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A request from WITLife writer Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03):

My friend Ryoko is looking to get some information for a college classmate who is hoping to spend a short time in Tokyo studying Japanese.  Can anyone help out with the following questions?  If so, please contact her at sr960002 [at] gmail.com.  Thank you and yoroshiku onegaishimasu!

1) Do you have any suggestions for safe, short-term apartment leases/rentals in Tokyo? Or any idea of how to search for one?

2) Also, do you have any suggestions for good Japanese language immersion programs in Tokyo? (The kind where you stay in the country/program for 1-3 months.)

Via JETAA DC yahoogroup:

JET alum Jordan Heiber (Fukui-ken, 2000-02) is looking for info/recommendations for intensive Japanese Language Programs in Tokyo — similar to the one offered by Keio University.  Requirements would be:

1) year long course

2) qualifies the participant for a student visa for the year

3) ideally close in proximity to Minato Ku

Jordan notes:  “The Internet is overflowing with less-than-useful information on this, so I’m hoping some of you may have some insider’s knowledge.  Thanks.”

If anyone else in the JET-o-sphere has helpful information, please share in the comments section of this post.  Or e-mail jordansensei [/at/] hotmail [/dot/] com.

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Laura Popp (Mie-ken, 2009-Present) is a current JET who writes fantasy and science fiction for children and young adults, and is an occasional playwright/film maker.  Her short work includes a short story titled “In theShadow Realm” and a documentary she made in Malawi.  To read about her amazing adventures all over Japan, go to her blog at laurajanepopp.blogspot.com. (And check out the Authors/Books section of the JetWit Library for a list of more writers in the JET-o-sphere.)

Hello again!  This week I would like to report on the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) conference in Yokohama.  It actually occurred on November 14^th, but, alas, I have been ill with swine flu and other “opportunistic infections” so I was unable to report.  But now you get to hear all about it!

For those of you who don`t know, SCBWI is a great group to get involved with if you write for kids.  They have lots of events, critique groups, contests, and resources.  Here is their website: http://www.scbwi.jp/

A note on transportation. There are many events for writers and translators in Japan, but most are confined to the big cities. For those of you who live in a small town like me, you may be wondering how you will ever get to this wonderful career-building opportunities and still stay within your tight school-teacher budget.  Fear not!

There is a wonderful, often overlooked form of transportation in Japan called the night bus.  It may seem like a pain, but the bus I took from my home in Nabari to Yokohama was very comfortable.  The bus ride was about eight hours, so if I were more accustomed to sleeping on a bus, I probably could have been well rested when we arrived very early in the morning.  The earliness gave me plenty of time for sightseeing before the conference, and since my bus home didn`t leave until 11:00pm.  Plus it cost less than half than taking the shinkansen, and there`s no need to pay for a hotel!

That said, I was very tired when I arrived back in Nabari at 7:00am.  Fortunately it was Sunday, but I would not recommend taking the night bus if you have to go to work the next day.  Also, be warned, not all night buses are created equal. Check to see if the bus you want to ride has reclining seats or not, and if there is a bathroom on board or if they stop ever few hours, turn on the lights, and have people jostling past you trying to get in and out constantly.  If you are interested in taking a night bus somewhere, I would recommend contacting the main bus station in your town.  Most of them don’t speak English, but a Japanese friend helped me get the information and make reservations over the phone.  You may be surprised how many places offer night buses to common destinations such as Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, etc.

(FYI, Yokohama is famous for its Read More

Just saw a request on the JETAA DC yahoogroup for electronic dictionary recommendations.  That seems like a good question to throw out to the JET and JET alum community.  So please post your recommendations in the comments section of this post, or send an email to jetwit [/at/] jetwit [/dot/] com.

Yoroshiku!

Popp, Laura (Mie-ken, 2008-Present) is a current JET who writes fantasy and science fiction for children and young adults, and is an occasional playwright/film maker.  Her short work includes a short story titled “In theShadow Realm” and a documentary she made in Malawi.  To read about her amazing adventures all over Japan, go to her blog at laurajanepopp.livejournal.com. (And check out the Authors/Books section of the JetWit Library for a list of more writers in the JET-o-sphere.)

Hello, everyone!  I`m new to Japan and the JetWit blog, so allow me to introduce myself!  I`m a sci-fi/fantasy young adult writer from Oklahoma in the U.S.  I love to travel, as you can probably tell from my blog, so most of my posts will be about my wonderful adventures all over Asia and any writing news I learn about.

This week I`ll be reporting on two writers` events I attended last weekend,  a critique meeting in Osaka and a conference in Kyoto! For those of you who don`t know, there is an excellent group called English Writers and Readers that meets every Saturday in Osaka from 2:30 to however long people want to stay.  It’s not just for writers; if you love to read there is also a book club and various other discussion boards and events.  But if you are a writer, of any genre or form, you can email your work to group members and have it critiqued the following Saturday.  For me it was very productive. They tore apart (figuratively) my story “Tapestry of Time,” but now I know how to make it better.  I will warn you that the turnout for meetings tends to be very low (there were only four of us), so if it`s quite a trek for you, I suggest getting a general idea of how many will be there before you go all that way.

