I have a BA in Japanese language studies, speak fluent Spanish, but I just got back from teaching English in Japan for 5 years and can't find any decent job openings. My husband's job is here in San Diego, so looking elsewhere is out of the question. Short of joining the military as an officer, what other options do I have? I've been here a month and a half, so what gives? Am I just dealing with a case of bad culture readjustment or bad bureaucracy?

Well if you speak SPANISH in CALIFORNIA you should have no problem

You are looking in ALL the wrong places!

Try Government

Try the School System

Try the Social Welfare system

Try Hopitals

You are a LINGUIST

If they don't give you a good salary hit them with some colorful ITALIAN sayings in JAPANESE and SPANISH and walk out the door and try somewhere else

You are WORTH at least $10 to $15 an hour starting pay!

You know if you take another 12 credit hours in school and apply for a TEACHING credential you can do the Public Schools teaching either SPANISH or JAPANESE and in San Diego that's $30,000+ a year starting pay

You can PROBABLY teach at a MONTESSORI school NOW

Call up some PRIVATE schools and see if you can get a few hours in each school as a walk in JAPENSE or SPANISH teacher

That's $25 per hour

Try HOMESCHOOL operators also and pick up extra cash at HOME tutoring or grading SPANISH and JAPANESE students!

First of all don't give up...there are many who get a degree and don't end up doing what it is they got the degree in... but if you are passionate about teaching Japanese, or English you should look a little deeper... go to high schools that have foreign students, they might need an ESL teacher or go to the local universities and see if they need someone of your expertise... you sound very smart, so just keep trying, you may need a certain certification to be a ESL teacher but it's the summer time so you can probably get it over the summer before school starts or before the fall semester in college... so I wish you the best of luck...

I'm originally from the San Diego area, and that hasn't been my experience at all it might just be the type of jobs you are choosing, or the companies you're interviewing with. It always takes me a couple months the readjust when I go back to the States, so that might be part of it as well. As for the military ... I'm guess if you spent 4 years on a Bachelors degree, and then worked in Japan for 5 years you have to be at least 27. In order to join the military as an officer you are required to be under 28 years old before you finish basic training (you would have to go through enlisted basic training, and then go to OCS). I'm willing to bet you're too old to join as an officer you really wouldn't want to join as enlisted.

If you look for teaching opportunities you may have more luck. To teach Japanese you would probably have to look at community colleges, and then there's the problem of not having a Masters, but sometimes they will hire you without one if you have experience, or they're really desperate. You could check the websites for Palomar College, Mira Costa, San Diego City College, Miramar College, and Southwestern College. With Spanish you could teach at the high school level, and even though you don't have a teaching certificate its not uncommon to be hired on a probational basis provided you finish your certification within a year. You might also want to see if there are any assistant teaching positions at any of the universities (UCSD, CSUSM, SDSU, USD).

What type of job are you looking for? If there isn't a big need in your area for foreign language skills, then you probabley have to target the type of job you want and take some classes to make you more marketable.

You could take the cbest, get a tb test and this would allow you to work as substitute teacher.