I Quit My Job as a Lawyer to Teach English

Was it worth it?

Teaching nursery school on the summer break. Photo by author

I uprooted my life in Australia and moved overseas a few months ago.

I have since been working as an English teacher in the countryside of Japan.

A small remote island in the Shimane prefecture.

It’s far enough off the coast that I technically live closer to South Korea than Tokyo.

The island where I live and work. Adapted from Google Maps

After about 4 years working in a corporate office (first as a tax consultant at EY, later as an in-house lawyer for a large Australian vitamin company), I decided it was time to challenge myself in a new way and get outside of my comfort zone.

It was tempting to stay the course while my friends purchased properties and garnered promotions, but I felt like something was amiss.

For the record, I have absolutely nothing against 9–5 or corporate work, in fact I intend to resume work as a lawyer in the future.

But buying a property just because everyone else doing so? Purposelessly rising up the ranks? That felt wrong.

I needed a change. I needed to develop less common skills. I needed to hit pause on…