One of the girls in the writers` club, Rianna, was really sweet and let me stay with her Saturday night. On Sunday morning, I headed off to the writers’ conference in Kyoto. I was a little disappointed.  Good luck trying to publish an English fiction book in Japan, they said, because no publishers here accept them. There are English printers here, however, and a strong potential market of foreign readers.  So if you have a book already published elsewhere and would like to promote it in Japan, there are several resources available to you, including Printed Matter Press.  Here is their website: http://www.printedmatterpress.com/.   And of course, if you want to go the self-publishing route, these guys can help with that too.

Other than that, the “Revising Your Novel” seminar, presented by Holly Thompson, was most helpful.   Her basic strategy was to systematically go through your novel and create a detailed spreadsheet of necessary revisions in character, setting, theme, etc. and mark these various “threads” wherever they appear with colored sticky notes.  Then, read through the novel with only one of these threads in mind.  That way you can stay focused and not get bogged down by the sheer size of the project.  Here’s a picture of her session:

During lunch, I happened to run into the right people at the right time. I was looking for a place to eat my bento and sat with three ladies outside.  We got to talking, and one of the three happened to be Suzanne Kamata (Tokushima-ken, 1988-90) who I`d been trying to get a hold of for some time. She’s an American published young adult writer living in Japan who’s involved in the SCBWI (Society of Children`s Book Writers and Illustrators). She invited me to go to their major conference in Yokohama on November 28th that`s going to host Alvina Ling, a Senior Editor at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.  What an amazing opportunity!  For those who are interested, the registration deadline is November 4th.  You can sign up at their website, http://www.scbwi.jp/.

To hear more about the Kyoto conference and my other adventures in Japan, visit my full blog at laurajanepopp.livejournal.com!

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JetWit knows that a lot of JET alums are interested in working in the fields of international education programs and student services, so we asked future international ed expert Pam Kavalam (Shiga-ken, 2007-09) to talk to some JET alums in the field and share her conversation for the benefit of the JET alumni community:

Spotlight on University Administration

by Pam Kavalam (Shiga-ken, 2007-09)

Are you looking for a career that can utilize some of the skills you learned over in Japan- cross-cultural exchange, working with students, and (for the truly lucky) the offer to travel again? Think about working at a university- either in international exchange or student affairs. I sat down with Shannan Spisak (Kawasaki-shi, 96-98) to talk about her experience from the JET Program to higher education administration.

Tell me about your journey into the field of international education.

Shannan: After I came back from JET, I moved to New York City with a friend and worked at a private Japanese company for 2 years. I decided to switch careers to move into the international arena; the United Nations in particular interested me. I went on a number of informational interviews with fellow former JETs working in the field and they all recommended graduate school. I decided to study Peace Education and International Exchange at Teachers College, Columbia University. In order to finance my education, I took a job working as Assistant to the President of Barnard College while attending classes part-time. During the process of completing my M.A., I realized I had grown more interested in the education component of my degree than its relation to UN work. Consequently, my focus shifted towards seeking a career in international exchange in higher education.

What do you do now?

Shannan: I work at the Institute of International Education (IIE) in the Global Scholarships Division. The IIE is a 90 year-old non-profit organization that runs over 200 programs around the world, including the Fulbright. I manage three international scholarship programs through the GE Foundation and the Chubb Insurance Foundation. I organize the review and selection of applications, notify finalists, award grants, and manage special components of the scholarships such as Leadership Development Seminars and Career Workshops. I also coordinate Read More

There’s a short article in the New York Times titled “Healthcare Abroad: Japan” which is part of a series that looks at healthcare systems in other countries.  It briefly gets at what works well, what the weak points are and why it’s that way.

How do JETs and JET alums feel about Japanese healthcare and the points in this article?  Share your thoughts by posting a comment.

See this recent post on JetWit (“JET alumni and healthcare“) for additional discussion of JET alumni and their experiences and concerns with healthcare.

Update: Turns out PBS’ Frontline did a documentary called “Sick Around the World“ which examined the healthcare systems in five countries, including Japan, which you can watch on their website here.

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You may have read recently about Eleanor Robinson (CIR Aomori-ken, 1999-2002) and her work with the new Doshisha Global MBA Program which begins in September.  Thanks to Eleanor, we’ve also learned about another JET alum, Dr. Andrew Staples (Fukuoka-ken, 1996-99), who is a Special Visiting Professor at Doshisha Business School with a number of published writings that should be of interest to the JET alumni community.

Here’s more about Andrew and his career path so far:

JetWit:  We understand your work has been published.  Can you tell us what and where?

Andrew: I’ve published a few times with Palgrave in the Asian Business Series including the chapter in the new textbook (we are in the process of making PowerPoint slides to accompany the book, which has been selling well), a chapter in an edited volume titled Emerging Multiplicity, and my own single authored text published last year, Responses to Regionalism, which was based on my PhD thesis.

Publications by Andrew Staples:

• Asian Business and Management: Theory, Practice and Perspectives (see chapter 4)
• Responses to Regionalism in East Asia – Chapter titled “Japanese Production Networks in the Automotive Sector”
• Emerging Multiplicity – Integration and Responsiveness in Asian Business Development

JetWit:  What was your path from JET to academics?

