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Fuck the JET Programme
Bile ahead. I am going to revert to being five years old with all the attendant kicking and screaming. It will not be pretty, but I will feel much better for it afterward.
Yes, the JET Programme is giving me a job in Japan, but the bottom line is that I wouldn't have accepted it if I'd realised that I was being lied to.
Teaching English was a decent job, but there was nothing more I could learn from it after two years. I wanted to improve my Japanese ability, and it would have been dishonest for me to stay on for a third year as an English teacher, just going through the motions without caring about the work I was being paid to do.
So I applied for the CIR position and was accepted. I couldn't wait to start. I was going to be doing work I was really excited about. In fact, I was so excited that it made up for the fact that I was leaving my friends and social life behind to go live in the rural middle of nowhere, that I was going to take a pay cut, work longer hours, go through the horror of getting a Japanese driver's license and spend several hundred dollars extra a month on car stuff. All that and I was still excited about having the job.
Then I actually started the job to discover that not only was I here to teach English, there was ABSOLUTELY NO WORK THAT DID NOT INVOLVE TEACHING ENGLISH. I was an ALT. End of story. Only, the ALTs in this town work about 5-10 fewer hours a week than I do and get an extra month of paid vacation on top - FOR DOING THE EXACT SAME JOB THAT I DO. Why don't I get the extra time off? Because I have to sit with my thumbs up my ass in city hall when I'm not teaching English, whereas they are free to go home. This serves to obscure the lie that my job is somehow fundamentally different from the ALTs' job.
Worse still is the English I am forced to teach. For the past six months, I have: taught the numbers from one to ten, primary colors, animals and fruits, and sung Head, Shoulders an average of five times a day. I PASSED THE JLPT LEVEL ONE FOR THE HONOR OF DOING THIS BULLSHIT? I used more Japanese when teaching English was my official job description. I used more English when that was the case.
I spent the first four months asking for more non-English teaching work. I spoke to my supervisor daily. I spoke to the prefectural supervisor. I had him speak to my section chief and division chief on my behalf.
Their response? TO FUCKING INCREASE MY ALT DUTIES.
Today I found out that the Lions Club has been requesting me for the past half a year to give cultural talks in Japanese at their bimonthly meetings.
My supervisors turned them down every time, because attending those meetings WOULD INTERFERE WITH MY ALT DUTIES.
That's right. My supervisors turned down CIR work BECAUSE IT WOULD INTERFERE WITH MY ALT DUTIES.
I fucking, fucking, fucking HATE being lied to. Fucking HATE it. Don't tell me that any sort of Japanese ability is necessary for my job when it ISN'T. Don't tell me that my job is going to differ from an ALT's when it DOESN'T. Don't give me this 'every situation is different' treacly smarmy feel-good crap when your real motivation is to cover up the smell of the lies you've just crapped up all over the place. Don't talk about the 'wonderful CLAIR counseling support system' prior to departure for Japan while neglecting to mention that said wonderful support system - indeed CLAIR itself - has absolutely NO POWER TO INTERVENE ON ANY JET'S BEHALF WITH THEIR CONTRACTING ORGANIZATION when that contracting organization takes advantage of them.
Take your 'we really hope you can improve your situation but unfortunately there's nothing we can do aside from lending an ear' and shove it up your ass. I don't want you to 'lend an ear.' I want you to do something about my shitty situation or at the very least be upfront with applicants about what they will and will not be doing.
Let's take a look at the JET Programme's official description of CIR duties.
Do you know how much of the first three articles I've been involved with since last July?
NONE.
Do you know how much 'Assistance withcultural activities and language instruction for local residents' I've been involved with since last July?
About three-five hours per day.
And now for the crappy analogy, because no rant is complete without one.
Sure, the official CIR job description is not technically lying about the English teaching. But you could also tell incoming students to say, Harvard Medical School, that they'll spend their days interacting with new and exciting people, drinking at the area's many bars, going to see the live musical acts and foreign and art films that play college towns, eating at the area's many ethnic restaurants, enjoying the collegiate atheletic events, and spending leisurely hours in stimulating philosophical or political discussion with their peers, and then mention that some students might also have to spend some time studying in order to avoid flunking out, when it's that last bit that most people end up doing most of the time.
I really despise the bait and switch. It is one of my biggest Life Pet Peeves. And I'm willing to bet that 99% of the people who apply for the 'Assisting with business related to international activities carried out by local governments, translating and editing, advising on the implementation of international programmes, participating in and assisting with the planning and designing of international exchange programmes and events, receiving guests from abroad, interpreting at international events - in other words, the using-Japanese, not-teaching-English part of the JET Programme are doing it because they don't want to teach English.
So why hire a bunch of people and then force them to do the job they didn't want to do? It does no one - not the CIRs, not the people they're forced to teach - any kind of service whatsoever.
