Aspiring - Am I being realistic?

[gigaLion]

Hi all,

Newbie here, hope I'm posting this in the right place.

I wanted to ask for some opinions on whether or not I'm being realistic.

Here's my situation: I'm 24, live in Melbourne (Australia), and I want to participate in the JET Programme one day.

I completely tanked high school due to my home situation, which means I got very very low results on my Higher School Certificate, including for Japanese.

I've been independent for 5 years now, and I'm able to study and learn effectively again.

The only Japanese I've retained is Hiragana, Katakana, some basic sentence structure/vocab, no kanji. I've been using an online resource called TextFugu to begin learning again.

I have not yet been to University but hope to either next year or the year after, and so I wanted to ask two questions:

1. Am I going to be too old (29/30) by the time I finish a degree?

2. With my lack of Japanese knowledge at this point, am I being unrealistic?

Thank you, anyone who responds to this, it means a lot. I apologise if I've posted it in the wrong place.

William

[Gizmotech]

Hi all,

Newbie here, hope I'm posting this in the right place.

I wanted to ask for some opinions on whether or not I'm being realistic.

Here's my situation: I'm 24, live in Melbourne (Australia), and I want to participate in the JET Programme one day.

I completely tanked high school due to my home situation, which means I got very very low results on my Higher School Certificate, including for Japanese.

I've been independent for 5 years now, and I'm able to study and learn effectively again.

The only Japanese I've retained is Hiragana, Katakana, some basic sentence structure/vocab, no kanji. I've been using an online resource called TextFugu to begin learning again.

I have not yet been to University but hope to either next year or the year after, and so I wanted to ask two questions:

1. Am I going to be too old (29/30) by the time I finish a degree?

2. With my lack of Japanese knowledge at this point, am I being unrealistic?

Thank you, anyone who responds to this, it means a lot. I apologise if I've posted it in the wrong place.

William

So Let's be clear, you need a degree and a good attitude to get into JET. Everything else is bonus points. Noone needs Japanese to do the JET programme, and many of the people I have met over the years had no Japanese abilities.

[Jiggit]

Yeah I've known plenty of JETs that age and older with zero Japanese abilities or really all that much knowledge about Japan. I would say a good third of JETs really didn't particularly put much thought into applying, and wouldn't have cared if they didn't get in. On the other hand, the internet is littered with people who are crying about how much effort they put into Japanese study and didn't get in after applying 5 times.

In other words, do not decide a good portion of your life based on maybe getting into JET some day. Go do something you think you will actually use for a real career and if you still want to apply for JET after 4 years, go ahead. It probably won't make much difference tbh, and I'd say from my anecdotal experience you're probably more likely to get in that way.

[Mahjonggmania]

In other words, do not decide a good portion of your life based on maybe getting into JET some day. Go do something you think you will actually use for a real career and if you still want to apply for JET after 4 years, go ahead. It probably won't make much difference tbh, and I'd say from my anecdotal experience you're probably more likely to get in that way.

Yeah think of your ability to apply to JET as a perk not the reason for going through the next 4-5 years of school.

A lot of countries are removing the age limit on their JET requirements, FYI if you do end up applying in 4-5 years you would still be under since the limit is/was 40 years old.

Remember there are many ways to get to Japan besides JET and that your ability to access them will improve with your education.

[word]

Yeah I've known plenty of JETs that age and older with zero Japanese abilities or really all that much knowledge about Japan. I would say a good third of JETs really didn't particularly put much thought into applying, and wouldn't have cared if they didn't get in. On the other hand, the internet is littered with people who are crying about how much effort they put into Japanese study and didn't get in after applying 5 times.

In other words, do not decide a good portion of your life based on maybe getting into JET some day. Go do something you think you will actually use for a real career and if you still want to apply for JET after 4 years, go ahead. It probably won't make much difference tbh, and I'd say from my anecdotal experience you're probably more likely to get in that way.

word

I pretty much did precisely the routine you're describing here--I did well in high school but was a colossal f*ck-up for most of my early uni years, eventually became slightly less of a f*ck-up and managed to get my sh*t together well enough to finish my degree a few years later. I applied for JET partially because I had no goddamned clue wtf I was gonna do when I graduated, and it worked out pretty well. The only Japanese I knew was what I'd learned from watching "Big Bird in Japan" as a kid, and I told them as much in the interview. Don't stress... but, also, like Jiggit said, don't make JET your primary goal. Some of the worst ALTs I knew were the ones who'd dreamed of it their whole lives. Some of the best were folks who didn't really gaf about Japan, kids, teaching, or anything of the sort.