1) Your background
I have a sort of different background than many people who did the JET Programme. I grew up in Ohio and went to Wittenberg University, majoring in English Literature and minoring in Studio Art. I thought about teaching abroad right after college, but I took a job at a ranch in New Mexico instead! Then I decided to go to graduate school in Higher Education & Student Affairs at the University of Vermont. My assistantship with Residential Learning Communities, the Global Village in particular, turned into a full-time position after I received my Master’s degree. However, the itch to teach abroad stayed with me for all those years, so I decided to take a leave of absence to teach English last year with the JET Programme.
While I did have some experience with Japanese culture working with the Japanese House in the Global Village, I didn’t know much before moving to Japan. And I only knew three words in Japanese when I went to live there for the year: sayonara, onigiri, and arigato!
2) Where did you work? How did you find the job?
I worked in Takaoka-shi, Toyama-ken at a public secondary school as part of The JET Programme. I had known about this program for years, and many friends from college participated in it as well.
3) What was the interview process like?
The initial JET application is long. It is a multi-page paper application that requires an essay and letters of recommendation and must be mailed to the Japanese Embassy in your regional area. (For me: Boston.)
Below is the timeline:
Late October/early November: Application due.
January: First notice sent to accepted applicants
February: Interviews held at Japanese embassies in your area. My interview was held at the Japanese Embassy in Boston. My interview was only 30 minutes, and from speaking with other candidates, questions varied greatly from candidate to candidate. My interviewees were more curious as to why I wanted to teach in Japan and what sort of cultural connection I could foster.
April: Second notice sent to accepted applicants.
May-July: Successful applicants receive Placements. I had no idea where Takaoka-shi was at first. (Frantically check Google Maps and the JET Forums.) Sometimes these placements roll in LATE.
At that point, you will probably also know if you are working at an elementary, junior, or high school. Most people with little to no Japanese will get placed in a high school.
July-August: Mad scramble to wrap up your current life, pack for your Japan life, and process all of the paperwork for Japan. In my case, I couldn’t bring contacts for a year there, so I needed additional paperwork. I also wasn’t supposed to leave the country because my embassy needed to get my Visa for Japan, but I was working in London. So, I had to spend hundreds of dollars (and more paperwork) sending my Passport overseas to Boston and back.
Late July-early August: You are in Japan. Yay!
4) What was the placement/moving process like?
The JET Programme does pay for your airfare to Japan, which is a huge plus. We are also paid through the government a generous salary, one of the highest for teaching English abroad. Still, Japan is expensive: my apartment with initial moving costs was roughly $4,000 the first month. Ouch! And we were limited to bringing only two suitcases and one carry-on.
I took over my apartment from the previous teacher at the school, so there was furniture and kitchen supplies already stocked in my place, which was a huge plus.
5) What is it like to work for your company/JET in Japan? (working environment, requirements/expectations, language, attire, what is your work week like?, etc.)
I worked at one of the best public high schools in the prefecture. It was one of the University-tracked high schools and had around 900 students. It had a total of ten full-time Japanese Teachers of English (JTE’s).
School life was intense for both the students and the teachers. They were very busy preparing to get into University. My school had a lot more tests and grading than other schools in the prefecture. At the beginning, I was very confused and stressed out trying to understand a new school system, language, and teaching English as a second language.
However, my students were amazing! Their English was really good, and they were energetic and very smart students. I had had zero discipline issues, and they never fall asleep in class (which happened to many other friends who were teaching English in my prefecture). I tried to visit their clubs, and occasionally ran with students on the table tennis or track teams. I also took part in the school’s English Club, which met every Thursday after school.
6) What is it like to work with the Japanese?
I found the Japanese to be incredibly polite and generous to work with at school. Everyone was very nice and helpful, but in the beginning, I often wanted more explanation. I learned that I just had to be diligent about asking questions along the way.
I did feel pressure to work over-time because ALL of the teachers were coming in early, working over lunch-hours, and staying late. The teachers worked very very very long hours.
Tips
I survived on little Japanese, but I wished that I had more knowledge of the language before moving to Japan. My work schedule was very busy, which left little time for learning Japanese during the week.
In addition to the JET programme, Interac was also a popular program for teaching in Japan!
I highly suggest working abroad for at least a year. It give you knowledge not only about a new culture, but about yourself, that you could never gain staying in your own country.
Overall, I was amazed by the extreme temperature differences between seasons, the beauty of my area (the Internet did NOT describe it well), using kerosene to stay warm, the mixture of very high and very low technology, the long work hours, the AWESOME customer service, the expensiveness of apartments in Japan, the quiet crowds on trains, the punctuality, and the duality of living in both a very stressful and very Zen-like place.
And don’t forget to take pictures along the way! I was able to travel to some A-M-A-Z-I-N-G places in Japan for the year: sunrise at the top of Mt. Fuji. Kiyumizu-dera in the Spring in Kyoto. A 300-year old soba restaurant in Kyoto. Inari Shrine. Snow monkeys in Nagano. Kenroku-en in Kanazawa.
Octopus