AJET Survey: “Life After JET”
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To: All JET Alumni — Please take 15 seconds to complete the “Life After JET” survey that AJET has put together. AJET has done a great job with this year after year, and the results matter–to the JET Programme, to JETAA, and to the future of JET. See below from Yolanda Espiritu of the AJET National Council 2013-14:
I am pleased to inform you that the survey on “Life After JET” is now available. We ask all of our sempai to complete this survey and let us know about “Life After JET.”
“Life After JET” Survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LifeAfterJET
Life After JET: The Write Stuff by Ashley Thompson
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Recently posted to the JETAA Oceania Facebook group by Eden Law:
The JET Programme has led to many opportunities and careers, sometimes rather unexpectedly. This is the first in a series of articles by former JETs about their lives after participating on the programme, and how it has shaped their careers and paths. We hope that it will prove useful as an insight for potential applicants into what we as ex-JETs got from our experience, and maybe provide some nostalgic memories for others. Please feel free to contact us if you want to write about your own experience!
Our article comes to us courtesy of Ashley Thompson, who was a former JET in Shizuoka-ken (2008-10). Since leaving JET she has built up a writing career which includes being an editor of Surviving in Japan, a popular blog for expats in Japan; and as a Community Manager for Nihongo Master, an online Japanese language learning site. Many thanks to Ashley for her time and support!
I never expected that going to Japan with JET would launch my writing career or bring about the opportunities it has. And fainting at school was the catalyst. It happened on a cool October day, just over a year after I arrived in Japan. A student had come to the door of the staff room to ask me something, and after standing up from seat my vision started fading and my head was cloudy. I lowered myself to the floor before I lost consciousness. I was rushed to the nurse’s room on a stretcher and sent home for a few days.
The first day back at school I developed a fever and was promptly sent home. The light-headedness returned stronger at that point, followed by motion sickness and constant nausea. I was forced to take a longer sick leave, month after month, as I visited various doctors in an attempt to get a diagnosis. They either found nothing or told me it was “all in my head”. I knew they were wrong, but in Japan a doctor’s word is like God’s. Read More
Job: JETwit seeks Jobs Manager and Poster
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JETwit is getting more job listings than ever, which is a good thing for the JET alum job-seeking community. It also means we need more help getting the jobs posted. If you have some extra bandwidth, are reliable, and have familiarity with using WordPress (or you want to learn how to use WordPress), please get in touch! Make sure to let me know your years and location on JET and your current location.
I should mention that managing and posting jobs and using WordPress have been helpful resume boosters for previous jobs managers/posters. It also puts me in a position to provide a recommendation for you to any potential employers.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Steven Horowitz (Aichi-ken, 1992-94)
jetwit [at] jetwit.com
Brooklyn, NY
Job: Japanese-English Interpreter – CSI (Kentucky)
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CSI is seeking a Japanese-English bilingual candidate for an interpretation position in Central Kentucky. Candidate must be highly proficient in both English/Japanese (N2). Familiarity with manufacturing environments a plus, but not a requirement. Highly competitive compensation packages available.
Please send resume to info@csi-ky.com
New Fukushima JETs make the local newspaper
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Just saw this posted to the JETAA New South Wales Facebook group which was re-posted from the Fukushima ALTs Facebook group.
“New JET members are in today’s newspaper (Fukushima Minpo). It says 43 new JET members visited the governor and expressed their hopes.”
Local Japan: Ehime JET alums to publish illustrated book of their 88 temple pilgrimage
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Maryland-based Ehime-ken JET alums Elayna Snider and Chelsea Reidy have put together an illustrated book of their “88 temple pilgrimage” by bicycle in Shikoku. They now have a Kickstarter page to help them raise funds to publish it and a wonderful video that explains what this is all about. Definitely worth a look. It’s hard to do justice in my own words, so click the link and watch and read for yourself:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1042996508/temple-by-temple
Excerpts from the Kickstarter site:
There are 88 temples on Japan’s 88 temple pilgrimage. With two bicycles, a tent, notebooks and pens, plus a Rolleiflex, we will go to all of them. While we travel the 900-mile route, we’ll be collecting the materials needed to make 88 hand-bound versions of our illustrated book, Temple by Temple.
