already? List them and we can show you where the would fit in your degree plan. Also, do you have a preference for testing out (CLEP/ DSST/ TECEP) versus online classes (Straighterline and Saylor), or do both options work for you?

Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well. I do have college credits but very few as I also failed some so it's kind of embarrassing. Also, I would have to research the last part of the question more probably, whichever is cheaper is my preference/I could do hybrid I guess.

MATH 090 ELEMENTARY ALGEBRA B 5.0 (this is probably not applicable as it's pre college level?)
JAPN& 121 JAPANESE I C- 5.0

I also have some random other ones maybe because I did a pharmacy tech program but when I tried transferring them to my community college they said they were not applicable. Also, I am enrolled in the upcoming quarter at my cc do I need to dropout or do something special?