Ooh. さっぱりした。
That will be all.
Yes, the JET Programme is giving me a job in Japan, but the bottom line is that I wouldn't have accepted it if I'd realised that I was being lied to.
Teaching English was a decent job, but there was nothing more I could learn from it after two years. I wanted to improve my Japanese ability, and it would have been dishonest for me to stay on for a third year as an English teacher, just going through the motions without caring about the work I was being paid to do.
So I applied for the CIR position and was accepted. I couldn't wait to start. I was going to be doing work I was really excited about. In fact, I was so excited that it made up for the fact that I was leaving my friends and social life behind to go live in the rural middle of nowhere, that I was going to take a pay cut, work longer hours, go through the horror of getting a Japanese driver's license and spend several hundred dollars extra a month on car stuff. All that and I was still excited about having the job.
Then I actually started the job to discover that not only was I here to teach English, there was ABSOLUTELY NO WORK THAT DID NOT INVOLVE TEACHING ENGLISH. I was an ALT. End of story. Only, the ALTs in this town work about 5-10 fewer hours a week than I do and get an extra month of paid vacation on top - FOR DOING THE EXACT SAME JOB THAT I DO. Why don't I get the extra time off? Because I have to sit with my thumbs up my ass in city hall when I'm not teaching English, whereas they are free to go home. This serves to obscure the lie that my job is somehow fundamentally different from the ALTs' job.
Worse still is the English I am forced to teach. For the past six months, I have: taught the numbers from one to ten, primary colors, animals and fruits, and sung Head, Shoulders an average of five times a day. I PASSED THE JLPT LEVEL ONE FOR THE HONOR OF DOING THIS BULLSHIT? I used more Japanese when teaching English was my official job description. I used more English when that was the case.
I spent the first four months asking for more non-English teaching work. I spoke to my supervisor daily. I spoke to the prefectural supervisor. I had him speak to my section chief and division chief on my behalf.
Their response? TO FUCKING INCREASE MY ALT DUTIES.
Today I found out that the Lions Club has been requesting me for the past half a year to give cultural talks in Japanese at their bimonthly meetings.
My supervisors turned them down every time, because attending those meetings WOULD INTERFERE WITH MY ALT DUTIES.
That's right. My supervisors turned down CIR work BECAUSE IT WOULD INTERFERE WITH MY ALT DUTIES.
I fucking, fucking, fucking HATE being lied to. Fucking HATE it. Don't tell me that any sort of Japanese ability is necessary for my job when it ISN'T. Don't tell me that my job is going to differ from an ALT's when it DOESN'T. Don't give me this 'every situation is different' treacly smarmy feel-good crap when your real motivation is to cover up the smell of the lies you've just crapped up all over the place. Don't talk about the 'wonderful CLAIR counseling support system' prior to departure for Japan while neglecting to mention that said wonderful support system - indeed CLAIR itself - has absolutely NO POWER TO INTERVENE ON ANY JET'S BEHALF WITH THEIR CONTRACTING ORGANIZATION when that contracting organization takes advantage of them.
Take your 'we really hope you can improve your situation but unfortunately there's nothing we can do aside from lending an ear' and shove it up your ass. I don't want you to 'lend an ear.' I want you to do something about my shitty situation or at the very least be upfront with applicants about what they will and will not be doing.
Let's take a look at the JET Programme's official description of CIR duties.
Do you know how much of the first three articles I've been involved with since last July?
NONE.
Do you know how much 'Assistance with
About three-five hours per day.
And now for the crappy analogy, because no rant is complete without one.
Sure, the official CIR job description is not technically lying about the English teaching. But you could also tell incoming students to say, Harvard Medical School, that they'll spend their days interacting with new and exciting people, drinking at the area's many bars, going to see the live musical acts and foreign and art films that play college towns, eating at the area's many ethnic restaurants, enjoying the collegiate atheletic events, and spending leisurely hours in stimulating philosophical or political discussion with their peers, and then mention that some students might also have to spend some time studying in order to avoid flunking out, when it's that last bit that most people end up doing most of the time.
I really despise the bait and switch. It is one of my biggest Life Pet Peeves. And I'm willing to bet that 99% of the people who apply for the 'Assisting with business related to international activities carried out by local governments, translating and editing, advising on the implementation of international programmes, participating in and assisting with the planning and designing of international exchange programmes and events, receiving guests from abroad, interpreting at international events - in other words, the using-Japanese, not-teaching-English part of the JET Programme are doing it because they don't want to teach English.
So why hire a bunch of people and then force them to do the job they didn't want to do? It does no one - not the CIRs, not the people they're forced to teach - any kind of service whatsoever.
Ooh. さっぱりした。
That will be all.