Elayna does the art, Chelsea does the words. A children’s book? It can be. A coffee table book? Sure. A book you have around and pick up from time to time? Yes! The idea and project did not come from any prescribed place of “Let’s make a kids book.” We are two people with varying ideas and skills and we combined them to make a book that describes the route, the temples, and this 1,200 year old pilgrimage which draws people of all different faiths and from all over the world.
JETAA USA Quarterly Report – Q1 for 2013-14
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What’s going on with JETAA chapters in the US? Below is the latest Quarterly Report from the JETAA USA Country Representatives:
Dear JETAA USA Chapter Officers,
Our Q1 CR quarterly report for 2013-2014 is now available here (and also posted below). Please note this report may seem a bit dated as it covers April-June of this year. The Q1 report includes updates on the CR elections, the JETAA USA Institutional Capacity Project, the 2013 National Conference, the 2014 Regional Conference, and tech updates. You can read previous CR reports here on jetaausa.com.
Thanks!
Christina
****************************** *****
JET alum set to publish new book “Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail”
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JET alum Kelly Luce (Kawasaki/Tokushima, 2002-04) will publish her debut collection of fiction this fall titled Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail. The book is a collection of ten stories set in Japan, and many of her stories are characterized by magical realism. According to A Strange Object, the book’s indie publisher, “Hana Sasaki will introduce you to many things—among them, an oracular toaster, a woman who grows a tail, and an extraordinary sex-change operation. These stories tip into the fantastical, plumb the power of memory, and measure the human capacity to love.” The cover was designed and illustrated by Yuko Shimizu.
Luce’s work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Crazyhorse, Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, New England Review, and other magazines. Her short story “Yamada-san’s Toaster” was included in the Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction anthology, (reviewed on JETwit last year.) She lives in Santa Cruz, California, and Austin, Texas, where she is a fellow at the Michener Center for Writers.
A little bit about Kelly: After graduating from Northwestern University with a degree in cognitive science, Luce spent three years in Japan. During her time there, she became the first non-Japanese to join a professional Awa Odori dance team (ren), starred in an English conversation video series for children, and spent a week in a women’s prison in Yokohama.
Thanks to Xander Peterson (Miyazaki-ken, 2009-12), the JET Coordinator at the SF Consulate, for sharing this opening. He also asked that we point out that the deadline is really tight–Mon, Aug 19.
Here’s the link: http://www.sf.us.emb-japan.go.jp/archives/PR_e/2013/pr_13_0812.htm
Coordinator for Public Relations at the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco
The Coordinator for Public Relations works closely with consulate officers and other local staff to promote greater interest in and understanding of Japan and Japanese culture in Northern California and Nevada. S/he also works with the Japan Information Center (JIC) Director to handle Japan-related press and public affairs issues that arise within areas served by this office. In addition, as a staff member of the Consulate, applicants must be willing to work as a part of a team, sharing responsibilities and occasionally working overtime for evening/weekend programs as needed.
POSITION DUTIES: Read More
JETs in the News: Sankei Shimbun profiles Fukushima JET, quotes JETAANY President
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The following article recently appeared in Japanese in the Sankei Shimbun. Very special thanks to CLAIR NY’s Matt Gillam for providing a quick and functional summary/translation upon request. Scroll further down for the Japanese version.
“Fostering Japan Evangelist”
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/world/news/130807/amr13080716050007-n1.htm
Article by Hajime Matsuura
Sankei Shimbun, August 7, 2013
On his way home the other day, Jaime Vogenitz, originally from Philadelphia, had an experience unthinkable in the US. A woman with two children waved to him, gave him some deep-fried foods, and told him to have them for dinner. “I was deeply moved. She must have known I am teaching here,” he said. He arrived in Minamisoma (Fukushima Prefecture) last year in July and is teaching in the elementary school there.
