While I don't think I'm running the risk of making anyone angry or touching off any flamewars with what I've written here, I should remind you that, of course, these are the spontaneous impressions of one individual first-year JET participant, based upon unique personal experiences. In other words, your mileage may vary. Standard disclaimer having been noted, please take the following for what you will.
September 19, 1995
The first thing I should say is that there's a huge difference between describing "the JET Program" and describing life as a JET participant in Japan. The JET Program is actually a placement agency rather than an employer -- I realized this only about a month before I left. I can safely say that the JET Program as such is excellent; it's very well organized (especially the part taken care of locally by the LA Consulate), the pay is good, and the orientation programs and materials are decent. The thing is, that's basically the extent of what JET does -- it gets you to Japan, negotiates a contract with a host institution at a fixed salary, shows you around a bit, and sends you on your way. I haven't heard from any central JET institution for the last month and a half.
This is what causes so many of the newcomers' questions at Tokyo Orientation to go unanswered, leaving us only with an ambiguous, "well, it depends on your situation..." We all got pretty sick of hearing that last month -- there we were, surrounded at last by our JET sempai [experienced seniors/predecessors], and all they could tell us was where we were going and how much we'd be earning.
 A small office party at my favorite Korean restaurant. |
The upshot is that the more people you ask about life as a JET, the more information you'll have -- and the more confused you'll be. Accepting a JET contract constitutes a big gamble, since you won't be told where you're going, or in what capacity, until after you've committed yourself.
Fortunately, I feel as though I won that gamble. So far, my only complaints are about Japanese secondary education itself, rather than my individual circumstances in Chichibu. Having talked to a few other JETs I know, I've been feeling pretty lucky. I'm teaching in a relatively progressive school district, living alone in a new apartment intended for a small family, and working mostly with friendly and enthusiastic people. Being close to Tokyo is another big plus, although I can find most of what I need in terms of living supplies in downtown Chichibu. The school board allows -- indeed, even encourages -- me to drive, and gave me a motorbike to do so (a little rough in the rain, but it's otherwise easy to get around on, plus the kids think it's cool). So, keep all this in mind when considering my opinions about working here.
December 7, 1995
I hear that most of you considering joining me in this cold and miserable land (seasonal gripe, I'll get over it) have submitted your JET applications by now. It looks like scoring CIR spots is going to be extremely difficult. In my prefecture (Saitama), there will only be one CIR opening next year (barring the introduction of a completely new position somewhere), which at least ten people already working here as AET's are trying to get into as type-change renewers. Then again, the popularity of the program is probably creating a lot of new positions to fill, and they like to keep things exciting by bringing in new people even when veterans are available. Someone mentioned that the JET people were more frank this year about the option of switching to an ALT application if things didn't look good by early next year (that's what happened to me), which is nice.
As for geographical placement, I found out some interesting things last week at our mid-year block (Saitama, Tokyo, and Chiba) ALT conference. I think they place us using a set of darts, a big map of Japan, and a pachinko machine. I know they have that short form in the application packet which asks about placement preferences, but it doesn't seem to get you very far in the direction you want to go. Of course it makes little sense to request an urban/suburban location near Tokyo, Kyoto, or Osaka, since that's what everybody does, and there are relatively few JETs in those areas. The weird thing is that I talked to one guy from Kansas who wanted desperately to live in a rural environment, but was placed in a Saitama suburb twenty minutes from Ueno (Tokyo) on a major train line! That may have been because he didn't speak a word of Japanese and they didn't want him to starve out in the boon docks, but I've heard of plenty of others like him living in pretty remote places. Then again, I asked for Saitama (after Kansai) and got it, so maybe there's some method to the madness.
Seeing as you have to give the consulate a firm yes or no before finding out where you'll be located, I say it's best just to abandon any personal agenda and go with the flow. I had no idea what/where Chichibu City was at the time I mailed off my application, but now I feel as though I would have asked for it had I known about this place. I am lucky in that I live within a couple hours of Tokyo and am not completely cut off from Western civilization as I know it, but there are a lot of other metropolitan areas which would have provided adequate alternate lifelines as well.
