Tokyo Orientation and Paying For It

(La version française se trouve ici)


Any foreigner in Tokyo needs a map or something to provide orientation. It is HUGE! Just go on google map and look at how far it expands. Imagine yourself walking in there and trying to find a specific street (by the way, to add to the foreigner’s confusion, they name the city blocs and not the streets in Japan). It seems too big to be functioning but somehow, it works out.

 I guess the same thing can be said about the JET Programme: With about 36 participating countries and over 4000 JETs in Japan, it is a huge programme.  If I was to try to provide a “map” of the programme, I would  need to include three ministries (The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)), the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR) and the Contracting Organisations (the boards of education and the schools actually hiring us). I would also need to include all the foreign Japanese embassies that take part in the selection process and the preparation of the new JETs.

I won’t go into the details of the roles of each one of these organisations but I think you get the picture: It’s kind of a big deal.

We could feel it at the 3 days orientation seminar at a luxury hotel in downtown Tokyo (is there anywhere in Tokyo that is “not” downtown?). Whether they wanted it or not, at some point, everybody wondered how much money was involved in all of this (the free flights, the seminars, the luxury hotel, the transportation, our salaries and, as we would find later; the things provided by our contracting organisations: for some people it might include a car, a house (!), furniture…)

View from the room

What I’m getting at is that JET is a publicly financed programme.  If I’m not mistaken, the Japanese economy, like many others, is not doing so good (I actually stumbled upon an article of the New-York Times today about that). A lot of people are looking at ways to cut down the expenses and the JET Programme is one of their target. About a month ago, I read a very interesting article from Debito Arudou about the situation of the JET Programme and why it is not meeting the expectations.

If I grossly oversimplify that article; it says that the programme costs a lot of money and that Japanese students are still not learning English. But it’s not the JETs fault, it’s the Japanese education system’s fault.

Ok… so if we can’t teach English to the students, what are we doing exactly? Why are we here? Why are they still spending so much money on this thing?

Well, the official purpose of the JET Programme (as stated in many of their official documents) is to : “Promote internationalisation and mutual understanding through foreign language education and local international exchange activities.”

Even before I left Canada, I’ve been told that a way to see the job was as a “cultural ambassador”. So, is this a way to justify everything or does it actually means something and has a real application? -(By the way, if you ask a question with “or” in it to a Japanese person, they’ll answer by yes or no! More on this in another blog post about language).-

I think the term “cultural ambassador” does mean something and that our presence here is not pointless: When I was teaching sciences in Canada, I realised that 95% (if not more) of what I teach will be forgotten by most of the students a year later. (How much do YOU remember from your high school science classes?) So why should we keep trying to put these facts and equations into their heads?

The point is not for them to become proficient scientists while they are in high school. The point is for them to know that these things exist and become curious about the world around them. We want to ignite some passions and get them interested (which means that the way we teach is very important). If they have that curiosity, they will pursue their learning fuelled by their own motivation and will make career choices accordingly. Anyways, the introductory classes in most college and university science programs tend to teach all the basics again to make sure everyone is at the same level.

So the point is to get the Japanese students interested and curious about foreign cultures. English is a mean to do that. If they have the spark and decide to travel abroad after high school, they will figure out a way to have functional English.

That being said, I think there are ways for us to be more than "promoters for holiday destinations" while in front of the class.

More on that later…