A: I was an ALT for two years in a senior high in Fukuoka prefecture before becoming the ALT prefectural coordinator in Fukuoka City for the final year. After JET I enrolled at the School of East Asian Studies (SEAS), University of Sheffield, U.K. to study for an MSc in East Asian Business (1999-2000). I funded this, by the way, with my pension and tax refund and a bit of university English teaching here and there, which is something other JETs could consider doing. Read More

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From the Summer 2009 “1/4 Cheap Trick” Issue of JQ (JETAA NY Quarterly) Magazine:

Like Japanese Girls? Then You Need This Book

By Rick Ambrosio (Ibaraki-ken, 2006-08)

There I was again, outside my apartment, in the car with Hitomi. Again, at this awkward moment where we both fidget and she puts the Toni Braxton CD in.  This is of course, about 10 months ago now, back in Japan. Even after living in Japan for a year and a half, I still had moments like this; social impasses as I liked to call them.  We both didn’t know what to say, what to do. Well, in reality, I didn’t know what to say or do. This was before I understood what “nan demo ii” really meant, before I could fully understand all the silent cues.  This was before I read David Radtke’s Understanding Japanese Women.

I know I know, you’re thinking, “oh no, not another pick-up line book. Not another cheesy how-to.”  It’s what I feared before I started reading it, too. However, I was delightfully surprised that Read More

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(Originally posted on April 28, 2009.)

Here’s your chance to help JetWit.  Just share a comment on this post saying what you like about JetWit.  (Or email your comment to jetwit [at] jetwit [dot] com and I’ll post it.)

Thanks for your help and yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

Update: Thanks to everyone who has posted comments so far!

James Scanlon-Canegata returned from JET last year and, in addition to pursuing research on religious studies, he’s also started working as a professional translator.  Recently, after taking a freelance job from a large translation company, he learned that he was expected to use translation software to aid his work.  This led him to the honyaku Google group to seek advice and perspective on the software issue.

JetWit thought it would be interesting to hear what James has learned so far and share it for the benefit of the JET and JET alum community.  Read on for his experience so far:

I was also completely unaware that translators used any kind of translation software when I first started thinking about doing it. I have a friend who does English-Portuguese translation and I first found out from her that this is something most professional translators use. When I did my first paid translation I just worked on Word and excel and it was very slow-going and tedious at some points. That’s when I started to wonder if translation software could help move things along.

I have a Mac and so I tried a couple of free translation programs that I saw recommended on online forums. I ended up feeling mostly confused about, well, everything. But specifically, I had the most trouble with the actual interface of the applications. The program would isolate a small area to be translated automatically and the idea is that you would go along and translate the parts until you’re through. But, with Japanese of course you have to start from the tail-end of the sentence and translate backwards a lot of times and it seemed like the application just wasn’t programmed for that type of translation. The same would go with sets of sentences where the meaning just won’t come out right if it is translated into English word-for-word in its original order. The program also seemed to break sentences up into seemingly random segments without any regard for periods or commas or common sense (on terms of a Japanese-English translation type of common sense).

This may just be because I’m an inexperienced translator, but my theory was that the software was geared Read More

With healthcare legislation front and center in the U.S. and many JETs set to leave the womb of JET life, not to mention the tough job market and high unemployment rate, I thought this might be a good time to ask the JET and JET alum community (and not just the U.S.):

• How are you feeling about health insurance and healthcare these days?

• Do you have it?

• Are you worried about it?

• What are your options?

• What challenges or problems have you faced or do you expect to face?

Post your comments here for the benefit of the JET alumni and Friend of JET community.

Yoroshiku.

A recent question from a fellow JET alum:

“Does anyone know a truly informative, enjoyable way to get a TESL/TEFL/ or CELTA certification?  Does anyone have any personal experience they can share.”

If you can help, please post your response in the comment section below, or e-mail jetwit [at] jetwit [dot] com.

Can anyone recommend any scholarships (or organizations/institutions that are good sources of scholarships) that might appeal to JETs/JET alums in addition to the ones listed below?  If so, please post in the comments section, or feel free to e-mail directly to jetwit [at] jetwit [dot] com.  We’ll make a more complete list available after getting responses.

• Monbusho
• Monterey Institute
• McGill MBA
• JAIMS (Japan-America Institute of Management Science)
• Temple University Japan campus MBA
• JLGC summer in Japan
  

Update:

• Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarships http://www.rotary.org (Thanks to Shannon Quinn, former JETAA Pacific Northwest President, former JETAA USA Country Rep and currently the ALT Advisor to MEXT in Tokyo.)

Update #2:

A few more scholarships, thanks to Kia Cheleen (CIR, Aichi-ken 1996-98, ALT 1998-1999), Associate Director at the Donald Keene Center on Japanese Culture at Columbia University.

• Japan Foundation — grants for Ph.D. studies, short-term research, Japan-related organizations who need funding for Arts & Culture or Japanese Studies projects:
  http://www.jfny.org/grant/grant.php
• Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Translation Prize (administered through Columbia University’s Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture):
  http://www.keenecenter.org/content/view/58/76/
• Shicho Fellowship for Graduate Study in Japan (adminstered through Columbia University’s Donald Keene Center of Japanese of Japanese Culture; only open to Columbia U grad students):
  http://www.keenecenter.org/content/view/24/49/
• National Endowment for the Humanities (Fellowships: Advanced Social Science Research on Japan):
  http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/fellowships-japan.html
• Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (fellowship program, creative artists’ program, etc.):
  http://www.jusfc.gov/index.asp

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Miguel Gervais (Saitama-ken, Fukaya City, 2000-03) founded and runs the M.L.C.英会話 (eikaiwa) school in Fukaya City, Saitama-ken which currently teaches approximately 45-50 students.  He is originally from Canada and was kind enough to write this article in response to a JetWit request to share his career experience.

