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The official JET Programme Website gives this
description:
The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme is a project to promote language
education and regional internationalisation by inviting foreign individuals to work in
local government organisations throughout Japan.
For the select few of us in Kitakyushu City, our jobs come under three headings; Coordinator
for International Relations (CIR), Sports Education Advisor (SEA), and of course the
Assistant Language Teacher (ALT).
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Of approximately 20 ALTs in Kitakyushu city, most of us teach in Junior High Schools (ages 12-15)
throughout the city, rotating periodically to cover all 80-plus schools,
although one ALT has a permanent teaching position at Tobata Commercial
High School.
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As for the rest of us, we each have about 4 or 5 schools located throughout the city, which
we visit every term. Generally we keep these schools for the entire year.
We have a fairly unique system here, since we have no base school which we can regard as
an 'office'. Instead we move from school to school, staying anywhere from 2 weeks to 9
weeks, depending on school size. In addition to the daily schedule of school working hours
(8.30am to 4.15pm), we leave our schools at lunch on Wednesdays (1st and 3rd of each month)
to attend a meeting of all Kitakyushu ALTs. This meeting usually takes place in the
International Center in Yahata or at
City Hall in Kokura (see Kitakyushu map), in
which case the CIR working there also attends in order to fill us in on upcoming events.
The meetings serve as our opportunity to discuss questions/problems with the Board of
Education (as both of our supervisors attend), to give reports of our teaching weeks,
to share new lesson ideas and of course to announce any parties!
Elementary school visits
The curriculum for Japanese elementary schools was changed in 2001 to include basic level
English language classes. Therefore, when teaching schedules empty out around exam time,
it's quite common for ALTs to do a 1-day visit to a local elementary school, where you'll
be generally poked, prodded, and likened to some Hollywood movie star. Before you decide to
quit the JET programme right now, you should know these visits are actually great fun, and
not meant to be a punishment! In fact some ALTs are lucky enough to visit elementary
schools on a permanent basis; for a couple of days every week.
The CIR's duties
Sorry, but we're not even going to attempt to list the duties performed at
the International Association Center or in the International Relations Department of City
Hall. All we need to say is that CIRs occasionally attend the weekly Wednesday ALT meetings,
acting as our contacts with the international community here in Kitakyushu. Oh, and you
might even get a rather fetching red International Association jacket, to wear at your
leisure (even if it does make you look like a service station attendant!). Your best bet
to find out more details about CIR duties is to contact the CIRs directly - see the links
on the Who are we? page.
School enkais (drinking parties)
These occur now and again in the term, either to welcome new teachers or to say farewell to
old ones. You don't need to worry about following Japanese etiquette too much (unless you
want to!), because you're a foreigner and they won't expect it anyway. So just enjoy it
instead, because enkais are a nice chance to see the lighter side of your teachers (and
usually the red-faced and very drunk side too). A great chance to get the gossip! We quite
often drag some of the younger teachers (and they do get young!) along on our drinking
trips into town, or to parties. They're certainly an improvement on the teachers at our
own high schools back home!
Miscellaneous stuff
Finally there are occasional events which we are invited to attend or help out at, rather
than another day behind your desk at school, such as the annual English Festival (December)
or Education Symposiums. Some are more fun than others (but we'll leave you to figure out
which ones for yourself!).
In case you might want to contact the Board of Education yourself, the address is:
803-8510
Kitakyushu-shi
Kokura-kita-ku
Otemachi 1-1
TEL: +JPN (0)93 582 2367
FAX: +JPN (0)93 581 5873
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