JETAA Portland announces new officers
JETAA Chapters 
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Saw this on the JETAA Portland email blast:
New JETAA Portland Officers Announced
The votes have been counted! The officers elected to the new April-to-March term are below. Congratulate them the next time you see them. Also, thanks to last year’s officers — Brooke, Jeffrey, Veronica and Matt Turner.
| President | Jeffrey Houser |
| Vice President | Brooke Muetzel |
| Treasurer | Veronica Adversalo |
| Secretary | Matt Krzyzynski |
ALSO…. JETAA Portland continues its long tradition of one of the greatest JETAA events out there, the Iron Chef Potluck, where they typically invite the JETAA Pacific Northwest (based in Seattle) folks to come down for some friendly competition and communal eating.
Iron Chef: May 17th
The JETAA Iron Chef competitive potluck is planned for Saturday, May 17th. Check the JETAA Portland website or look for an email with more detail in the next few weeks. Start thinking about those recipes!
Job: Assistant to the President at JMC Global (Las Vegas)
Jobs Comments Off on Job: Assistant to the President at JMC Global (Las Vegas)
Via the JETAA Southern California newsletter. Posted by blogger and podcaster Jon Dao (Toyama-ken, 2009-12). Click here to join the JETwit Jobs Google Group and receive job listings even sooner by email.
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Position: Assistant to the President
Location: Las Vegas
Type: Full-Time
Overview:We are looking for a Japanese / English bilingual administrative assistant to work in our Las Vegas office. We need someone who is fully bilingual in Japanese(native) and English (business level). Read More
JETAA Northern Ireland looking for more ex-JETs in Northern Ireland
JETAA Chapters Comments Off on JETAA Northern Ireland looking for more ex-JETs in Northern Ireland
Taken from a recent JETAA UK email blast:
Hello everyone,
My name is Richard Fleming (a.k.a Richie, The Richie, Tricky, and Dick). I have recently been nominated to chair the Northern Ireland chapter of JETAA UK and I need your help.
I am reaching out to everyone in the hope that there are some former JETs here in NI who still want to be involved with JETAA events. Are you one of them?! If so, get in touch!
If you are lucky enough to be reading this from a location outside of NI, good for you. Thanks for still reading. Are you formerly from here? Do you know any former JETs who may be lying around Belfast/Derry wishing they had someone to talk to about how amazing Japan is? They obviously don’t have to be from here, they could be from anywhere, as long as they’re here and interested in getting involved.
We’re a small province and we all pretty much know each other through no more than 2 or 3 degrees of separation. Everyone knows my mate Paddy. He has a beard and drinks Guinness.
I welcome contact from all quarters. I’m determined to reinvigorate the NI chapter and link in with other individuals/organisations which have a connection with Japan. The Japan Society have already invited me to their Hanami event, I would like to have a few former JETs to accompany me!
Anyway, apologies for the mass Mailshot, but the wider you cast the net the better your chances of catching something. If you’ve been on a night out in Belfast you’ll understand why that saying is not always good advice.
Also, even if you don’t know any former JETs here, I welcome any suggestions to try to kick start our chapter!
Best regards,
Richie
JETAA Northern Ireland: http://www.jetaa.org.uk/about-jetaa/chapters/northern-ireland/
Job: Short-Term Programs Coordinator – College of William & Mary (VA)
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Via JET alum Carleen Ben. Posted by Jayme Tsutsuse (Kyoto-fu, 2013-Present), organizer of Cross-Cultural Kansai, seeking work opportunities in NYC starting in August 2014.
Click here to join the JETwit Jobs Google Group and receive job listings even sooner by email.
Position: Global Education Short-Term Programs Coordinator
Posted by: College of William & Mary
Location: Williamsburg, VA
Type: short-term
Overview:
Responsibilities:
Read More
Job: Internship Opening in Melbourne at Alliance Abroad (Australia)
Jobs Comments Off on Job: Internship Opening in Melbourne at Alliance Abroad (Australia)
Via JET alum Carleen Ben. Posted by Jayme Tsutsuse (Kyoto-fu, 2013-Present), organizer of Cross-Cultural Kansai, seeking work opportunities in NYC starting in August 2014.
Click here to join the JETwit Jobs Google Group and receive job listings even sooner by email.
Position: Intership
Posted by: Alliance Abroad
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Type: Internship
Overview:
This is a very busy, fast-paced job, that will require a lot of independent decision making. This is not an internship where all you do is go on coffee runs and make copies. You will be doing much more work than you are getting paid for, but you will also be gaining heaps of real world experience.
WIT Life #266: Kajitsu Spring Tasting Reception
Events, Food & Drink, Translating/Interpreting, WIT Life, Writers Comments Off on WIT Life #266: Kajitsu Spring Tasting Reception
WIT Life is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends along with her own observations.