Any other JET alums interested in sharing their own career advice, experience and perspectives are encouraged to e-mail your article idea to Steven at jetwit [at] jetwit [dot] com.

Having a Job is Irresponsible

My friend Jack is a fine, upstanding person and a great teacher. He’s been in Japan for untold years, had a job that he liked well enough and is blessed with a wonderful family. Unfortunately, the college that had hired him for the past 10 years or so suddenly refused to renew his yearly contract. In their magnanimity, they told him this one month before he was due to start the new school year. Obviously, this was much too late to find another job.

Jack is a great teacher. He is a valuable asset… and yet he is now unemployed and in rather desperate straits. But things could have been even worse… he could have been forced to leave Japan, just like untold numbers of other teachers after the NOVA debacle. Luckily, he is on a spousal visa and was spared this final humiliation.

Don’t let this happen to you! Life-time employment has never been in the cards for foreign teachers in Japan. Unless you are Read More

Just came across this interesting blog called Frugalista Japan (http://www.frugalistajapan.com):  Money saving tips and ideas for foreigners in Japan! They have a post on something I’d never even considered before but which sounds pretty useful:  How to Check Your Credit Score in Japan.

Has anyone else come across this blog before?  I know there are a number of similar kinds of useful sites in the U.S. such as Bargain Babe.  But this is the first I’ve heard of an English-language one in Japan.  Are there others out there?

Dan Dooher, an Akita-ken ALT and who also serves as the Prefectural Advisor, recently let JetWit know about their English-language guide to Akita-ken for JETs.

http://www.akitajet.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

Not sure if other prefectures have done something similar or if this is standard, but Akita-ken has put together a fantastic wiki-style site.  When you first arrive you see a map of Akita divided into cities.  Clicking on a city leads to a whole wealth of useful information for any JET (or any English-speaker for that matter) who’s planning on going there.

The left sidebar includes links to topics such as Entering JET, Financing, Travel, Health, Driving, Computers and Phones, Entertainment, Volunteer Opportunities and other extremely helpful topics.  On the right are feeds for “Latest Discussion” and “Events/Updates.”  And scrolling down leads to a Calendar as well as an Article Spotlight featuring “What is the Akita International Sumo Taikai?“  (Note: How come my prefecture didn’t have a sumo taikia?)  (Additional note: How come the internet didn’t exist when I was on JET?)

Do other prefectures have JET sites like this? (We know, for example, that Hiroshima-ken has The Wide Island View, a terrific e-zine for the JET community there, published by Gail Cetnar Meadows and Josh Zimmer.)

If so, please send the link to JetWit along with any other info and we’ll be more than happy to post it on the site for the benefit of readers.

JETAA NY Webmaster Lee-Sean Huang (Oita-ken, 2003-06) is settling into his summer internship at Creative Commons in San Francisco and is working on a site called OpenEd that will act as a kind of portal for the open education community.

Lee-Sean suggested that the JET community, which already does a lot to share their lesson plans and ESL games, might be a good group to engage on OpenEd site.

Lee-Sean has started a a preliminary Wiki page and says he would welcome any input as well as more links to relevant resources.  Since the site is a wiki, anyone can create an account and edit the site.

http://opened.creativecommons.org/OER_for_JET_Programme_Participants

Thanks to JETAA NY Webmaster Lee-Sean Huang (Oita-ken, 2003-06) and JETAA NY President Megan Miller (Hyogo-ken, 2000-02), below is a link to all of the PowerPoints and PDFs of presentations at the JETAA NY Predeparture Orientation which was held this past weekend on Saturday, June 20, 2009.

http://jetaany.org/2009/06/21/2009-jet-pre-departure-documents/

Is there anyone out there in the JETAA-sphere facing financial difficulties, considering bankruptcy, worrying about foreclosure?

If so, feel free to e-mail your questions to me at jetwit [at] jetwit [dot] com.

I’m no longer a practicing bankruptcy lawyer, but I work in the bankruptcy world (see, e.g., the Bankruptcy Bill cartoon) and figured I could at least try to help out and get answers to any questions JET alums and Friends of JET out there might have.  I might even be able to recommend a good lawyer for you, depending where you live.

I’ll keep all of your information confidential.  However, if you give me permission, I would like to anonymously post your question and the eventual response on JetWit for the benefit of other readers.

Lastly, for your entertainment, here’s a post about an engaging blog titled “Love in the Time of Foreclosure” by a writer who is going through foreclosure with her husband.  In a lot of ways, it’s more about love than about foreclosure, and kind of captures the zeitgeist of the times in which we’re living.

Another good post from Greg at TheDigitalists.com, this one on why Twitter and Facebook are effective for small businesses, but not yet for large companies.  And what they might want to do about it.

http://thedigitalists.com/2009/06/12/social-networks-missed-opportunity/#comment-205

(Also references the really yummy Salted Caramel Pretzel ice cream at General Greene’s in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn.)

