Jet Program = Mental Vacation/No Japanese Learning :/

[interioround]

Hey guys,
A little background about myself:
I`m a few months into my first year here as a JET ALT, and I live in a small town of 7,000 people who are mostly old farmers.

When I first interviewed for JET, I really wanted the CIR position. I took the N3 level a few years ago, and it was far too easy. My level is probably around N2, but I am studying for the N1. I didn`t get chosen as a CIR, but I did get selected as an ALT. I fully expected to speak Japanese with the students and with the JTEs but even on my off times when I don`t have school the members of the BOE won`t speak normally with me in Japanese. I am trying to improve my Japanese while I`m here and would like to be able to speak more fluently, otherwise, when I go back to my country this experience will just look like a few years of vacation.

Even when my BOE has a Nomikai, they try and push me into speaking English. Finally at a Nomikai, I asked a guy who had been speaking English at me to please speak normally with me. He said, `oh, sorry` and kept on speaking in English. The grating part is that his wife is from Canada, so he can speak English whenever he wants :/

There`s no events around the area. The clubs at my schools are lame and consist of ping pong for the girls and soccer for the boys. Even when I expressed an interest to participate in the clubs with the kids my manager said, `Speak English if you do`. If I want to go to a bigger city it takes a few hours (and a few moneys)...At this point, I`m thinking a lot about why I came here. I`ve even started to think about quitting because I see no merit to sticking around. I get to the point where I want to scream. What kind of cultural exchange program is this anyway?

I know there are probably people who think I`m selfish, but the way I see it all of these older people in the office have set, government jobs. I am only a contracted employee who within a few years will almost certainly be jobless. I am also young and looking at the people who insist on speaking English with me they are closer to retirement age. I have aspirations myself to use Japanese in future jobs. However, I feel everyone just uses me as the token gaijin to have free English lessons with, so when they go to Hawaii in a few years on their retirement vacation they`ll be able to say, `Wan bi-ru purizu` with a little bit more confidence! Grrr!!!

 

[nahadef]

However, I feel everyone just uses me as the token gaijin to have free English lessons with, so when they go to Hawaii in a few years on their retirement vacation they`ll be able to say, `Wan bi-ru purizu` with a little bit more confidence! Grrr!!!

I think the JET program is basically a token gaijin job. Teaching isn't as important as being part of the school culture, from what I understand (I've never taught with them). I think it is case by case though. When I teach (I'm at a school, but not with JET), I use Japanese as I will. Talking to JTE's, I speak Japanese. But, the key thing, is I'm not practicing Japanese, I'm simply communicating with it.

If you want to practice Japanese, I don't think your JET position is the way to do it. At a nomikai, I think it's okay, but when you're being paid, that's not time for you to improve your skills, even if other teachers want to use you as an English machine.

Find a nice bar that's friendly and become a regular, you'll meet lots of people to speak Japanese with. Or take up a hobby, be it sports or art or whatever, again, there will be people with no English to speak with. But I think it's important to do it in your own time, not at work.

And when I'm in my off time and people practice English with me, I humour them for a minute (as a matter of manners), then I just switch to Japanese, even if they're replying in English. If they ask me why, I just say, 窶堋ｱ窶堋ｱ窶堙坂?愿ｺ窶怒窶堙??堋ｵ窶堙･窶堋､ﾂ？窶堋ｻ窶堙ｪ窶堙??愿ｺ窶怒ﾅ津ｪﾅｽg窶堙≫?堋ｽ窶｢ﾃｻ窶堋ｪ窶氾??堋｢窶堙?ｽv窶堋､ﾂ。

My two cents.

 

[Dotanbatan]

Try to engage in conversations as much as you can outside work.
Talk to your neighbours, get involved in things in your town and as nahadef said go to some bars regularly.
Speaking with the locals in the bar over a cold Asahi or an atsukan in winter will see you improve in no time ... the alcohol soon washes away your worries about using the wrong word or saying the wrong thing and the fluency comes pretty quickly.

You still have to study the vocab though

I always used to carry a little notebook with me and jotted down new words and expressions .... I still have a few of them and by looking at the pages I can recall a lot of the people and places connected to the drunken scribbles ... a lot of good memories .... while learning too !!