Teaching Program Details

left: Col's welcome party with her fellow English teachers. All-you-can-eat sushi! We rented a tiny tatami room in a local Japanese restaurant for the night.

Hello everyone,

A few people have contacted me either to express an interest in the J.E.T. program or ask me questions about my time here in Japan. I know when I applied to the program, I had a million questions, I was a bit nervous about signing my life away on the dotted line of some contract, and I wish I had someone to contact who would give me a rundown on all the nitty gritty details of teaching abroad in Japan with the J.E.T. program. To those of you who want to know, here are some specifics about my experience with the J.E.T. program so far:

Name: The J.E.T. program, check it out on Google

Goal of program: Set up by the Japanese government, this program aims to make Japanese students more tolerant of other cultures by exposing them to people from other countries in the classroom. Obviously, the government wants the students to improve their English abilities, as English, like Mandarin, is one of the most highly used languages in the world at the moment. Japanese people also hope that J.E.T.s will have a positive experience while in Japan and will leave Japan with nothing but good things to share with other people about their experiences in Japan. A teacher explained that this desire to create a postive national image of Japan abroad is partly born from Japan's defeat in World War II and desperate yearning to gain back the national confidence that the country once possessed.

Salary: 3,600,000 yen per year. This breaks down to roughly $33,000 U.S.

Taxes: None, for the first two years of the program, no Japanese taxes will be taken out of your salary. You are allowed to do the program for three years. Japanese taxes start coming out the third year.

Paid vacation: 20 paid vacation days and a bunch of sick days (not sure how many). Girls--you even get days off for severe "mentstrual pain" if you need em'!

left: View of Ueda and surrounding towns from the top of Mt. Taroyama. Ueda has a population of 120,000 people.

Other vacation: 3 major school holidays, each about three weeks long. If you want to leave Japan during these vacation times, you must take some of your paid leave. If you want to stay in your ken or state, most schools won't make you take paid leave. Up to 12 days of paid leave carry over each year

You also are allowed to take daikyu leave--this is leave granted as a day-for-day swap when you have to work the occaisional Saturday. So, you work Saturday for a festival or something, you get one weekday off.

Housing--My girlfriend and I split a one bedroom apartment (pictures coming soon) and we each pay 90$ a month in rent. Gas is about 25$ a month and electric is about the same. I know many people who live for free in school housing. Many schools own houses or apartments that they give to J.E.T.s each year. Every J.E.T I've met so far either pays nothing or pays very cheap rent each month.

Insurance: Health and dental provided, but dental cleanings aren't included. We also pay into a pension fund that we can cash out when we leave Japan.

left: A very intimidating yet beautiful wasp nest at the top of Mt. Taroyama. Click on picture to see hive detail, I can't figure out how it ends up looking like that!

Work hours and job duties: Mon-Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. I am officially called an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) so I am in the classroom at all times with a Japanese Teacher of English (JTE). Because of this team-teaching component of the program, ALTs don't need to know any Japanese before coming to Japan. I help team teach lessons, plan lessons, and help students with their pronunciation.

Work attire: Dress slacks and button up shirts for people lads. This attire varies from school to school but most schools do not require ties and suits. J.E.T.s are respected as teachers but not held to the same dress standards and time committment expectations!

Cars: Most people have cars or are in the process of buying cars in my area of Nagano. Public transit is great (expensive but reliable) but in order to snowboard and explore on the weekends, it helps to have a car. Used cars are very cheap here because they don't hold their value--you can get a small four door car that gets good mileage for 500-1,000$.

Other fun facts about this job:
--It's fun to work with respectful students and there is no work to take home ever! To all of you teachers out there, you know how rare a teaching position like this is!

--The J.E.T. I replaced sent home half of every paycheck she received for the three years she participated in the program (she just started her fourth year in Japan but switched to another teaching program because her J.E.T. time expired). While in Japan, she saved her cash and had enough money to buy season lift tickets each year for mountains in the Japanese alps, pay for a masters program, and visit all but two countries in Southeast Asia for extended vacations.

--A J.E.T. that just left saved 6,000$ in four months and explained that he didn't even really try to save money, he was simply mindful of his spending for a few months.

--Another J.E.T. that left Japan to travel stayed for two years and left with 20,000$ saved.

--People do this program to experience life in another country and save money to fund future adventures. Period. Whether you want to leave J.E.T. and put a down payment on a house or do a round the world trip for a year or two, the program allows you to save and live comfortably at the same time.

I created this post to inform people about an exciting life opportunity. All you need is a bachelor's degree, a willingness to try new things, and English must be your first language. You DO NOT need to have teaching experience, extensive English grammar knowledge, or a background in English to participate in this program. My girlfriend is a photography major and she got accepted!

Please email me with any questions. Also, if you know of other opportunities that will allow young people to travel and do something meaningful and exciting while abroad, please email me and I will post them on this website! cheerio

Andrew