Japan-U.S. business consultant and blogger Yvonne Burton (also a good friend of JetWit) has a good recent post on the likely new U.S. ambassador to Japan–John V. Roos:

There is to be a new kind of ambassador in Tokyo!  I just read in the Japan Times that John V. Roos, a Silicon Valley attorney, has been designated as ambassador by President Obama and in my opinion, he is just what Japan-US business needs.  But many seem to disagree. Why?

The nay-sayers say he isn’t the usual politico. I say that is a good thing. They say that his appointment means the new presidency is treating Japan as less than important. I say not so.

New conditions call for new solutions

In times like these when the old standards are not working (and that is putting it mildly), it is time to create something new.

How can a successful lawyer who (CLICK HERE to read the rest of the article.)

For all the journalists and aspiring journalists out there, and heck, for all the writers too, Greg from TheDigitalists.com addresses a relevant question in the larger quest to figure out how newspapers are going to make money on the internet:  What would micropayments mean for journalists?

This past Saturday we held the first-ever JET Alumni Blog Workshop where we invited JET alums to gather and learn how to set up, use and take advantage of blogs.  This was my first activity in my new JETAA NY role as Professional Outreach & Development Chair and it turned out to be both productive and a lot of fun.

• The goal was to help JET alums develop skills that will be beneficial in furthering their careers, whether they want to be independent writers, promote their services and abilities or perhaps just be one of the few people in their company who knows how to use blogs effectively (or at all).

• Location: JETAA NY webmaster Lee-Sean Huang’s apartment building in the Financial District in Lower Manhattan, which has wi-fi in its library.  Two JET alums joined:  Randall, who had never used a blog before, and Anton, who is familiar with blogs but was seeking structure for his writing energies and was interested in learning some of the techniques for effectively using a blog and increasing traffic.  Rather than a formal class-style lecture, we just sat around with our laptops (3 laptops for 4 people), demonstrated the basics of blogs and then looked over Randall’s shoulder as he set up his first-ever blog.  With Anton we discussed using RSS feeds to follow other blogs as well as possible writing topics and ways to contribute to JetWit.com.

• Next JET Alumni Blog Workshop:  Probably on a weeknight in the near future, most likely in midtown at a cafe or other space that has wi-fi.  Stay tuned for more information.  If you’re interested and you have not already been in touch, just send an e-mail to professional at jetaany dot org and I’ll add you to the list.

• Lastly, I encourage other JETAA chapters to try setting up blog workshops as well.  In addition to helping JET alums learn new skills, it was also nice to get together, learn about what each of us was doing and exchange info in a constructive way.  In the current economy it’s more important than ever for JET alums to help each other out, and this is just one small way among many to do that.

This article from today’s NY Times puts a positive spin on job searching in the current economic climate, pointing out how the lack of traditional Wall St. jobs for business school grads has in a sense given many of them “permission” to pursue other jobs, such as teaching, managing a jazz club, applying for the foreign service or going to rabbinical school when they might otherwise have felt pressured to go for a high-paying, high-status Wall Street job.

Dakedo, if you read between the lines, what this means is a more competitive job market for everyone including JET alums.  Now, when you apply for the foreign service or Teach for America or anything else, you’re competing against MBA students and other highly-qualified people for these positions.

Sore de, it’s more important than ever to take a proactive approach to the notion of career and job search.  The ground is shifting underneath us, which is scary, but also means there are new opportunities.  It’s no longer enough to think of jobs as familiar fixed categories for which you send your resume and wait for a company or organization to “give” you a job.  This is the time to look around, figure out what needs are out there and create your own job and your own value, especially given the tools available out there to everyone such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Etsy.com, eBay and many others.  While you may or may not succeed in creating your own job or business, going through the process will open doors, teach you new skills, give you more confidence and be more likely over time to lead to new opportunities and new jobs.

In other words, we all now have permission to take risks.  Ganbatte kudasai!

Zach LeNarz, founder of the JETAA Law Group (now on Facebook) posted a link on the group’s wall to the powerpoint slides (in PDF format) used in a presenation at the 2008 Yokohama returner’s conference. The presentation was given by an Australian woman then working for the law firm of Herbert Smith in Tokyo and provide a good way of thinking through any JET’s decision to study law and the various career options.

http://www.jetprogramme.org/documents/conference/crj/2008_crj/Law_ppp.pdf

Via the Society for Writers Editors and Translators (SWET) e-mail list.  Several workshops/discussions/presentations that seem to be very useful for writers and translators in Japan:

SWET News, April 8, 2009

For details on the following upcoming events, see below:

1) April 21 (Tues)–SWET OPEN FORUM: Wordsmithing in Japan (Tokyo)

2) May 16 (Sat)– WRITING MULTICULTURAL FAMILIES (Tokyo)

3) May 17 (Sun)–SWET KANSAI: THREE POETS IN JAPAN (Kyoto)

4) June 23 (Tues)–WRITING NEWS ON JAPAN with Elaine Lies (Tokyo)

5) July 18 (Sat)–SWET (Kanto) Summer Party – details pending. Read More

Joel Dechant (CIR Fukuoka-ken, 2001-04), freelance translator based in Fukuoka, has been exploring the “co-working” trend.  If interested in discussing with him, click on his name to contact him via LinkedIn or post a comment below to share your thoughts or perspectives.