He teaches 3 or 4 classes a day, about 500 or 600 kids altogether, and tries to find ways to make learning English fun for them. During his free time he also sits in on the kids’ Japanese language (kokugo) classes to improve his own Japanese ability.
Vogenitz is in Japan on the JET Program, which is a joint undertaking between local authorities and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other agencies. It brings Assistant Language Teachers, Coordinators for International Relations, & Sports Exchange Advisors from mainly English-speaking countries to Japan. Around 90 percent of these are language teachers like Vogenitz, and about half of those are from the US.
There was a blank space in heavily damaged Minamisoma after 3.11, but last year Vogenitz overcame stiff 1-in-5 odds to be accepted into the Program and became the first person to fill the recreated position.
Even though Minamisoma is so close to the Fukushima No. 1 Reactor and the situation there is known even in America, Vogenitz was happy to be able to be able to come here. Having studied Japanese himself he says he “wanted to share the joy of learning a new language with kids in the affected areas.”
Just last month, on July 26th, a send-off party was held at the Ambassador’s Residence in New York for the 95 new JETs who would leave New York the next morning for Japan. There was a mixture of anxiety and expectation, but everyone shared the same feeling of wanting to “become ‘cultural ambassadors’ after returning to the States to introduce your knowledge of and great experiences in Japan to people here in the US” (Monica Yuki, JETAANY President).
Begun in 1987, the JET Program has brought over 55,000 people to Japan. About half the participants from the US have joined alumni associations there after returning home, which serve as “places for people who love Japan to get together”, and where they serve as interviewers for new JET applicants. And while there was a lot of fundraising and volunteer activity in the US after 3.11, many JET alumni were out in front leading these efforts.
This network is also “a market to cultivate supporters of the US-Japan relationship.” JET alumni who return to the States help form the backbone of society, and are active in a wide variety of fields from foreign officers and academics to journalists, and some have even run for Congress. They conceal the potential to become the wellspring of Japan’s soft power.
The JET Program’s continued existence was in danger from the DPJ government’s ‘jigyo shiwake’ review process. But putting aside evaluations of its management, the review failed to recognize the Program’s “return on investment” and “cost-benefit analysis” in terms of foreign relations and cultural exchange value.
Vogenitz says, “I am grateful to have such meaningful work,” and he hopes to study management after he returns to the States. In the meantime, his father, who supported his going to Minamisoma, is planning to visit him there next summer.
******************
「日本伝道師」育てる外国青年の招致事業 ソフトパワーの源泉に
2013.8.7 16:02
米東部フィラデルフィア市出身で日本に滞在中のジェイミー・ボゲニッツさん（２７）が、帰宅途中、米国では考えられない体験をした。
子供を２人連れた女性から通りすがりに手招きされたので、近寄ってみたところ、女性は買い物袋から揚げ物の総菜を取り出した。「晩ご飯に食べなさいよ」
「感激しました。僕が地元で教えているのを知っていたのでしょう」と語るボゲニッツさんは、福島県南相馬市に住む英語教師だ。昨年７月に来日し、地元の小学校で教えている。
