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Korean Job Discussion Forums "The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
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drama_addict
Joined: 30 Aug 2009 Location: Seoul
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 1:19 am Post subject: |
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| olsanairbase wrote: |
Any aspect that once (if ever) was tied to JET has long since gone. It's primary objective is to throw a 21 year old into the classroom to be the class monkey or mobile zoo exhibit to show that Ainu are now not the only "hairy people" living in Japan anymore. Anyone who joined JET to "teach" I think would be severely disappointed. However, if your goal was to have your ego stroked as a kid out of college who can relive being popular all over again because you are young and naive then I think that person will fit right in.
The sad thing is the OP wasn't even probably either of these and therefore feels the need to prop up the JET program to its former levels back when there was a Cold War still going on somewhere in the world. |
EPIK/SMOE are pretty much ending up just like this, if many "teaching" positions in these programmes aren't like this already. |
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minos
Joined: 01 Dec 2010 Location: kOREA
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 2:34 am Post subject: |
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Problem with JET is the lack of city postings and the long ass application process.
I've met jets and they quit for the same reasons people in EPIK do: the rural country side blows no matter how much you like Asia.
Jet's a more awesome organization than SMOE or GEPIK, but the rural placement kills it....I've met folks sent to islands!
I'm sure there is one lucky SOB who got the rare Tokyo JET positions still alive.
I'd gladly bribe him 5 million won for his job when he completes. |
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Plume D'ella Plumeria
Joined: 10 Jan 2005 Location: The Lost Horizon
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 5:34 am Post subject: |
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Mosley, you really miss Jet; am I right? Best time of your life and all that?
I feel for you; I really do. My years in Japan (non-Jet) were among the best years of my life. They're gone now, never to be gotten back. But God, those were some great years ... |
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Mosley
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 9:04 pm Post subject: |
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Plume: I'll reply on the off chance that you're sincere and not a smirking smart a**. I daresay you're on the level.
Yes, I can still get misty eyed when I think of my JET days-no bones about it. And hell, I even have SOME fond memories of my two years in Japan post-JET with an evil eikaiwa. Like JET, I was the "old man" compared to my colleagues. Unlike JET, I actually did some socializing w/them, as I found they were far more down to earth than many JETs. THAT was nearly a decade ago and I cleared 275K/mo. and figured I was being royally screwed because of the workload. I, and a few others, fought against the "Man"(so to speak)and constantly invoked JET as the ideal. We had victories, but they were minor, I can tell you. And yet, even that non-JET gig was like a gravy train compared to the absolute crapola facing most non-JET teachers in Japan today.
The whole point of my OP wasn't to wax poetic about Mosley's salad days in JET Japan. Rather, it was to get EFLers in E. Asia, novice or veteran, younger or older, in Japan or Korea or Taiwan or...yada, yada, to think about WHAT IS AN IDEAL contract. I've seen the crap building up in the last 15 yrs., in E. Asia, to form a wall of dung that is not falling on the side of the barbarian....
We give up a LOT to come over to this part of the world. JET is one of the last schemes to recognize that. When it goes, what's left...pray tell?
Sure, the unqualified, wacko, CPNs should not be welcomed. But when anyone looks at, say, the latest EPIK application form(I thought it was bad a few years ago!), EFLers of all stripes should be saying"enough is enough"! Next year, EPIK will want your credit history and ... credit card no.! |
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Plume D'ella Plumeria
Joined: 10 Jan 2005 Location: The Lost Horizon
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Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 2:06 am Post subject: |
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Mosley, thank you for your (correct) assumption that my post was sincere.
I do feel you, as I was first in Japan in 1989 when it was still in its EFL teaching glory days. I had some fabulous teaching positions offering benefits that no longer exist.
I also hear you about what's happened and is happening in Korea. Which is why I'm no longer teaching there. I saw which way the wind was blowing and got myself the heck of Dodge. And cannot imagine going back with how things there are these days. |
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olsanairbase
Joined: 30 Aug 2010
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Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 6:21 pm Post subject: |
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| drama_addict wrote: |
| olsanairbase wrote: |
Any aspect that once (if ever) was tied to JET has long since gone. It's primary objective is to throw a 21 year old into the classroom to be the class monkey or mobile zoo exhibit to show that Ainu are now not the only "hairy people" living in Japan anymore. Anyone who joined JET to "teach" I think would be severely disappointed. However, if your goal was to have your ego stroked as a kid out of college who can relive being popular all over again because you are young and naive then I think that person will fit right in.
The sad thing is the OP wasn't even probably either of these and therefore feels the need to prop up the JET program to its former levels back when there was a Cold War still going on somewhere in the world. |
EPIK/SMOE are pretty much ending up just like this, if many "teaching" positions in these programmes aren't like this already. |
This is true except for the fact there were never any Ainu in Korea. That just makes you the "original" hairy people! |
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isitts
Joined: 25 Dec 2008 Location: Korea
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Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 4:10 pm Post subject: Re: JET Programme still shows how it's done.... |
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| Mosley wrote: |
| . For my part, I'll stick to the "sour grapes" theory insofar as anytime I've sang praises of JET and someone has gotten their dander up, I've noted that that 'someone' always has 3 characteristics: 1. He/she is not on JET 2. He/she never has been on JET. 3. He/she never will be on JET. And so here, on this thread. |
Mosley, I was in the JET Program and I don't really see the point of you starting this thread, either.
JET was a great experience, but there's no way I'd go through that application process again. Especially for a job that has a time limit (3 years when I was there, though it moved back to 5) and an age limit (and no, I'm not too old to get back in).
