CLAIR Magazine “JET Plaza” Series: Christopher Chong (Chiba)
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Each month, current and former JET participants are featured in the “JET Plaza” section of the CLAIR Forum magazine. The March 2014 edition includes an article by current JET participant Christopher Chong. Posted by Celine Castex (Chiba-ken, 2006-11), currently programme coordinator at CLAIR Tokyo.
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Originally from London, U.K., Christopher Chong (Chiba-ken, Sosa-shi, 2011-present) holds a master’s degree in Music Composition and Composition for TV/Film from Royal College of Music. He came to Japan for the first time to study illustration in a manga school. He applied to the JET Programme after realizing that all his areas of interest revolved around Japan. Christopher currently works as an ALT in rural Chiba and is actively involved in his community, as an AJET leader and a tourism ambassador as well.
International Power Ranger
“Being a JET has shown me that I have so much more to offer than I realised, and in ways I had never even imagined”
Jan… Ken… Pon! “I knew it! You’re not Japanese!” the child exclaimed. I’d been exposed. Despite the bright red spandex uniform and custom made Power Ranger helmet, my style of playing ‘Rock Paper Scissors’ had given away the fact that I am, indeed, a foreigner in Japan. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with a costume or without, I am an international Power Ranger. And I call myself, ‘ALT’.
Volunteering at the town festival to dress up as my city mascot, a kind of ‘Super Sentai,’ was a fantastic experience. It wasn’t a working day and I wasn’t in a classroom, but I was doing what JETs do best, making myself present. Every minute of every day is another chance to interact with people. I wasn’t studying, and I wasn’t teaching. I was part of cultural exchange, and that can happen in any place, at any time.
Even after a great English class, it’s the next 10 minutes that are really special. Quickly I am surrounded by 30 bag-grabbing, iPad-tapping, glasses-snatching children. For only 10 minutes I have the chance to answer questions about my recent trip to France, let children strum my electric guitar or even award stickers to the winners of the iPad English quiz game I have created for my students to play. The time is short, but precious.
It wasn’t always this way. When I first began my work as an ALT, I had expected that returning to school as a teacher would make me feel powerful and important. Instead, I felt awkward, nervous and I often worried that I was getting in the way. I would hide in the western style toilet stall and think to myself, ‘I’m too different. Nobody likes me. I’m not supposed to be here.’
I was wrong. One day, even though I was scared, I tried to eat lunch with students, and then everything changed! Students that had never spoken to me during class talked about games, asked me about England, and even made me laugh! That day, I learned a lesson about my job that would later define every aspect of my life in Japan. No matter how great or small, every encounter is precious. I realised that I must make it easier for students to approach me. So, I greeted students at the school entrance, I stood in the corridor between classes, I cleaned classrooms with students and before I knew it, I was no longer worried that I didn’t belong. Read More
Life As a JET: Thoughts From a First Year
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Jeremy Tan is a 2013 Kochi-shi, Kochi-ken CIR, and with the imminent announcement of 2014’s new batch, he reflects on his observation of what the JET Programme is like, and what it’s for. Originally published for JETAA NSW, the article was published in two parts, but it is published in its entirety here.
It has been almost 9 months since I departed from Sydney, Australia. Many memories and the like have been made since then. Please read these paragraphs, if you have time. I hope they can help you.
I remember the months leading up to the departure as a whirlwind of meeting people, preparing for departure and being really excited that I was about to start a new Journey in Japan. I have been to Japan before on exchange during my university years however this time, it’s for work. And it was very different from what you would have experienced before. Receiving the placement letter, was a long wait. The system does provide for some contracting organizations to send their letters to JET applicants at an earlier time, however the smaller/local contracting organizations tend to take their time in sending their documents. At first I thought it was just a matter of problem in the communication line, the slowness of the mail system etc. Or perhaps the fact that they have at least 10,000 people applying each year for the program. It’s actually Japanese people being polite and making sure everyone knows who you are before you come.
