Asian-Americans for JET programme

What is the experience of Asian-Americans who have participated in the JET programme? I have heard that English teachers who don't "look" American might not be appreciated much in Japan. Do Asian-American JETs feel like their experience and friendships/relationships were as fulfilling as those of the Caucasian JETs?

I said it time and again before, being american is a nationality not an ethnicity unless you are pure blooded native american.

If you are qualified then you are qualified.

People are different everywhere so it really depends on who you run into. I find from my experience that Asian Canadians/Americans/Austrailians etc (like myself btw) tend to have it a little easier or harder depending on how you look at it. One you don't get stares all the time (depending on where you are), two you don't have people bugging you for free english lessons whenever you're not working or just traveling around, three yess there might be some students who would prefer a sterotyped person teaching english, but others not, others might think, hey here's another Asian person, if they can do it, I can to. All depends on the people you run into. I doubt someone who has good friendships and relationships with people in Japan would say their good friendships and relationships were less fulfilling (??) then someone who was of a different skin color.

http://www.japan-guide.com/forum/quereadisplay.html?0+41492

Thanks for the reply, and, wow, it's an amazing coincidence that someone just asked a similar question. However, I was hoping to hear the opinions of actual Japanese people on this. Are there any out there?

If you are an outsider, John, there's a decent chance that you don't know how you are really viewed. Are you popular socially with the locals?

I've seen threads about how Caucasian people are so popular among Japanese but that non-Japanese Asians are not. The internet is totally anonymous, so maybe there won't be any obstacles to some honest
opinions.

Well, anyway, it sounds like a bunch of AA's were able to get hired as English teachers. So it's do-able, anyway. Still, I wouldn't want my students to feel shafted because their teacher didn't look the part. I guess I would be a bit more enthusiastic about learning German from an Asian person than from a German-looking person, too.

The friends I have are fine with who I am, I've had them for some years so I doubt its something they're making up.

Now do I know how they really really really think of me no, but do I know how my other friends in the USA including my best friends really really really think of me no.

Do you know how your friends or people you know, co-workers, bosses, or just neighbors really really think deep inside or view you? I doubt so.

Time and again I always tell people "It depends on the person! or people you meet!"

There are many people who don't want to deal with foreigners at all, there are some people who just want a caucasian friend to show off. There are people who couldn't care less.

Some people might be suprised in the beginning, but once they know you then it shouldn't matter.

If someone doesn't want to be friends with you just because you were a certain skin color, then they can go pizz off in my opinion.

Well aa_jet, I can't offer you the opinions of Japanese people, but I can offer you my own. It's an interesting question, as an Asian-Canadian myself who worked for Nova (oh goodness, Nova nova...). My experience was that no Japanese person ever expressed any regret to me that I didn't look the part. Of course, they could be holding it inside but after knowing them for a year, I just don't see how they wouldn't have admitted something like that to me eventually. So I felt pretty comfortable.

Ultimately, what I found was most telling was how willing a foreigner was to engage in the Japanese people's culture. Just because it was who I was, I tended to ask a lot more questions about the "Japanese way" or whatever, and the Japanese tended to treat me like a good friend as such. Some of my co-workers were doing the job more to "get the shift over with" and they were treated respectably of course, but nothing more. So I do think it's less a matter of skin color than your demonstrated willingness to immerse yourself and engage yourself with a new culture and people.

Finally, if you are considering joining the JET program, my understanding is that you will interact more with kids in the classroom than adults. My experience with kids at Nova, which I can't imagine is that different from kids anywhere else in Japan, is that they treat all foreigners the same way. If you think about it, it makes intuitive sense because kids generally don't care much for skin color more than they do for "does the guy speak Japanese or English" and "am I gonna have fun?" and those sorts of things. It comes down to the same thing again though: if you're willing to engage the children and have fun, without of course letting them crawl over you, I think you will be respected more greatly than a fair-skinned foreigner who can't be bothered to stand up and play with the children.

I hope you do end up joining some sort of program in Japan, as I will always remember my time there. Other people have to have a chance to do the same because you will have the time to reflect on your life and what you want to do with it...if that's where you are in life right now. Just don't choose my company.

Thanks for your perspectives - I happened across this very interesting essay on a JET alum website. I guess I'm not the first one who has considered this topic.

http://www.bigdaikon.com/mystory-miho.shtml

Everyone has different experiences.

Two people move to a city both with nothing, one might end up rich and successful and the other person in the gutters.

You have to remember "teaching" english especially in a school setting, you have people who really don't care. It is something they need done to pass.

Its like trying to teach geometry or alegbra, students don't want to learn it but have to to pass examinations and all. Of course you might have some who might geniuinly want to study.

"Teaching" english isn't at all romantic as some people put it out to me. Many "teachers" (I'm not saying all), are slackers. Sometimes if you look OVERQUALIFIED for a teaching job, some schools won't hire you. The burnout rate of english teaching is very high, they don't want people who will stay around for a while, and start demaninding higher wages etc. Heck Nova is going down the drains right now and has suffered through various citicisms as well. Of course the JET program is a little different from private companies.

A friend of mine who is Chinese-American did the JET program for two years and I don't think her ethnicity was ever an issue with her students though they never took her seriously. Well, classroom management skills don't come naturally to most of us. I remember back in my elementary school days, we had a New Zealander teacher who came once a week and we basically ignored her. I mean, kids aren't stupid; they know whom they can push around.

If you are placed out in the stick as many JETs are, students might have preferred a "gaijin" (= white person) but the novelty factor wears off very quickly anyway. My fiance�L is Caucasian so he tends to get extra attention in Japan especially in the country side but after a day or two, people just get used to him and the "wow, here is a gaijin" excitement dissipates.

