5 Years of JET Programme - personal reflection
Since I have only 7 weeks left of work, I wanted to write a short blog about my five year experience on JET. I made a presentation about my JET experience, so most of this post has been taken from the presentation.
Travel
This has been a priority for me. I've never had a job with so much free time. Never mind that I got 5 weeks of vacation, plus 3 days in May and 3 days at New Years, plus national holidays, plus a lot of lieu days, my work week is only 37.5 hours and I had tonnes of free time at work. I have visited 8 countries outside of Japan (not including Canada), plus I've been to 36 of 47 prefectures in Japan (will I ever make it to Gunma?!?). I've been outside of Akita for over 40 weeks in 5 years here. Yes, that means that I've spent almost 1/5 of my time traveling. I may even be able to squeeze a trip before August?
Learning
I was able to complete one year's worth of undergraduate courses and since then I have finished 30% of an M.Ed. I also went from zero Japanese to conversational level - although I really should have studied more.
Money
The JET Programme is relatively good pay for a job straight out of university (which I am not). Japan is known to be expensive, but living in a smaller city has given me more disposable income than even when I was making more money. I had hoped to save about 1/2 my income, which I did, but then I spent a lot of that on travel and school. I figure I would have to make around $80,000+/year with similar work hours (i.e. not many) to have the same lifestyle in Vancouver. Although I have to laugh at gas prices in Canada (I think I paid $1.72CAD/litre at my last fill-up).
JET
I have had a few difficult jobs, so JET seemed like a bit of a vacation for me. It has not been difficult at all, although I have also tried to stay out of leadership roles as much as possible. That being said, I did a presentation at nearly every conference, wrote for the local JET e-zine, and made many international friends on the JET Programme, so I have really appreciated it. I think there are some integral problems with the way the program is run, in my opinion, which makes it much more effective as a tool for soft power than for teaching (realizing, of course, that the JET Programme is explicitly more about "internationalization" than it is about education). The programme is being heavily expanded so my sense is that without some serious structural changes, it will probably become lower quality in the next few years. It will be easier to get into, though!
Teaching
My role as an assistant teacher has certainly expanded in that I plan and teach a majority of my lessons. I feel like I have been able to create better lessons and testing methods for the students based on what my English department wanted. My students seem really comfortable with me and I've been able to participate in a lot of out-of-the-classroom teaching such as English Camps, International Days, and so on. Still, there has been a real frustration that while I have worked with some fantastic educators, some of my coworkers have made my job much more difficult than need be. My main objection is that I often feel my ideas are not taken seriously; I try not to think that it's because I'm "the foreigner," but definitely the Japanese sense of teamwork has not generally been extended to me. Of course, there have been some amazing people I have worked with and more than anything, the students I work with are the reason I stayed in Akita for 5 years. I will certainly never forget how much I enjoyed working with them and learning from them.
Travel
This has been a priority for me. I've never had a job with so much free time. Never mind that I got 5 weeks of vacation, plus 3 days in May and 3 days at New Years, plus national holidays, plus a lot of lieu days, my work week is only 37.5 hours and I had tonnes of free time at work. I have visited 8 countries outside of Japan (not including Canada), plus I've been to 36 of 47 prefectures in Japan (will I ever make it to Gunma?!?). I've been outside of Akita for over 40 weeks in 5 years here. Yes, that means that I've spent almost 1/5 of my time traveling. I may even be able to squeeze a trip before August?
Learning
I was able to complete one year's worth of undergraduate courses and since then I have finished 30% of an M.Ed. I also went from zero Japanese to conversational level - although I really should have studied more.
Money
The JET Programme is relatively good pay for a job straight out of university (which I am not). Japan is known to be expensive, but living in a smaller city has given me more disposable income than even when I was making more money. I had hoped to save about 1/2 my income, which I did, but then I spent a lot of that on travel and school. I figure I would have to make around $80,000+/year with similar work hours (i.e. not many) to have the same lifestyle in Vancouver. Although I have to laugh at gas prices in Canada (I think I paid $1.72CAD/litre at my last fill-up).
JET
I have had a few difficult jobs, so JET seemed like a bit of a vacation for me. It has not been difficult at all, although I have also tried to stay out of leadership roles as much as possible. That being said, I did a presentation at nearly every conference, wrote for the local JET e-zine, and made many international friends on the JET Programme, so I have really appreciated it. I think there are some integral problems with the way the program is run, in my opinion, which makes it much more effective as a tool for soft power than for teaching (realizing, of course, that the JET Programme is explicitly more about "internationalization" than it is about education). The programme is being heavily expanded so my sense is that without some serious structural changes, it will probably become lower quality in the next few years. It will be easier to get into, though!
Teaching
My role as an assistant teacher has certainly expanded in that I plan and teach a majority of my lessons. I feel like I have been able to create better lessons and testing methods for the students based on what my English department wanted. My students seem really comfortable with me and I've been able to participate in a lot of out-of-the-classroom teaching such as English Camps, International Days, and so on. Still, there has been a real frustration that while I have worked with some fantastic educators, some of my coworkers have made my job much more difficult than need be. My main objection is that I often feel my ideas are not taken seriously; I try not to think that it's because I'm "the foreigner," but definitely the Japanese sense of teamwork has not generally been extended to me. Of course, there have been some amazing people I have worked with and more than anything, the students I work with are the reason I stayed in Akita for 5 years. I will certainly never forget how much I enjoyed working with them and learning from them.