After 3 years on JET I worked at a private Japanese university as a translator for 3 years. It was essentially a JET-type job: translate, interpret, assist foreign students and/or plan programs for 3 years and then you’re out. After their stints were up, some of my other colleagues went home or elsewhere in Japan to work in universities, government agencies or in the private sector, but I-on the other hand-decided to stay.

“What about my contract?” you ask. Well, my employer and I struck a deal. They needed someone who knew the university and who could translate and interpret well, and I wanted to stay in the area. By virtue of being placed in the position that bore the biggest share of translation and interpreting work, I was able to hone my skills well enough to confidently say, “Hey, I can do this!” So we wrote a new contract in which they would outsource their work to me. With the stroke of a pen, I was self-employed.

It was like a dream come true. How many times had I Read More

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Another good post from my brother Greg on TheDigitalists.com, this one on Kindle and the future of book publishing.  Definitely worth a read by JET alums authors and those working in publishing, especially on the heels of the JET Alumni Author Showcase.

Much of the chatter surrounding Mark Bowden’s Vanity Fair piece on the New York Times has focused on the anonymous quotes slagging publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. But what I found the most fascinating was the passage dissecting Sulzberger’s invocation of the phrase “platform agnostic”:

When the motion-picture camera was invented, many early filmmakers simply recorded stage plays, as if the camera’s value was just to preserve the theatrical performance and enlarge its audience. To be sure, this alone was a significant change. But the true pioneers realized that the camera was more revolutionary than that. It freed them from the confines of a theater. Audiences could be transported anywhere. To tell stories with pictures, and then with sound, directors developed a whole new language, using lighting and camera angles, close-ups and panoramas, to heighten drama and suspense. They could make an audience laugh by speeding up the action, or make it cry or quake by slowing it down. In short, the motion-picture camera was an entirely new tool for storytelling. To be platform agnostic is the equivalent of recording stage plays.

I had a similar thought last week when, after months of reading about it and stealing envious glances at it on the subway, I  had a chance to play around with the Amazon Kindle. It’s a pretty cool product, though it’s clearly still early in the product life cycle; I’d guess it’s roughly analogous to where the iPod was six or seven years ago. But I also realized that in terms of societal impact, we’re even earlier in the process. So far, the Kindle has made the tiniest dent in terms of how books are distributed. In the coming years, it will change how they’re promoted. And one day in the not-too-distant future, it will begin to transform our entire notion of what a book is.
Read the rest of this entry »

A JET alum translator e-mailed with the below questions.  Feel free to share your response in the comments section of this post, or e-mail to jetwit at jetwit dot com if you’d prefer your comment to remain anonymous.

1) At the moment, the Japanese economy is doing just terribly. Has anyone seen declines or reductions in the amount of work they are receiving?

2) In the longer term, as well, the economy doesn’t look like it is going to improve much, either. How do they feel about the prospects for making a business out of translating, are they feeling pessimistic for the future?

An interesting question was posed on a LinkedIn group called Japan Intercultural Consulting, started by Pernille Rudlin.  Feel free to comment below or, on the JIC group page or directly to Pernille if you have insights to share.

Enterprise 2.0 technologies in Japanese companies

Does anyone know of a Japanese (or if not, other multinational) company that is successfully using Enterprise 2.0 technologies for internal communications – in other words Web 2.0 technology such as social networking, blogs, wikis, used inside corporations? I’m particularly interested in any usage going across national boundaries.

While many JET alums strive to find jobs and careers related to Japan, many JET alums also reach a point where they’d like to redefine themselves as something beyond a “Japan person.”

I’d like to ask JetWit readers who have some perspective or experience with redefining their careers to share their own experience or advice regarding getting out of the “Japan pigeonhole.”

Submit comments to this post, or feel free to also email them to jetwit at jetwit dot com.

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Another post from my brother Greg on TheDigitalists.com about innovations amongst the unemployed that may offer helpful perspective to JET alums seeking work.

In this post he compares two efforts to deal with unemployment:  Runway Project and Laid-Off Camp.

The positive spin on this development is that the advent of social media has made it easier for like-minded individuals to organize effectively. The more pessimistic view is that, unlike at the beginning of this decade, when a lot of young people experienced temporary career setbacks after spending the previous few years outpacing their qualifications, this downturn is likely to be far more lasting and transformative, and if people are going to reinvent themselves professionally, they better get started immediately; they don’t have time to “just hang out.”

Click here to read the full post.

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“2009 JETAADC Grad School Night Panel Discussion and Networking Event” on Tuesday, March 31 at 6:30pm.

Event: 2009 JETAADC Grad School Night Panel Discussion and Networking Event
“Come to eat, drink, and discuss opportunities with various graduate school programs.  ”

Time: Tuesday, March 31 at 6:30pm

Where: Old Ambassador’s Residence, adjacent to the Japanese Embassy.

To see more details and RSVP, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=61450641385&mid=289272G1faf3ed5G1cb332bG7

My brother Greg, an online marketing/media expert, has another thoughtful post on TheDigitalists.com, this one offering some perspectives on graduate school and journalism, two topics of interest to many a JET alum.  (Note as well the hint of sibling rivalry.)

