USJBF selects JET alum Laurel Lukaszewski for new “Strengthening the JETAA USA Network” initiative
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Laurel Lukaszewski (Kagoshima-ken, 1990-1992)
Remember the job listing for the Part-time Project Director with the US-Japan Bridging Foundation (USJBF) to support JETAA USA growth? The USJBF has announced that it has selected Laurel Lukaszewski (ALT Kagoshima-ken, 1990-92) for the position for its new initiative “Strengthening the JETAA Network and Connecting Next Generation Leaders.”
Shojiki ni itte, it’s hard to imagine anyone better suited for the role. Laurel has maintained a strong connection with Japan and the Japan-US community since here time on the JET Program by previously serving on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Japan-America Societies (NAJAS), as the Executive Director for the Japan-America Society of Washington, D.C, and as a Program Director of the Japan-America Society in Seattle. She currently lives in Washington, D.C. where she actively participates on the Board of the National Cherry Blossom Festival and JETAADC. You can see her in this panel discussion with fellow JET alums Jim Gannon (Ehime-ken, 1992-94) and Anthony Bianchi (Aichi-ken, Inuyama-shi, 1988-89) from the 2011 JETAA National Conference in D.C.
Laurel (who is also a sculptor–see her work here) officially started working Tuesday, July 9. Here is the official announcement from the USJBF:
July 11, 2013
The U.S.-Japan Bridging Foundation (USJBF), is pleased to announce that Laurel Lukaszewski has been hired as Project Director for its new initiative “Strengthening the JETAA Network and Connecting Next Generation Leaders.” Funded by the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership (CGP), the purpose of the project is to build infrastructure in support of the Japan-Exchange and Teaching Program Alumni Association, United States of America (JETAA USA) and enhance its impact promoting U.S.-Japan relations.
Laurel is an alumna of the JET Programme (Kagoshima-ken, 1990-1992) and has a solid understanding of U.S.-Japan relations, the U.S.-Japan community and how nonprofit and membership organizations are governed and run. After completing the JET Programme and receiving an M.A. in Asian Studies, Laurel embarked on a nine-year career with the Japan-America Societies in Seattle and Washington, D.C.. In 2005, Laurel left her position as ED of the JASW to pursue a career as an artist. She has maintained her ties to the JET Programme and U.S.-Japan community by serving as an active member of the JET Application Review and Interview committees for over thirteen years. Laurel served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Japan America Societies (NAJAS), and has been on the National Cherry Blossom Festival Board of Directors since 2002. Paige Cottingham-Streater, Executive Director of the U.S.-Japan Bridging Foundation said, “Laurel is a valuable addition to our team and will bring a unique understanding about the JET community and its potential to promote a strong U.S.-Japan relationship.”
The U.S.-Japan Bridging Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, awards scholarships to U.S. undergraduate students to study for one semester or academic year in Japan. The Foundation grows global leaders to help prepare America’s young people to assume future leadership roles in business, education, international and public affairs and other professions.
URL: http://www.bridgingfoundation.org/news/new-project-director-to-facilitate-jetaa-capacity-building
Posted by Celine Castex (Chiba-ken, 2006-11), currently programme coordinator at CLAIR Tokyo.
CLAIR is currently in the process of revising and updating the Teaching Material Collection, a compilation of teaching resources from current and forme
r JET participants. We are interested in collecting activity reports for our new section on Special Needs Schools from current and past JET participants. We are looking for original ideas for activities which you have used in your classes and which you feel could be effectively used in other JET participants’ classrooms for special needs students.
Please describe and outline your activity in accordance to the following format when filling out each section.
– Activity Title
– Submitted by: [Write your first and last name here.]
– Contracting Organisation: [Put the name of your current/past contracting organisation.]
– Target Group: [e.g. “ES 5th year,” “JHS,” etc.]
– Target Disability Group: [Visually impaired students, Hearing impaired students, Health impaired students]
– Difficulty Level: [Fundamentals: alphabet, colors, simple sentences, etc.; Basic Conversation: simple dialogue, direction giving, etc.; Conversational: attempting actual, guided conversation on a given topic; Other: to be precised, etc.]
– Activity Objective: [Write the goal of this activity. Example: “To practice asking and giving directions.”
– Procedure: [Explain the activity in clear and concise terms.]
– Materials and Preparation: [List the materials needed for the activity and how they are to be prepared and used.]
