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.
JET-oriented scholarships?
Academic, Advice, Career, Graduate School 
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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.
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Japan Foundation — grants for Ph.D. studies, short-term research, Japan-related organizations who need funding for Arts & Culture or Japanese Studies projects:
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Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Translation Prize (administered through Columbia University’s Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture):
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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):
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National Endowment for the Humanities (Fellowships: Advanced Social Science Research on Japan):
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Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (fellowship program, creative artists’ program, etc.):
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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
JETSites: Frugalista Japan
Advice, Blogs, Japan Trends, Writers Comments Off on JETSites: Frugalista Japan
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
Pre-Departure Orientation: The Documents!
Advice, JETAA Chapter Beat Comments Off on Pre-Departure Orientation: The Documents!
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/
- Asian-American JETS (Powerpoint)
- Travel In and Out of Japan (PDF)
- Japanese Etiquette (Powerpoint)
- Life as a JET (.ppt)
- Vegetarian in Japan – Vocabulary Sheet (Word Document)
- Vegetarian in Japan – Wallet Card (Word .doc)
- Vegetarian in Japan – Wallet Card (Word .docx)
- Women’s Issues Seminar (.pptx)
If you have documents, or links to documents, from the Pre-Departure Orientation in your chapter, please feel free to e-mail them to jetwit [at] jetwit [dotc] com and we’ll post them here for the benefit of JETs as well as for the benefit of JET alums who will organize future Pre-D Orientations. Also, please feel free to e-mail a write-up about your chapter’s Pre-D Orientation and how it went. Other chapters would love to hear about it.
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!
