Does anyone like JET??

[Jiggit]

Yeah, one of my friends "went native" for his first 3-4 years on the program. He is at N1+ level of Japanese and spent enough time with the culture that he "gets" a lot of the cultural quirks. He often makes comments about how the way I do things is non-Japanese and possibly irks my teachers to which I respond with "so?" Despite his ability to "be Japanese" he's still not immune to irking his teachers, I don't think his work life is especially more fulfilling than mine in which case I'm left thinking "why bother?"

Next time he does this tell him that pointing out another person's failings is very un-Japanese and in any case his attempts to act like a Japanese and not a foreigner probably irk his teachers more than anything. They employed him to be a foreigner monkey not a sniveling salaryman wannabe.

[dvac002]

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I have met people who have wanted to do it after living here a while--and they are, invariably, completely freakin' weird. The longer I live here, the more comfortable I am being a gaijin--the more I value it, the more I appreciate being able to live "outside" of many of the social constructs within Japanese society. I've found that my Japanese friends are often the sort who chafe under such constructs, as well. I could easily live here the rest of my life (I won't, but I'm very aware that I could)... it would be a nice life, as a gaijin.

I haven't even left for Japan yet, but I've met people like this and they are in fact bone-chilling weird! When I studied abroad in Japan, three months in I had already recognized the fact that living there as a foreigner pretty much guarantees you will never (EVER!) be one of them and integrated into their society. Does it matter? Maybe at first, but after a while you simply stop caring, and you begin to see that accepting and respecting the culture, but retaining and proudly displaying your own, is the way to go and probably the only way to stay sane. Mind you, I haven't lived there for a year as I will be doing with JET, but I still feel like I got a general feel for longer-term living. Bottom line: Don't be that weird dude in full ninja gear.

[Kuroda Ishikawa]

The one common trait I've found among Japanese high-level English speakers who have lived and worked in America is that very, very, very few of them are back in Japan by choice.

[Gizmotech]

The one common trait I've found among Japanese high-level English speakers who have lived and worked in America is that very, very, very few of them are back in Japan by choice.

You can remove America and just change it to "not in Japan". I have a teacher who spent two years working in Palao and she's confided in me more than once that she really dislikes Japan and the system she has to work in. She just does it because she has good English and knows she'll always have a job as a teacher.

[Jiggit]

I don't really see why people feel a need to be "one of them" but even if they do the complaints are always funny to me. So many people are like "You'll NEVAR be one of them!!!" while they have mediocre to decent japanese skills, spend most of their social life in the gaijin ghetto and really make little effort to stop behaving like their own nationality and constantly bitch about the way Japanese people behave. Like that kind of person is gonna become "one of them" in any country? How many first generation immigrants do you know who never become fully naturalised back in your country?

Of course Japanese society is more homogenous/hierarchical so it can feel more pronounced perhaps. But really people make too much of a deal about it. If you're generally well liked, have friends and get along in life then what more are you asking for? Like word said what would you gain/lose from trying to give up all your gaijin privilege? Yes it'd be nice to not get stared at so much but really not a big deal.

I mean plenty of foreigners marry Japanese people, that seems pretty accepting to me. Try that shit in some other asian countries and see what the family has to say about it.

[mothy]

Try that in Japan and see what some Japanese families say about it.

[Kuroda Ishikawa]

At an Enkai, nothing is as entertaining as bringing up the subject of other South East Asians.

[coop52]

Why would you want anything more than that sweet spot where you can have Japanese friends and a decent relationship with coworkers and still be able to get away with stuff because derp gaijin. After seeing just how much bullshit regular Japanese people put up with, why would you want all that? I like Japan (enough to stay here as long as I have and want to continue here post JET), but I'd never want that kind of stress for myself. I feel like I'm accepted enough as I am.

[Ini]

In an attempt to be accepted I sliced the first 4 inches off my penis and started beating women.

[coop52]

That's pretty radical. Why didn't you start by smoking and giving all your money to Filipino women at your local snack bar?

[therealwindycity]

I don't really see why people feel a need to be "one of them" but even if they do the complaints are always funny to me. So many people are like "You'll NEVAR be one of them!!!" while they have mediocre to decent japanese skills, spend most of their social life in the gaijin ghetto and really make little effort to stop behaving like their own nationality and constantly bitch about the way Japanese people behave. Like that kind of person is gonna become "one of them" in any country? How many first generation immigrants do you know who never become fully naturalised back in your country?

Of course Japanese society is more homogenous/hierarchical so it can feel more pronounced perhaps. But really people make too much of a deal about it. If you're generally well liked, have friends and get along in life then what more are you asking for? Like word said what would you gain/lose from trying to give up all your gaijin privilege? Yes it'd be nice to not get stared at so much but really not a big deal.

I mean plenty of foreigners marry Japanese people, that seems pretty accepting to me. Try that shit in some other asian countries and see what the family has to say about it.

