Rocking in Hakata

I am working on the JET Programme as an ALT (or AET, depending on your preference) as you know. I have many friends who are starting to get really anxious about their interviews which are coming up in less than 2 weeks or so…which reminded me. I was planning on doing a podcast on the JET interview process, but never got around to it due to switching software, job stuff, and general forgetfulness. I did, however, go into my JET interview with the goal of reporting on it later. So, I armed myself with a legal pad and a pen in the car, and left them on the passenger’s seat. Then, I went and did my interview, walked straight back to the parking garage, and wrote until I ran out of things to write. Below is the email that stems from that frenzied jot-session.

Here is an account of what I was asked at my interview. I feel like it went reasonably well, but I have no idea about whether or not I’ll make it. I went down [to Atlanta, GA] early and stayed in a hotel so I could get a full night’s sleep in before the interview, and I drove over to the consulate to take a look at the building and the parking garage so I would have no problem getting there. (I like to be really safe, I guess. Ha ha.)

Anyway, I checked in about 45 minutes before my scheduled 2 o’clock interview. “Sign-in” consisted of merely placing a check mark by my name on a list. Then I walked around the room and looked at the Hinamatsuri setup, some posters, various pamphlets, and the library. I accidentally spoke to my interview group before they went into the interview room, come to think of it. I guess they were just returning to lunch, and they stopped and looked at the big doll setup and I started a casual conversation about the festival. (Whoops. Ha ha.)

After scoping the room out, I knew that there were a few other [future] JETs sitting down on the couches, and a few who were really being antisocial (avoiding everyone or studying). Incidentally, I also knew that the security guard wasn’t feeling well, since he was in the bathroom more than he was at his post. Poor guy. Anyway, I chose to sit down by the [future] JETs on the couches and try to talk a little. I wanted to calm myself down and maybe calm someone else down too by having some normal talk before the interview. We talked about everyones’ backgrounds and then about the Winter Olympics in Torino. That was a good move, I think. It made everyone more comfortable - they just needed someone to break the ice and make it ok to talk. (It was weird, because when we got there, as I insinuated, the staff was at lunch, so NOBODY was in the room and it was silent. We weren’t sure if it was supposed to be silent, or if it was just your average waiting room. Thus the awkwardness.)

We watched a few of our new comrades get pulled away. The first two were led away by young American women - the second I noticed was Jessica C., the liaison who promptly answered my email question about the size of voucher photographs. (They state a requirement of 3 x 4 cm, but all ID photos commercially available in [my college town] are 2 x 2 in, so I asked if they are strict about the sizing. She replied quickly that they are not, so I shouldn’t worry about it. I didn’t. It worked out fine.) Almost right on cue at 2 o’clock I was called in by a young Japanese man. He asked me for my voucher, but I noted that he did not ask me for photo identification. I’d taken redundant ID, just in case. Both my US Passport and SC Driver’s License were on me at the time. But yeah, despite the emails warning you over and over, they didn’t even check my ID. [Note: I am not advising you to leave your ID. Take it.]

I was led into a room in the setup I had heard described so many times before. There was a chair for me, and there was a long table behind which sat my 3 interviewers. From left to right sat a middle-aged black American man (very cordial, but asked more than anyone else and some really difficult questions - I think it was his job to “break” me), then in the middle there was a white American woman (who I think was a former JET - she was really nice, and was the lady to whom I had spoken about the hinamatsuri display, assuming that she was an applicant…whoops), and lastly there was the man who came to get me from the waiting room, the young Japanese man (who was as close to silent as you can be - asked one question the whole time and took TONS of notes).