Over the weekend I had the chance to take part in the delectable Spring Tasting Reception held at Kajitsu/Kokage. For those of you who don’t know this spot, it’s about as close as you can get to Japan here in NYC. Last year I celebrated my birthday with a delicious meal at Kajitsu, the restaurant on the upper floor featuring 精進料理 (shojin ryouri), vegan cuisine devised centuries ago by Buddhist monks which was the predecessor to kaiseki .
In the first four years of its existence Kajitsu was located in the East Village, but it moved to its midtown location a year ago. Aside from Kajitsu occupying the second floor, Kokage on the first floor serves non-vegetarian Japanese food and Ippodo near the entrance sells Japanese tea. There is literally something for everyone, and both restaurants are open for both lunch and dinner.
This event was celebrating the promotion of the Executive Sous Chef Hiroki Odo to Executive Chef, as current Executive Chef Ryota Ueshima is returning to Japan. The amazing spread featured Read More
Job: Outbound/Inbound Sales Reps at TopTour America(LA)
Jobs Comments Off on Job: Outbound/Inbound Sales Reps at TopTour America(LA)
Thanks to JET alum Traci Kawaguchi (who found her first post-JET job thanks to JETwit a few years ago) for passing along this JET-relevant opportunity. Posted by blogger and podcaster Jon Dao (Toyama-ken, 2009-12). Click here to join the JETwit Jobs Google Group and receive job listings even sooner by email.
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[Traci’s Note: For the past few months, I’ve had the pleasure of working as a guide for the Kakehashi Project and working with a great Japanese travel agency called TopTour America Inc. (TTA) and their LA-based inbound division manager Mrs. Shino Feagins.
Their Los Angeles office is looking for bilingual representatives for their outbound and inbound divisions, and I thought there may be a few JETs interested.] Read More
Jobs: Digital Media Coordinator & Science Researcher at Embassy of Japan (DC)
Jobs Comments Off on Jobs: Digital Media Coordinator & Science Researcher at Embassy of Japan (DC)
Originally posted to the JETAA DC google group by JET Program Coordinator (and JET alum) Jessica Kling. 2 openings at the Embassy in DC Posted by blogger and podcaster Jon Dao (Toyama-ken, 2009-12). Click here to join the JETwit Jobs Google Group and receive job listings even sooner by email.
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Position: Digital Media Coordinator
Location: Washington DC
Overview:
The Japan Information and Culture Center (JICC) at the Embassy of Japan is seeking a highly motivated, team-oriented individual for the position of Digital Media Coordinator. This individual is responsible for supporting the JICC’s goal to promote a better understanding of Japan and Japanese culture by maintaining and managing the JICC website and social media platforms. Read More
MOOCs on English Teaching [英語教授法 無料オンラインコースのご案内]
Academic Comments Off on MOOCs on English Teaching [英語教授法 無料オンラインコースのご案内]
Thanks to AJET Chair Kay Makishi for passing on this interesting ESL professional development opportunity which she received via the US Consulate in Fukuoka. Posted by blogger and podcaster Jon Dao (Toyama-ken, 2009-12). Click here to join the JETwit Jobs Google Group and receive job listings even sooner by email.
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Overview:
The U.S. Department of State recently announced the launch of Shaping the Way We Teach English MOOC, a massive open online course (MOOC) for English as a foreign language (EFL) educators. The ten-week university-level course was developed by the University of Oregon and is currently available on the Coursera platform. The course is being offered globally and free of charge. Please click on the link above for more information.
Justin’s Japan: Nippon in New York — Miyazaki, Godzilla, Tribeca Film Festival, Sakura Matsuri
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New York’s 33rd annual Sakura Matsuri will be held at Brooklyn Botanic Garden April 26-27. (Mike Ratliff)
By JQ magazine editor Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02) for Examiner.com. Visit his Japanese culture page here for related stories.
Spring has sprung in the Big Apple, and that means one thing: a new season of sounds, colors, and spectacular performing arts to match the blossoming sakura trees throughout the city.
This month’s highlights include:
Tuesday, April 8
Turning Point: 1997-2008 by Hayao Miyazaki
MSRP $29.99, $34.99
The companion second volume to the earlier chronicleStarting Point: 1979-1996 (also new in paperback),Turning Point is an insightful collection of essays, interviews, memoirs, and illustrations from legendary animation director Hayao Miyazaki. The new title covers the critical stage in the legendary director’s career when his animated films for Studio Ghibli such as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Ponyo began to garner a significant international audience. Turning Point follows Miyazaki as his grand vision continued to mature, cinema-lovers worldwide discovered and embraced his creations, and prominent film critics such as Roger Ebert delivered tremendous acclaim for the director’s films. Bringing us up to the present is The Art of The Wind Rises, which captures the art of the film from conception to production, featuring in-depth interviews with the creative team from Miyazaki’s latest—and supposedly final—Academy Award-nominated epic.