I must say that I have little concern that any of the applicants I know reading this will have any problem getting in to the program. To be blunt, I haven't been all that impressed with some of the others here. I recently returned from a three-day block conference, which included about 400 ALTs. It felt like my exchange semester at Sophia University all over again. I'm told that due to the horrendous behavior of the conference participants and damage to the premises, the hotel has refused to accept any future bookings for JET-related activities. Here we are trying to "promote internationalization" and break down stereotypes, and the hotel personnel are left with eyewitness evidence that we foreigners are in a deadlock with the monkeys for the higher spot on the evolutionary scale. Well, no use reiterating what I went on for pages about last year. Being a foreigner here can indeed be quite embarassing at times.
(It is worth noting that one of the speakers on the last day started a collection basket to pay for the destruction of a ¥35,000 bouquet in the lobby, to which what I estimated to be about half of the participants contributed modest amounts, more than compensating for the monetary value of the damage. Most people here are indeed decent, but unfortunately it's that moronic minority that gets most of the attention.)
February 8, 1996
Well, something must be going right around here, because I just signed my new contract for one more year in Chichibu. Even so, I must say that I am pretty indifferent about the daily work itself -- it's usually pretty easy, but then again also pretty boring, and at times frustrating. Although I'll stop short of saying that I "don't care" about what happens at school, I've certainly benefitted from a healthy level of detachment thus far.
Incidentally, I'm told that my attitude, which some might call cynical, insensitive or otherwise antithetical to the stated philosophy of the JET Program, is precisely what will make my JET experience successful. The more you care about really reforming the English language education system, the more frustrating, and indeed impossible, this job is. I will and do assist those who need assistance and who are willing to receive it. In the same way, I will enthusiastically pursue my ill-defined goal of "internationalization" with the people I meet here. That, as I understand it, is my job, and I like it that way.
And, I'm sure I'll like it a whole lot more come March, when the plot of frozen tundra we call Chichibu thaws out and blooms into the beautiful antiTokyo I lived in only three months ago. I am looking forward to the springtime window of three or four weeks during which I will be able to drive around with my helmet's windshield lifted, my face neither burned by cold nor pelted by large insects. Anybody have any ideas on how to keep the vapor from my breath from clouding up the plastic in the morning? Don't wanna run over any kids on the way to school...
(well...)
October 6, 1996
Ok, I'm not quite so cynical anymore. (Well...about the job, anyway.) After discussing things with my boss, we agreed that staying a third year -- a prospect which I'd been toying with in my mind despite making a personal promise not to last winter -- would be too much. This is not to say that I haven't been enjoying myself or that I'm anxious to get out of here. In fact, the last two semesters at my new schools have been excellent, on some days to the extent that I find myself looking forward to the next school day so that I can see the kids again.
Certainly related to my reformed attitude towards the kids has been a change in thinking on my own part with regard to language education and my real job here. As I put less and less emphasis on "teaching English" and more on simply exposing the students to the insights and experiences I have to offer, I feel increasingly as though my presence actually makes a difference. Instead of getting frustrated or upset when the kids can't construct simple sentences in class, I just let it go and remember that nobody expected me to change that in the first place. (Indeed, a reality check helps -- although I consider myself a pretty good student, I remember hardly any of the three years of Spanish that I studied in my early teens).
One student commented to me the other day (in Japanese, of course), "I'm really glad that you came to our school. We've had a lot of AET's, but we never got to know them. But you speak to and joke with us in Japanese, so we can understand you and aren't shy about starting a conversation with you, and we learn a lot about other places and people." She pretty much nailed it, I think. Perhaps in struggling so hard to break down the language barrier by speaking only in English, we forget that in the meantime we're throwing away 90% of our opportunity to actually teach the kids something more than just a memorized textbook passage.
I also realized one very important thing about the classroom. That thing being that when you're in it, for the most part the kids aren't going to listen to you, even if it's in Japanese. Some of the kids who are constantly hanging around my desk still aren't quite sure whether Ryan is my first or last name, despite the fact that we've been over it several times during class. But if I tell them during some other part of the day, they understand instantly. That's another reality check worth keeping in mind.
All things considered, I haven't completely given up on language education. I just don't let my efforts grow out of proportion to what I can be reasonably expected to do, and particularly to what can be otherwise achieved by slipping in a nihongo wisecrack every now and then.
July is a long way off (I'm sure it will seem more so in the winter!), but I already know I'll miss this place. Go ahead and request "Chichibu City, Saitama Prefecture" if you want a sweet setup next year...