Comments (0) Only a week or so left to go now until I’m in Japan and starting my job. In this video I reflect a bit on the past week and on the place that I will be leaving, Maine.
Blog
| 
Japan, JET Program, Maine, vlog
I’m back again with another YouTube video, this time about one of my favorite subjects, learning Japanese. This time, I discuss the Japanese language requirements for CIRs and how I went about learning this language.
Time for another edition of The CIR Files! I went down to the New England JET Alumni Association’s special pre-departure orientation for new JETs in Boston this past Saturday. Even though it was optional, the turnout was high and I got a lot out of it. I also talk about some new updates on my job as a CIR: I talk about my apartment and some details of the work that awaits me.
I’m back with another episode of The CIR Files! In this episode, I talk about how I came to learn about the JET Program and the application process. This is the third vlog I’ve done (second in English) and while I’m still getting the hang of how it’s done, I’m enjoying it very much. I have some ideas kicking around in my head for future episodes, so stay tuned!
It’s my first shot at doing a video blog! Enjoy as I ramble on about myself, the JET Program and the CIR position. I also made a version in Japanese. I can’t promise to do this each time, but it was a lot of fun and I think it’d be neat if I could reach out to Japanese people through my videos as well.
English
Japanese 日本語
Here it is, the Statement of Purpose I wrote for my JET application. Hope this helps a few people out there in composing their own! :) The biggest thing I learned while writing it was this: focus on what you can give to JET, not just how much you want to go to Japan and how you are into anime/manga/bukka karate. You are most likely applying to teach English to school-aged kids. Let them know what makes you qualified! I wrote this while applying for the CIR position, but much of it’s still relevant to the ALT position. So, without further ado:
As humanity progresses into the 21st century, I believe that globalization will continue to increase in importance. We live in an ever more interconnected age; what happens in one corner of the earth can have profound effects the world over. My humblest wish is to contribute to this process as a translator and teacher. It is with this in mind that I am applying to the JET Program.
I have had a keen interest in the world from a young age, when I developed a fascination for geography. I won my elementary and middle school’s geography bee for three consecutive years, culminating in state finals. In high school I studied a foreign language for the first time, Spanish. By studying this language, I discovered that my own appreciation for English was greatly enhanced. In college I decided to study Japanese, sparking a passion for the country’s language and culture that lasts to this day.
While in college, I had many opportunities to reach out to the international community at large. First, I had the chance to be a conversation partner for newly arrived Japanese exchange students on campus. In this program I had my first taste of what it is like to be a teacher of English for non-native speakers. Some of the students found English more challenging than others. I discovered that a large part of my job was to make them comfortable enough to speak. During the final week, when we were laughing and trading stories, the sense of accomplishment I felt was amazing.
My time as a conversation partner for exchange students inspired me to study abroad. In the winter of my junior year, I began my year in Hirosaki, Japan. While studying Japanese language and culture at Hirosaki University, I took part in culture festivals and international events, including giving a speech in Japanese before the Lions Club of Hirosaki’s dinner for exchange students. I explored the northern Japanese countryside with my host family and the caves of Iwate prefecture with the Hirosaki University Exploration Club, challenging myself physically, mentally and linguistically. The everyday people, places and things that I encountered served only to deepen my appreciation for the ancient culture and language of Japan, which I continue to study intensely on my own.
During my time abroad, I wanted to continue my efforts helping students speak English. At the beginning of the second semester, I found part-time work as an English teacher at a conversation school for children. It was my first opportunity to be a teacher, and to work with children. The excitement for learning that these young students brought to class every week really impressed me. I loved the challenge of working with the other teachers to help instill in the students a knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, the English language and culture. Since returning home from Japan, I have been actively involved with the Japanese student population on campus and the Office of International Programs. I have run information tables and have taken part in the university’s Study Abroad Fair, helping guide people in the decision to study abroad. Several times a week I meet with various Japanese students to practice language exchange.
It is with these experiences in mind that I am now applying for the JET Program. Through the JET Program I will be able to return to Japan and get involved in the community, helping to assist in the meeting of two cultures. I feel that my time in college and in Japan, and my interacting with the Japanese and other foreign exchange students, have served to prepare me for the challenges that face successful applicants of the JET Program. Down the road, after gaining greater proficiency in the Japanese language, I see myself continuing to be involved in international exchange at various levels through translation and teaching. The JET Program offers the chance for these things to become realities and I would be honored to be a participant.
Hey everyone!