Having to submit my letter of resignation to my current workplace, and listening to many regrets from colleagues and friends alike was heart-wrenching. However they cheered me on, for something that I had a dream for; Japan. The whirlwind definitely can be extremely stressful or adrenaline pumping. I think I experienced the latter. So much adrenaline, but yet all you need is yourself. They picked you, they believe in you.
Meeting new JET applicants. Packing my suitcases, bags and boxes. Having to submit my end of lease papers. Closing my bills. (Even now I have to deal with outstanding bills that don’t want to let go of me). Organizing bank accounts, important documents and overseas credit cards. These all came in quite a wave, especially since I have been living as an independent, without my family overseas since I was 17. I felt like I had to pack almost 10 years of my life into a few boxes and send it over to Japan. Now I live each day as if it was my only life. Your life will be what you make it each day.
I think around this time, April, is when most of us JETs were finally hearing about our placements and trying to find out about our contracting organizations. So, perhaps our year really actually started around this time. Having to write down so many experiences into a single article can seem quite daunting. Believe me it has been an undertaking with many memories. And that is the most important thing – making memories.
Australia, my country, Sydney, my city. Discussions on Facebook, forums and many other social networks, all JETs trying to keep networking and keep in contact. It’s surprising how, when we arrived, the journey together in orientation is a short one. We make friends from our original application embassies. Then we make friends in our local area, city, town and prefecture. The program is amazing in how it develops you, to further strengthen your identity. You meet so many people, especially the Japanese that you work with. They all have special peculiarities, personalities. Their personalities, and most importantly, what makes them Japanese. Another important thing, the people. They’re important.
As young JETs we generally romanticize the features of Japan. Without a doubt, the MOFA sells Japan as a whole. It’s their job. However this program is not exactly that. It’s about the people and kids you live with. The program wants to change lives. They first changed your life. They gave you the opportunity to come on the program. So now, all you have to do is make a difference to the lives of those you will meet. Don’t worry if you’re no super-worker, ace-teacher or not perfect in any way. They just want you to be the perfect friend to Japan. When you make a difference to one child or one colleague or one person’s life in Japan, pat yourself on the back and grab a beer. Especially if you are in Kochi.
I have fears of what I can say in this article, but some things should be said. If I had been asked for just a few words could I tell the JET applicants what they should be prepared for? I’ll try. Don’t come here for the English. Unless you have power that can change the world, you will hurt yourself. The resilience needed to change an estimated 123,000,000 people’s worth of education, is more than Mount Fuji (it’s been made a UNESCO heritage site, as of 2013, more things to look forward to). They ask of you, yourself, and your identity, to assume a persona from another country for the children and people of Japan. Rural Japan, where you will be most likely be sent does not really have much exposure to the outside world. They have, over years, tried to improve their English ability. It’s hard for them, just like how the Japanese language is equally difficult to learn. So don’t expect them to change quickly or easily. They will need pushing and pulling as long as their history, which is vast and long. You’re a part of that big process.
So? What does it mean? Give up on JET? Well, if you really want to be a hardboiled teacher of English, it’s going to be different from the way you were trained. Japan’s government and current society realizes that. It’s a stoic country still stuck in their old ways. Japan likes its traditions. Sometimes too much and it can be hard to move on. But that’s Japan’s specialty; without that, you won’t get Kyoto, Kamakura, and all the old Japanese temples, clothes and things that we now respect as part of Japan. It develops and becomes the culture, because it is their culture. So it will take time for them to develop their English.
Then why all these requirements? It is a program, and it is run by the government. They don’t want to just hire and give money to young people. They want to show that they are being responsible. That’s what the degrees are for. Of course, our generation is now slowly changing our perception of what a degree means. But the truth is that, you won’t take on a degree unless you’re serious, have enough logic, won’t get yourself into massive criminal complications or make a mess of yourself. That’s sort of why they want your degree – you committed to something and completed it. Another part of what being on the JET program is about. Complete it and you will find the experience the best thing in your life. Just like all of us.
