Hey I was just wondering, did anyone else apply for JET for 2011?

I applied in 2007. Leaving this summer. Good luck.

How was the interview? Was it difficult? You got any tips for me in case I get accepted to do the interview in February?

You can find some videos on youtube that talk about the jet interview process and offer some tips.

When I had my interview, most of the questions were pretty straightforward, but when they asked me to pretend to introduce myself to a classroom full of children, I had a tough time. I wasn't really sure what to do without any sort of instruction, because I guessed that I was supposed to do it in english, but if I am talking to young kids, they probably don't know any english... so yea... it was tough for me to come up with something on the fly like that.

Another guy I knew apparently had a much tougher time. Somehow he had mentioned cornbread while talking about some foods that might be eaten at Thanksgiving, or something. And so they asked him to give a talk about cornbread :|

Yeah that's something that I have been wondering about because I heard you have a better chance of getting hired if you don't use Japanese but how are you supposed to introduce yourself to kids if you don't use Japanese... They're not fluent yet!


I will check on youtube. Thanks for the help!

I teach kids classes part time here at my University In Japan to help offset the ridiculous cost of fruit (among other things.) They range from 3-9 roughly. It is extremely advised not to speak any Japanese at all to them. 100% English immersion. That's why you're being Hired, if they wanted someone to teach them English but also explain in Japanese, they'd hire English Speaking Japanese people

Talk with your hands and body as much as your mouth. They may not understand the words, but the actions you do to reinforce them should be instantly recognisable. So Maybe also in the interviews do the same. Basic vocabulary, as if you were talking to infants (minus the babytalk.)
Be prepared however should you get the job, to have a class room of children not respond and just sit and stare at you as if your this mornings entertainment. Sometimes they take some encouraging.. and sometimes they need none and the little bastards use you as the subject of a gigantic game of "pile on" as happened to me today.. when simply going through an alphabet chart...sigh.

haha. Do you like your job though? I think it would be a great job to have. I visited a daycare when I was in Japan last summer. It was awesome. I helped the local english teacher at the daycare for a day.


And I work at a daycare now taking care of kids. (I'm in the USA right now).
But I think that would be a really good job for me to have.

Not really sure how to do it for japanese kids though. Gotta be really energetic I think.

To be honest I never understood the whole "don't speak Japanese" thing. These kids are maybe getting an hour of English instruction a week. To call it "immersion" is just silly. I spoke to my elementary school kids in Japanese all the time during lessons, and only one teacher had a problem with it (the one who was super excited to learn English and asked me how I was 4-5 times a day). Whatever is the most efficient way to get things across is best, IMO.

Try speaking Japanese when you actually get to class but don't do it at an interview mock lesson

Your interview panel is likely to consist of one friendly but clueless ex-jet and a few Embassy staff (probably including at least one Japanese person). None of them are likely to have anything more than armchair expertise in teaching or language learning. Keep this in mind before you show your Japanese skill and go all RTK on their arses or act like you know about language learning. You may think you're just demonstrating your suitability for the job but it'll probably just hurt your chances because it will likely conflict with the judging panel's clueless assessment of what makes a good candidate. Basically they just want a seemingly friendly, outgoing, flexible and professional person who is unlikely to flip-out and leave the country. If you play an instrument or sport mention it and say you'd love to join the school club. If you have any hobbies that may be perceived as weird or nerdish (as unfair as that may be) don't mention them. The JET selection panels seems to excel at choosing candidates who are poor at integrating into Japanese society and don't learn Japanese. I'm a JET btw.

spleenlol Wrote:haha. Do you like your job though? I think it would be a great job to have.
Not really sure how to do it for japanese kids though. Gotta be really energetic I think.

Yeah it's enjoyable, I wish the lesson structure was more definite. We kinda just turn up and are told, your teaching this today.. go for it. I also teach adults privately and as I can control the lesson structure that's a lot smoother.

Yeah.. being energetic would help a great deal. It both motivating the kids, and being able to keep up with them once they get going. Kids no nothing of stamina, they can keep going for longer than you can feasibly imagine.

@Nadiatims..

I think that's the biggest problem with JET they hire anyone with a degree, even if they don't speak a word of Japanese, know about the culture, or have any chance of integrating. Hence why you end up with so many blogs by "English Teachers" (word used lightly) who hate the fact that they are in Japan. 1) due to unrealistic expectations of the country and people and 2) they don't have any experience or ability to fit in anyway.

