Once again, I apply for the JET Program. Advice appreciated.

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hello all and sundry,

JET, Japan Exchange Teacher, a program whereby one goes to Japan to teach English for a year. I applied last year and got rejected. This year I’m trying again.

My application looks a lot better this year. I have better recommendations, a better essay, and better work history. I’m really feeling good about it this year.

There’s only one niggling concern I have. I’ve heard from various sources that the JET program often rejects people who know too much about Japan. I’ve visited Japan 4 times, know the language fairly well, and have studied Japanese culture, literature, and history. I basically fear that I will appear overqualified.

I really am not overqualified. I still have a LOT to learn about Japan, and I’ve never lived there for any long length of time. So, my questions are two-fold:

  1. Does the JET Program really discriminate against candidates with significant Japan-related knowledge?

  2. If so, how can I counteract this without dumbing down my application? I refuse to dumb down my application… I am not going to misrepresent myself just to get accepted into this program.

(Also, is there any way to search for JET in the database? I haven’t been successful so far)

Thanks everyone for your time and advice. Yoroshiku Onegai Shimasu (thank you in advance)

2

Hey Auto, I did JET many years ago and (as I was told later) was one of the first picks. I got the city that was my first pick too (Osaka).

Here’s how I did it:

  1. I joined (crashed) my local JET alumni BBQ, and got to know some of the people who would be interviewing candidates - that was priceless, because when I walked into the interview, two of the three interviewers were people I already knew and had a good rapport with.

  2. I made a professional looking application - bound, with all the necessary documentation and a great personal essay about why I felt I was a good candidate (hint - don’t make a list of all your good points and what you hope to achieve - just do what I did - tell a story about an event in your life that is interesting, funny and shows that you have a positive outlook on life). Put yourself in their shoes - how would you feel reading the same essay again and again about how you want to use JET to Blah blah blah your carreer.

  3. The final point is open to debate, but when I went through the interview I really did know NOTHING about Japan, but I made a small effort to learn some Japanese meeting etiquette - i.e., how to open the door, what to say when I come in, that kind of stuff. Even though my pronunciation must have been horrible, I think knowing nothing, but making the small effort worked in my favor.

Good luck!

3

Do your best not to come off as a “Japanophile” to the interviewer. It isn’t a matter of “dumbing down” your app, but rather demonstrating that you have valuable experience without being obsessive.

4

I don’t know much about this myself but you may be interested in reading about this guy’s experiences there, did the same as you are trying to. You can reach him via his website, I’m sure he can answer some of your questions:

5

The big problem with people who “know too much” is not over-qualification, but that sometimes they can come in to these things with a lot of expectations.

Without exception the people who adapt best to new cultures are the people who come into it with wide eyes, expecting nothing and ready to take in everything. The people who freak out, have breakdowns and leave early (screwing their school, the students and the program) are the people who have this image in their head of what things are going to be like. They have trouble rolling with it when reality varies from what they’ve built up in their head, and have less tolerance for the everyday setbacks that come with adapting to a new culture.

I’ll put it this way. I’ve seen quite a few people come in and out of the Peace Corps. Several of these people are older people who had always dreamed of joining the Peace Corps, and had been researching and planning for years, even decades. Some were the children of volunteers, or had gotten married so that they could go as a married couple. All of them said this was the thing that was most important to them, the culmination of their dreams.

All of these people left early- usually within a week or two of entering the country. Reality can’t compete with dreams.

JETs number one concern is that you don’t leave early and leave everyone screwed. The only reason they make the decisions they do is because they know what kind of people have left early in the past.

So you just have to assure them that you are going to stay. To do this you want to make sure you express interest in the JET program, in teaching, in the work you will be doing. You want to let them know that you fully intend to stay for however long the commitment is. Most importantly, you need to let them know you are interested in the work and their program, not just a plane ticket to Japan. Let them know you understand this is a job and not a foreign exchange program.

You also want to give some good examples of times you have adapted to difficult situations (especially in other cultures), how you plan to deal with culture shock and expectations, and what you hope to get out of your experience (ideally mentioning what you hope to get out of teaching as well as living in Japan.) Be honest about your hopes and your fears.

6

I’ll echo what other people are saying here and that is be flexible. You’re not going there to pursue your own agenda or push your own ideas–you’re going there to do a job for them and to provide happy! genki! English teacher! who will inspire their kids and be a positive cultural influence. Cultural ambassador is job #1 for a JET. I think a lot of applicants don’t realize that, and I think they want to know you know that.

Make sure they know you have a reason why you want to go on JET beyond learning more about Japan. Mine was to get teaching experience so I could become an ESL teacher. Someone else’s was he was an American of Japanese decent and wanted to better understand his grandparents. What they don’t want is “I want to go to Japan because I like Japan” or “I want to continue my studies of Japan.” They want to be sure you understand this isn’t a student exchange program.

And remember that compared to most applicants, you probably are overqualified, or at least have far greater experience than they do. Having been to Japan 4 times is 3 or 4 times more than most people on the program, I’ll wager. So while I wouldn’t recommend dumbing yourself down, neither would I recommend showing off your knowledge. Be humble, be open-minded, be ready to learn, be flexible (i.e., leave any preconceptions behind), and have a great sense of humor.

A little anecdote that I may have told elsewhere on these boards: At my interview, I knew almost nothing about Japan but emphasized that I was eager to learn, ready for action, got that can-do spirit. They asked if I could speak Japanese, and I said unfortunately no, none, but I’m eager to learn, did great in my Spanish class, etc.

One interviewer said, “Well, try.”

WTF? I can’t believe I heard him right. “I don’t know any but I’m eager to learn, etc.”

“Try speaking some Japanese now.”

Uh… “Domo arigato Mr. Roboto?”

I bet they laughed when I left.

7

I wonder if they check the previous applications of people like me who have applied two years in a row…