Job Discussion Forums

[cuibono]

I've read through the forum for a few months, and I haven't seen my particular question addressed anywhere, but if there is a pre-existing thread about this, please let me know and I'll move there.

I am very interested in JET, but by the time I will have an opportunity to apply (4-5 years from now), I will have a Ph.D. in Classics (Greek and Latin). You see, although I have long been interested in Japan, I didn't find out about JET until around January of this year--so, too late to apply and after I had already applied for Ph.D. programs. I just graduated with my BA, and I am (happily) locked into my grad program now. So, getting to the first question, will having a Ph.D. disadvantage me in applying for a JET position? I'm afraid it may seem overqualified.

Why, you might ask, would I want to do JET after having a Ph.D.? Well, I enjoy English grammar, I want to teach, and I would very much like to go to Japan, but I do not think I want to stay there permanently--only for 1-3 years. So JET falls perfectly into what I want right now (and think I'll want in a few years). I also would like to have the leisure to learn more about Japan firsthand, which it sounds like JET would almost certainly offer.

If I did decide to stay in Japan, I would want a university position and preferably teaching Classics, not English, since Classics is my particular area. I understand that uni positions require publications, and I expect I'll have a few by then, if it comes to that. I do not, however, know how likely it is for a gaijin to teach a non-English course in a uni in Japan. So my second question: how hard is it to move from ESL to non-English teaching in a Japanese university? Have any of you done it or know anyone who has? Is there much interest in non-English Western languages in Japan?

Other info about me, if it helps:
*I do not know any Japanese...yet. My undergrad. institution did not offer the language, but the university I'll be at does offer it, and I intend to take it.
*I'll be 26/27 when I could go.
*I could also offer varying levels of instruction (from most to least) in Spanish, French, and German.

If anybody can help with my questions, I would greatly appreciate it (as well as help with anything else that I seem to be in need of help with).

[craven]

Hi there

I don't think that having a PhD is necessarily a disadvantage in applying for JET...but nor is it an advantage. I came to Japan after getting a MA in English lit, worked for roughly 2 years at a private school and then started JET about 9 months ago. After talking to several regional coordinators for JET, I've found that there are a couple of things they look for in the interview: first, interest in, and a little knowledge about Japan. They don't expect you to know Japanese, but you should know a little about Japan-for example, in my interview they asked me who the prime minister of japan was, and asked me to name a few Japanese authors of interest to me. Second, they are interested in people who would like to come to Japan for the program, but NOT people who want to stay on after. You need to find a way to convey this in your interview (in my case I told them that I wanted to learn Japanese so that when I returned home to do a PhD I could concentrate on Japanese literature.)
Feel free to text me off-forum if you have more questions.

[cuibono]

Thanks, that's both reassuring and helpful. At this point, I really don't think I want to stay on. If I were to decide that I wanted to stay on, I wouldn't make that decision until after being in Japan for a while. (I'd like to come back and either do work on a linguistics degree or start my career as a classicist. So any remaining in Japan would require being able to do one of those while there.)

I don't think I realized that there was a need for knowledge of Japan outside of the culture, so that's helpful to know.

Thanks!

[Gordon]

4-5 years? Sure sounds like you're planning a long way down the road. Yes, I think you will look overqualified for JET because you will be overqualified. Many recruiters will wonder what someone with a PhD is doing wanting to be a human tape recorder for schools in Japan. If you have done extensive reading on JET, you should know that you aren't going to be teaching on the most part, you are assisting a Japanese teacher, playing games, singing, teaching basic conversation... Your PhD will be of no use at all.
My advice would be to concentrate on your masters and see how that goes. A PhD is still a long way off for you and the JET program even further still. I think it is great that you are making long term plans but you will probably change your mind 10 times in the mean time. I'm not trying to be discouraging, just that there are a lot of "ifs" between now and your planned JET application.

[cuibono]

Gordon, thanks for the reply.

A little more info:

The program I'm in is strictly a phd program, so I can't get a masters and then take time off and then a phd: it's one straight shot (which is often the case in my field). It usually takes 5-6 years, if everything is done on time, but I'm trying to speed it up a bit.

