The Language-Learning Thread

Parksey wrote:

aayl1 wrote:

Parksey wrote:I have my JET interview tomorrow.

Parksey, how did your JET interview go?

And well done on your interview getting, Rightey.

I've been working on my CV today, in preparation for my contract ending over here in August. No idea what I'm gonna be doing with myself come then. Eurgh.

An unwittingly long write-up here:

The day was a nightmare at first - I was staying at a friend's house and he bloody locked me in on his way to work. I came *this* close to jumping out of the window when I managed to force open his back door (steady). I sliced open my hand in the process and was fortunate the local tube station had a shop which stocked plasters so I could patch myself up. Felt like James Bond, mind, wearing a suit, breaking out of somewhere and going to an embassy covered in blood.

This was all at 1pm with my interview at 3pm. I had planned to sit in a Pret just down the road from the embassy from about midday onwards and have a bite to eat and a coffee whilst reading my notes. In the end, I got the back door open just about in time and made it there about 10/15 minutes early.

My mind was a whirl though, and I was full of adrenaline, so the interview is a massive blur.

We had the English test first, which is one of those things you'd do in 30 seconds normally, but pour over in a stressful situation. Common spellings were clouded by doubt and I had to look at one really common word for about 2 minutes to check the spelling. Nerves, I guess.

Then another applicant and I went to speak to a former JET and ask him questions. I may have been a bit naive, but I thought we'd politely let the other person get a word in and a chance to speak, but no, the other applicant was quite rude and would deliberately spoke over me at the time. I gave him a bit of a glance, and the cheeky scamp just looked at me in an "ffnnarrrr loser" sort of way. After he'd done this for the first minute or so I cottoned on, and probably became just as rude as he did - consciously waiting for the former-JET to tail his sentence off, and chirp in before he had a chance to get his banal question in first. Meh, I gave him a chance to do it civilly. He did strike me as a bit of a weeaboo though, and someone who was definitely after a Japanese wife.

I think the interivew itself went well - I was interview by an America guy called Bob who looked strangely familiar and a Japanese man from the embassy. The American was the one asking all the questions.

They were impressed when I gave reasons for my three preferences and listed off loads of sites and things which attracted me to my area. The Japanese man said he was very impressed with my knowledge of Japan, though I was also quick to say that I was open to being placed anywhere and listed a few things from various prefectures across the four main islands as an example that there would be interesting things where ever I ended up.

I think I gave a good answer to why I wanted to teach English abroad and also why JET. They didn't actually ask me the former, but they said: "Is there anything you prepared for that you thought we'd ask, but we didn't" to which I said I thought they would ask me why JET specifically and why not one of the various TEFL schemes and whatnot. So they asked and I answered loads of stuff about the key to it being the "exchange" part of the acronym and how it was about cultural and international exchange and being an ambassador for JET and for your home country etc.

They asked me a quick lesson I had been taught in Chinese or German (they must have mis-read my personal statement as I self-taught myself German and have never had a formal class). I actually suggested one thing I had been doing in Japanese recently to learn body parts which was really simple, which was the old classic "Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and how effective it was - I have never used the word for shoulders (kata) in any sentence or practice question, but due to the song I can always remember it.

They said something like: "That's fine for elementary kids, but what about older ones", to which I waffled for a minute while I got an idea in my head, then thought of a simple pairs game that involved them asking each other questions to find their match. The American seemed to like it and said it would get them moving around and communication.

I got a question about any recent Japanese news stories (from the Japanese guy, which is all he asked bar by three preferences) and I had prepared for this and had a few - I picked one about Shinzo Abe, fun-loving guy that he is, warning that Japan-China relations had echoes of UK-Germany tension in 1914. Always one to cheer up an interview, I mentioned this and also remarked on how it kind of had relevance to us in the UK now, as we are also an island nation with a strained relationship to our neighbours on the content and a history of "Euroscepticism". And that it just showed that even though this seemingly-obscure piece of news from a country thousands of miles away may seem irrelevant to us here, it was quite interesting when you read it through. A lot of waffle.

The one point they did pick up on, was the speed with which I spoke. I am conscious of this usually, and nerves do make me speak faster - I had made a note to slow it down, but due to my hectic morning, I probably still hadn't calmed down fully. The American guy said something like: "We've been speaking fast to get a lot in this 20 minutes, but are you able to speak slower", to which I replied something like "I am conscious that I can speak fast at times, but obviously I can slow it down if need be/if speaking to elementary school kids etc". And then he asked me to slow it down as if I had to prove it. But, yeah, this annoyed me a little as it was the one thing I had told myself to counteract.

One thing I did big up in the interview was my "status" as a Northerner. I mentioned a similarity in how most people in the UK have only heard of Tokyo or Kyoto and a few places, and how there's more to the country than that, and how there's more to the UK than just London - and how I would be able to present my home county's culture as being something a little bit different and unknown to Japanese children.

I also mentioned my accent after the "speaking fast" part, and said that maybe these Japanese children would find my accent interesting (it's not the broadest of Teesside accents, but I have a Northern twang, definitely) and it would be interesting for them to hear someone who doesn't sound like the Queen (a stereotypically "English" accent, in other words. I basically bigged up the "exchange" thing again - how I would learn about an unknown area of Japan outside of its big, world-famous cities and carry that cultural knowledge with me, and how if I did JET, my Japanese class would then also carry some knowledge about my local area in Teesside that is unknown to most foreigners.

The one thing I used to illustrate their potential interest in Teesside was that Stockton-Darlington railway and how it was the first public railway line to ever be used. And how this linked in with Japan being the home of the famous bullet train and that this all started about five minutes from my house etc.

So, yeah, overall, I feel confident, but not over-confident about my chances. My main concern is how competitive it is - there was a long list of signs-in of JET applicants at the embassy front desk and that was just one day in a six week period of interviews. I have no way of seeing how bad or good the others were so it is pointless worrying, but I am aware it's competitive and there's a chance I may not get through.

I feel like I got 80/90% of what I wanted to say out there in the interview, for good or for bad. I have no way of gauging if what I said is what they wanted to hear; I have a feeling it is, but I only have my own opinion to back that up. I made the American guy laugh a couple of times (I think, as his laugh was rather odd and could have been some medical problem he suffers from). The one thing I wish I had pushed more was the "Life after JET" stuff I prepared - it only dawned on me after the interview that they didn't ask this, and I could have brought it up, when I brought up their lack of any "Why JET" questions.

I did briefly mention my ongoing interest in Education and my degree and how I wish to pursue this further, and there's a decent post-JET section in my Personal Statement, so I hope that filled any blanks that the question left in its absence. They didn't ask it, so maybe it's not a concern for them?

It's nearly impossible to second-guess the JET Panel, so I am just going to forget it all now. As I said, I am confident I got 80/90% of what I prepared out of there - and only the second lesson he posed me threw me, and only for thirty seconds while I thought of something - and I feel I was calm, friendly and assured throughout. Gun-to-my-head I would say that I *think* I did enough to get a place and my interview would put me in decent bracket of candidates, but as I mentioned, it's quite competitive so I also wouldn't be too surprised if the stats went against me, if others were better than me on the day.

Phew, what an essay. This was almost an interview in itself.