As the door closed behind me I put down my file, bottle of water, car keys, and electronic dictionary to the left of the chair that was meant for me. I walked forward to the table and shook hands individually with each of my interviewers. As soon as the first one said hello I said, “Hello, my name is Deas. It is pronounced like days from ‘the days of the week.’ They said that answered their first question and smirked a little bit. They asked me if it was a family name, to which I replied “I’m the fourth,” and they felt a little silly for asking [because it was written on the application many, many times]. (But I wasn’t rude, just conversational, they seemed amused.) I stood in front of the chair until I was asked to sit, and then I sat with my feet flat on the floor and my arms on my legs in a comfortable position, leaning slightly forward in the chair. I made sure I didn’t fidget the whole time. Then the questions began. They were fast and varied, sometimes doubling back onto one another and sometimes taking the most random of directions. I will try to recall them below in a list, but they are not linear. My interview lasted 38 minutes. These are the things I could recall and jot onto my notepad in the parking garage before leaving.

- Name clarification questions. “Days.” That was easy.

- Study as an Asian Studies major. (Said they wouldn’t bother asking why I wanted to go to Japan because of that…I don’t know if that is good or bad.)

- Asked about placement, and I said I was open to placement anywhere. I was honest and said that I chose the three places I chose for reasons, gave those reasons, and then told them that I acclimate easily to new places and would likely be comfortable wherever I may be placed.

- They asked if I would do something uncomfortable if asked. I told them that that was a bit vague, and it would depend on who asked, what they asked me, where they asked me, etc. I asked for a specific instance, and the woman said she’d been asked to sing. I told her that I actually had that experience, in front of a classroom in Japan when I visited Nick in Ayauta. I said for most of that kind of thing I will at least give it a shot. If I’m not good at something then I don’t feel bad if I am laughed at, but if it is something in which I am skilled and I mess up, then it is embarrassing. It’s the same with board games, I said, if a game is based on luck I don’t really care who wins since there is no meaning in it - but if it is a game of skill then I don’t enjoy losing…hahaha. I don’t know what they thought about that.

- The asked me about my journal that I wrote for the Marketing and PR department at Furman University. I told them all about it, how I pitched the idea, and how I brought it to fruition, walking them through the value of such an outlet for prospective students.

- They asked me to elaborate on any hardship that I faced in Japan. I told them about the monetary problems I had when it came time to transfer funds from my American accounts in order to pay for the homestay in the second term. I told them that it worked out because I was able to figure out a way to juggle funds from my Japanese account and pay via furikomi for the first time after speaking in broken Japanese with a bank teller. It all worked out with 20 minutes left to the deadline. Ha.

- They asked me to explain the English Possessive Case. I did. (They wanted me to explain to them [as adults], not to a room full of children.) I didn’t go so far as to explain about how it came from Old English Genitive or any of that stuff, but I did talk about “its” versus “it’s” and how it is a contradiction to the rule that takes some getting used to. I also said that it’s a way to make sentences shorter, by indicating ownership or belongingness without having to dedicate an entire clause to the concept. (”The book belonging to Kumiko” versus “Kumiko’s book.”)

- The Japanese man asked one question the whole time, as I mentioned before, and it was “Are you healthy?” I answered that I definitely was, had no allergies, and could stand to put some muscle on, but that I was fit and ready to go.

- They asked me how I taught my 4th graders English when I tutored around [my college town]. I responded that most of them had problems with reading and pronunciation, so I worked on that with them by reading stories out loud from books together.

- They asked me what I thought would make a good omiyage to give to the school office I’d be placed in. I told them I thought benne wafers and a sweetgrass basket would be marvelous ideas. (Mostly because I actually gave those to my host family, and they seemed to love them. I also could have said grits, but I went with the more classy options.) They asked why, of course, to which I replied that both have sociohistorical significance in Charleston, SC. They both come from a mixing of cultures and locales - benne wafers are a delicacy in the lowcountry and sweetgrass baskets are an art form indigenous to the lowcountry, and both originated in post-slavery settings. The lead interrogator asked me to name the ethnic group which produces the sweetgrass baskets. I told him that I wasn’t aware of a proper ethnic group name, but that I know that they live on James Island, John’s Island, and the Peninsula, and that they speak a language called “Gullah.” He said “Gullah” was what he was looking for.

- They told me that they were aware that I had given a lecture in Yagi-sensei’s class and asked me to tell them what that entailed. I explained that I had analyzed a number of Japanese music videos (and sometimes the underlying music) from an anthropological point of view regarding transnational cultural flow. I explained the concept of mukokuseki (lack of national identity, or “cultural odour” as Dr. Iwabuchi would put it), and discussed very briefly the types of points that I touched upon. I think that they thought I was a really boring person at this point….