This is not research, just the thoughts of what I have experienced over the months. Writing this to tell you about Japan, somehow helps. It really shows that in agreeing to Japan, you’re actually saying, “Yes! I want to be someone that can be myself, learn about the people and I want to make friends.” You see, if the is one thing people mistake when coming here, it is the work aspect. I don’t want to belittle the program. I am on it. But it’s not really work, so to say/speak. It’s like a buffer program, so that, should you wish to stay on in Japan or even return home, you know how to act, survive and persevere in a Japanese workplace, community and lifestyle.
Now, I think when the program was first conceived, they wanted to generate work. They wanted participants to feel like they could come together with the people of Japan. That’s what I feel. I think what they found out is that, by teaching, you get to know families, the kids, the parents, the teachers and ultimately the community. This is the main reason for your teaching role in Japan. As above, they want people to help the children to realize, there is a world out there. People from other countries. You can teach, just remember, stay true to yourself.
It was particularly hard for myself, as I can be quite a perfectionist. Somehow being here has really transformed into a realist. As I write this, I am sitting down in an office with people screaming over the air, phones ringing around me, kids coming in asking for things and some teachers just sleeping. It’s an interesting place. Japan really is. However, I don’t think I can say I was when I came.
Finally, I want to say, consider yourself the luckiest people alive. It’s an honor to be on a program designed by a country that ultimately wants to help its people to become internationalized. There are troubles that our previous “senpais” or predecessors have caused. They lay scars and marks into this lovely country. Please don’t become one. Really Japan, its people and your contracting organization do not ask much of you. A little
quote to ease the life, “When you can be trusted with little, you can then be trusted with much.” The JET program is actually entrusting you with much straight away. They only ask of you to follow some simple rules.
Don’t get yourself into trouble or engender trouble for your family or friends. All the bad stories can actually be avoided if the people in questions just thought carefully, asked for advice and looked for help before making their decision. Hey, you’re reading this, I think you’re not so stupid.
Internationalization, being global, grassroots. Those are words, if you studied English, some of them don’t actually make sense. A lot of the text is hard to really grasp. It’s Japan’s way of saying what they can only actually express through their feelings and through having you come on the program. Japan might not do it the best way, if you’re a perfectionist like me. But they get the job done. Over the 27 years (Funny, the program is exactly as old as I am) the program has survived, many of those that experienced it (over 57,000 people) have become people that can explain to others around them, what Japan is really all about. So be excited that you’re going to make new friends and have fun with them, the way they do in Japan.
Re: Cultural Identity
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Via AJET Chair Kay Makishi. Posted by blogger and podcaster Jon Dao (Toyama-ken, 2009-12).
[Kay’s Note: This is a really good article that adds more to the dialogue concerning how we determine identity– written by a Fukuoka JET. Check it out!]
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For many of us who work in the high school system, I’m sure you had a tearful, reflective experience at your recent graduation ceremony. At my school in the tiny suburb of Jojima, I watched each newly-minted adult stand up when their name was called in a moment of recognition, and then they were folded back into the crowd. It made me think about the class as a unit, about how they grew and learned together and how now they were shedding their safe identities as students of this school. I also couldn’t help thinking how each of them had probably never left this town for more than a week. It was likely that they had never even left Fukuoka at all. Giving all this up was a turning point in their lives, and they would all think back and recognize the significance someday in the future. Read More
CLAIR Magazine “JET Plaza” series: Jody Maria-Ann Dixon (Yamanashi)
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Each month, current and former JET participants are featured in the “JET Plaza” section of the CLAIR Forum magazine. The January 2014 edition includes an article by current JET participant Jody Dixon. Posted by Celine Castex (Chiba-ken, 2006-11), currently programme coordinator at CLAIR Tokyo.
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“Internationalization is a reciprocal process. So, whilst the language is seemingly daunting, it holds the key to a side of Japan you are yet to see. Learn the language, and you’ll be amazed at the things it will teach you.”
Originally from Jamaica, Jody Maria-Ann Dixon (Yamanashi-ken, 2009- present) came to Japan for the first time on the JET Programme. The melting pot of cultures and experiences she had daily during her previous job as a Guest Services Manager and Environmental Project Manager at a resort, coupled with her previous academic pursuits (BSc Geography and Geology at the University of the West Indies) were a huge influence on her decision to join the Programme. She has been living and teaching in Fuefuki, Yamanashi, for the past five years and reckons that this experience has engendered a spirit of loyalty; deepened her respect for people and their cultures; and has helped her immensely in making decisions towards her lifelong career goals, which will be centred on international education.
