Job Discussion Forums

nasigoreng · Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2003 5:16 am Post subject: JET people: what do you do?

What is the JET program like? I've read the orientation info. but I want to read some personal accounts.

1) Does the school take care of you?
2) Are the students difficult (to teach)(to be in the same room with)?
3) Are you treated (respected) as a teacher?
4) What is required of you? What is a typical day like?
5) Are the expectations reasonable?

thank you

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

I'm not a JET person, but I suggest you go to www.bigdaikon.com to ask your questions, too. That site has a lot of JETs on it.

You might want to look at what one person has written about her bad experience at JET at www.eltnews.com. She is Irish, and 2 JTEs have demanded that she change her accent (!), speak only in Japanese (despite no requirment from JET to do this), and NOT teach any new vocabulary (!!). So far, CLAIR is not backing her up.

lajzar · Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Posts: 647 Location: Saitama-ken, Japan

Im not a JET. however, Im led to believe that the JET scheme is more a recruiting organisation than a controlling/guiding one. The JET scheme forces certain minimum standards in the contract and the recruitees, and allows the boards of education (BoE) to choose from the accepted applicants.

The actual day to day working conditions are pretty much left up to the individual BoE and its schools to decide between them. In this respect, my conditions are similar to a JETs life. The most important thing to remember is that every situation is different. So, to answer your questions...

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

lajzar · Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Posts: 647 Location: Saitama-ken, Japan

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

There seem to be a lot of complaints about JET. Do you think some of the smaller ALT companies will replace the JET Program some day?

shmooj · Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 1758 Location: Seoul, ROK

Not a chance. Do you know the budget the government allots to the program runs into the tens of billions of yen. That says something.

Personally, the way they throw money around there makes me feel very wary of the whole scheme especially seeing the arguably minimul impact it has on improving English abilities in schools (no offence to any JETs on the forum - it's the system not you).

There must be some very deep and hidden political and financial agendas in there somewhere and that these are not out on the surface bothers me.

Is it just me... Question

cangel · Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 74 Location: Jeonju, South Korea

I was a JET for 3 years and it was great. The vast majority of JETs I know loved their time on the program. There are always small problems that occur but in the grand scheme of things, they tend to be quite trivial. One caveat about BigDaikon; the people who visit the site, by and large, have a negative outlook regarding the JET Programme - this is their forum.

cangel · Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 74 Location: Jeonju, South Korea

1) Does the school take care of you?
2) Are the students difficult (to teach)(to be in the same room with)?
3) Are you treated (respected) as a teacher?
4) What is required of you? What is a typical day like?
5) Are the expectations reasonable?

1. Yes, the schools take care of you. For example, they help set up your accounts for paying bills, and usually in furnishing your apartment.

2. It depends on your school. The lower their academic ability the more difficult the students will be. However, it is my experience that the higher their ability is, the less creative they tend to be in their lessons due to the pressure of completing X amount of material in a short amount of time.

3. This also depends on your school's ability level and of course how you as an ALT go about your business. In my experience, ALTs are usually respected but given little responsibility.

4. Usually ALTs start around 8:30 and work until 4:15. The day starts with the teachers' meeting. Depending on your school, you might be asked to help in lesson planning and test preparation as well as marking exams and essays. Usually you will be asked to help with a club, usually the English club - obviously. You will usually have 2-3 classes, sometimes more (ESID) per day. The human tape recorder is what you are primarily used for but it all depends. The days are easy and usually stress free.

5. The expectation are very reasonable. In fact most ALTs can't believe they get paid to do so little.