April 8-13, 8:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.
Gary Burton & Makoto Ozone Duets
Blue Note Jazz Club, 131 West Third Street
$20, $35
Born in Kobe to a jazz organist father, Makoto Ozone came to Boston in 1980 to study at the Berklee College of Music, where multi-Grammy Award-winning vibraphonist Gary Burton was a composition and percussion instructor. After graduation he made his first American solo appearance in 1983 with a recital at Carnegie Hall. The incredibly talented young man struck a record deal with CBS, making his international debut in 1984 with the album OZONE. Burton and Ozone have been collaborators in the duet format for over two decades and recorded the Grammy-nominated Virtuosi in 2002. The versatile Ozone has hosted a TV series in Japan, ventured into electronics, and composed for and played with classical orchestras in addition to working with his own jazz trio from his home in New York.
Wednesday, April 9, 8:00 p.m.
Carnegie Hall, 881 Seventh Avenue
$22.50-$140
Praised by the New York Times when she last appeared at Carnegie Hall as “among the most respected artists of our time” for her “probing and magisterial performances” of Schubert’s last three sonatas, pianist Mitsuko Uchida returns to perform his “Reliquie” Sonata, once mistakenly thought to be the composer’s final work. Also on the program is Beethoven’s all-encompassing and transcendent Thirty-Three Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli.
For the complete story, click here.
Posted by Jayme Tsutsuse (Kyoto-fu, 2013-Present), job poster for JETwit and organizer of Cross-Cultural Kansai, seeking work opportunities in NYC starting in August 2014!
I recently returned to Kyoto after spending a week in New York City. Before my trip, I worried that I would experience what is called reverse culture shock, but shortly after returning to American soil, I realized the mistake in my worries. What I experienced wasn’t the culture shock of returning to a home that feels strangely between familiar and foreign. It was the culture shock of a completely novel experience.
It really didn’t take long after landing for this culture shock to set in. My boyfriend, Jeff, and I, both half-Japanese, born and raised in America, were riding an escalator up from JFK’s international arrivals lobby to the Airtram terminal. We were caught up in each other presence, having been apart for months, when suddenly, the lady on the downward escalator turned to us with a larger-than-life smile and enthusiastically called out, “Chinese“, waving her hand in our direction. We locked eyes with her, stunned, as she gradually disappeared down the escalator. Jeff and I stared each other up and down, searching for something that would have brought on the lady’s quick judgement. The man behind us rhetorically remarked, “What the hell was that about?”
The act itself wasn’t offensive or hurtful, but I could’t quite shake it from my thoughts. Granted a large international airport may be an easy place to act on an assumption that someone is foreign, but wouldn’t a simple hello suffice? Or Welcome to America if you must.
For months, I had been telling the people I met in Japan about America’s diversity – about how easy it is to blend in in the bigger cities, about how it is impossible to make judgements on whether or not someone is American. I’ve always claimed that on the subway in America, you can’t guess who is foreign on the basis of their race, appearance, language, or actions. But there we were in what’s said to be one of America’s most diverse cities, being incorrectly called out for our… ethnicity? nationality? identity?
Job: Program Director, Special International Programs – Florida State Univ (Tallahassee, FL)
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Via JET alum Carleen Ben. Posted by Jayme Tsutsuse (Kyoto-fu, 2013-Present), organizer of Cross-Cultural Kansai, seeking work opportunities in NYC starting in August 2014.
Click here to join the JETwit Jobs Google Group and receive job listings even sooner by email.
Position: Program Director, Special International Programs
Posted by: Florida State University
Location: Tallahassee, FL
Type: full-time
Salary Range: $50,000 – $58,000 depending on qualifications and experience
Job Duties:
Oversee the management of the CGE Special Programs auxiliary unit offering intensive short-term summer programs to students from international partner institutions followed by six month internships at Walt Disney World, and the on campus support for students in the Special Academic Year programs. Teach up to four courses per year.
Provide overall management for both the curricular and co-curricular components of intensive summer program sessions for international students from partner institutions. Establish year round timelines for cyclical process beginning with MOUs and marketing materials, work with international partners to pre-screen students, support both the WDW and FSU application process and plan for the arrival and orientation of each group. Prepare the master calendar for intensive summer sessions to include required classroom contact hours, orientation, and social and cultural events and ensure overall program meets requirements of State Department regulations for J-1 academic program followed by academic training (internship) at Walt Disney World. Provide oversight for purchasing, including bid process, to ensure FSU policies and procedures are followed for health insurance, on campus housing, meal plans, charters, textbooks, etc. included as part of student program fee.