Pretty much this. I think language is a huge part of not feeling "integrated." Not that I don't have moments of feeling like an outsider, but I've never really felt like I'll never be "accepted" by Japanese society (whatever that means ...)

[Jiggit]

In an attempt to be accepted I sliced the first 4 inches off my penis and started beating women.

I never knew you came here to be a volleyball coach?

[sandbear]

Many JETs, ALTs and the like, who have created this fantasy of what Japan is like based on their extremely limited information, invariably experience a very startling and depressing immersion in reality once they arrive. Japan is nothing like it is portrayed in Western media. It is nothing like it is portrayed in any japanimation show. It is nothing like any of the stereotypes that are constantly being perpetuated across western nations.

If you can handle this once you arrive, you'll be fine.

How exactly would you describe what it is like then?

I guess when I said I want to immerse myself in the culture, I more so meant that I want to experience the country and people, then go back home. I by no means want to "turn Japanese". I've always thought that Japan is a beautiful country, so I thought JET would allow me to spend a year sight-seeing and learning more of the language and customs.

I've been to Japan once before, and I had a great experience. So I'm not sure what people mean exactly when they talk about experiencing a "startling" depression when doing the JET program.

Maybe studying abroad would better suit what I'm looking for.

[coop52]

I guess it comes from hearing about how Japan is the technological wonderland and is filled with people who have all these creative ideas about business and students who do nothing but study since that's what Japan's image has been since the 80's. Then you come here and discover that a startling number of your co-workers are terrified of even CD players, business managers and politicians do the same thing over and over again while expecting different results, and many students don't seem to give a shit about their studies at all. If you do your research and come in with more realistic expectations, then you should be ok. It's a very nice place, with nice people and nice scenery and such. It's just hard to work here if you're expecting it to be the awesomest country in the world, and it turns out not to be.

[Ini]

if you're an extrovert type of person come on JET, stay for a year, travel around, allow mad old ladies to show off about japanese culture to you, avoid places like itil like the plague and go home with a suitcase full of kimonos and a heart full of joy.

If you are an introvert type of person come on jet, stay for 3 years, lock yourself in your apartment, curse the japanese people every night for not fulfilling all your hopes and desires, spend all your time on itil, go home with a burning resentment towards japan and a suitcase full of anime porn.

If you are a empty husk of a man with no ambition come on jet, stay forever, drink yourself into a stupor every night, hurl abuse at people on itil like a roided up chimp at the feces olympics and die of thyroid cancer in your early 40s.

[MJN]

Can we make that a poll to ask people what category they think they fall into?

[coop52]

If you are a empty husk of a man with no ambition come on jet, stay forever, drink yourself into a stupor every night, hurl abuse at people on itil like a roided up chimp at the feces olympics and die of thyroid cancer in your early 40s.

As if they won't jump in front of a train first

[mothy]

Well we're not all lucky enough to get thyroid cancer causing doses of radiation.

[Tyr]

If you've other prospects- then Jet isn't for you. Getting to Japan really isn't all that hard, much better to work for a few years in your field at home then transfer/get a new job here.
If you've not much else going on/want a year out after finishing your bachellor, then Jet is pretty good.

It depends what Japan you're expecting too.
If you're some crazy anime freak who expects to be in down town Tokyo, go out to bars whenever you like and make lots of awesome, hot 'friends' with the same odd interests as you then lol no.
If however you like the idea of living in a small town, seeing a side of Japan foreigners don't usually see unless they are very lost, etc... then it is awesome- I could well imagine this would really appeal to someone who comes from a big city and for whom the countryside is quaint and interesting, not just an annoying fact of life.

I don't really see why people feel a need to be "one of them" but even if they do the complaints are always funny to me. So many people are like "You'll NEVAR be one of them!!!" while they have mediocre to decent japanese skills, spend most of their social life in the gaijin ghetto and really make little effort to stop behaving like their own nationality and constantly bitch about the way Japanese people behave. Like that kind of person is gonna become "one of them" in any country? How many first generation immigrants do you know who never become fully naturalised back in your country?

How many of those people bitching about not being 'one of them' fully fit in back in their own country?
This is a key lesson for anyone moving abroad: it is a fresh start but it won't fix any personality problems you had back home. A anti-social weirdo is a anti-social weirdo whatever the country, abroad they're just able to mask it slightly better.

Seconding what RL said, also.

I think it's safe to say that most folks here generally like the JET Program, but the unfortunate reality is that what they don't like is actually Japan and Japanese culture itself. In the West/'Murika, we get a very skewed version of Japan--the "crazy" sh*t is picked up and amplified by Western media, weeaboos idealize virtually every aspect of the nation and its culture, and the Japanese people you actually meet in America/other nations tend to be, by and large, very atypical in comparison to the vast majority of the Japanese population.

Many JETs, ALTs and the like, who have created this fantasy of what Japan is like based on their extremely limited information, invariably experience a very startling and depressing immersion in reality once they arrive. Japan is nothing like it is portrayed in Western media. It is nothing like it is portrayed in any japanimation show. It is nothing like any of the stereotypes that are constantly being perpetuated across western nations.

