1) Your background
My name is Fernanda. I graduated from UVM in 2009 with an English Major and Japanese Minor. I studied abroad during the Spring semester of my Junior year at Aoyama University in Tokyo. I studied Japanese since freshman year, but that was the first opportunity I had to really use it. I learned a lot that semester and overall, it was a fun experience. As for my heritage, I was born and grew up in Ecuador until the age of fifteen when I moved to the States. When I applied for the JET Programme I was a bit nervous because I hadn’t grown up speaking English. Even though I consider my English to be at a native level, I do have a slight accent. However, this was no problem, even at the JET interviews.
2) Where did you work? How did you find the job?
I worked for the JET Programme for two years. I was placed in a five-town island called Shinkamigoto-cho, in Nagasaki prefecture. I worked as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) for two junior high schools and two elementary schools. I also helped at the town’s English club for adults about twice a month. I had heard about the JET program from the Japanese language professors at UVM. I applied for the program a year after graduation since I was not a US citizen before that date and this is a requirement.
3) What was the interview process like?
For the JET Program you will first submit a paper application, one online and one which you send to the consulate in your area. It is very, very important that you follow all the instructions for the application which are on the JET website. Even if you are a qualified candidate, your application will be dismissed if you do not answer the questions correctly or ignore a question. I even made sure to put N/A in all the questions that did not apply to me. I advise not to leave anything blank. You need recommendation letters as well, and I was a bit late in asking for these, which might have inconvenienced my professors, but they came through for me, phew! I would say the essay is the most important part of the application. The interviewers mentioned they liked mine when I met them. They try to see in it if you would be a good fit for JET. There are a lot of blogs and sites where people have uploaded essays that got them to the interview stage for JET, try to read a few of these and get a sense of what works. I mentioned in my essay that I had worked with Japanese middle-schoolers before and said how happy I was when they tried speaking English. If you have any experience like this (teaching anything to any age) I’d say it’s good to mention it and how it impacted you. I think a few people might forget that you are trying to tell JET why you would be a good candidate, not why JET would be good for you.
Then, if you pass this stage you will get an interview. Mine was in NYC and all the judges (I call them that, there were three of them) were very friendly. I’ve heard the Boston judges are a bit more strict, at least for the year I applied. They asked me about my background and why I was interested in Japan. Since I said I could speak some Japanese, they also asked me a couple questions in Japanese. They asked me what food I liked and to talk about my family. If you speak Japanese or any other language do not lie or get ahead of yourself and make sure you note in the application your actual level of fluency. They will ask questions according to that. For example, say you noted in your application you speak Russian, it is very likely this will come up in the interview. I had said that I’m fluent in Spanish and the judges asked me to pretend they were five-year-olds who had never heard Spanish and to give them a mini lesson about Halloween. I tried to smile the whole time and mimed trick-or-treating while I spoke. They seemed to like it. They also asked my what my placement preferences were and why I chose them. There are many accounts of people’s interviews for JET online as well as a few youtube blogs with tips, just search for them in google. These were very useful for me because they gave me a chance to prepare my answers at least for some of the questions before I had the interview.
4) What was the placement/moving process like?
JET pays for airfare there and back (once you are done with the program) all the way to your residence. First there is a two-day orientation in Tokyo, which I did not find much useful because the one in NYC had been pretty thorough, and then you go off to wherever you get placed. This meant a plane ride to Nagasaki city for me and then a ferry-ride to the island. As the boat approached the island, I felt like I was reaching the island from Jurassic Park, all green with a barely visible town at the bottom. Most JETs get placed in a rural setting, which for urban types can be a bit of a challenge. It was for me. It took me about two months to get used to the spiders and frogs and other creatures and the humid weather. I now think this island is a hidden gem of the world. Rural JETs also have the cheapest rent. I only payed about eighty dollars a month for my apartment, plus utilities, which wasn’t much.
Often you will have other JETs around you and you help each other, but there are JETs who get placed by themselves in a town or island, and it can get pretty lonely. Trying to join community clubs and getting active, although challenging, can help with that. I joined the town’s photography club and became good friends with the man running it, who became kind of my island father.
6) What is it like to work with the Japanese?