Language and Reciprocity
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” – Nelson Mandela.
“Hello, Konnichiwa!” After four and a half years of walking down my senior high school’s corridors shoulder to shoulder with my Japanese Teachers of English, and hearing this familiar greeting, I am still tremendously appreciative of my students’ use of both English and Japanese interchangeably. Whether they believe that I still don’t understand Japanese (due to my minimal use at school), and they are making an effort to be accommodating; or it is simply an encoded reflex upon catching sight of me, it doesn’t diminish the warmth that the vocalization of a single, friendly, English word evokes.
Upon accepting my placement on the JET Programme, I was honestly blasé about the idea of learning the Japanese language. In my mind, I presumed two things: if it wasn’t a requirement for acceptance, it wasn’t a requirement for “survival,” and; with immersion, the acquisition of Japanese language skills would come easily and naturally. It was indeed sad, the hubris of this English monolingual. Consequently, I arrived in Tokyo in the summer of 2009, and shortly after being welcomed by the beaming faces of fellow foreigners with brightly decorated English placards, I was bombarded with signs, questions, choices and challenges, entirely in Japanese. Though I was to be a resident in this country – for what I didn’t know then, was going to be at least five years – for a moment, (that I didn’t allow to last too long), I was nothing more than a struggling “tourist,” being constantly aided by jovial and obliging individuals using a mixture of a smidgen of English, light speed Japanese, gestures noteworthy of a winning game of charades and a series of begrudging sighs.
No one, especially at the grand old age of 23, wants to feel helpless and illiterate. Whilst I relished being the novel neighbourhood foreigner, and welcomed the polite gestures and formal invitations extended to me, I constantly felt that there was something missing. Though there were always words being exchanged, I was failing horribly at meaningful communication. For a while, I felt cheated. My shortcoming of non-existent Japanese language skills had me teetering on the periphery of all the things life in Japan encompassed. If I wanted to regain my privacy; make connections and friends outside of my Japanese workplace; or indulge in and understand the folklore and traditions, etc. I had to make an effort to acquire some level of Japanese proficiency. I knew I was here to teach English, and perhaps about life in Jamaica if they’d agree, but I also understood very early, that in order to do so effectively, I would have to commit myself unreservedly to learning. Read More
CLAIR Magazine “JET Plaza” series: Marshall Ikeda (Miyagi)
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Each month, current and former JET participants are featured in the “JET Plaza” section of the CLAIR Forum magazine. The December 2013 edition includes an article by current JET participant Marshall Ikeda. Posted by Celine Castex (Chiba-ken, 2006-11), currently programme coordinator at CLAIR Tokyo.
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“From the day I set foot in Natori as a JET, I knew it would be a life-altering experience. As cliché as it sounds, I really do feel like [it] is my home away from home.”
Natori My Second Home
It was the heat, humidity and the overpowering sound of cicadas that welcomed me to the city of Natori. Bordering the neighboring city of Sendai, Natori is nestled between a mountain range to the west and Pacific beaches to the east. The mixture of city and country was a perfect combination to satisfy my curiosity and love for travel. After arriving, I began exploring the wonderful aspects of Natori every weekend, and quickly grew to know and love the area.
My commute to three different schools, two Elementary and one junior high, also helped me get acquainted with Natori. My favorite school to visit is an elementary school buried far in the mountains. In order to get there, I have to set out on a hard one-hour bike ride early in the morning. From the time I first arrived, this hour spent outdoors has allowed me to experience the beauty of all four seasons on my way to work. Paired with my time outdoors spent biking, the scenery surrounding Natori has made it easy to integrate the seasons into my classroom activities. In spring we hold classes under the cherry blossoms. In fall we trace Japanese maple leaves onto paper. In winter, we build three-piece snowmen. These experiences represent a unique cultural exchange for my students. I feel fortunate to be able to use my natural surroundings as a teaching aid. As Canada is also rich in natural beauty, it is easy to make ties to my homeland. Infusing nature into my teaching curriculum interests my students academically and culturally.