超久しぶりね！Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve written on this blog. There’s been a variety of reasons for that, not the least of which is that I just had my final year of classes here at the University of Maine. The fall semester was a tough one, since I was taking nothing but high level English classes. I was reading two books or so a week and writing several papers month. If that doesn’t sound like a lot to you, well, too bad ’cause it was a lot for me. (￣−￣) This past semester wasn’t quite as bad, but I did have my final graduation paper hanging over my head the whole time, affectionately called a “capstone.”
But now that’s all over! Yesterday I handed in my lovely capstone, today my final Shakespeare paper and next week I only have one actual final (I have two others in Japanese and Korean, but they’re so different I wouldn’t call them “finals”). Being as such, I now have real time for myself again, which means I can start writing here once more. However, since this blog is titled “Joe In Japan,” I wouldn’t have considered it appropriate to continue if it wasn’t for one little fact:
I got into the JET Program as a Coordinator for International Relations!
If you follow my twitter then you already know this. Yes, kind readers, yours truly will be returning to work in Japan come August. A whole new set of challenges and adventures are sure to await me and I’m going to be taking you all along with me once again via this blog. My life as a JET, my life in Japan, it will all be here in the form of blog posts, pictures and videos. In particular I want to focus on that last one. I’ve been watching tons of Japan vloggers over on YouTube these past few months, especially those by people who were/are on the JET program. They’ve inspired me to start my own vlog, so starting sometime soon I’ll be posting videos to this channel, focusing on life in the JET program as a CIR: http://www.youtube.com/JoeInJapan86. Please, feel free to subscribe. I know there’s nothing there yet but there will be, I promise! I really do!
I thought that I would use the rest of this post to touch on my experience applying to the JET program. The best way to hear about this would be head over to “English Teaching in Japan,” a podcast run by Chaz Wright. Chaz is, wait for it, an English teacher in Japan who talks about his daily life and the experience of being a teacher over there. A couple weeks after I finished my interview for JET in Boston we sat down on Skype and talked about my time as an exchange student in Hirosaki and then specifically about my journey from the JET application phase to interview. Listen to it here:
My interview on “English Teaching in Japan.” Thanks Chaz!
One final thing I’ll be doing today. Yes, that’s right, today. I’ll be posting my Statement of Purpose, the essay part of the JET application that asks you to explain why you want to go to Japan and what kinds of skills and experience you have that will contribute to JET. Since I got accepted into the program, they must have liked it at least a little bit.
Well, that’s all for now. Thanks so much for reading and supporting me while I was an exchange student in Hirosaki! I hope that we can have some great times together again starting this August. :) じゃあ、な！
Here I was, thinking I was a perfectly fine and normal American studying abroad in Japan for a year. Days passed swiftly and I was having the time of my life. But little did I know I was slowly being consumed by a most debilitating disease, the kind of disease that one can only pick up while in Japan for a long time. When my parents came to Japan, they saw it right away and made the chilling diagnosis: “you sound like a llama!”
Yes, in the course of studying Japanese and speaking with Japanese friends every day, I had picked up Japanese conversational vocalizations, which are quite different from those in English. In a conversation in Japanese, it is expected that you demonstrate, audibly, that you are following along with what the other person is saying. In English, one may nod their head, or say something like “uh-huh.” In Japanese, however, it comes out something like this, which is apparently llama-esque to English speaking ears:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Photograph by Jessie Reeder. This post is a submission for the July ’09 JapanSoc Blog Matsuri.
I’ve mentioned before briefly of my current Japanese study method, sentence mining, which I first learned about from AllJapaneseAllTheTime. So far it has been working out really well, my reading comprehension in particular has skyrocketed since beginning the method. However, when starting out, I had to more or less figure out on my own how to go about using this method. At AJATT, Khatz explains it in the following steps (I’m paraphrasing):
This certainly works as a starting point, but it took me a good couple hundred cards before I started hitting my stride as far as sentence mining goes. Now that I’m approaching 1000 sentences mined, I thought I’d take a moment and write down step-by-step what I’ve found works for me when it comes to using this great language study method. Continue reading 'Sentence Mining Explained'»
Hello all! It’s been a while since I’ve written a post here. I’ve been busy moving back home and reacclimating to the life I left here when I went to Japan. But now I’m settled back in, found myself some work before I go back to school and have gotten the Japanese study ball rolling again. I figured since this blog is a Japan-focused one, I’d reflect on a year of studying Japanese more or less full time and what’s worked and what hasn’t. Hit the jump below to read on.
Joe In Japan by Joe Kester is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. Powered by WordPress.
Panorama Theme by 
Themocracy