As for how Japanese people might feel about learning language from a non-native looking person, my first German tutor was Asian and my concern wasn't that she wasn't "ethnic" German (whatever that might mean) but that she grew up in Bavaria and spoke with a noticeable Bavarian accent. She turned out to be a great teacher and I have no regrets whatsoever.

Again, some students might be slightly disappointed that you aren't a blonde with blue eyes but at the end, what they need is a teacher who loves her job and cares about her students.

http://www.xanga.com/yukanayamaya

read back a few years through her diary and you'll see into the world of one asian jet teacher.

It's not all happy or sad, but just life - whether you're teaching or doing something else, you'll see that everyone has up and down days. but in general, she likes the work, and as long as you do, you'll be fine.

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also, jet program website - and download the 2007 JET general catalog. Read up, esp. about culture shock, and see if you still like what you see.

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otherwise, you'll laugh once you go in for the interview - more than half, I'd say, of the potentials there were Asian.

keep in mind they extended the max stay from 3 years to 5 this year. probably because it's better to keep a good teacher, and it's getting harder to find someone to stick around since they haven't raised the pay at all in the past years. (teaching at good companies outside the JET program can make a lot more.....)

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if you're still game, be ready to show you can control a class and teach simple things like "What is a tree?" to a bunch of interviewers acting like monkeys on a high. seriously! they're pushing your buttons hard to see if you'll break, or come up with the right answers to control the class and actualy get the point across.

Yes, what is a tree, dear teacher? We know no English....

The most popular JET in my town by far is the Asian American JET, and it's not because she's Asian American, it's because she is the most out-going, socially inclined, extroverted, etc. Everywhere I have been with her she randomly runs into a friend. Whereas myself and the other Caucasian American JET are a little more artsy, a little more introverted, and don't have nearly as many Japanese friends as she has (though we have our share) but I don't think it has a thing to do with our races.

Sorry, a little old topic, but it's been in my bookmarks for awhile now.

I am a Japanese/Chinese-American (who doesn't speak Japanese) who was on the JET programme for 3 years as a High School Teacher and has done private teaching with ECC Junior as well. Also, I am very close with some teachers and students so I think I can somewhat give you a Japanese persons perspective along with my own observations.

In my opinion as an AA-jet you may have an easier time making more genuine and lasting relationships than a Caucasian-jet. I find that being AA can be a huge advantage. Sure you have little gaijin-power, if any at all, but people often overlook the "gaijin in disguise" advantage you have. You can almost choose when and where you want to be gaijin. Anyway, my point is that you shouldn't see your being AA as a disadvantage, just a difference.

From a somewhat Japanese viewpoint, I was told by many different sources that my being asian made the students initially more comfortable around me as I was "less foreign". Many AA-jets write their essays about how you can be a bridge between cultures, and it is totally true, if you choose to exploit it.

On to some specific points:
If you are an outsider, John, there's a decent chance that you don't know how you are really viewed. Are you popular socially with the locals?

You shouldn't worry so much about how people view you. Japan is not a haven for the socially inept. If you can survive socially at home you will be fine in Japan. If not then you'll have the same problems anywhere in the world.

I've seen threads about how Caucasian people are so popular among Japanese but that non-Japanese Asians are not.

This can often be the case (with results varying totally by person), but the fascination is often short lived, or becomes tiresome. You will experience some of it regardless of your looks by virtue of being a foreigner. It's just that a caucasian foreigner is much easier to spot and will draw that kind of attention more easily. Again, don't worry about it as you will have as much attention as you are socially capable, and many caucasians become tired of the incessant shallow attention they receive.

Well, anyway, it sounds like a bunch of AA's were able to get hired as English teachers. So it's do-able, anyway. Still, I wouldn't want my students to feel shafted because their teacher didn't look the part.

They get hired all the time. Maybe half of the longterm teachers I know are AA. Child students may have an initial "this guy doesn't look like a foreigner" feeling but it almost instantly passes. Adults can easily change classes if they don't like the teacher. Anyway, the ones who don't prefer you because you look asian are not students you'd want to teach anyway.

Anyway you don't need to worry about hiring because JET doesn't have any hiring practices that exclude AA like small, bigoted (in my opinion), companies may.

One more thing. I would take anything I read on Bigdaikon with caution. It is NOT a JET Alum site and maybe 90 percent of it is people complaining about Japan. It can be fun and interesting to read, but be warned that it can give a distorted view of reality.

Aa_jet, are you saying you're seeking posts from the local students/parents side rather than the JET teachers side?

Well, I'm a parent whose son had an Asian English (I'm pretty sure he was Japanese-American) teacher at his chuugakko.

Although he was only there for the last few months before my son's graduation, I had a good impression on him, because he was one of the very few teachers who bowed to me as I walked in to the school premises even though he didn't know me in person. No non-Asian English teacher would bow nor even greet me unless I greet them first.

My son's homeroom teachers once performed to us a real cool dance where all students and parents had a good laugh, and afterwards they told me that the dance they learned from YouTube was introduced to them by the new Asian English teacher.

Since he seemed like an interesting person, I asked my son how he was in class. My son said he was "okay".

So like others have mentioned, I don't think there are any special disadvantages for being Asian. It all depends on the person. And in this particular teacher's case, he seemed to have advantages since he was familiar with Japanese customs like bowing and merging with his co-workers, but I'm not sure if that has anything to do with him being Asian.

At his new kouko, my son also had an English teacher of African descent. Unfortunately he left before my son got to have a change to take his classes, but he was looking very forward to be in his class since he was a big cool guy all dressed in black from tip to toe (even with a hat) and said "Hi" to my son on the bus in a real deep voice. On the other hand, my son told me that the current experienced Caucasian teacher was "so, so".

I'm sorry, I have one of those corrections again.

Incorrect: change to take his classes

Correct: chance to take his classes