Despite many successful attempts to incorporate active teaching styles into my lesson plans, the most challenging aspect of teaching English has always been engaging the students. When I first began teaching, I was deluded by an unrealistically positive vision that all students adore English. I soon realized of course that this is simply not true- some students do not even want to try speaking at all! While I cannot force every student to love English, (and I am not expected to), I still try to demonstrate to my students how English is beneficial for travel, work, school, and lifestyle. My efforts in readjusting students’ perceptions of English is certainly not an overnight process, but I believe it is the driving force for myself, and many other ALTs working in Japan.
While it is discouraging at times that some students simply do not show an interest in English, there are always those students willing to go the extra mile. Over the past year, I had the pleasure of coaching one of my junior high students to the finals for the All Japan National Speech contest. Through her consistent time and effort, she was highly successful in her English goals. I feel very rewarded in circumstances where students display a positive attitude towards English, and want to put forth their best efforts. I believe that the most rewarding aspects of being an ALT comes from being able to see tangible results. Read More
CLAIR Magazine “JET Plaza” series: Penelope Fox (Saga)
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Each month, current and former JET participants are featured in the “JET Plaza” section of the CLAIR Forum magazine. The October 2013 edition includes an article by current JET participant Penelope Fox. Posted by Celine Castex (Chiba-ken, 2006-11), currently programme coordinator at CLAIR Tokyo.
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“Aside from the wonderful opportunity to live and teach in a country I love, I thank the JET Programme and all its participants I have had contact with for making me think more about the world I live in and how I can make a difference.”
Originally from Sydney, Australia, Penelope Fox (Saga-ken, Shiroishi-cho, 2009-14) developed an interest for Japan at the age of four while accompanying her father on a business trip there. She started studying Japanese in elementary school and, after graduating from university, embarked on a career in Human Resources while dreaming of going to live in Japan one day. Several years and a graduate degree in Education later, she joined the JET Programme and was sent to rural Saga. She has been teaching elementary school children for almost five years and, actively involved in AJET at the local and national level, has been an invaluable member of the JET community since then.
A change of perspective via the JET Programme
Like many people coming on the JET Programme, I was super excited to come to Japan and embrace its culture and language head-on. In fact, for me personally, the JET Programme represented the realisation of a long-term dream: to live in Japan for an extended period and combine my love of teaching, children and Japanese language, and experience ‘real’ Japanese life in the countryside.
While I tried to come to Japan with very few expectations, I would have to say that the JET Programme has been everything I hoped it would be and more: my schools (I have worked at a total of 15 different kindergartens, elementary schools and junior high schools over the past four years) have all be fantastic, each in their own way; my co-workers have generally been very welcoming and accepting of me; my supervisors have been kind; and my communities have embraced having a foreigner in their midst.
For my first placement, I worked in a small ‘city’ of 20,000 people surrounded by mountains. Coming from a dry, mostly flat continent like Australia, the beauty and vividness of the greenery I could constantly see around me that first summer never ceased to amaze me. Having requested a ‘rural’ placement on JET, I was thrilled. At first, my focus was on my work and understanding what it meant to be an ALT. In fact, I believe it took me almost two years to feel like I was really able to contribute to my full potential in classes and at school. As time went by, I cemented personal and professional relationships, and came to love my quiet country life in Japan; perhaps even more so than that first ‘honeymoon’ phase.
At the end of my third year, unable to secure a new contract with a cost-cutting BOE, yet not wanting to return home yet, I was lucky enough to be granted a transfer to a neighbouring city in the same prefecture. Though my surroundings have since changed to a flat landscape and the constant smell of onions and renkon (the two specialties of the area), plus a suite of new schools, the people around me again have made the difference in making me feel at home. My neighbours and co-workers epitomise what I believe to be one of Japan’s core strengths– the friendliness of the people. Again I am reminded how lucky I am to have this experience that has exceeded all my expectations.