– Division of Roles for JET and JTE: [Write what the JET should be responsible for doing and what the JTE should be responsible for doing in terms of preparation and execution of the activity.]
– Suggestions and Advice: [Write any practical tips or advice you may have for making the activity run more smoothly and effectively. Also, if you have any troubleshooting advice, please write it here.] Read More
Sister City Ties Ep #1: ALTs of the JET Program
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Eliot Honda (Ehime-ken, 2009-2012) has started a unique video series on Sister City Ties in which he interviews current and former JETs:
CLAIR Magazine “JET Plaza” series: Mark Flanigan (Nagasaki)
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Each month, current and former JET participants are featured in the “JET Plaza” section of the CLAIR Forum magazine. The July 2013 edition includes an article by JET alumn Mark Flanigan. Posted by Celine Castex (Chiba-ken, 2006-11), currently programme coordinator at CLAIR Tokyo.
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“It was a wonderful feeling to be able to walk the same pathways, both physical and metaphorical, that I had first walked a decade before. Much has changed since then, in Japan and in my own life, but I will always remain incredibly thankful to CLAIR and the JET Programme for this “Twice in a Lifetime” chance.”
A native of Pittsburgh, PA, Mark Flanigan (Nagasaki-ken, Hirado-shi, 2000-04) spent four years in Nagasaki Prefecture as an ALT and PA . He applied for JET as part of his long record of work, study and travel abroad, which has given him a deeper understanding of global affairs and insight into different languages, people and cultures. Mark Flanigan currently serves as Program Director with the Japan ICU Foundation (日本国際基督教大学財団) in New York City and is a first-year Resident of International House of New York. He came to New York after two years in Tokyo, where he earned his MA in Peace Studies as a Rotary International Peace Fellow at International Christian University (ICU). Mark has also been a US Army Officer, Presidential Management Fellow (PMF), and CSIS Young Leader.
Twice in a Lifetime
Like the great majority of JET programme participants, I look back with fond recollections on my time in Japan. Unlike most of them, however, I also had a second chance to come back and live in Japan once again. It was an amazing experience, and one which I never planned on, which allowed me to compare my two very different “Japans.” Although I lived in that same country twice, the differences in time, location and purpose made for a very insightful analysis of how both Japan and I had changed in the intervening years.
My first years in Japan were spent as a new ALT who had never been to Asia, much less lived there. While I had some experience teaching English in the U.S. and Mexico, I was not an Asian Studies major and was not at all familiar with the Japanese language. Nonetheless, I grew to love my new life in Hirado, Nagasaki Prefecture. I immersed myself in the community, getting involved in the local karate dojo as well as participating in the various seasonal festivals and extracurricular activities like speech contests, international days and so on. My original plan to stay just one year changed into multiple re-contracting, and I actually ended up spending a total of four years on JET (teaching both in Hirado as a municipal ALT and then as a Teacher-Trainer at the Prefectural Education Center in Omura City.)
Returning to the U.S. after four years in Japan, I became busily focused on other areas and gradually lost touch with my various connections to JET and Nagasaki. I went to graduate school for Public Policy at George Mason University in the Washington, DC area and started serving with the U.S. Government after graduation. My life continued to progress in this new direction, which was successful enough and still internationally focused, but less-connected to Japan with each passing year. I found myself forgetting more and more nihongo and generally feeling like my JET experience, while a wonderful time, was becoming a kind of closed chapter in my life. Read More
JETAANC Pacific Bridge: Alumni Spotlight with Xander Peterson
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Spotlight on: Xander Peterson (Miyazaki, 2009-12) JET Program Coordinator for San Francisco. Xander became the new coordinator earlier this year.
Why did you apply for the position?
I applied for the position because I truly believe in the purpose of JET, and I want to see the program flourish. The cultural exchange and friendships that I built with my students and community changed my life and hopefully influenced theirs, too. I knew that it wasn’t just me who felt this way; nearly everyone who goes on JET is profoundly impacted in some manner.
Did you ever see yourself becoming the Program Coordinator during JET/JET application process?
When I first applied to JET, I didn’t see myself as becoming the Program Coordinator. However, after my first year as an ALT, I was in love with the program and began to think of ways that I could support not just the JETs in my area but all JETs across Japan and the program as a whole. At the end of my final year in Japan, I applied to CLAIR but to no avail. A couple of months after I returned to Santa Cruz, the position of JET Program Coordinator (for Northern California / Nevada) opened up. I applied and got the job.