And a lot of your info is dated. You pay your own way to Japan. You only get the return ticket home paid for.
The PS ALT programs in Korea (EPIK/GEPIK/SMOE) have a lot better perks than JET:
- no 3-5 year time limit
- no age limit
- 100% of your pension (80% in Japan. Need to get a guarantor to get you the other 20%...pain in the butt)
- pay raises (no pay raise on JET and for that matter, JET had a blanket salary no matter where in Japan you lived...city or countryside. GEPIK gives extra money for living in the countryside)
- housing was not 100% subsidized on JET.
Plus the fact that Korea is far less socially stifling than Japan. And you actually get to teach here.
If someone was bent on teaching in Japan, I'd say JET or nothing.
But if they wanted to teach EFL and were not particular about which country they taught in, I'd say avoid Japan.
And I actually like that I don't have to wait a year to get into other countries. As for the orientations in JET, they had about the same usefulness as the orientations here: to meet people.
Again, I think JET is great program, and I had a wonderful experience. But that had little to do with JET "doing it right". And knowing what I know now, having taught in other countries, there's no way I'd....or rather, there's no way I'm going back into JET.
(I changed my wording because in a couple years, I'll be able to apply for a second round of JET. That didn't make it in to your review...about how after you leave JET, you have to wait 8 years before you can apply again...provided you're still under 40 when that eight years is up.)
It�s ok to be nostalgic about JET. I was. Then again, I was also nostalgic about high school some time ago. But it passed.
JET was good for what it was. But most of us have moved on since then. |
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isitts
Joined: 25 Dec 2008 Location: Korea
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Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 8:28 pm Post subject: |
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[edit]
Last edited by isitts on Sat Jan 22, 2011 2:16 am; edited 1 time in total |
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swashbuckler
Joined: 20 Nov 2010
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Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 8:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Mosley wrote: |
Here's YOUR chance, then, mate. You've a GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY to provide us, in minute and intimate DETAIL, with info about your CEO position and your Manhattan penthouse. Don't forget to tell us about your stock options!!!  |
Porn actor, currently. Yourself? |
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isitts
Joined: 25 Dec 2008 Location: Korea
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Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 2:59 am Post subject: |
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[edit]
Last edited by isitts on Sat Jan 22, 2011 2:17 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Mosley
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 12:51 pm Post subject: |
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You know, misadventureman(aka swashbuckler )I actually tend to believe you. But that would be midget porn in your case...right, mate?
isitts: for a guy who accuses others of trolling you give off some strong hints of doing it for real, namely...I strongly suspect you were never on JET at all. Or maybe it could be a case similar to the ONE AND ONLY ex-JET I actually met in the flesh who denigrated the programme. A little digging revealed that he was one of a small few who were denied a contract renewal. Very revealing.
Are you seriously comparing the application procedure for JET to that of, say, EPIK?! JET's application process is drawn out but it is reasonable, respectful, logical and has a clear and set timeline. At no time and no point(and this is presently the case as well)was I basically accused of being an alcoholic HIV-infected drug-addicted pedophile. That is what one is faced with in the EPIK Accusation...er, Application. Oh, and you're a forger too, barbarian. Notary publics, apostilles, ....
What would you do, isitts? Have JET "aspire" to EPIK's "organization"? Maybe you'd prefer to have it become like the "prestigious" SMOE. Sure...have newbies go through all the application and visa BS, fly themselves over and be told at Incheon that there are no contracts for the latest intake after all?
BTW you're dead wrong(if you're not being disingenuous)about JET arrival airfare: as always, you're given a pre-paid ticket from the nearest designated airport to Narita. Example: you live in Prince George BC, so you'll fly out of Vancouver. So you have to make your own way to Vancouver. Oh, boo hoo!
Korea is "less socially stifling than Japan"?! See, folks, why I think this guy is trolling?!
Only the childish & dishonest take quotations out of context. Those I referred to with a sense of entitlement were those who took the gravy train for granted, thought they were "better" than the eikaiwa/dispatch co. crowd(I would only agree to the extent that they were "better"in the sense of not taking a contract that offered 200K/mo.) or were oblivious to the fact not every EFLer in Japan was on a JET gravy train.
On the other hand, the qualified, hard-working and well-behaved EFLer in E. Asia DOES deserve a JET-like contract. |
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shostahoosier
Joined: 14 Apr 2009
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Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 2:25 am Post subject: |
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First Mosley claimed that the only people who had bad things to say about the JET Programme were people who were either rejected or had never applied/been a JET Teacher.
Now he's widening his definition to include people that actually HAD been accepted to JET but werent renewed.
Next he'll also include people who were former JET teachers, but ate their bread butter side up.
...or....just about any other definition to fit his "brand" of logic.
I guess his logic explains why he hates the NET Scheme; because he was flat out rejected. |
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isitts
Joined: 25 Dec 2008 Location: Korea
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Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 2:27 am Post subject: |
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| I actually was on JET for two years. |
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shostahoosier
Joined: 14 Apr 2009
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Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 2:34 am Post subject: |
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| isitts wrote: |
| I actually was on JET for two years. |
Sorry, isitts...I was quoting Mosley. I actually found your post to be quite reasonable. |
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isitts
Joined: 25 Dec 2008 Location: Korea
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Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 2:40 am Post subject: |
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| shostahoosier wrote: |
| isitts wrote: |
| I actually was on JET for two years. |
Sorry, isitts...I was quoting Mosley. I actually found your post to be quite reasonable. |
I know. I just clicked 'post reply'. Wasn't directing that at you. Just putting it out there.  |
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