Grad Schools and the Shifting Job Landscape

Lots of people go to grad school for the wrong reasons. My brother, who has a JD but no longer practices, has made it his mission in life to dissuade as many aspiring law-school applicants as he can. And rightly so.  Far too many liberal-arts grads assume law school is the only answer to the question, “What do you do with a BA in English?”

Meanwhile, New York magazine is reporting on journalism schools, specifically Columbia, experiencing yet another “existential crisis.” (For those keeping score, this is the 54,978th such crisis in the last 30 years.) And, of course, business schools are grappling with the fact that the main industry to which they have funneled most of their graduates has suddenly imploded.

I think the fundamental problem these programs are facing is that, as professional schools, they were set up to train graduates in a profession. Lawyer. Journalist. Banker. Marketer. The problem is, the definitions of those jobs are not only changing, they’re blurring together.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE POST

Update:  As if on cue, there’s an article in Sunday’s NY Times titled “Is It Time to Retrain B-Schools?“

Here’s a JET-related tax question I received from a recent returnee.  Feel free to help this JET alum (and likely many others) by posting to the comment section of this post or emailing to jetwit at jetwit dot com.

“I didnt file taxes for 2007 while I was in Japan, and I was wondering if I should file now for 2008…and if so, should I back file 2007’s as well?? Or should I just forget about it and not file at all.  (That has actually been the advice from a couple of accountants, but I dont know if they full understood what I was talking about.)“

What do people suggest?

A JET alum recently asked if anyone is aware of any scholarships for Americans to study in Japan, particularly in connection with TESOL or applied linguistics.

Any suggestions?  Please post in the comments section of this post for the benefit of others, or feel free to e-mail jetwit at jetwit dot com.

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

There’s a good discussion on the Honyaku Google Group about why J->E translators seem to be very busy despite the bad economy.  I’ve attempted to summarize some of them below, but you can find the full discussion by signing up for the group at http://groups.google.com/group/honyaku/.  Definitely worth signing up if you work in (or want to work in) the Japanese-English translation field.

Suggested theories for why Japanese-English translation work has increased:

1. Companies are cutting costs by outsourcing work to the market that used to be done in house
2. A variant on the outsourcing theory:  Many jobs were already budgeted and need to get done, but with layoffs there are fewer in-house workers so more is going to the translators.  i.e., It’s a short-terms windfall.
3. A variant on the short-term windfall:  With more layoffs and fewer in-house employees, using a cheaper translator actually becomes more expensive because it requires more work by in-house employees to fix it up.  Therefore, it makes more sense to give the work to higher quality translators who will be more accurate the first time around.  (Note:  I’m paraphrasing but probably could have worded this better.)
4. Patent translation tends to be longer term work and is unaffected
5. If you’re a good translator, you’ll continue to get work regardless
6. As March approaches, departments in Japanese companies need to use up their budgets so that they don’t get shrunk the next time around
7. Spring is just usually the busiest season for translation
8. More translation work from U.S. (and less from Japan) because yen is stronger than the dollar and this makes U.S.-based translators relatively cheap labor
9. Downturn has forced part-time and less-experienced translators out of the business leaving more work for more established translators
10. For finance/investor relations work, there’s a short-term increase because the economic crisis has forced companies to disseminate press releases and other communications to all of their investors/consumers.

Feel free to post more theories and other comments for the benefit of the JET/JET Alum/Friend of JET/JetWit community in the comments section of this post.

The question has been raised by a JET alum translator/interpreter:

“Does anybody have an idea what the going rate for telephone interpretation (E<>J) is?”

Please post any responses in the comment section.

The below question was posted to the JETAA DC email list:

I just returned in August of ‘08 and filed for a pension refund around  October. Today I got a check in the mail from the social insurance  department of Japan! Except the check is in yen.

Have other people been  confronted with this situation? Is the best course of action to cash  the check into dollars and then deposit it? Should I deposit it via my bank and allow them to take out commission and give me a crappy exchange rate? Should I bring it to American Express and get it transferred to traveler’s or cashier’s checks? Any other advice?

What would you do?  Please post your comments, suggestions and advice below.

Devon Brown (Tokyo-to, 2002-04) is a freelance writer with a focus on food.  You can read more of her writing at TravelingTastebuds.blogspot.com.

For about a year I was holed up in my apartment writing articles I would never allow people to read. I only shared my work in large anonymous or protected forums like writing contests or classes. My work needed to be out there, but I wasn’t ready to stand behind it.

But now it’s time for me to take a step out into public as a writer and I feel like I’m stepping in front of a batting machine. On the first anniversary of my writing career, I am jello soft and unprepared for the inevitable criticism that lies ahead. People are actually reading my blog and I write two regular columns accessible to anyone with internet access. On the web, everything is open for comment and I fear the next snide remark or disagreement with my opinions will break me.

I need some quick advice about building backbone from some of you veterans out there because the balls are flying and I can only bob and weave for so long. To all seasoned writers, bloggers, authors and artists did this happen to you and how did you deal with it?

Help out Devon and other JET alum writers by posting your comments below.  Yoroshiku!

Yvonne Thurman (Kagoshima-ken, 1994-95), former JETAA NY President, recently left her position as Director of the Columbia Business School’s Center on Japanese Economy and Business (CJEB) to start her own baked goods business, Dolly Bella Bakery (www.dollybellabakery.com).  Read below as she explains what led her down this path and how it’s all going.