日課はなかなか忙しい。小学生５００～６００人を相手に、毎日３、４コマほどの授業で教壇に立つ。授業にゲームの要素を取り込むなど、教え方にいろいろと工夫を凝らしている。空いた時間は、小学生と一緒に国語の授業を受けて日本語力を磨き、放課後は柔道を習っているという。
ボゲニッツさんは、日本の地方自治体などが共催する外国青年招致事業、ＪＥＴプログラムの一環で来日した。外務省などの協力を得て、ＪＥＴプログラムは主に英語圏から外国語指導助手、国際交流員、スポーツ国際交流員を日本に招致する。９割方がボゲニッツさんのような外国語指導助手で、その半数ほどが米国人という。
ＪＥＴプログラムでは東日本大震災を機に、津波で大きな被害を受けた南相馬市の枠が一時的に空白となった。２０１２年から復活し、合格率５倍の難関を突破したボゲニッツさんは再開第１号として指名された。
福島第１原発の近隣だったこともあり、米国でも南相馬市の被災状況は知られていたが、意気に感じたボゲニッツさんは指名を喜んだ。学生時代に日本語を学んでいたボゲニッツさんは「新しい言語を覚える喜びを被災地の子供たちと分かち合いたかった」と言う。
７月２６日、ニューヨークの日本総領事館では、ＪＥＴプログラム参加者として翌日に日本へ出立する９５人を招待した壮行会が開かれた。若者らの表情には、期待と不安が入り交じっていたが、共通するのは「帰国後には『文化大使』として日本に関する知識と良き体験を母国に紹介する」（ニューヨークＪＥＴ同窓会代表のモニカ・ユキさん）点にある。
１９８７年に始まったプログラムは、約５万５千人の外国人を採用してきた実績がある。米国の場合、およそ半数のＪＥＴ出身者が「親日家交流の場」である同窓会に登録し、新しい応募者の面接官役も務める。東日本大震災に関連した募金・ボランティア活動は米国でも活発だったが、多くのＪＥＴ出身者が旗振り役だった。
そのネットワークは「日本外交の支援者を開拓する市場」でもある。米国に戻ったＪＥＴ出身者は社会の中堅として、外交官、学者からジャーナリストまで、幅広い職業で活躍しており、米議会選に立候補する者も出てきた。日本のソフトパワーの源泉となる可能性を秘めているのだ。
ＪＥＴプログラムは民主党政権下の事業仕分けで存続の危機にひんしたことがある。マネジメントへの評価はさておき、外交・文化交流における“投資効率”や“費用・便益分析”を事業仕分けは見落とした。
「やりがいのある仕事を得て感謝しています」。帰米後に経営大学院に通い、ビジネスマンとなる将来図を描くボゲニッツさんの声が受話器の向こうで弾んでいた。南相馬市行きを応援してくれた父は、来年夏に初来日を予定している。(ニューヨーク駐在編集委員・松浦肇)
JLGC New York Newsletter – July 2013
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Via CLAIR-NY (aka Japan Local Government Center):
The newest JLGC Newsletter is has been published and can be viewed here: http://www.jlgc.org/files/newsletter76.pdf
This issue includes articles on Japan Day in Central Park (in which JETAA NY participated significantly) and a report on the JETAA Canada National Conference in Montreal.
JLGC publishes semi-annual newsletters featuring articles on JETAA activity, sister city and sister state relationships, exchange programs, and local government issues in the United States, Canada, and Japan. The newsletter enables local government officials, JLGC’s fellowship program participants, and other interested persons to stay abreast of JLGC activities and research efforts. At the same time, the newsletter provides those outside of the organization with the opportunity to share their ideas and opinions.
Click the following link to subscribe to the JLGC Newsletter: http://www.jlgc.org/NewsLetterEmailEntry.aspx
JETAA DC Newsletter – August 2013
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Here’s a link to the latest JETAA DC Newsletter post. (It used to be a PDF newsletter, but now it’s set up as a blog post. Very nice!)
http://jetaadc.org/august-jetaadc-news/
In This Edition of JETAA DC News:
- Message from the Board
- August JETAADC Events
- New on the Blog!
- Other Events
- Best of JET (etc.) Around the Web
Books: An English Language Guide to Crafting in Tokyo
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Interview by Rose Symotiuk (Hokkaido 2003-2005) with Angela Salisbury, author of the Tokyo Craft Guide:
As a JET, I keep track of my friends from my Japan days on Facebook. I started seeing posts by my fellow JETs for this cool e-book about crafting in Tokyo. Imagine my surprise when I realized that one of the authors, Angela Salisbury, was an old friend from high school!
I reached out to her to find out more about the book, crafting in Japan, and the JET crafting scene….