How do you see yourself working with JETAANC?
I see myself as the liaison between the Consulate and JETAANC. I’d like to do whatever I can to build a strong working relationship between the two. One area that I think we can work on is connecting our local JET alums with the local Sister City Associations. Local Sister City Associations are a great place for alumni to share their Japan experiences and adventures with American students who are interested in learning more about Japanese language and culture.
Read More
JETAA USA Disaster Relief Fund Update – 06.01.13
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Jim Gannon (Ehime-ken, 1992-94), Executive Director of the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE/USA) and a member of the JETAA USA Disaster Relief Fund Committee, was recently in Tohoku for work and shared the following update regarding one of the projects that JETAA USA helped fund:
Jim says he met with Kodomo no Empowerment Iwate (click here for their Facebook page) and also had a chance to talk with two representatives of the Rikuzentakata Board of Education and learned:
- The BOE and many people in the prefecture see the Manabi-no-heya project we supported as a crucial element of the town’s recovery, and the Ministry of Education has selected it as a model project for introduction around the country.
- They currently have 206 students enrolled in Rikuzentakata alone, and have expanded to Kamaishi, Ofunato, Miyako, and other affected cities, adjusting the program to fit local circumstances.
- The big news they were happy about was that one of the students from the tutoring program was just ranked #1 out of 600 on the Rikuzentakata high school entrance exams.
- The Ministry of Education and private source have provided funding for the project that is many multiples of JETAA USA’s, but the organizers and the city officials all credit JETAA-USA as providing the seed money to help get this off the ground.
Here’s a news video about the project (in Japanese – if someone wants to post a summary in some form that would be great, btw):
Photo #1: From Kodomo no Empowerment’s gathering of their Rikuzentakata program managers (senior tutors), on Saturday. They got together to discuss how to improve the program, discuss student management issues, etc. The fact that they were sacrificing an entire Saturday for this shows just how committed they are. The person standing is Iwate Prefectural University Professor Katsuhiko Yamamoto, who heads Kodomo no Empowerment.
Photo #2: A student named Masako who was a student in the Otsuchi program, which is held in a temporary housing unit. She is showing off her desk where she had been studying English. She just enrolled in Nagoya College of Foreign Languages, an extraordinary triumph for a student from a small town like this. She seems to be taking some time to volunteer now with a development NGO in the Philippines in order to give back and also to brush up her English.
CLAIR Magazine “JET Plaza” series: David Namisato (Aomori)
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Each month, current and former JET participants are featured in the “JET Plaza” section of the CLAIR Forum magazine. The June 2013 edition includes an article by JET alumn David Namisato. Posted by Celine Castex (Chiba-ken, 2006-11), currently programme coordinator at CLAIR Tokyo.
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“I went on the JET Programme because I had quit art, but I returned to art because I went on the JET Programme, and thanks to that, here I am, over a decade later, an illustrator and comic book creator, with my JET experience influencing many of my works.”
David Namisato (Aomori-ken, Ajigasawa Town, 2002-04), is from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He came to Japan on the JET Programme looking for a different career path after animation school, and spent two years in a rural town of Aomori as a CIR. Back in Canada, he started a comic series about the JET Programme experience for the JETAA Toronto Newsletter. Life After the B.O.E. quickly gained popularity inside and outside the JET community, to become a book in 2011. David is now a professional illustrator and has just released his new fantasy comic The Long Kingdom #1.
My Long Journey to the Beginning
In October of 2001, having become disillusioned with art, I decided to drop out of animation school, and to try something completely different and applied to the JET Programme.
Fluent in Japanese and looking for translation and interpretation experience as well as to transition in to a more planning and administrative career, I thought the position of Coordinator of International Relations (CIR) would be a good fit.
I was admitted to the JET Programme in 2002 as a CIR, and went to Japan. However, my contracting organization, Ajigasawa Town in Aomori Prefecture, used CIRs as elementary school English instructors. I had no planning or administrative duties beyond curriculum design and lesson planning, nor did I have translation or interpretation work. Rather, I was entrusted to teach English to children grades one through six at six of the town’s elementary schools.
As an elementary school English instructor, my art skills that I had abandoned were quickly resurrected and came in quite handy as I would use drawings to explain difficult vocabulary and grammar to my students. Slowly my joy of drawing returned, and as it returned, I also began contributing covers to the Aomori AJET newsletter.