Read More
Job: Assistant Director & Advisor (Combined Position) – Kalamazoo College (MI)
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Via JET alum Carleen Ben. Posted by Jayme Tsutsuse (Kyoto-fu, 2013-Present), organizer of Cross-Cultural Kansai, seeking work opportunities in NYC starting in August 2014.
Click here to join the JETwit Jobs Google Group and receive job listings even sooner by email.
Position: Assistant Director of the Center for International Programs (Latin America)/International Students and Scholars Adviser
Posted by: Kalamazoo College
Location: Kalamazoo, MI
Type: full-time
Overview:
Kyodo News “JET Alumni” Series: Dominic Abordo (Akita)
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News agency Kyodo News has recently been publishing monthly articles written by JET alumni who were appointed in rural areas of Japan, as part of promotion for the JET Programme. Below is the English version of the column from February 2014. Posted by Celine Castex (Chiba-ken, 2006-11), currently programme coordinator at CLAIR Tokyo.
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Originally from San Francisco, CA, Dominic Abordo (Akita-ken, Kosaka-machi, 2008-11) holds a Bachelors Degree in English Literature with a minor in East Asian Languages from Berkeley University. He spent three years working as a Coordinator for International Relations (CIR) in rural Akita before enrolling in a Master’s degree in Social Work from Columbia University, NY. He currently works as a Freelance Consultant in Social Work in New York.
A “Big City Boy” in Snow Country
“The one thing that I will continue to share with my friends and family is that the people of the small town of Kosaka-machi have some of the biggest hearts in the world.”
Akita (əˈkiːtə), noun: 1. one of the northernmost prefectures on the Japanese island of Honshu; 2. the prefecture that I, Dominic Abordo, called “home” for three years.
If you ask the average American about Japan, it is highly unlikely that Akita Prefecture – a gem of the Tohoku Region famous for heavy snowfall, rice, kiritanpo, and sinister mountain demons called namahage – will be included in his or her response. Despite living in Japan for three years prior to the JET Programme, I, too, knew very little about my future home. Thus, I was admittedly nervous when I first arrived in Kosaka-machi, a small town of approximately 6,500 people located in the northeastern corner of Akita. I assumed that my time as a Coordinator for International Relations (CIR) would be full of new adventures, challenges, and opportunities, but I had no idea that the experience would have such a positive and lasting impact on my future.
Although it took almost one year to master the local dialect, Kosaka-machi soon became a second home to me. The natives were eager to introduce me to the natural beauty and hidden treasures of their hometown, including landmarks such as Nanataki Waterfall, Lake Towada, and the Korakukan kabuki theater. They often accompanied me to the best restaurants, bars, and izakaya in the area, sharing personal stories about their families, jobs, and travel experiences over a meal or a few drinks. Elementary school students and adults alike offered warm greetings when we ran into each other around town. Perhaps most importantly, they did everything they could to make sure that I was happy, healthy, and an active part of the community. Little did I know that my love for dance, music, and performing arts would enable me to form lasting connections with so many of them. Read More
Japan Times features JET alum Matthew Cook and his work with Osaka’s English Reformation Project Team
Career, Interview/Profile, Japan Local, JETs in the News, LifeAfterJET, Local Government, Notable JET Alums, Return on JET-vestment Comments Off on Japan Times features JET alum Matthew Cook and his work with Osaka’s English Reformation Project Team
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Very nice article on JET alum and former AJET Chair Matthew Cook (Osaka-fu, 2007-12) about his path from JET to becoming an agent of change for the Japanese English education system through is unique role with Osaka Prefecture’s Board of Education. Matt is also the founder of the Kansai JET Alumni group. FYI, you can also click here for a recent JQ profile of Matthew Cook by JETAA New South Wales‘ Eden Law (Fukushima-ken, 2010-11) .
Changing the system starts by challenging it
BY TERU CLAVEL
Just seven years after first participating in the JET program in Osaka, Matthew Cook from Danville, Virginia, is making great strides as a pioneer of English-language education reform in Japan. Having never previously been to an Asian country, Cook is now one of seven members of Osaka’s groundbreaking English Reformation Project Team, having been appointed by Osaka superintendent Toru Nakahara in 2013. With an unswerving commitment to English-language education and a little luck, Cook’s efforts may pave the path for Japan’s next generation of global leaders.
Cook applied to the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) program because it was “the most lucrative, stable and safe way to get to Japan.” Having run his own karate dojo in the United States, he felt the need to gain a deeper understanding of the Japanese culture behind it. However, Cook was waitlisted and needed to make a snap decision when he was offered a position within a month of the JET start date. “I had totally assumed that I wasn’t going to get in,” he says.
Cook’s initial placement was less than ideal, though. He was forewarned that the Osaka junior high school to which he was assigned might be challenging, but he was not prepared for the “few students who were stopping class altogether, violence in the classroom or kids getting up and leaving.” Read More
