Why Japan?

[Kdes23]

The rest of the questions are pretty pointless as you point out, but this bolded one is actually kinda important. It's probably the biggest thing people struggle with on the JET programme, the massive isolation that can occur when they're stuck in the middle of nowhere. It can be a pretty big shock, if you've never been properly separated from all your support systems before.

Though I hope you are Canadian because looking up information on the American JET website is like time travelling back to before people thought of web 2.0. God that is an ugly site.

Agreed. Even living in Japan, it's hard for me to answer that question.

I've always wondered that. I'm glad I'm not the only one wondering why that site is so... boring/ugly lol. It needs to be renovated asap.

[Kaizen]

I chose Japan because I have family relatives in Japan. I could have chosen to teach English in South Korea but since I already know more about Japan I'm probably more adaptable to live in Japan than in Korea.

[Wasabi]

Funny enough, this didn't come up directly in my interview this year. It was kind of covered and skirted around with a few different questions here and there. I can't confirm this for sure but I had a feeling that my panel didn't go for many "typical" questions because they saw that I had made it to alternate last time around. Perhaps they thought I had answered this questions sufficiently before, or maybe they felt like my application gave them a good enough answer to the "Why Japan?" question. Who knows, it's all conjecture at this point.

[HorseFeathers]

Can I just say that I adore your avatar, Wasabi? It's precious!

[Jiggit]

Funny enough, this didn't come up directly in my interview this year. It was kind of covered and skirted around with a few different questions here and there. I can't confirm this for sure but I had a feeling that my panel didn't go for many "typical" questions because they saw that I had made it to alternate last time around. Perhaps they thought I had answered this questions sufficiently before, or maybe they felt like my application gave them a good enough answer to the "Why Japan?" question. Who knows, it's all conjecture at this point.

I never got it in my interview and I certainly didn't explain it well in my personal statement. I feel like we need to separate interview advice discussion by country. It seems like different embassies give completely different styles of interview. I don't think UK applicants ever have to do a lesson demo, for example.

BTW it's worth thinking of a (simple) answer to this question anyway, since Japanese people are going to constantly ask you it if you do get in.

[kenkennif]

I studied abroad in America for a year in Indiana - Arriving for international student orientation in the US was where my first connections to Japan were born. The first two weeks it was basically me the Brit, a French guy who liked rollerblading, a girl from Argentina who made good cake, two blokes from Canada who were like 'Why the feck do we have to be here?' and 45 students from Hiroshima and Shizouka who were all like 'konnichiwa' and stuff.

Turns out a great bunch of the Shizuoka lot became my closest friends for the year that we were together in America and I even went to visit their families before I started University for a bit... and that is pretty much exactly how I explained it in my interview...

[Wasabi]

Can I just say that I adore your avatar, Wasabi? It's precious!

Thanks - it's from the comic Cat vs Human. I had to change it up from my usual Hello Kitty

Jiggit - funny how interviews can vary country to country so much. It actually really surprises me that in the UK applicant's take a grammar test. As far as a real reason why I chose Japan, it's nothing too interesting. For one, I really love the way the Japanese language sounds. Beyond that, I've enjoyed Japanese philosophy, culture, and arts. It's hard to really articulate exactly what attracts me to Japan besides that I've just really enjoyed learning about the country and speaking with those who have been or are from there.

[kenkennif]

It actually really surprises me that in the UK applicant's take a grammar test.

Yeah, I definitely failed this part of the interview too... I have no idea how I got here!

[Gizmotech]

Based on a friend of mine, I wouldn't worry about it. I was teaching her basic English structure stuff in her third year because she had no idea about English at all.

[Jiggit]

Jiggit - funny how interviews can vary country to country so much. It actually really surprises me that in the UK applicant's take a grammar test. As far as a real reason why I chose Japan, it's nothing too interesting. For one, I really love the way the Japanese language sounds. Beyond that, I've enjoyed Japanese philosophy, culture, and arts. It's hard to really articulate exactly what attracts me to Japan besides that I've just really enjoyed learning about the country and speaking with those who have been or are from there.

Right? It's almost meaningless for UK applicants to take advice from US ALTs and vice versa. I feel like it should be a sticky or forum policy or whatever to point that out when people ask for advice.

And yeah. If I were to fully articulate why I want to go to Japan it would have been like a 10 minute presentation or longer... Otherwise I'd just say generic stuff like "the culture and arts are interesting" and you feel like a dipstick.