I have enjoyed my career at Columbia Business School , directing its Center on Japanese Economy and Business with Professor Hugh Patrick.  After 10 years of working there, I was searching in the corporate sector for business development positions but couldn’t find something that really excited me.  So I pushed myself to think outside of the box, and really took a good look at my strengths and skills, work experience and education, and analyzed what I really enjoyed doing.

I was fixated on keeping my career in the international organization/international business arena, but I had to explore all options.  I had solid management skills, a degree in finance and business, international experience (same as so many…but wait!)…liked boating as a hobby…loved baking. Hmm.  I started to put all that together. Read More

Japan’s Financial Crisis and Its Parallels to U.S. Experience, edited by Adam S. Posen and Ryoichi Mikitani

Has anyone out there read this book?  If so, care to share your thoughts on the premise by posting a comment?

I saw on the JETAA Pacific Northwest e-mail list that a JET alum is looking for perspectives and advice from other JET alums about Thunderbird School of Global Management’s program.  If you graduated from Thunderbird, please feel free to get in touch with me if you’d like to talk to the JET alum.  Or go ahead and post your comments below.

A Japanese native-speaker recently asked about rates for “checking” a translation.  She was translating a resume and references for a client and her husband (an English native-speaker) was going to check her translation.  The client asked how much she charges for checking, and she wasn’t quite sure how to respond.

JetWit put the “checking” question out to the Writers Interpreters Translators (WIT) Group and received the below responses.  Feel free to post additional thoughts/advice in the comments section below:

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I wouldn’t charge less than 50% of my rate to translate the piece in the first place since, frankly, checking is a huge pain in the ass.

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Editing is typically 30-40% of your translating rate.

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Is the question about a Quality Manager or translation quality control type of position? Are they asking for one project or as a full-time job? Depending on that, the rates will be different. However, it is best to keep in mind that quality managers for translation companies usually don’t get paid very well, even though it’s a lot of tedious work!

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I usually charge 10 yen per word. This may seem like a lot, but the work usually involves a lot of retranslation. Checking can mean that you are supposed to confirm the contents. If the translation is poor, it can be a nightmare.

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Devon Brown (Tokyo-to, 2002-04) is a freelance writer with a focus on food.  You can read more of her writing at TravelingTastebuds.blogspot.com.

In a recent post titled “Growing Pains”, she sought some perspective on the business of freelance writing.  In a subsequent JetWit post, we aggregated the responses of writers in the JET alum community in response to Devon’s question.  Below she shares her new perspective:

Growing Pains: A follow up on an over edited piece by a newbie freelance writer

The jury is in and it seems I’ll just have to man up.

The freelance writing world can be a cold hard place and the fact that I’m getting paid and will have a byline in a national mag is going to have to be consolation for my hurt ego.  The rational part of me knows that magazines have their own voice and until I’m so big and famous that they’re willing to pay me $5 for every single word I type, I’m gonna have to deal.

Thank you to everyone who offered up some insight.  I  heard of some horror stories that I hope to never experience myself.

On the upside, I did get a final PDF of my piece.  Seeing it in print was awesome!

QUESTION
In a recent post on her blog travelingtastebuds.blogspot.com (“Growing Pains“) Devon Brown (Tokyo-to, 2002-04) describes a situation where she submitted a travel writing piece to an editor (her first hit with a national publication) only to see a published version that looked rather different than what she submitted, in rhythm and voice.

She wonders:  Is this normal or typical?  Or is this just what she should expect?

JetWit.com put the question to JET alumni in the Writers Interpreters Translators (WIT) Group.

Click “Read More” to read their responses. Read More

A JET alum e-mailed me with an interesting question about electronic dictionaries.  Please post responses below for the benefit of others (or feel free to e-mail your response to jetwit /atto/ jetwit /dotto/ com.)

My trusty stand-by for 5 years died.  I had a Cannon IDX-9700.  Do you know of any place [in the U.S.] where I can buy one and what model to recommend now?  I’m looking for something originally in Japanese- I’ve found that was better for Kanji, but maybe things have changed now.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I recently returned from a trip to China, and it occurred to me that China felt in many ways like Japan felt to me when I was there in the early 90s:  Modernized, but also somewhat untamed and pregnant with opportunity.  A good amount of structure, but also a sense that it’s not all figured out yet either.

With that in mind, I was wondering if some segment of the JET alumni community is now turning to China for job opportunities?  If so, let me know or post a comment below on your thoughts or experience.

Meanwhile, I noticed a China jobs site called China Splash (http://www.chinasplash.com/index.html).  I’m sure there are others, but figured I’d at least share the one I’m aware of.

It turns out there’s a JET alum writing a career advice column for the Wall Street Journal.  Check out the latest column from Elizabeth Garone (Saga-ken, Omachi-cho, 1993-95) at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122874945537188153.html#articleTabs_comments.

It also turns out that she is a freelance journalist with more than a decade of writing for publications that have included Business Week, The Washington Post, Money Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal.  Her specialties are technology, education (specifically SAT and test prep), human interest and children.

You can learn more about Elizabeth through her website at www.garone.com or through her LinkedIn profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/lizgarone