currently on my 5th year as a JET.
I've got a lot of opinions and experience about the program.

I've gotten so much out of this forum that I'd like to give a little bit back by answering any questions about the program as candidly as I can for those interested.

I know I'm not the only one on this site, so if anyone wants to chime in, feel free

ALT or CIR? I thought JET was limited to three years.

Any regrets? Anything you wish you had known prior to applying? Would you do it again? Do you feel like a human tape recorder (something I've often heard as a complaint from ALTs) or are you given more freedom in planning your lessons? Favorite moment? Least favorite moment?

I heard that most people get sent to inaka. Is there anything to do there or do people get bored out of their mind after a while? What are the living accomodations, do you have your own place? What's your daily schedule?

how difficult was it to get selected?

how many people move on to non-english teaching jobs? how quickly?


atm i'm thinking about applying, but i'd rather not teach english and i don't know what's a good way to start looking. especially since i'm going for jlpt1 at the end of this year and i'm unsure if i'll pass.

I can offer advice about JET and getting a non-teaching job.

It's a real dick move to use the JET Program just for a visa. If you plan to do that than don't come to Japan on JET. Most companies in Japan do their hiring around March and April and the JET contract is July-July. If you want to ditch JET for something else you're going to have to screw the guys who spent a whole ton of money to bring you over to Japan. Not to mention you will screw the JET program as a whole by possibly influencing a board of education to quit JET to go with a private ALT company.

Anyway

Out of the 200 or so people I've seen come through my prefecture (in Shikoku) ... I only know four who have stayed around in Japan to work outside of teaching. One went to work for a travel agency in Kyoto, another became a freelance translator and started his own company in Tokyo, another guy is in a band based out of Tokyo, and one girl got married to a local guy and ended up finding a position in the local government office.

I also saw a whole lot of people who wanted to stay but who were unable to find employment because of the hiring window and lack of Japanese skills. Basically, it's very difficult to make that transition unless your nihongo is really good and you are willing to screw your employer.

bluemarigolds Wrote:ALT or CIR? I thought JET was limited to three years.

Any regrets? Anything you wish you had known prior to applying? Would you do it again? Do you feel like a human tape recorder (something I've often heard as a complaint from ALTs) or are you given more freedom in planning your lessons? Favorite moment? Least favorite moment?

I am an ALT at a high school. The program is for 3 years which can become 4 or 5 if your contracting organization deems you to be a quality teacher (every organization has a different way of doing this, mine was a recommendation from my staff, an interview in japanese, and a JLPT certification). Its really easy to get recontacted for 3 years, 4 to 5 is iffy depending on the place.

I run the show in 90% of my classes, so Im not a tape recorder (though I have heard that this can happen in some Jr. highs). I can do whatever I feel like doing, though my lessons arent graded so the students arent forced to participate.

Best / worst - do you mean at school?

Worst moment - I parked in a somebody's parking spot for 2 minutes and he proceeded to give me a racist tirade that was way over the top

best moment - dressed like a swan with 3 other teachers, we sang and danced at a friend's wedding. Then i proceeded to give a speech in which I gave a shout out to all the single ladies.

shinsen Wrote:I heard that most people get sent to inaka. Is there anything to do there or do people get bored out of their mind after a while? What are the living accomodations, do you have your own place? What's your daily schedule?

Yes, most get the inaka, but after being here for awhile, I like the inaka much more. There is enough to do not to be bored. Depending on your japanese level you have more options, but I generally dont have any problems finding things to do. many locals want to show you things. if you dont mind hanging around people you probably wouldnt back home, the possibilities are endless. However if you are in Japan to run through as many japanese lady friends as possible, the inaka would interfere with that.