If you can handle this once you arrive, you'll be fine.

Its interesting that the overwhelming majority of foreign views on Japan you see tend to be from Americans and they tend to paint this picture of Japan not being crazy as they expected, the people being cold and strange, etc...
From a European perspective the challenges we face in Japan are utterly different to those Americans get. Culturally Japan really isn't so crazy to us; the whole modesty about everything, not wanting to say no, etc.... thing isn't too alien to Brits.
Japan is still a bit alien and strange in these little cultural ways but the gap is much smaller, Europe is sort of in the middle with Japan to one extreme and America the other.
The things I found most difficult to adapt to in Japan- the vastness of the countryside, so much of society being based around the ability to drive absolutely everywhere, 'dating', decentralised towns, etc.... aren't things that would faze most Americans at all.

[word]

How exactly would you describe what it is like then?

A very, very, very homogenous place full of old people, old, rather uninteresting buildings, and average scenery.

Most pop culture is mind-numbingly dull--fashions, music, trends, etc.--not really any more or less than in Western nations, but the perception of Japan as being at the forefront of pop culture is laughable unless you're in certain parts of Tokyo. There are good bands, good fashions, good foods, and other forms of good culture to be found--but they are few and far between, and there is an ocean of incredibly mundane crap between them. Also, nobody cares about good pop culture. They'd take an AKB song over your obscure hipster sh*t any day, no matter how good your obscure hipster sh*t really is.

Technology is not advanced in Japan--if anything, it is years behind much of the rest of the world--and the gap is increasing. Japan will probably still be using fax machines and floppy drives in ten years--literally. I would not be surprised at all--nor would anyone else who's been here for a while. Technology is outdated, overpriced, mistrusted and wildly misunderstood by much of the population.

Japanese people are not polite. Western cultural perceptions cause us to interpret many of their behaviors as polite, but, in fact, they're just maintaining their culture of "appearances." Many a clueless ALT has long assumed that s/he was well-liked by many folks around them, completely unaware that they were, in fact, receiving the absolute minimum permissible level of societal acceptance by their coworkers. Japanese people are just like anyone else--there are some nice folks, lots of idiots, a few cool people, and a bunch of assholes.

Students are not "better" or more diligent or better behaved or anything of the sort. They are exactly like kids in the US--just raised in Japanese culture, rather than Western culture. They will pass their classes no matter what their scores might be. They will pass their classes if they do not show up for class at all. They are both more mature than Western students--and appallingly immature in comparison. It's difficult to describe. Their aspirations for life are sobering. The high suicide rate is not a mystery to folks who have been here a while.

Life in Japan is not magical fantasy kimono-land. It can be every once and a while, but mostly, life is just mundane and typical--with more kanji, green tea, noodles and such. I think this is the depression that people feel--and I've seen it in quite a few new ALTs. Life in Japan is great--but it's generally not what people expect. They're expecting it to be "special" somehow--and it's not. It's just life. You'll spend the vast majority of your time just doing normal sh*t--working, eating, sleeping, maintaining your household, studying, etc. JET isn't a vacation in awesome anime Japanland; it's a job, like any other, and you'll be living a normal, relatively mundane life, just like you would anywhere else. Yeah, you get to do some cool Japanese sh*t once and a while, but for the most part... it's just like living and working anywhere else.

I guess when I said I want to immerse myself in the culture, I more so meant that I want to experience the country and people, then go back home. I by no means want to "turn Japanese". I've always thought that Japan is a beautiful country, so I thought JET would allow me to spend a year sight-seeing and learning more of the language and customs.

You might really like it. I don't mean to talk anyone out of it--I've really enjoyed my time on JET. I just hate seeing people show up here with some bizarre fantasy of what life will be like, then sinking into a miserable, depressed, angry state when it doesn't quite turn out that way. I've been lucky; there was only one of those folks in this year's batch. Lots of the other folks around me have really done well for themselves here.

If you do your research and come in with more realistic expectations, then you should be ok. It's a very nice place, with nice people and nice scenery and such. It's just hard to work here if you're expecting it to be the awesomest country in the world, and it turns out not to be.

Word. This.

if you're an extrovert type of person come on JET, stay for a year, travel around, allow mad old ladies to show off about japanese culture to you, avoid places like itil like the plague and go home with a suitcase full of kimonos and a heart full of joy.

If you are an introvert type of person come on jet, stay for 3 years, lock yourself in your apartment, curse the japanese people every night for not fulfilling all your hopes and desires, spend all your time on itil, go home with a burning resentment towards japan and a suitcase full of anime porn.

If you are a empty husk of a man with no ambition come on jet, stay forever, drink yourself into a stupor every night, hurl abuse at people on itil like a roided up chimp at the feces olympics and die of thyroid cancer in your early 40s.

LOL Pretty much.