- I was asked what I thought of Ganguro fashion, which struck me as a bizarre question. I related it to the pop music I had been talking about a moment ago. (The tanning fad was started by Amuro Namie, I believe, and marks a dodge away from the traditional pale skin “beauty” that we see girls putting white gloves on in summer to protect.) I said I didn’t really know much about it, but that I suspected it, and many other recent subculture fashions, have taken shape due to stress placed on young people in Japan - which suffered its first overall demographic population decline in 2005, with more people dying than were born. That leads to an interesting series of external pressures placed on the shoulders of youth in Japan. Again, I’m afraid I either sounded like a know-it-all (I hope not), or really boring (I hope not, but it’s likely).

- They asked me a lot about my 2 years as a performer in an Improvisational Comedy troupe in high school. They wanted to know what I meant when I said that it really increased my communication skills, and I explained that it really amplified my interpersonal and intrapersonal skillset in myriad ways. I said that it enabled me to think creatively on the fly, to get in front of groups of people, and to convey meaning without having to use words. I explained a few activities that we did in Improv, and how I might apply them, as well.

- The last set of questions I have to write about were the ones that really threw me off. “Name the 3 books in the holy trilogy of Islam.” And, following that, “Please explain the term Ramadan.” Needless to say, I had no idea that this kind of question would be coming. I new the Qur’an, but not the other books. I confessed that I did not even realize that there were 2 other books, and told them that I was woefully ignorant about Islamic culture - but that should I ever be required to talk on a subject like that that I would do some serious research beforehand. If I were to just give them my version of Islam, using what I know and hearsay, that would not only be factually inaccurate, it would be irresponsible. As far as Ramadan goes, I knew that it was the name of a holiday and I thought it had something to do with fasting, but I couldn’t say why, when, who, or anything. I basically felt really dumb and sort of ashamed. I guess they expect me to be more able to represent minority groups in the USA. I’m pretty sure I failed that one.

So, as you might have guessed, it was a bit of a strange interview. No Japanese language use at all, no roleplaying, no singing, no jokes, no expected strange questions. And yet, some of the questions really caught me off guard. I don’t know if it went well or not, but I imagine that most people walk out of the interview feeling a bit dazed and wondering how they did. I should know in 2 months about the results. We shall see. Sorry for this novel of an email, but I thought I’d write you to get all of the details passed on. Hope it helps other students prepare, and I hope you found it amusing. Thanks for all of your help.

- Deas

If any of you have JET Interview Experiences to share, please do. And to all of you with the butterflies in your stomachs - let me say the following things:

1) Go into the interview prepared for, but not expecting, the worst. Obviously, the situation varies for everyone, as I’m sure you’re sick of hearing. I, for instance, spent the better part of an evening and night memorizing every patriotic song, nursery rhyme, and grammar point that I could think of - and belted them all out in my car in a parking garage to make sure I could deliver if asked. I wasn’t asked.

2) Don’t introduce anything to the interview conversation that you are not prepared to back up. If you say you did improv comedy, get ready to do some on the spot. If you say you have viewpoint x, prepare to defend it. They will (and should) call your bluffs.

3) Don’t despair if something goes wrong. I can tell you that I am not the only person on the JET Programme who looks around sometimes and thinks “Whoa, how did that guy get in?” Am I right, JETs? I guess that sounds bad. But what I mean to say is that people you might not expect to pass with flying colors do get in.

4) Don’t spend your time reading horror stories. It will freak you out. That is not productive. Remember, tons of people get in. Only the angry ones tend to be loud about their experiences.

5) Be courteous, be polite, and dress like a professional. Seriously. There are no excuses for blowing this. It’s a no-brainer.

6) Be honest if they ask you something you don’t know. Never throw up a front. Show them who you are, how you handle pressure, and why they want people like you onboard. Ok? Ok. Now, don’t worry. Go get ‘em.