People who say they are bored would be bored in any situation where they have to make most of their fun. I guess the point is that you cant wait for stuff to come to you, you have to find it. I used a lot of my free time to get better at Japanese and that has had a profound impact on my experience here.

accommodations are very variable. I got lucky by getting subsidized housing (my rent is 15,000 ). If you have to pay key money to live somewhere, I would demand that I see the place first before I moved in. It would probably be worth it to stay in a hotel or with an old ALT for a few days. I know many many ALTs who hate where they live. Local Boards of Education are notorious for choosing crappy out of the way places to put people. If you want to leave it to chance leave it up your contracting organization. I had a homestay for 3 days (i had no idea that i would) when i first came and got to choose from amongst 4 places.

My day consists of getting up at 720 - school by 8
2 - 4 classes. i drink coffee and talk to other staff members in the downtime.
I get done 345- 500ish depending on if there is something that I want to do at school

at night it can vary from local club teams, local bar, local izakaya, staying in, movies, exercise, japanese lesson etc.

I would say that on average I have about 3.5 hours of discretionary time a day at work. I take home work maybe twice a year. ( I make my lesson plans at work and have many many to choose from in my fifth year)

kainzero Wrote:how difficult was it to get selected?

how many people move on to non-english teaching jobs? how quickly?


atm i'm thinking about applying, but i'd rather not teach english and i don't know what's a good way to start looking. especially since i'm going for jlpt1 at the end of this year and i'm unsure if i'll pass.

In my area very few move on to non-english teaching jobs in Japan. I few who have been here awhile do various office work for companies ( usually in a place like Osaka or Tokyo).

It wasnt too difficult to get in when I did, but with the shitty economy, and the prospects of 3,600,000 tax free - the quality of the candidates has risen dramatically. I think the odds of selection vary widely depending on what consulate you apply through. I know that the london one has especially fierce competition.

If you want to get a job in Japan, JET is a good place to start because you can 1. get better at Japanese on the job. 2. you have tons of free time to work on side projects. 3. you have enough days off to find something you like. 4. you can decide if you really want to live in a country like japan ( i have seen many many people come to hate living here.) 5. the pay is pretty solid.

If you came as a CIR ( the competition is fierce because these jobs are getting cut all over the place), it would look really good on a resume for whatever you apply to next. Many CIRs pass 1 kyuu while they are here.

I know a guy who came here with really good japanese as an ALT and ended up translating for the police after work and on weekends. He also translated for some british n. korean talks that took place here. So obviously some people can branch out.

I'm a 3rd year JET too.
I'd say duder's description so far has been pretty close to my own experience of the programme.
I only teach at elementary schools (which is pretty rare). My working day is similar with usually a few lessons a day plus lunch and other activities with the kids. This usually leaves me a few hours free to either study or to jump in on other classes if i'm bored.

Life in the countryside can actually be more fun than the city for a lot of people. However, if you just want to party and don't have any particular interest in learning Japanese then it would probably be pretty boring.

Also if you don't have a genuine interest in teaching kids then you probably aren't going to stick at it very long no matter how good the money and how fun your weekends are.

mutley Wrote:if you just want to party and don't have any particular interest in learning Japanese then it would probably be pretty boring.

Not this website's demographic, I would hazard a guess. As for myself, I am mostly interested in getting on the "inside", integrating myself into Japanese in-groups and making strong friendships. It would be very interesting to hear how you JETs go about it.

Whether this is easier in Tokyo or in the country, I don't really know, but I'm leaning towards Tokyo. When I visited Japan for a month, I found that it was easier to meet people in Tokyo (through mixi).

On the other hand, I had experiences in Nara, Hiroshima and Kagoshima where random people on the street would react to me being a gaijin in a positive way (well to be honest, that amounted to children saying "haroo", nothing else), but it didn't seem to happen in Tokyo (unless you count that one time when two women ran away from me in horror when I wanted to ask for directions).

mutley Wrote:Also if you don't have a genuine interest in teaching kids then you probably aren't going to stick at it very long

Oh sh... That would be a problem, yes. Makes me wonder how ethical it would be to use the program as an opportunity to implant oneself in Japan. It sounds like a real job that requires dedication, making lesson plans and all sorts of mendokusai I'm personally not terribly interested in. Maybe it's better to save up some money and pay for a year at a language school or something.

mutley Wrote:Also if you don't have a genuine interest in teaching kids then you probably aren't going to stick at it very long no matter how good the money and how fun your weekends are.