It's an international exchange program not an integration program. The Japanese government just wants to bring over young people to "experience" Japan for a few years, go home, and hopefully make business ties with Japan in the future.

They are not interested in any way in finding people to "integrate" into Japanese society. I'd even go as far as to say they aren't even interested in English teachers.

Womacks23 Wrote:It's an international exchange program not an integration program. The Japanese government just wants to bring over young people to "experience" Japan for a few years, go home, and hopefully make business ties with Japan in the future.

They are not interested in any way in finding people to "integrate" into Japanese society. I'd even go as far as to say they aren't even interested in English teachers.

Obviously not.. but your given the choice.. you can hire 2 people. One who's not going to fit in, struggle and 3 weeks later hate the fact they're there. Or one who fits in fine, find's it easy to live and thus enjoys themselves giving a better performance at work. I know which one I'd hire, and JET for some reason do the opposite.
No one said they were hiring to integrate you into their society, but as you are going to be living there, then you need to be able to handle it. And a lot of them can't, due to JET's shitty selection process.
You hire someone and they have a shitty time of it, I'd say it has a worse effect. How's that saying go, Praise reaches 4 people and a complaint reaches 10.

Gingerninja Wrote:Obviously not.. but your given the choice.. you can hire 2 people. One who's not going to fit in, struggle and 3 weeks later hate the fact they're there. Or one who fits in fine, find's it easy to live and thus enjoys themselves giving a better performance at work. I know which one I'd hire, and JET for some reason do the opposite.

And how do you figure out which one is which?

What is missing from your improved selection process?

Womacks23 Wrote:

Gingerninja Wrote:Obviously not.. but your given the choice.. you can hire 2 people. One who's not going to fit in, struggle and 3 weeks later hate the fact they're there. Or one who fits in fine, find's it easy to live and thus enjoys themselves giving a better performance at work. I know which one I'd hire, and JET for some reason do the opposite.

And how do you figure out which one is which?

The one going blindly in with no idea, no language ability, no applicable degree. Is probably the best way to tell at face value. No you can't make a true character judgement on one interview, but as JET accepts applicants from anywhere with any kind of degree, what's the likelihood of the sport's science major with no language or teaching experience struggling more than the Language Major, or the Educational Major? Pretty high I'd guess at.
But they are treated the same come application time. Which is a little baffling to me to say the least.

Gingerninja Wrote:

Womacks23 Wrote:

Gingerninja Wrote:Obviously not.. but your given the choice.. you can hire 2 people. One who's not going to fit in, struggle and 3 weeks later hate the fact they're there. Or one who fits in fine, find's it easy to live and thus enjoys themselves giving a better performance at work. I know which one I'd hire, and JET for some reason do the opposite.

And how do you figure out which one is which?

The one going blindly in with no idea, no language ability, no applicable degree. Is probably the best way to tell at face value. No you can't make a true character judgement on one interview, but as JET accepts applicants from anywhere with any kind of degree, what's the likelihood of the sport's science major with no language or teaching experience struggling more than the Language Major, or the Educational Major? Pretty high I'd guess at.
But they are treated the same come application time. Which is a little baffling to me to say the least.

Wait a second. Do you even have any experience on JET?

The people who come here with no Japan experience or absolutely no Japanese ability are in the extreme minority. I don't think there was a single new JET who came this year in my prefecture who didn't take at least one Japanese course in university. Two years ago the number of people was maybe 3 or 4. Out of 100+.

And they are not really treated the same at application time. In the US, the application is points based and knowing Japanese puts you ahead of people who do not know any Japanese... same with having "international experience"... Not to mention the entire program is skewed towards people who studied Japanese and have a huge interest in living in Japan...

Did you get rejected and have an ax to grind or something?

Womacks23 Wrote:Wait a second. Do you even have any experience on JET?

The people who come here with no Japan experience or absolutely no Japanese ability are in the extreme minority. I don't think there was a single new JET who came this year in my prefecture who didn't take at least one Japanese course in university. Two years ago the number of people was maybe 3 or 4. Out of 100+.

And they are not really treated the same at application time. In the US, the application is points based and knowing Japanese puts you ahead of people who do not know any Japanese... same with having "international experience"... Not to mention the entire program is skewed towards people who studied Japanese and have a huge interest in living in Japan...

Did you get rejected and have an ax to grind or something?

