Jet Setting - and some random Japan photos

It might be pure coincidence - I have no way of knowing - that the Daily Yomiuri newspaper in Japan has been printing a series of letters bashing the JET programme recently, just as the yearly selection process gets under way again. In the e-mail that brought this to my attention, we were implored to deluge the Yomiuri with letters pleading its case. I'm not really inclined to do so, partly because I have better things to do, but also because I believe that the criticisms raised have some merit. Anyway, more on that later.

I've maintained for some time (even before I left Japan) that JET is a good idea, executed with a degree of ineptitude that verges on the breathtaking. To what extent such flaws are the fault of the participants remains an open question. It was, however, somewhat illuminating to be able to take part in the selection process and see why and how people are chosen to go out to Japan. I will have to be careful here - the interviews and subsequent scores are meant to be confidential, and won't be disclosed until mid-April - but I think I can still give some general remarks without breaching any confidentiality agreements.


I was actually pleasantly surprised by what seemed to me a relatively high standard of applicant throughout the process. I had - perhaps on the basis of some of my colleagues in Miyagi - been expecting a group of unqualified yet somewhat enthusiastic fresh graduates with little real idea about Japan or what they were getting themselves into. It wasn't as bad as I expected - we had a surprisingly high number of actual qualified teachers and TESOL holders, as well as those with informal tutoring or teaching experience. Some had been to Japan before, most hadn't, and I was quite disappointed with the general knowledge of Japan that many of them displayed - though almost all put that they had "always been interested in Japan and its culture", few could give concrete examples or convincing answers as to why they wanted to go to Japan and not South Korea or Thailand. And equally few had a realistic grasp of what a Japanese public school environment was like - almost all of them thought that it would be focused, disciplined and orderly. Boy, are they in for a shock.

Still, for the most part I was quite taken with the general level of enthusiasm (or ability to fake it...) and desire to teach that many of the applicants seemed to have. I have no idea how the people we chose will actually do - that's very much in the lap of the gods as regards where and with who they're placed, but I think we had in the nine we selected some people who, if the cards fall right, might genuinely bring something worthwhile to the programme. Unlike myself, of course, as you can see to your left.

I don't think you can really defend JET from the allegation that overall it is a miserable failure and complete waste of money as regards improving English teaching (the scores speak for themselves - the only nation worse at English in Asia is North Korea, and they have some pretty good excuses for that). But I think that to make that attack is to show a poor grasp of the actual thought processes and priorities behind JET and behind Japanese English language education in general.

It wasn't as if, when creating the programme, the powers-that-be thought "Wow, our English scores suck. We need some young native speakers over here to help out with that. Best if they're largely unqualified and inexperienced, and we'll make sure to can them after three years just as they work out what they're doing." It seems to me that it was more like this:

Faceless Bureaucrat A: Wow, the Americans hate us. Look at all that trade friction. What if we get some young college kids over here and show them how great Japan is?
Faceless Bureacrat B: Well, that's all well and good, but what the hell are we going to do with them while they're over here? They won't speak Japanese and most won't have any useful skills, so...
Faceless Bureaucrat A: Hmmm. But they can speak English, right? Get 'em to teach English!
Faceless Bureaucrat B: Brilliant! Let's go look at some schoolgirl p@rn to celebrate!

Being a part of JETAANY serves to confirm this impression; we get a surprising amount of our funding direct from CLAIR, who are very keen to know about what goes on with us (though the fact that, at CLAIR's urging, we have recenly become a 501 (c) 3 NPO - capable of independent fundraising - might suggest where they think this relationship is headed). Sometimes, though, they're more obvious than that, like when they asked if we could give them the names of any ex-JETs we knew in places like the Federal Reserve, the State Department and so on - the people who actually have power to influence policy.

The point, which I'm admittedly labouring, is that JET is not and never really was about teaching English. It is, if I may put it in crude terms, one gigantic and hugely expensive PR Stunt. And judging by JETAANY, it seems to be a spectacularly successful one, too. Banzai!