I know you're in JET, but the thing is -- I love kids. I think I would really enjoy working with younger ones -- preschool/kindergarten type. My mom ran a daycare out of our basement my whole life, so I've kind of been surrounded.

How would you say the prospects are for finding something like that? If I could be with little guys, I think I'd enjoy myself -- and maybe try to find a "real job" when my contract ran out and they didn't want me. It wouldn't be 'ditching my employer' at that stage, I don't think.

Just an idea...not my absolute-must-do future plans, but something I think I'd enjoy.

shinsen Wrote:(well to be honest, that amounted to children saying "haroo", nothing else)

I had a nice talk on the train to Sendai with some kid who was like 9 or 10 about pokemon. I was playing Heart Gold (in English ) and he thought it was the coolest thing. Our conversation was in Japanese, but he liked how the game was in English.

duder Wrote:If you want to get a job in Japan, JET is a good place to start because you can 1. get better at Japanese on the job. 2. you have tons of free time to work on side projects. 3. you have enough days off to find something you like. 4. you can decide if you really want to live in a country like japan ( i have seen many many people come to hate living here.) 5. the pay is pretty solid.

If you came as a CIR ( the competition is fierce because these jobs are getting cut all over the place), it would look really good on a resume for whatever you apply to next. Many CIRs pass 1 kyuu while they are here.

I know a guy who came here with really good japanese as an ALT and ended up translating for the police after work and on weekends. He also translated for some british n. korean talks that took place here. So obviously some people can branch out.

Right now I'm working in the engineering field, but it's not fulfilling enough so I want to move on. I thought it would be a great opportunity to move to Japan and get some international experience. Right now my pay is great and I have enough free time too, since it's a government job and I'm not bound by overtime. I'm not really interested in doing any translation/English teaching as a career...

Plus you make it sound like becoming a CIR is really difficult, and since my spoken Japanese is horrible, it seems like I don't stand a chance. That job seems fun though. =)

Well I assumed the thing about not having an interest in learning Japanese wouldn't apply to many people on here. However, the bit about just wanting to party in a big city might.

If you don't have much interest in teaching then maybe a year would be ok but any longer and it'll start to make you pretty bored and bitter about Japan. It's a good way to try out living in the country though if you can't afford to just go to a language school.

From looking at posts in the CIR forum it doesn't look like your Japanese neccessarily needs to be amazing to stand a chance of getting in. It seems quite common for people with only JLPT 2 to get in as long as they have decent speaking ability and more importantly they can convince the interviewer that they have an interest and experience in cross-cultural exchange related events. Obviously due to the smaller number of applicants and positions how hard it actually is to get in will depend on the quality of candidates at a particular consulate in a particular year.

Asriel- Most JET positions are either at high school or a mixture of junior high school and elementary. I only go to elementary and nursery schools, which seems to be a very unusual position. However, there seem to be a lot of pre-schools advertising privately for teachers on websites like gaijinpot. So those sorts of jobs are out there just not really on JET. Beware teaching english at pre-school requires serious amounts of energy but can be a lot of fun.

Any of you guys going to the conference in Yokohama next week?

@kainzero:
If you're going for JLPT1, your Japanese is definitely good enough to be a CIR whether or not you pass it (as long as your spoken Japanese is up to scratch). In your translation work, E->J translation will always be checked by your supervisor and errors corrected. Much more important is that you show in your application and interview a genuine enthusiasm for 'internationalisation' as well as a good bit of resilience (if you want to do a project in your inaka town and your supervisor says no, do you give up or do you adapt the project about 50 times and canvass support from co-workers until they say yes?).

A friend of mine whose Japanese is, I would say, reasonable but not exactly good (JLPT N3 working towards N2?) got a contract with a Japanese firm (plus company housing) nothing to do with teaching English (except she teaches a staff 英会話 once or twice a week) purely through her own imaginative canvassing techniques. It's unusual, but if you go about it in the right way it can be done.