This is pretty far in advance, I admit, but I've made a point of planning this far in advance since I was 12, and it's worked pretty well so far. I'm just that kind of person. (Just investigating all of my options. )

I have read about how little actual teaching a JET does. Basically, what I think about it is this: if I were to get lucky and be sent to an area that would actually use me, that would be great. If I weren't lucky and were sent to a human tape recorder area, that would be okay because I could use my time to learn about the culture and to read, read, read. And since my background is not in TESOL or anything of that sort, I don't mind the thought of just being an assistant (at least at first...who knows how I'd feel about it after a while). Best case scenario, it could be a rewarding experience of interaction with Japan. Worst case scenario, it could be a chance to catch up and get ahead on the reading that I will need to do as part of my profession. From an entirely practical and ruthless standpoint, the worst case scenario would even be good for me, for I'd have a steady income, exposure to a new environment, experience another culture I'm interested in, satisfy a little wanderlust, a lot of free time at my disposal, and very little real work to do.

Honestly, I'm not interested in using the phd for JET, but in doing JET for its own sake. I'd love to have applied for JET to go this year, but just found out about it too late. To the extent that I might need to justify that in light of my career, I have found (and often been told) that the more experience with life one has, the better a classicist one becomes because reading, understanding, and interpreting classical texts well requires familiarity with a broad range of experiences.

I do grant, though, that applying later will depend on whether or not I still want to do it after graduation and whether I actually can do it. I'm not bedazzled, after all.

So thanks again. You've given me more to think about, and I appreciate that.

[Glenski]

To teach non-English subjects (whether they be other foreign languages or non-language topics like geography), you will likely have to be pretty fluent in Japanese. I don't work for a university, but this seems obvious. Maybe our university residents will respond to this.

I'm also not exactly sure what you plan to teach, if not Enlish? Greek? Latin? Philosophy?

[cuibono]

Glenski,

I can appreciate your scepticism.

Yes, I expect that some degree of fluency would be necessary to teach in a university. The posts I've read about that vary, but enough Japanese to get along seems "good enough" for a university while full fluency would be best (obviously)--depending on the university, of course. At least, that's what I've gathered. To this end, I've obtained permission from my department to take Japanese courses, and my schedule just permits me to take the full series my school will offer. I also feel that taking these courses will either affirm my desire to go to Japan or quickly disabuse me of the notion. (I am rational, after all.)

In addition to wanting to do JET for its own sake, it could serve as a sort of grace period in which I would (A) find out just how fluent I will have become and hone that fluency and (B) decide whether or not I want to apply for a uni position.

[PAULH]

[PAULH]

[pnksweater]

My university does happen to hire foreigners to teach subjects other than English. There are very few of them and they are FLUENT in Japanese. As this university churns out business, economics, law and internationl relations majors the foreign professors have an educational background which represents this.

You would most likely be unhappy teaching English at a university level as it's not what you want to do. However it usually doesn't require much Japanese. Since we've got so many foreign English teachers here we're particularly coddled and the university provided bilingual staff to smooth out communications. However, we're also left out of 99% of official university stuff, meetings, etc. (This is not such a bad thing). If our office wasn't so separate we'd probably have to take care of ourselves... in that case being able to communicate with staff and students in Japanese would be essential.

Why are you worrying so much about this anyways? As you said you've got 4-5 years before you'll be going so 3-4 years before applying... Go ahead and study Japanese and keep looking. I certainly woudn't plan my future on this decision as so many of the applicants don't get in.

[cuibono]

PaulH, I was hoping that you would post here eventually. I've read a number of your posts and respect your experience.

I appreciate the time that each of you has taken to reply, and I find your replies very informative.

I do find it curious that these replies focus on telling me how I cannot do a thing because of certain lacks which I not only already acknowledged but for which I also outlined plans of acquisition.

Yes, I realize and accept the level of Japanese necessary to teach things other than English, and I will be studying it for the next 4-5 years at university level. If I were then to go on JET I would have another 1-3 to figure out both how good that classroom Japanese had gotten and to hone it up to par. That is not in question.

So, for example,

[cuibono]

[PAULH]

[cuibono]

PaulH,

That's really helpful.

The JET and the university questions are really separate questions. I wouldn't expect to use JET as such to improve Japanese ability. (After all, I do want to do JET in and of itself.) What I would expect to do with it also is use the spare time not spent in JET-activities improving Japanese ability. I expect that you're absolutely correct about the type of Japanese that will be taught at my school. (That was certainly the case when I learned Spanish and later conversed with Mexicans and went to Spain: the classroom did not match the actual experience.) I once had a Jesuit professor who spoke at least 12 languages (that's how many we counted in class...we never knew how many he really knew), and he advised the exact same method of learning them that you did: go into the street and talk and make mistakes and learn.

[PAULH]