Jul 8

JET ROI: Seven JETs, Seven Stories

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Andrew R. McCarthy (Akita-ken, 2005-08) is a law student at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law focusing on international trade, business, and tax.  He currently runs the blog JETs with J.D.s, an information source for current JET alumni law students and prospective law students for career paths and approaches within the current legal market.  For those considering law school and trying to comprehend the costs and the risks of such an endeavor, he also recommends The Law School Tuition Bubble.

Perhaps it’s the fact that the influence one JET participant has in one town is difficult to quantify.  Perhaps it’s the lack of a clearly defined job description.  Perhaps it’s simply that the “soft hands” approach  a Board of Education must take to the internationalization and exchange portion of JET makes it impractical for that same employer to critique and provide feedback on the English education portion.  Regardless of the reason, it is incredibly easy and natural to belittle the JET Programme for what appears to be, on paper, a lackluster development of English ability in Japanese schools since 1987.

It’s particularly easy for the CIRs, SEAs, and ALTs themselves to do the belittling.  When I had a Japanese English teacher delegate me as human tape recorder, it was easy to lament that “I had no impact.”  When I found myself singing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes in front of a bunch of over-enthused six-year olds, I certainly questioned whether my college education was worth it.   At some of the more difficult moments of my JET tenure, I remember thinking that no matter what I did, I wouldn’t be remembered.  I’d be just another foreign dude who arrived in town, hung out for a few years, and abruptly left as summer once again turned to autumn.  I figured I would just disappear into the fog of my townsfolks’ minds, nothing more than an occasional afterthought for locals between glasses of winter shochu.

Those doubts have not come to fruition.  What’s more, there was plenty of evidence, even while I was still in Japan, that they would not.

I was the seventh ALT to live in my town.  I didn’t know that when I arrived, but over the course of my time there, I came to know that fact.  I learned this not just from the stories I heard from my neighbors, but because even after being gone for so many years, most of them traveled back for a visit.  During my three years there, I met all of my predecessors, except two.  And many, if not all, have gone on from JET to do great things—some Japan-related, some not.

First there was Mike.  He only stayed for one year, back in the ‘90s, but still maintains contact with the locals he met in Japan.  From what I understand, he took his JET experience home, and is now a school teacher in Alaska.

Then came Matt, from Georgia.  After his JET years, he went into the military and served at Yokota Air Base.  He fell in love with a Japanese native, married, and named his first child after a dear friend from town.

Then Charles, from the U.K.  His post-JET life is not well known to me, but he is still remembered in town for showing up to teach kindergarten in a three-piece suit.

Fourth was Simon, from New Zealand.  He not only married a Japanese native, but had his wedding in the town.  He currently lives in Tokyo as systems engineer, providing his services to a Japanese company.

Fifth was Geoff.  He took his international experience gained from JET and is currently a lawyer with a background in human rights, and spent a summer at the Hague working on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

My predecessor was Walker.  With a background in the arts, the locals still remember him for his snow sculptures around town.

Perhaps when each of these ALTs boarded their flight home, they too thought they had no impact.  They may have even thought that their JET background would get them nowhere.  But, during my time there, I met many of their former students, now adults, who could still remember who their ALTs were and what they meant to them.

I, too, had my doubts.

But then came the emails, the New Year’s cards, and the birthday gifts in the mail.  And, one day, over a year after I had come home, I logged onto my email account to see a message from a former student.  She had tracked down my email address, was taking a year to study in the U.S., and was excited enough to let me know.

These are all things you can’t quantify in aptitude tests or evaluations, but the JET Programme’s involvement in that small logging town produced educators, engineers, families, lawyers, close relationships, and inspiration.  It broadened the horizons and aspirations of not only the participants, but also the locals.

At the end of the day, perhaps the JET Progamme is simply guilty of trying to accomplish too much, and maybe the experience of the ALTs in my town is unique in the grand scheme of things. But JET is, and will always be, what its participants make of it.  While that leaves the door open to abuse by participants who would prefer to do nothing, it equally opens the door for its participants to do a lot of good.