In the spring of 2005, six months after my two years as a CIR ended, I decided to give art another try, and I started work as an illustrator creating illustrations and comics for children’s science, and history magazines in Canada. Read More
Posted by Celine Castex (Chiba-ken, 2006-11), currently programme coordinator at CLAIR Tokyo.
The Public Relations Office of the Government of Japan published an article on the JET Programme in their monthly publication that aims to 
promote a better understanding of Japan in the world. They interviewed Bryan Darr (Saitama-ken, Tokorozawa-shi, 2008-13), current JET participant in Tokorozawa Shogyo High School in Saitama Prefecture. Bryan’s contributions to the JET community include being the Education and Professional Development Coordinator for National AJET in 2011-12, a regular speaker at Saitama Skill Development Conferences and an active member of Peer Support Group (PSG), a listening and referral service administered by AJET.
Click here to see the article “Young Pioneers of the JET Age.”
UK JET alum a finalist for Pearson National Teaching award
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Via the JETAA UK website:
An ex-JET, Crispin Chambers (Hyogo-ken, Awaji-shima), who now teaches Japanese at Tavistock College in Devon has won a teaching award for the South West of England. He is now a finalist for the Pearson National Teaching awards 2013. This is the first time a teacher of Japanese, and an ex-JET has been nominated, and JETAA would like to extend our warmest congratulations!!
Crispin was originally a JET on Awaji Island for 2 years and then became JET programme co-ordinator for a year at CLAIR in Tokyo. After returning to the UK, Crispin gained an MA in Japanese at Sheffield University followed by a PGCE at Nottingham University. He has been teaching Japanese and French at Tavistock since 1996, and has trained several other teachers of Japanese. His lessons are inspiring and fun, and were described by the Teaching Awards judges as “a joy to watch”. You can see his entry and leave him a message here:
You can learn more about Crispin’s fantastic Japanese lessons on a case study of the school written by the Japan Foundation in 2011. Click here orhere to read it.
There are currently two former Tavistock College students on the JET Programme in Saga and Sendai, so Crispin has gone on to inspire the next generation of JETs.
JET alum Jim Gannon continues his work on behalf of JCIE in support of Rikuzentakata and other areas
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Via the Japan Center for International Exchange’s Facebook page. A nice post about the work that Jim Gannon (Ehime-ken, 1992-94), Executive Director of the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE/USA), has been doing in Tohoku on behalf of his organization. Jim is also a member of JETAA USA’s Board of Advisors and the JETAA USA Disaster Relief Fund Committee:
JCIE/USA’s Jim Gannon was in Tohoku last week, where he met with grantee AidTAKATA, an NGO that operates Radio FM Rikuzentakata to bring local news, music, and informational programs to people living in this hard-hit area. The station is the only source of local information for many residents in temporary housing, and it is working to strengthen community ties.
During his visit, the station featured a program with a lawyer who provides advice on the legal issues people in the disaster zone have to cope with (rebuilding regulations, insurance settlements, land titles, etc.). They also briefly interviewed Gannon during the program and took the opportunity to express their gratitude to all of the donors to the JCIE fund.
While on air, a small earthquake struck and the announcer immediately provided information on the epicenter and strength and to reassure listeners.
Kiyoshi Murakami (president, AidTAKATA), Jim Gannon (JCIE/USA), Hiromi Abe, and Sakie Musashi at the Radio FM Rikuzentakata station.
Former AJET Chair Announced as Senior Staff of Osaka Prefectural BoE’s New English Education Reform Team
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Former AJET Chair Matt Cook (Osaka-fu, 2007-12) receives his appointment to the Education Reform Team for Osaka Prefecture’s Board of Education.
Former AJET Chair Matthew Cook (Osaka-fu, 2007-12) has been announced as “Shusa” (“Senior Staff”) at the Osaka Prefectural Board of Education. His role will be working with all levels of English Educational Affairs and working as a member of the new English Education Reform Team.
Matt may be the first ever non-Japanese person to hold a senior level full-time position at a Board of Education in Japan*. (If anyone is aware of other examples, please post in the comment section.) Among other things, it is also encouraging to see a JET alum with an opportunity to play a substantive role in English education reform in Japan.
Matt has spent the past ten months working for the Osaka Prefectural Board of Education as a the Program Coordinator for their Native English Teacher (NET) Program (somewhat akin to being a JET Program Coordinator at CLAIR) following his completion of five years as a JET ALT in Osaka-fu and serving one year as AJET’s national council Chair.
