{"id":37082,"date":"2014-12-20T23:40:34","date_gmt":"2014-12-21T03:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=37082"},"modified":"2015-09-29T13:00:52","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T17:00:52","slug":"lifeafterjet-from-japan-to-academia-researching-privacy-for-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2014\/12\/20\/lifeafterjet-from-japan-to-academia-researching-privacy-for-change\/","title":{"rendered":"LifeAfterJET: From Japan to Academia: Researching Privacy for Change."},"content":{"rendered":"

Nathaniel Simmons<\/a> (Nara-ken, 2007-2009)<\/strong> is currently a communication faculty member at Western Governors University and lives in Columbus, OH, USA. He teaches a variety of intercultural, interpersonal, and health communication courses. He has researched and published several scholarly articles regarding privacy management between foreign English teachers and Japanese co-workers in Japan.
\n<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I admit it.<\/p>\n

I was “one of those” JETs who lucked out and ended up as an ALT knowing next to nothing about Japan.<\/p>\n

No language skills.\u00a0 Very little cultural knowledge.<\/p>\n

Yes, I did my homework once I knew I was going to Japan, but even that was “too little, too late.”\u00a0 The cultural books I read a month prior to departure ended up lying to me, as once I arrived everything I read was thrown out the window.\u00a0 Nothing quite captured or described the nuanced life I was about to live in rural Nara-ken.<\/p>\n

So how did someone like me survive for two years in rural Japan?\u00a0 I hurriedly found a tutor who quickly became “my Japanese grandfather.”\u00a0 Every Sunday morning we drank tea (once he learned I absolutely despise coffee and was making myself drink it as not to be rude) and ate mochi (yes, sweet delicious mochi!).\u00a0 It was a great life outside of work.\u00a0 But in work?<\/p>\n

It was challenging.<\/p>\n

I didn’t speak Japanese and my JTE’s English conversational ability was quite low.\u00a0 In a town of roughly 8,000 people where I was the only foreigner, I lived in survival mode and I absolutely loved it.\u00a0 However, because I didn’t speak Japanese, I was reliant on my coworkers (mainly my JTEs) for everything, including my access to health care.<\/p>\n

I still remember that day quite vividly.\u00a0 My JTE’s eyes widened as he looked at a piece of mail that I brought him because I didn’t understand the contents.\u00a0 The only thing I could understand within the kanji-litterred, bright blue turquoise-esque envelope was the yen (\u5186<\/span>) sign.\u00a0 “What bill do\u00a0 I have to pay now?” I wondered.<\/p>\n

“Shimonzu<\/em> (my Japanified last name), did you use your insurance in Osaka?” he asked after showing the envelope and its contents to various workers in the staff room.<\/p>\n

I froze.\u00a0 I did.\u00a0 I didn’t want them to know – that’s why I traveled 2.5 hours one way to Osaka without them.<\/p>\n

You see, I learned that it was “better” to take my health into my own hands rather than risk my co-workers knowing more about me than I wanted them to know.\u00a0 Everyone already knew I once had a cold and chilblains (AKA first-level frostbite), but this was different.\u00a0 To me, my health information should<\/em> be private.\u00a0 In other words, my co-workers, as wonderful as they were, need not know my body’s inner workings.\u00a0 At the same time, I realized I was in a different culture – that was very caring.\u00a0 I realized my co-workers weren’t “out to get me,” but I did feel embarrassed.<\/p>\n

Embarrassed that my private<\/em> health information was now very much public.\u00a0 I received numerous stares the remainder of the day and heard my coworkers say my name as they shared the envelope’s contents with others.<\/p>\n

I tried my best to pretend that they didn’t now know what I knew they did.<\/p>\n

What was the big deal you ask?\u00a0 Well, it’s private. ;)<\/p>\n

Looking back now, I laugh about it, but at the time it made me more aware as to what I did share and did not share at work.\u00a0 I definitely saw myself being “quieter” at work, which influenced my coworker relationships.<\/p>\n

This experience, and others, encouraged me to further pursue my experience in communication.\u00a0 One thing that I loved about Japan is that I felt as if I was walking the pages of my intercultural textbook.\u00a0 I finally was able to put my education into practice.\u00a0 With an interest in culture and health, I went back to grad school to pursue a Ph.D.\u00a0 I wanted to learn more.\u00a0 I wanted to make a difference.<\/p>\n

Now, equipped with research skills I have interviewed about 50 foreign English teachers and 40 of their Japanese co-workers regarding how they manage privacy at work.\u00a0 Now that I have completed my dissertation, graduated, and obtained a position as an Assistant Professor, I am seeking outlets, such as JETwit and others, to share my findings both within and outside of academia with hopes that they will create change for those who were in similar situations as me.\u00a0 It’s my hope that my experiences as a JET and my presence in academia will help improve the ALT-JTE relationship.\u00a0 This wasn’t my goal pre- or even during JET, but I cannot deny the ways in which my participation within the JET Programme shaped who I am now as a teacher and researcher.\u00a0 I’m very thankful for it.<\/p>\n

This blog post is an adaptation of the scholarly article: Simmons, N. (2014). My \u201cbig\u201d blue health secret: My experience with privacy, or lack thereof, in Japan. Health Communication<\/em>, 29<\/em>(6), 634-636. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1080\/10410236.2013.786013?journalCode=hhth20#.VJX0LyMLC5A<\/a><\/p>\n

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Nathaniel Simmons (Nara-ken, 2007-2009) is currently a communication faculty member at Western Governors University and lives in Columbus, OH, USA. He teaches a variety of intercultural, interpersonal, and health communication courses. He has researched and published several scholarly articles regarding privacy management between foreign English teachers and Japanese co-workers in Japan. I admit it. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[825],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifeafterjet"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-9E6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37082"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38535,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37082\/revisions\/38535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}