JET Training in Tokyo

Well I have completed the first day of JET training and one night out of Japanese style bonding with the other new teachers going to Iwate prefecture. There are only eleven new teachers hired in Iwate this year. Just five of us are at this training season. Its a good group there are 3 of us that speak Japanese the other 2 better than me. Four of us are American guys basically straight out of college 3 with experience living in Japan and one who taught English as a foreign language. The last person is an Australian girl who actually taught high school before. She is by far the oldest at 32. That's the group in a nut shell.

As for the training we had a formal opening ceremony. There were speeches by Japanese government representatives and by former JET program participants. The key note speech was on culture shock and ways of recognizing and dealing with it. It was pretty funny and very true. I remember the culture shock the first time I was in Japan. After that we could go to classes of our choosing. I went to one about teaching at multiple school, another about teaching elementary, and lastly one about JETs with families. They were all great. The elementary season was really good and gave me a lot of ideas for teaching the kids. Especially because in elementary we are not supposed to teach grammar or even give grades we are supposed to give them the desire and motivation to learn English latter in life, i.e. Junior High School. Which when I found out we didn't have to teach grammar my response was done and done. The season for married JETs was a bit less helpful than I had originally hoped. It was like find something for your spouse to do like teach English. Which may be less then helpful advice in a small town where the desired English teaching is covered by me. However, it was nice to see that Samantha and I wont be alone there are plenty of other married JETs. In fact the majority at that class were wives who were on the JET program with husbands coming who weren't.

On a lighter not when people find out I'm married they add about 5 years to what they guess my age is.