@bluemarigolds
If you are a JHS (Junior High) ALT you will feel like a tape recorder. However, the more effort you put in, the more you be allowed to do. It takes a LONG time to build a good relationship with your colleagues (especially if your predecessor didn't bother). You have to be persistent, proactive and resilient, and take the initiative. It's hard. I worked my ass off for 2 years and never got any feedback... just before I left, my teachers told me I was the best ALT they'd ever had and a good teacher. If they'd told me earlier I might have stayed. You can have a lot more control in Elementary School if you go about it in the right way. SHS (Senior High) is a completely different job.

I worked as an ALT at 2 JHS and 7 ES (time split about 50/50) for 2 years in very inaka Japan. I also helped out the town office with translation stuff when the CIR was away or too busy. I was bored sometimes, but not more than I would have been anywhere else. I agree with mutley - also, if you don't have a genuine interest in the job and put effort into it, I think that you're letting down your students, your successor and your colleagues, both your fellow ALTs and co-workers at school.

Ah. Thanks for the information! I'll definitely try giving the CIR thing a shot.

Of course, that also means I have to retake Japanese class, so I have a somewhat reliable person to get me a letter of recommendation. =)

I am going for JLPT1, but at the moment am still studying JLPT2 level. It's just a matter of fitting in all that vocabulary in time, and reaching a decent reading speed and listening comprehension.

Once again, thanks to jofiddle, duder, and mutley for answering my questions.

if you can speak a third language, that would really boost your CIR application as 4 of the 5 in my area 4 do.


Oh yeah, ill be in yokohama for the free nenkyu

I'd definitely go for it!
3 years ago when I was thinking about applying my Japanese wasn't good enough for CIR yet.
And as I lived in a non-English seapking country there were only 1-2 ALT positions each year. The year I wanted to apply there were zero.

Well, JET is a good option as your salary is quite high compared to other ALT jobs and you're pampered quite a lot.

I'm still proud that although I didn't have an organization like that behind me, I managed everything on my own

Asriel Wrote:-- and maybe try to find a "real job" when my contract ran out

Seriously, could you guys please stop referring to teaching English as "no real job"?!
You're all intelligent enough to know better, aren't you? *annoyed* :/

chochajin Wrote:

Asriel Wrote:-- and maybe try to find a "real job" when my contract ran out

Seriously, could you guys please stop referring to teaching English as "no real job"?!
You're all intelligent enough to know better, aren't you? *annoyed* :/

Teaching English can be a real job. Being an ALT is not (that's why it's a resume killer if you do it for too long). At best it's like a paid internship, but less work.
Work at a university or an HS where you actually plan a course and are responsible for the students learning and passing their tests, and where you can give grades, instead of just making fun worksheets and games for a couple hours a day and just kill time for the other 5 hours.

No one considers working as an AT at a university in the west a "real job", and they have much more responsibility than an ALT here.

chochajin Wrote:

Asriel Wrote:-- and maybe try to find a "real job" when my contract ran out

Seriously, could you guys please stop referring to teaching English as "no real job"?!
You're all intelligent enough to know better, aren't you? *annoyed* :/

Thats why I put it in quotes...?

Some people seem to forget that teaching English in Japan =/= being an ALT.
I don't dare to talk about ALT jobs as I've never done it before. I think only people who actually worked as an ALT really know. As far as I heard it really depends on the school. There seem to be ALTs that are not assistants at all, but truly teach and plan whole classes all alone.
I don't work at university or a HS or anything, but in a private school and I've been planning and doing everything on my own from the start. By now it's not only teaching but partly managing the whole thing as well.
I've learned so much in this job and I truly enjoy it (and to me it's part of my career as I - unlike most people who come to teach English in Japan (correct me if I'm wrong) have a MA in education).

