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Socrates
Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 12
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 Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2004 7:44 am Post subject: Socrates |
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Hello,
suppose that someone grew up in a bilingual environment (Polish and English to be exact), and is perfectly comfortable with both languages (and can speak some French and German as well). Suppose that person's only fault was that their growing up happened in Poland, and not in an English-speaking country. Suppose now that the person moved to Canada a few years ago, is royally sick of studying business (but will get their BA this coming summer), and wants to teach English in Japan. Should that person, when filling out forms for teaching schools and whatnot, mention the Polish fact of their upbringing? Should they lie and say that they always lived in Canada? Should they change their name from Pawel to Paul to get a job? What are the chances of that hypothetical person getting hired by a recruiter if truth is spoken? (the person has some impressive credits to his name, including teaching English in high school (summer school), and translating novels from Polish to English). Any help would help that person, if he existed.
Cheers, Socrates |
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Nismo
Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 520
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| Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2004 7:51 am Post subject: |
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| Recruiters have no problem with it - but the Japanese government does. |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2004 11:45 am Post subject: Re: Socrates |
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| Socrates wrote: |
Hello,
suppose that someone grew up in a bilingual environment (Polish and English to be exact), and is perfectly comfortable with both languages (and can speak some French and German as well). Suppose that person's only fault was that their growing up happened in Poland, and not in an English-speaking country. Suppose now that the person moved to Canada a few years ago, is royally sick of studying business (but will get their BA this coming summer), and wants to teach English in Japan. Should that person, when filling out forms for teaching schools and whatnot, mention the Polish fact of their upbringing? Should they lie and say that they always lived in Canada? Should they change their name from Pawel to Paul to get a job? What are the chances of that hypothetical person getting hired by a recruiter if truth is spoken? (the person has some impressive credits to his name, including teaching English in high school (summer school), and translating novels from Polish to English). Any help would help that person, if he existed.
Cheers, Socrates |
1. If you have a Polish passport, no chance of getting a job working as a native speaker of english in Japan. Immigration will not give you a work visa to teach English. (Polish maybe, English, no.)
2. Non-native speakers (i.e. people from countries other than US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK) need 12 years of education taught in English to qualify for a visa.
3. Thats even before they ask for the university degree from the above-mentioned countries.
4. False information on a visa application is grounds for refusal. It's called LYING. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2004 2:20 pm Post subject: |
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For goodness' sake, don't LIE. It's more than grounds for dismissal. You could face detention, deportation, and being blacklisted from returning to Japan for five to ten years.
Changing your name is up to you, but if you do it, do it legally, not just by calling yourself with a different spelling. The difference will be seen on your passport when you apply for a visa.
You didn't say what your nationality was. Perhaps you have dual citizenship (maybe even Canadian)? If so, you might qualify for a working holiday visa. |
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Socrates
Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 12
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| Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2004 6:22 pm Post subject: |
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Ah yes, sorry- I do have a dual citizenship, with the Canadian being issued in 1995. I have spent the last 12 years in Canada (emigrated in 92). The question is, myself now being some 22 winters old (and thus having spent more than half my life away from Poland), will the fact that I was born oustside of Canada, and can claim to be a native speaker in more than one language, have a negative effect on the application process to places like Jet?
Cheers, Socrates
PS - thanks for the responses so far; I can see that fibbing would not be taken lightly by the Japanese government... |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2004 9:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Socrates wrote: |
Ah yes, sorry- I do have a dual citizenship, with the Canadian being issued in 1995. I have spent the last 12 years in Canada (emigrated in 92). The question is, myself now being some 22 winters old (and thus having spent more than half my life away from Poland), will the fact that I was born oustside of Canada, and can claim to be a native speaker in more than one language, have a negative effect on the application process to places like Jet?