Omedetou, Matt-san! Ganbatte kudasai and yoroshiku onegaishimasu!
Here’s a link to the article about the announcement in the Yomiuri Shimbun (Japanese only): http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/kyoiku/news/20130522-OYT8T00381.htm (If anyone readers could provide a short summary in the comment section, by the way, that would be greatly appreciated.)
*Note: I learned there have been other former JETs and other non-Japanese who worked as advisors and in other roles for the Osaka Prefectural Board of Education. However, my understanding is that none of them worked at the policy-making level. Here’s a 2003 article from The Guardian that quotes one in particular who seemed to have some good insights into reform and Japanese language education, Huw Olphant: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2003/jan/30/tefl Huw currently works as Head of Society and English Education for the British Council in Japan and was apparently mentioned in Importing Diversity, a book about the JET Programme published in 2000.
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Update 06.01.13
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Thanks to current JET Kevin McCoy for summarizing some of the above Daily Yomiuri article:
このうち、元滋賀県立高英語教諭でハーバード大教育大学院で教育修士号を得た武田浄さん（４６）と、府内で外国語指導助手などを約６年間務めた米国籍のマシュー・クックさん（３４）の２人を、この日、任期付き職員として採用した。他の５人は、英語に堪能な府教委職員で、従来の担当と兼務する。
Two the seven team members, Takeda Kiyoshi (46), a former English teacher at Shiga Prefectural High School, who received his Master’s degree at Harvard University Graduate School, and Matthew Cook (34), an American who worked for approximately 6 years as an ALT for the prefecture, were hired as “shokuin” (staff) with a limited period of appointment. The other 5 members are all staff at the prefecture’s Board of Education with exceptional English skills who will also serve their usual “tanto” (staff) positions.
Kevin also found the following report which is a little more specific with regard to titles:
http://www.nnn.co.jp/dainichi/news/130521/20130521032.html
同チームは７人で構成。これまで英語教育に携わってきた職員に加え、ハーバード大教育大学院で教育修士号を取得し、国内の公立中高で教諭経験がある武田浄さん（46）と、バージニア工科大卒で府教委の外国人英語指導員などに就いてきた米国国籍のマシュー・クックさん（34）を、それぞれ参事と主査で任期付き採用した。武田さんの任期は２０１６年３月末までで、クックさんの任期は２０１５年３月末まで。
The team is made up of 7 members. In addition to staff who have been involved in English education until now, Kiyoshi Takeda (46) […] and American national […] Matthew Cook (34) were each hired as “sanji” and “shusa”, respectively. Takeda’s appointment is until the end of March 2016, and Cook’s appointment will last until the end of March 2015.
Hawaii JET alum seeks to interview Ehime JET alums via Skype
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The below is a request from Eliot Honda (Ehime-ken, 2009-2012) who is seeking to interview other Ehime JET alumni as part of a project aimed at re-establishing the Ehime Kenjinkai in Hawaii:
My name is Eliot Honda, I am a former ALT in Uwajima city. I was there from 2009-2012, I had a blast and learned a lot about Uwajima, and Ehime in my three years. I found out that my home, Hawaii has deep ties to Ehime dating as far back as Japan’s first interaction with a Head of State. King Kalakaua and Date Munenari would meet during Kalakaua’s trip to Japan.
Since returning I’ve attempted to stay active in JET and in international exchange. My wife and I have been working to rebuild the Ehime Kenjinkai (Ehime Prefecture Club.) One of the things we talked about doing is a series of videos on the Ehime area. I wanted to add a bit of JET in there, since I’ve also become a board member of the JET Alumni Association in Hawaii. I wanted to do a screen cap of Skype/Facetime interviews and get former/present JETs to talk about the area in Ehime they lived in. A bit about the history, the landscape, the people, the attractions, and overall lifestyle of the area they live/lived in.
Ehime and JET hold a very special place in my heard, and Uwajima has become a 2nd home for me; a place I can always return to. (And not just because my wife is from there.) I have so many friends, and now family in Uwajima. This prefecture is rarely visited, but has a lot of beauty in it, and the JET Program is constantly on the chopping block, and I think people outside of the program miss the value of the program.
If you’re interested in doing an interview (which will eventually go on YouTube) and also helping to show the beauty of Ehime and just how helpful the JET Program can be for international exchange, please email me.
Thank You,
Eliot Honda
Email: eliot.honda [at] gmail.com
Here are some previous JETwit posts with Eliot’s videos about JET and Ehime. And here is a JQ Magazine “Life After JET” interview with him.
