One Gaijin’s Review of the JET Program
Last Updated on Wednesday, February 17 2010 06:01 Written by Travis Harper Tuesday, September 22 2009 08:55
Konnichiwa! I am a former Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) participant who recently returned to America after a three-year stint as an Aomori Prefectural Assistant Language Teacher (ALT). I recently met the Editor at a local function and was asked to kick off the Teaching Abroad section of Earthwalkers. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!
Looking back, three years was actually a really long time to have lived, worked, and played in the Tohoku region of Japan. While there are so many stories I could tell, I think I’ll try and keep the focus on the program itself, giving a synopsis on what it is, who’s involved, and several links for readers to follow up on, if any of you are so inclined.
For starters, JET is one of the largest and most successful grassroots international exchange programs in the world. The basic idea is that the Japanese National Government recruits recent college graduates, primarily from English-speaking countries, to go and work-most often as ALTs- in local schools. ALTs teach various language courses at these schools and engage their students by sharing pieces of their own culture with their students. Simultaneously, the ALTs are learning about Japan and its people through cultural immersion. JET is a huge program with many governmental branches involved and liaised by the Council of Local Authorities on International Relations or CLAIR, which is basically the middleman between the national governmental branches involved in the program and the local governmental branches. I knew I wanted to participate in JET after the first time I heard about it back in high school. To prepare for the program I decided to take Japanese language courses in college, though prior Japanese study is not necessarily essential for the ALT job.
I was placed in a rural “low-level” public high school and was the first ALT they had ever hosted. I don’t think they quite knew what to do with me as I spent most of the time at my desk keeping myself occupied with whatever I could find, which I hear can be a common experience. When I was utilized I assisted in the English classes as a real life gaijin (“foreigner”) by way of coming up with warm-up activities, team-teaching, and trying to be a motivator to the students. A famous phrase within JET is “ESID”, or “every situation is different”, to the point of being cliché. This saying is necessary to be aware of though, considering the breadth and scope of the program. While I never was adopted by a Japanese family, lived on an isolated island, had random kind townspeople leave bags upon bags of the season’s present crop on my doorstep, or had a favorite bar where I made local friends and drank away my salary, any or all of these experiences have been had on the program by various ALTs in the past. Some of the things I did personally experience included: helping teach in mountain schools that had fewer than 15 students, posing as a poster model for my town’s t-shirt, getting involved with the National Association for JETs, and singing a Carpenters song onstage with the mayor at the annual local school band performance.
The program itself is technically a year-long contract, though it’s quite common now for the local contracting organization to offer re-contracting options for up to a max of five total years. There isn’t much preference granting on where you will be placed, so if you must live in Tokyo, Kyoto or somewhere like that, JET isn’t for you. While there are city placements, by and large, participants are imported to places where internationalization doesn’t naturally occur. If you’re up for anything (and I do mean anything!) and are excited by the opportunity to learn about a totally different culture and language by being thrown in the deep end for a year or more, JET could definitely be your thing.
Regarding the language bit, while there are the immediate, obvious disadvantages to going over there F.O.B. or “fresh off the boat,” there are actually advantages as well as you will hopefully have fewer pre-conceived ideas to hinder your progress. I found quite often that my ability to understand Japanese seemed to almost cause more problems, from being able to understand things the local speakers didn’t think I would (and wish I hadn’t), to being able to argue. I wouldn’t recommend Japan if you’re pugilistic. Yes, there are many, many things that one may feel defy pragmatic sense there, and as the gaijin you’ll be fighting losing battles trying to do much about them if you base your argument on “what makes sense” in your own culture. If you can remain focused on how, “it’s a different place with values ranked accordingly” and can adapt, you’ll definitely have a much smoother experience. JET is not a cakewalk, but it is quite the set of experiences.
If you’re interested, be sure to check out some of the following:
JET Program homepage: http://www.jetprogramme.org/index.html
Gaijin Smash: http://www.gaijinsmash.net/ - collection of hilarious blogs from a former participant
JET Japan: http://community.livejournal.com/jetjapan/ - live journal community made up of hopeful, present, and former participants
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