Written by: Zhafira Aqyla

Continuing from the previous article about Muslim-friendly schools in Japan, today we will be talking about part-time opportunities that foreigners can take in Japan, which is interpreting for elementary schools that cater to foreign students.
With a lot of foreign workers and international students coming to Japan with their families, the enrollment of foreign students continues to increase. In Osaka where our intern lives, there has been a surge of Malaysian workers in one specific region, hence the massive enrollment of Malaysian children in public schools around the area. Due to this, two schools now host more than ten Malaysian students each, and since they just recently arrived in Japan, many still struggle to keep up or interact with their peers in class.

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To overcome this issue, the city halls of each region usually seek a native interpreter to sit in the class with the children once a week until they fully adapt to the Japanese language. The interpreter’s job is to make sure the children can understand instructions given in the classrooms, such as taking notes or cutting down papers.

This can be a perfect part-time opportunity for you especially if you are good at speaking Japanese. In addition to interpreting for students in the classroom, you may also be asked to interpret in the parent-teacher meetings for parents who do not speak Japanese well. Especially for Muslim families, you will often be asked to inform the teachers about students’ necessity to pray in the afternoon or the need to fast during Ramadhan.

Since interpreting service is an extremely important job, the salary can range from 2,000 yen per hour to 5,000 yen per day. For comparison, a waitressing job usually pays around 1000 yen per hour.
To apply for this job, reach out to your local city hall and tell them you are eligible for the service. This way, even if they do not need you at the moment, they will make sure to reach out to you once the service comes in need.

Check your local city hall now and we hope this helps!

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