Cheers, Socrates
PS - thanks for the responses so far; I can see that fibbing would not be taken lightly by the Japanese government... |
These are the requirements for JET
All applicants must:
hold a Bachelor's degree in any subject by July of 2005;
be a citizen of the country where the recruitment and selection procedures take place;
have excellent skills in the designated language (both written and spoken). (For English-speaking countries this is English, and for non-English speaking countries it is English or the principal language);
have a keen interest in the country and culture of Japan;
in principle, be under 40 years of age;
not have lived in Japan for 3 or more of the last 8 years, nor be a former participant in the programme for the last 10 years.
Rather than look for things that may not be there or that may disqualify you look for things that will qualify you. They are only interested in whether you satisfy the above conditions. If you have a Canadian passport, a Canadian university degree, are under forty, have not lived in Japan for three years you stand a good chance of being considered. They look for diversity in candidates and many JETS are not necessarily 100% native speakers (what happens when you leave your birth country at the age of 3 for example- where do they draw the line?)
Keep in mind native speakers of English get rejected for the JET program (as the JET recruiters dont see them applying for the right reasons for example, or are unsuitable) and it may not be because you were born in Poland. Like anything you have to prepare for the interview and hope for the best. |
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Timuli
Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 51
Location: Saitama
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| Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2004 5:55 am Post subject: |
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Socrates - I'd say NO PROBLEM, especially if you been in Canada for the required time and have a uni degree.
I too was born in Poland (Opole. Mum is from Krakow, Dad from Zakopane). I don't have any Polish accent, and you probably won't have one either. As you I also have 2 passports (Polish and South African), but I use them selectively (South Africa doesn't really allow dual citizenship lol).
So in any application I say Im a South African citizen (as evidenced by the passport), I have finished both High School as well as University in South Africa (3 times - and it wasn't even an English University but an Afrikaans one at the time, though all my books were in English)
So I'd say GO FOR IT! You will also pick up Japanese easier than most native English cause you won't have the same pronunciation problems (I noticed especially Americans/Canadians often have bad japanese pronunciation) and some of the grammar rules are similar (no articles, sentence structure) |
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Willy_In_Japan
Joined: 20 Jul 2004
Posts: 329
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| Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2004 2:28 pm Post subject: |
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Simply tell them you are a native speaker of English if they ask.
Tell them you are also fluent in Polish.
If both are equal, it isnt lying just to 'choose' English as your 'native' language. You have a Canadian passport too.....no problems. |
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Eleckid
Joined: 03 Jun 2004
Posts: 102
Location: Aichi, Japan
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| Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2004 2:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Socrates wrote: |
Ah yes, sorry- I do have a dual citizenship, with the Canadian being issued in 1995. I have spent the last 12 years in Canada (emigrated in 92). The question is, myself now being some 22 winters old (and thus having spent more than half my life away from Poland), will the fact that I was born oustside of Canada, and can claim to be a native speaker in more than one language, have a negative effect on the application process to places like Jet?
Cheers, Socrates
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I was not born in Canada, I was born in HK & immigrated to Canada when I was 8. I lived in Canada for about 15 yrs when I applied for my job. I also have dual citizenship. You don't need to tell them that you have your Poland passport (I don't think they really care anyways). Just tell them that you're a Canadian with Polish background. As long as you can speak English fluently, then it's ok. I think they will judge whether you have an accent or not by the interview. As an Asian, I could get a teaching position here, so for you, it shouldn't be a problem at all. You probably look "Canadian" to them more than I do.
Yeah, as other posters had warned, don't even try to play around with the immigration ppl in Japan, they're pretty serious about it. |
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Socrates
Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 12
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| Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2004 7:32 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks to all,
that was really helpful. On a more negative note, I was supposed to have finished the Jet application by the 19th - which I didn't, as I found out about Jet on the 19th. Would anyone suggest a similar program (not that they haven't in the past, which makes this plea super-redundant) that they had good expreriances with? I'm specifically looking for something that will place me in a medium/small city in Japan. I just watched Lost in Translation, and would rather avoid that large city bustle...
Cheers, Socrates
Ps - born in Gdansk, raised in Sopot and Bialystok. I love Zakopane. |
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