There are good and bad sides working in Japan as a foreigner. A lot of teachers seem to think that ALT’s are lazy, and indeed this is often perpetuated by a few JETs, so your job is to make them see that you are interested in the school and the students and your job. A thing a speaker mentioned in the NYC orientation is that the golden rule of JET is always be punctual. Being from Ecuador, where punctuality means arriving ten minutes late, I learned that in Japan it means arriving fifteen minutes earlier than the stated time. Being punctual is such a huge thing in Japan. It will show the other faculty members that you respect them and you take your job seriously, then everything after that will be much easier for you.
A thing about JET is that a lot of the JTEs (the Japanese teachers you will be working with) do not ask you or tell you what they want you to do. A couple of mine did, but the others were pretty shy. I thought the main teacher I worked with, a middle aged man, hated my presence, since he never wanted to talk to me or plan lessons together. But I was stubborn and showed up with activities or worksheets every time. After a few times, he let me try them. Then it became routine that on the days I went to that school, he always asked me what I had planned, and he even reprimanded the students when they didn’t pay attention. He became my favorite teacher to work with; I even miss him.
You have to show them that you want to work. You have to plan lessons or games or activities and say you’d like to try them in class. You have to check where the kids are in the textbook and teach them things at that level. There are many websites with worksheet, activity, and lesson ideas. You have to approach the teachers and students at cleaning time and offer to help, or simply grab a broom and start sweeping. Ask to help carry things, decorate for school events, take pictures, or if the English teacher needs help planning lessons or typing or whatever. After they see you want to help, they will trust you with more responsibilities. Oh, if you find you have nothing to do, you can ask the other teachers if you can visit their class. I sat in for a few cooking classes, science, and gym classes.
I tried to talk to the students during their recess. A thing about rural kids is that they are incredibly shy. It took my students about nine months until they were comfortable with me. In the beginning they ran from me, but after that time they came up to me to talk, asked me questions, even hugged me and played games with me.
However, if you feel overburdened, you also have the chance to limit what you do. As a foreigner you are given a silent leeway on some things. If you feel that you are given too much to do (and this will not happen often, but I’ve heard it can happen with high school JETs), you can say no to things. I opted not to eat the school lunch for the first semester, and this is hard as everyone must eat the same lunch. There was a bit of fuss, but they accepted my request.
For a JET there aren’t much after work obligations, except some enkai (dinner parties) the teachers have, but I mostly enjoyed these. Sometimes there are special school days on the weekend, but usually you will get a weekday off to compensate. Also, during some weekends the students’ sports teams often play. You can go see the games if you want to cheer for them, but you are not required to.
Another interesting thing that I found is that Japan can be a bit more gender-divided. The male teachers often did not talk to me much, but the female teachers were more quick to open up to me and talk and ask me things. When my boyfriend came to visit me once, one of the male teachers who seldom talked to me, talked to him so much! I thought it was me, but then I realized it was a gender thing. If you are a girl, the girl students will approach you more, and if you are a guy, the boy students will definitely talk to you more.
Now the best thing about JET, I think are the students. I’ve heard that in cities they can get a bit rebellious, but in a rural town they are nothing but sweet. They made me laugh so much with the things they say or do. This was the most rewarding aspect of my job; I still cherish all that they said and did and taught me.
7) PLEASE share any tips for those who are going to teach in Japan or have Japan-related jobs after graduating from UVM?
1) Be punctual
2) Show initiative
3) Remember that you can always say no, try not to get overburdened by others’ expectations
4) Join community clubs or events, this is a great way to practice Japanese and make friends
5) Save money (trust me, this might be useful later)
6) You are not Japanese (forgive me if you are), but this is why they’ll like you. Japanese people love learning about other cultures.
7) Research the company you’d like to work for before you apply to find if it will be a good fit for you, there are many blogs and reviews out there
8) For JETs: other JETs can become your best allies
8) Please share any recommendation you would like to give to faculty/staff for career advising.
Maybe as Suzuki sensei said, I’d remind students that working is a different experience than studying in Japan.
If there are any other minority students, I’d mention that your experience can be a bit different than that of the white students. Often people in Japan think of Americans as light-haired, blue-eyed, but this is fine. People might be a bit surprised of your heritage, and welcome you differently. Sometimes people won’t greet the non-white JETs as happily, since it might not fit with their expectations of what Americans look like, but it can also set you apart in a good way. I found my black hair and short stature helped me blend in and go about my business at supermarkets and such.
9) Please share any recommendation you would like to give to UVM students as career advising?
I’d recommend researching other job areas you are interested in while in Japan, so that you have an idea of what you would like to do if you return to your home country, or even if you stay in Japan.