JET interview
Geoff and I just had our JET interviews this afternoon! I'm glad they're over! *whew* Thanks to Scott we had a heads-up on some of the questions. I said that the 2 items I would bring to represent Canada would be a stuffed animal (beaver, moose, bear or some native animal) and Canadian coins. The hard part was answering the question of how I would represent Canada on my first class in Japan. It's tough when there's no true Canadian culture! I said something about singing the national anthem and something else tacky like that.
I didn't have to sing a song, but I did have to answer a skill testing question about Japan! They asked me if I knew of any famous Japanese people and luckily I had already memorized the names of the Royal Family. *double whew* There were some various hypothetical questions which I thought I answered quite well.
The one thing that differed between our interviews and Scott's was that the interviewers seemed very concerned about the fact that Geoff and I wanted to placed in the same city/village. Apparently this is a problem because even though we'll be married by the time we go to Japan, we aren't married now when they're deciding where to place applicants. Even if we get accepted to JET we may not find out where we are placed until the last minute.
I told them that if one of us gets accepted to JET and the other doesn't, then we won't be going to Japan. If we both get accepted but end up on opposite ends of the country then we probably won't go either. If we get accepted and we're within driving distance of each other then maybe that would be OK, not ideal but OK.
They kept pushing for an answer but I didn't have one for them. This is one thing that I couldn't answer unilaterally. Geoff and I have to make this decision as a family, not as individuals. Geoff said the exact same thing in his interview too. So we will see. Maybe that will be the deciding factor and they won't bother accepting us into the programme because there's a high chance of us declining.
Hopefully things will just work out for the best as they usually do.
I didn't have to sing a song, but I did have to answer a skill testing question about Japan! They asked me if I knew of any famous Japanese people and luckily I had already memorized the names of the Royal Family. *double whew* There were some various hypothetical questions which I thought I answered quite well.
The one thing that differed between our interviews and Scott's was that the interviewers seemed very concerned about the fact that Geoff and I wanted to placed in the same city/village. Apparently this is a problem because even though we'll be married by the time we go to Japan, we aren't married now when they're deciding where to place applicants. Even if we get accepted to JET we may not find out where we are placed until the last minute.
I told them that if one of us gets accepted to JET and the other doesn't, then we won't be going to Japan. If we both get accepted but end up on opposite ends of the country then we probably won't go either. If we get accepted and we're within driving distance of each other then maybe that would be OK, not ideal but OK.
They kept pushing for an answer but I didn't have one for them. This is one thing that I couldn't answer unilaterally. Geoff and I have to make this decision as a family, not as individuals. Geoff said the exact same thing in his interview too. So we will see. Maybe that will be the deciding factor and they won't bother accepting us into the programme because there's a high chance of us declining.
Hopefully things will just work out for the best as they usually do.
posted by Avatamsaka Monastery Choir at 3:11 PM
5 Comments:
Good job. Yeah who knows how they'll react to the non-placement-together issue. Maybe you should've just sucked up and said "JET is so important to us that we'd go anyways!" Actually, the guy who did internship at Intermap before me (and rubber-banded back here like we all seem to) is currently in Japan, just hanging out while his wife teaches english thus supporting them both :)
I kindof wish they had asked me skill testing questions about japan, I spent too much time learning the whole royal family, current news issues, other famous people like the guy who made Sony what it is today, how the government structure is very similar to Canada's (except senate-equivalent is elected), etc. When mentioning I'd show a map for Canada I did drop the geekily detailed "26 times bigger than Japan" fact, don't know if they noticed :)
Knowing that you two are going to be married soon, why would they not place you two in the same city/village?!?
Hey, I brought a moose too for my trip!
Hope you two will get accepted and get placed in the same city/village.
Sounds interesting.
I'm curious though - I thought Geoff had finally found the job of his dreams? Does this mean you both go, or no?
At any rate, I do hope for the best outcome for both of you from this Jet interview.
Well, they have yet to officially offer him the f/t job but he has had a verbal agreement with the boss. If he gets the f/t position then we won't go to Japan regardless of the outcome of the interview.
Japan is just a backup thing if Geoff doesn't have a job by July.
I'm sure that JET will post the two of you together! Why would they want to risk loosing 2 english teachers, escpecially one that is a wonderful person like yourself (I'm sure Geoff is just as wonderful...but I know you're a bit better!!)
Thanks for all of your comments on my blog! I'm beginning to think that you're the only person who is reading them and responding! Oh well, if I reach out to one person (and if that one person is you!!!) it's definitely worth while!!
Cheers
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