@Asriel: That was not against you, but all the people who tend to say that in general. It just pisses me off. Nobody can jugde if something can be considered a real job or not anyways.
You could have just said "another job" instead. No offense here towards you!
I just wanted to clarify this, because I've seen people in this forum talking about teaching English in Japan as something that might destroy your future job prospects/career etc. - I can't remember which thread it was, though.
It might be true that (maybe even the majority) people come here fresh from college with only a BA in whatever and teach English for a year or so, just playing around, not caring about teaching at all, and then they leave again. I think that's one reason why so many people (even a lot of Japanese) look down so much on English teachers.
And of course simply the fact that basically ANYBODY can get an English teaching job as long as they've got a BA degree - even if they have no clue about teaching at all. That makes it look like a job just anybody can do - which definitely is NOT true (though it depends again on what kind of work you do in the end - there's so many different options for teaching English in Japan that it's hard to generalize things).

Jarvik7 Wrote:

chochajin Wrote:

Asriel Wrote:-- and maybe try to find a "real job" when my contract ran out

Seriously, could you guys please stop referring to teaching English as "no real job"?!
You're all intelligent enough to know better, aren't you? *annoyed* :/

Teaching English can be a real job. Being an ALT is not (that's why it's a resume killer if you do it for too long). At best it's like a paid internship, but less work.
Work at a university or an HS where you actually plan a course and are responsible for the students learning and passing their tests, and where you can give grades, instead of just making fun worksheets and games for a couple hours a day and just kill time for the other 5 hours.

No one considers working as an AT at a university in the west a "real job", and they have much more responsibility than an ALT here.

whoa whoa whoa, not a real job? resume killer? these are strong statements that are simply not true. Any job can be depicted as not "real." It's simply a matter of how you frame the job description. for example I could argue that spending 3 years in an office doing data entry is not "real work." Others would certainly disagree.

depending on what your future employment goals are, being an ALT -even for a long time- can be excellent for the resume. The fact is living abroad is rare for Americans. Many employers do not know what an ALT is or what that means, but they do know the value of a prolonged international experience. It's different, and in an age where companies are flooded with resumes, it stands out.

American society does not penalize individuals who don't have the "perfect" resume. It is not India, Japan, China or Korea. Many successful entrepreneurs have partaken in far more time wasting ventures , only to find that those experiences were the things that set them apart from their peers.

Lets not rush to generalize a highly individualized experience.

My criterion for judging a job as "real" or not is if it requires skill and involves responsibility.

ALT is a resume killer if you do it too long because:
1) It's a job that requires no real skill, just a pulse and some degree of conversational fluency (about 1/3 of the ALT who work in the Nagoya area are not native speakers and many have poor grammar/thick accents). Any skills you DO gain are not useful for anything other than teaching more ESL.
2) ALT have no responsibilities. They are not legally allowed to give grades, assign homework, be unsupervised with the children, tell them to be quiet, etc. It may happen, but only because the JTE was negligent.

Doing it for a short time gives you international experience which looks good on your resume. Doing it for too long makes it look like you couldn't get any other job and ended up trapped. Even if you plan on going into teaching as a full-on teacher, it looks a lot worse than actually teaching professionally for most of your post-university life. Basically a long ALT history on your resume is only good for getting another ALT/eikaiwa job.

misc:
Western human resource departments DO know what "teaching English overseas" is and don't take it seriously.
International experience will help an applicant stand out against other recent graduates. It won't help them stand out against a bunch of resumes from people who have had 10 years of applicable career experience instead of 10 years of ALT.

Doing 5 years with Interact might be a resume killer...

With JET, there are positions of responsibility within the program and the degrees of teaching responsibility at schools is different for every person. If you just coast along and only do the minimum work you might kill your future job prospects. To avoid this, get involved in the leadership of the program, get Japanese certification, and consider doing online courses in something career useful.

Jarvik7 Wrote:misc:
Western human resource departments DO know what "teaching English overseas" is and don't take it seriously.

How exactly did I get accepted into two top 20 MBA programs if they know what "teaching English overseas" is like?