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Examples of Ways to Describe your JET Experience
Okay, so you’re back from the JET Programme. You’ve had a great time, but now it’s time to start your career; how are you going to sell yourself and the time you’ve spent in Japan? What is going to persuade employers it was a worthwhile experience?
Below are a list of ideas designed to get you thinking about your time on JET and how you can market it. You weren’t just a teacher out there you know…
You were:
- Selected in a rigorous screening process from thousands of candidates worldwide, because of your excellent command of the English language, your cultural awareness and your ability to work in a demanding and sometimes stressful environment
Put simply, you might be able to claim:
- Established and implemented the oral communication curriculum
- Conceptualised and developed original teaching materials
- Promoted and facilitated the development of OC courses to Japanese students, including demonstration classes, speaking at training seminars and open days
- Taught using the Team Teaching approach, working with a number of different teachers, and having to quickly form relationships in order to effectively plan, teach and assess classes
- Persuaded the English department staff to increase weekly teaching hours to allow oral communication classes to be halved in size (40 to 20 students)
- Established the English Speaking Society and organised a yearly exhibition to introduce UK culture to students and local residents
But on top of that, you could state:
- Coordinated a Mid-Year Block Conference for AETs
- Designed and presented workshops at professional development days to AETs and also Japanese Teachers of English on topics such as Student Motivation
- Selected as local JET representative, responsible for organizing and managing meetings/events, liaising with local school administration and ensuring the welfare of JET participants
- Personally initiated regular English classes at nine local elementary schools
- Attained Level 3 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test after just eighteen months of self-taught Japanese study
- Winner of the prefectural foreign residents’ Japanese Speech Contest. Resulting television interviews introduced me to the live studio environment, as well as giving me experience in front of the camera
- During parents and friends visits, organised all accommodation and travel arrangements, as well as guiding visitors through an unfamiliar country where they did not speak the language
- Further expanded my skills through my experience as Contributing Editor of the prefectural JET Newsletter. This involved writing and commissioning articles, proofreading and checking copy for accuracy. Also gained experience of rewriting copy that had been translated from Japanese
And because of all this, you gained loads of transferable skills:
- Working alongside a Japanese teacher requires cooperation and mutual professional support in all aspects of teaching, from lesson planning to student assessment and discipline
- Acquired skills in leadership, delegation, organization and listening to problems
- Successfully adapted to Japanese working environment by maintaining outgoing, flexible and open attitude, freely offering assistance in duties outside teaching
- Hard work and enthusiasm to communicate has enabled me to cultivate an active and friendly relationship with colleagues, students and the local community. This has helped me gain a thorough insight into Japanese customs and culture, whilst striving to promote an understanding of the UK
- Having embarked on this challenging experience, I have come to appreciate the difficulties faced by those living and working in a foreign environment, and have used this understanding to assist Japanese acquaintances considering studying / working abroad
- Creativity: Created and implemented classroom activities and tests focusing on communicative English and cultural aspects
- Teamwork: Successfully taught in tandem with over thirty Japanese teachers of English at four high schools
- Time management: In addition to teaching responsibilities, ran an English speaking club, establishing ‘pen-pal’ letter exchanges with students in America. Also, coached the football club
- Public speaking skills: Headed numerous workshops and gave numerous presentations on themes such as English teaching techniques, settling in Japan as a foreigner and British culture
- Adaptability and International Perspective: Became fully immersed in local community through learning Japanese and building relationships
- Communicated with patience across the language barrier and used my imagination to communicate non-verbally. With perseverance I was able to communicate clearly in a wide range of situations, using both Japanese and English, with non-native speakers