Rose: So, how long have you lived in Japan?
Angela: 3 years
Rose: Why did you move to Japan?
Angela: Adventure! The real answer? My husband’s job needed him in Asia, and we decided Tokyo was the place for us.
Rose: Is there an expat crafting scene in Tokyo? If so, can you tell me a little bit about it? Read More
JET alum helps produce “The Birth of Sake” documentary
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Tara Hohenberger, who first fell in love with saké and the Japanese culinary world as an ALT in Nara (2001-2003) wrote to us about a film project she is helping produce. The documentary The Birth of Saké profiles the production seasons and lives of the workers at Tedorigawa, a fifth-generation, family-owned sake brewery in Ishikawa, Japan. Tedorigawa has been producing some of the world’s top award winning sakés since 1870 and still utilizes very traditional brewing methods.
Tara is working on the project with filmmaker Erik Shirai, who was a cinematographer on The Travel Channel’s No Reservations’ with Anthony Bourdain. The crew was first invited to the brewery in August of 2012 and was intrigued by the intense and relatively unknown process (even within Japan) of traditional saké making. Led by Brewmaster Teruyuki Yamamoto, the team of brewers is made up mostly of migrant farmers who grow rice in the summers and return to the brewery in late October to begin an intense six-month period of saké production. They will live under the same roof and eat three meals a day together. At the most intense time, when they brew the ultra-premium Daiginjyo variety they will barely have time to sleep.
In January 2013, they returned to Ishikawa and were granted permission to spend several weeks living amongst the workers at the brewery. It allowed them a rare window into a cast of vibrant and dynamic characters and fueled their interest in painting a deeper portrait of the people behind the product. Shirai’s film captures this little understood world with his signature lush visual aesthetics in the stillness of winter in northern Japan.
On July 9, they launched a Kickstarter campaign running through September 2, 2013, to complete the project. They hope to raise $50,000, which will allow a visit to film the Brewmaster in his hometown of Noto, Japan to illustrate the contrast of the intense life he leads inside the brewery for six months a year, with that of his land, his rice fields, his wife, children and his grandchildren. The film will also capture the critical moment when the workers return to the brewery to begin the production cycle again. Funding will also cover editing, musical composition, licensing, equipment rentals and other post-production costs.
You can view the trailer on The Birth of Saké’s Kickstarter page at
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1802764272/the-birth-of-sake
The filmmakers greatly appreciate your help in spreading the word about the film. Follow them at facebook.com/birthofsake + on Twitter: @iamwhatieatTV
New JETAA UK Mentoring Scheme
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Via the extremely wonderful JETAA UK website:
New JETAA Mentoring Scheme
JETAA UK is keen to find new ways to help returning JETs with their job search if/when they return to the UK. One popular idea is to set up a mentoring scheme to link returning JETs with other ex-JETs that have already established their careers in the UK.
We are looking for mentors from various working sectors with (in principle) five years work experience post-JET. This is a chance for you to build your leadership skills while giving back to the JET community. Please, please get involved, and pass this on to other ex-JET friends that might be interested.
For possible mentors:
You can sign up to the scheme here:
***Please note your personal information will not be used for any purpose other than the administration of the Mentor Program.***
For returning JETs:
We have a separate sign up sheet for you here:
The deadline for mentor sign-ups is August 30th, 2013. We plan to assign mentors and mentees within two weeks of that date.
*****Also from the JETAA UK website**********
Questionnaire for Careers Networking Events
JETAA UK wants to support JETs with their post-JET careers and provide nationwide professional networking opportunities and JET connect events for its members. In order to do this, we want to know what professional and regional areas you would be interested in and whether you would be willing to help out in any way.
Please fill in this quick questionnaire to help us help you!
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1-Noev_dsw9Q-NeDAcxQPIOJgf_3QsVTUTP02idrQLmc/viewform
Contact Sarah Parsons, National Careers and Networking Coordinator for more info. on careers@jetaa.org.uk.
