JET interview revisited

The long awaited JET interview is finally over with. To tell you the truth, it wasn’t as bad as some of these other stories I’ve heard about. I’m writing this little blog to inform any future participant what to expect.

My interview was set for 1:10pm today. Anyone who’s read anything about the JET interview knows that punctuality is a necessity. I found this out first hand because when I arrived there (about 11:45am), there was a guy who was 10 minutes late. He ended up being pushed back to 4:30 pm that day. I wouldn’t want to be the last interview for the day. Can you imagine sitting there since 9am doing interviews hearing the same type of response over and over?

Getting back on track, my appointment also had 2 other fellows at the same time. I was afraid of the group interview, but that wasn’t the case. We did a little small talk while watching NHK on tv. 1:10 on the dot I got called in first. The lady escorted me to the back into a nice office full of Japanese toys, trinkets, and knick knacks.

Before getting into the actual interview, I made sure I covered my basics: basic geography, political structure, popular culture, current events. Any of these topics can be found anywhere. My panel consisted of the Japanese Consulate representative and two former JET participant. However, the interview didn’t cover any of it. So these were the questions I remember them asking me:

“Why do you want to go to Japan” – wow, surprise there. Such a simple question would have an obvious answer. In my case it wasn’t so, I actually had to sit down and contemplate the reasons of wanting to go.

“What do you know about the Japanese Education system” – I was prepared for this, you should be too. I answered something along the lines of “It’s similar to the American system: elementary and middle school. After that, they take exams to certain high schools” They left this question open ended for a reason: They want you to tell them what you know. So I elaborated with it. “It was common to see middle schoolers to go to cram school for extra lessons. High school is a very big issue because it can determine the quality of the company they can ever work for”. With that little fact they were pretty impressed with my answer and all nodded in agreement.

“What do you know about the English education in Japan” – Again, another question I was prepared for. I actually did a little research on the topic. From my findings and what I responded was something like this: “English is a required subject for at least 3 years. They follow what’s known as Rote learning, the process of memorization by repetition.” I elaborated further by saying “Unfortunately, they study English just to pass the exam, otherwise known as Examination English. This is why you see a lot of Japanese people being able to read and write in English, but usually perform poorly in terms of conversation.” With that response, the lady said “wow, that’s pretty good” I was so relieved and thankful I read up on it.

The question continued with “What would you do to change that?” This folks, is a trick question. If you do a little reading, you’ll learn that it’s nearly impossible to change the decades of rigid education there. A foreigner would have less of a chance. All I told them was that I’m not there to change the way they learn, but I do want to change the interaction of learning. I want to introduce more conversational learning.

The next question they asked was “How would you describe to a kid about the American crimes and crime rate” – This question threw me a little, so I stumbled on this one. I ended up talking about how all places have crime, and the reason you hear a lot more about the US is because of our media. I wish I could’ve elaborated more, but it was just something I never thought about.

Then they asked me “As you know, they are all required to be in some sort of after school club, what would you be able to bring in order to start one?” – Again, something I didn’t prepare for, but it was a question on what kind of fun stuff was I good at. One thing came to my mind: Ping pong, table tennis. I would start a table tennis club. I also mentioned helping out in soccer and English clubs as well.

Next, they asked me how I would be able to cope living there and dealing with a different culture. I told them something along the lines of my past. I never stayed in one place for more than 10 years. During my formative learning years (middle school) I was in an international school, so I’ve learned how to deal with many different kinds of people. I also told them I did the same at work, dealing with different cultures.

I think those were the questions. There were a few more, but mostly just out of conversation. We talked about my trip to Japan, how I was featured in a newspaper article, how I got lost over and over, etc. However, I do recommend anyone interested in applying to study up on basic Japanese knowledge. You never know that you might stumble across a piece of information that will help you secure a spot on the short list.

The Night Before the JET interview

Here I am, the night before the big JET interview. I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t nervous. It’s safe to say that I’m prepared for this interview. I’ve studied up on geography, political structure, famous people, etc, etc. However, even though I feel prepared, I still haven’t thought of a good way of reasoning 1 thing: Why I want to go to Japan/why I want to get involved in JET. This journal entry will explore those two questions. Hopefully through my writing methodology, I will be able to express my answers.

First and foremost: “Why do you want to participate in JET/what made you decide to apply” type of question. I’ve been pondering this question ever since I applied in October. It’s not enough to say “Because I like the place”, but it really is just that, a feeling. It’s one of those feelings that you get when you know you truly believe in. Like when you see the right person, it’s just hard to put into words. Unfortunately, I cannot just say it’s a feeling to the panel.

The first time I heard of JET was during my first semester Japanese class over the summer of 02. Around this time, the idea of studying overseas was floating around my head. Every day I would walk through the building and see a poster promoting the university’s study abroad programs. My interest in Japan can come thanks to my very enthusiastic professor who always told stories, practices, traditions, and daily Japanese life. I think the reason of not being able to do study abroad is my lack of follow through. I always made up excuses or reasons not to go. Today, I’m steadily changing that, taking more pro-actions to my activities. If I didn’t, the JET program would’ve been another “thing to do” for next year.

More examples of me trying to improve myself is through work. Since it was a new position in the company, they were very open and lenient in what we could or couldn’t do. One thing I’m happy to say that I contributed to is the success to weekend classes. I’m good at planning or “envisioning” a project, but usually never follow through. This project reminded me of my effort, and it has been pretty successful. Even though some weekends people don’t show up, at least the plan is there for when people do.

Another attempt to better myself was the trip to Japan in October. This would definitely have been a “to do” for many years because of all the preparations. This year was different because I followed through.

So you can say me applying to JET was another attempt to follow through in my ambitions. However, I can’t say that was the only reason of applying. It took me the trip to Japan in October to fully realize that JET was something achievable, something possible. Jet has been on my mind for the past few years, but again, my weakness got the best of me. “It’s not my field”, “It’s too much effort”, “I can’t because I’m doing this and that”. There were a lot of little things that prevented me from applying. My trip to Japan help me realize the bigger picture, it was something I HAD to do. There have been too many times when I thought to myself “I wish I can go to Japan” “Oh, that’d be a nice place to go someday”. Something changed when I was there, I fell in love. As cheesy as it may sound, I immediately found myself loving every moment I was there. I know there’s a honeymoon phase to liking a place, over looking the awkwardness of situations as “cultural differences”, but there’s that something. I enjoyed the train rides, people watching, sight seeing, etc, etc. It wasn’t until the end of the trip when I thought to myself “I can see myself here”. This thought overpowered my excuses of not to apply, and here I am today, writing about my nervous wreck about the interview.