Never applied, may do in the future. I currently live in Japan studying as an Exchange student and I'm basing it on the stories I have been told, and the endless amount of blogs you can find about it. So maybe it's all anecdotal, i have no facts and figures to show. If this has changed, then good I'm very glad to hear it.
How did this get onto their interview politics anyway.. I came to explain why the classes are in English and No Japanese is preferred. Seeing as I teach English here part time while I study. I was merely commenting on why so many people who do come to Japan hate it and become home sick. (I know several students and part time workers who suffer this)

I think it has more to do with the absolute ridiculousness that is English education in Japanese public schools. Not from picking people who can't adapt well to life in Japan.

And getting info from "blogs"* is not really an accurate description at all of what life is like on JET. Since like everything else on the internet, the people with the most to vent are going to be the loudest.



* Blogging about your school and work while on JET can get you fired. Japanese schools hate it big time. Been getting a lot of letters about that from the peeps in charge lately.

Womacks23 Wrote:I think it has more to do with the absolute ridiculousness that is English education in Japanese public schools. Not from picking people who can't adapt well to life in Japan.

I'll tell you on Monday... have to go to a high school and give a class a 15 minute speech on England and how it's different from Japan, and then answer questions. Should be an interesting test of their English ability. Apparently in one of these high school sessions a girl raised her hand and asked the girl doing the speech " Do you think I'm cute?" So I don't think It's going to be overly taxing on my knowledge of English grammar.

Haha, how about working in that high school along with a Japanese teacher for a full school year and then come back and tell us about your experiences with ESL in Japan. Sounds fair?

15 minutes in a high school isn't really going to give you any idea what it's like to "work" here.

Womacks23 Wrote:Haha, how about working in that high school along with a Japanese teacher for a year and then come back and tell us about your experiences with ESL in Japan. Sounds fair?

15 minutes in a high school isn't really going to give you any idea what it's like to "work" here.

I do work here, I teach kids classes and Private lessons. At least in high school they answer back and don't just sit there looking wide eyed at you before deciding they'd rather eat crayons. If any job's come up doing high school work I'll take them, but I can only do what I can when I'm not studying (which is during the day mostly). There's a lot of other exchange students here battling over the same few positions, so it's not like I get to pick and choose.

You don't "work" here. JET teachers "work" here. They go to the same schools for 9 hours a day 5 days a week. You are teaching day care part time and making high school cultural visits. That is only giving you a very small glimpse of one tiny corner of the big picture that is English education in Japan.

Womacks23 Wrote:You don't "work" here. JET teachers "work" here. They go to the same schools for 9 hours a day 5 days a week. You are teaching day care part time and making high school cultural visits. That is only giving you a very small glimpse of one tiny corner of the big picture that is English education in Japan.

Isn't the rest of it just being a human tape recorder... repeat after me.. Apple, Banana :p
lol. Well as I'm considering education as a future career move and I have a work placement to do and write an essay on, then I may look into it (Although if enough strings can be pulled that will be at a network TV station and not sitting in a classroom.) Anyway, my Visa doesn't allow "Work" as your considering it, I can only do part time shit and for only 28 hours a week. (not that I come close to that)

In my experience the people who have had the worst experiences on JET are the ones who came from an ESL background...

Easy going sports management guy who took some Japanese classes to fulfill graduation requirements - gonna have a great time! Exchange rate is sweeeet! Only two classes a day! Japanese food is awesome! Niiiiice.

ESL and Japanese duel major guy - things go south real fast once they run into the actual Japanese educational system with its ass backwards English curriculum and Japanese English teachers who never utilize their abilities.

In my three years I've seen 4 people break contract early and run from Japan. Every one of those people had an education background and knew a fair amount of Japanese. They just couldn't fit into the "system" as it is.

Now to be perfectly honest. I hate my job. Seriously, no joke, being an ALT kind of sucks. But....I love the experience. It's been worth it

JETs don't "work" there either though. You see each class for an hour a week at most, you have pretty much no say in anything that happens, have no authority to change anything, have no real responsibility, and will not be treated as a staff member (though you may be treated well).

JETs are short-term cultural exchange guests who help out a bit and get a stipend, but maybe thats what you were getting at

Thinking about it that way might make it easier to understand why they might not want someone obsessed with Japanese culture, excellent at Japanese, or who has all kinds of awesome ideas about how to improve/change English education. They basically want a slice of apple pie and a human tape recorder.