Job: US-Japan Bridging Foundation seeks Part-Time Project Director to support JETAA USA growth
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A little bit of background on this very unique job posting from http://www.jetaausa.com/2013/05/20/bridging-foundation-recruiting-jetaa-project-director/:
The JETAA USA Board of Advisors, the JETAA USA Country Representatives, and the JETAA USA Working Group have been collaborating with JET alum Paige Cottingham-Streater of the US-Japan Friendship Commission (among others) on the opportunity to grow and strengthen JETAA USA and its chapters. Thanks to Paige’s hard work, the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership has created a part-time position to work for the US-Japan Bridging Foundation to support this mission.
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May 20, 2013
United States-Japan Bridging Foundation (USJBF)
Part-time Project Director Position Announcement
The U.S.-Japan Bridging Foundation (USJBF), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening the ties between Japan and the U.S. through cultural and educational exchanges, is launching a new initiative “Strengthening the JETAA Network and Connecting Next Generation Leaders.” The purpose of the project is to build infrastructure in support of the Japan-Exchange and Teaching Program Alumni Association, United States of America (JETAA USA) and enhance its impact promoting U.S.-Japan relations. The first year of the project will involve fact-finding to collect and analyze information from the JETAA USA Working Group, local chapters and stakeholders in the U.S. and Japanese governments and local communities; enhance the jetaausa.com website, strengthen the online media Facebook and Twitter presence; help coordinate regional and national meetings/ conferences for participants from 19+ JETAA chapters; and other duties as required in order to carry out the mission of this position.
The Foundation seeks a part-time project director to: Read More
As part of an occasional series, Sheila Burt (Toyama-ken, 2010-2012) will begin profiling JETs who are or were in some way involved with rebuilding efforts in the Tohoku region. The inaugural post is about Jessie Zanutig (Gunma-ken, 2009-12), who founded 3,000 Letters to Japan, an international letter exchange project aimed at lifting the spirits of students who are living in the communities hardest hit by the disaster. Burt is currently a freelance journalist and English teacher in Matsuyama City, Ehime-ken. Read more of her reporting at her blog, Stories from the Inaka.
Zanutig’s home full of letters.
Jessie Zanutig was in the middle of celebrating her junior high school students’ graduation at a small restaurant in Kawaba Village, Gunma Prefecture, when the earthquake struck. Buildings in her tiny mountainous town in northern Gunma shook violently, but her town was thankfully safe from the tsunami that was about to ravage several coastal communities in northeast Japan.
As Gunma residents banned together in the next few weeks to send supplies to neighboring Fukushima-ken, Zanutig began to correspond with a Canadian friend who was living in Ishinomaki, one of the hardest hit towns in Miyagi Prefecture, to learn more about the situation. Her friend’s boyfriend, who is Japanese, lost his father in the tsunami and was struggling with the sudden loss of a family member.
“I was in contact with her a lot to make sure she was OK. Her students were having a really hard time,” Zanutig, 28, remembers. “I thought, ‘I want to help but there’s nothing I can do.’ So I asked her, ‘If I just collected a few letters from friends and family, do you have a few students you can give them to?’” Read More
Let’s Talk Japan Podcast, Episode 10 – Smile Kids Japan
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Let’s Talk Japan is a twice monthly, interview format podcast covering a wide range of Japan-related topics. Host Nick Harling (Mie-ken, 2001-03) lived in Japan from 2001 until 2005, including two great years as a JET Program participant in Mie-Ken. He practices law in Washington, D.C., and lives with his wife who patiently listens to him talk about Japan . . . a lot.
Dear JETs and JET Alumni,
One of the main reasons I started the Let’s Talk Japan podcast was to highlight the positive impact JETs and JET alumni have on their local communities in Japan. In Episode 10, I interviewed Meredith Smith, Media and Public Relations Director for Smile Kids Japan, a volunteer organization founded by JETs in Fukui Prefecture which encourages visits to orphanages in Japan. Through its website and volunteer leadership, Smile Kids Japan helps facilitate such visits by serving as a resource for best practices. This organization is doing amazing work, and I hope this episode helps raise its profile both in Japan and abroad.
Enjoy!
Nick
If you have not already done so, be sure to “Like” the podcast on Facebook, and follow the podcast on Twitter @letstalkjapan. Additionally, please consider leaving a positive rating and/or review in iTunes.
