mood: fairly satisfied

Well today was the day, my JET interview up in Phoenix. I’ll go in more detail below, but on the whole things seemed to go reasonably well & fairly smoothly. The panel of three interviewers were quite congenial and allowed me to feel comfortable just being myself. I didn’t get hit with any of the things JET interviews are sometimes infamous for (like “good cop/bad cop” to see how one handles negative people, impromptu lessons or singing the national anthem). Actually it went so smooth it worries me a little. ^_^;;

I drove up to Tempe late Saturday afternoon, arriving at ASU with enough daylight to drive and walk around campus a bit to orient myself and find the Memorial Union where the interviews were taking place. Then drove around a bit looking for hotel. Ended up settling for a Holiday Inn just east of campus — a little more expensive than I was hoping, but convenient and in a less scary location than the Motel 6. Interestingly, the lobby was full of a Japanese group, not sure if they were from the consulate or not. Grabbed a bite to eat at a rather noisy Ruby Tuesdays’ and returned to the hotel to cram on stuff that really didn’t get asked…

My interview wasn’t ’til 11:30a and the hotel wasn’t more than 5 minutes away, so had a bit of time to kill this morning (largely done by taking pics of myself in my suit — I’ll post one later). Eventually I made my way to the interview area and waited with 4-5 other interviewees (all in suits as well, no weirdoes in anime shirts or such fortunately). There was a former JET there to ask questions (and be asked questions by, to loosen people up), but not the video on JET that I’ve heard other places show). Looked like there were about four interview groups, so with about ten slots each probably 40-50 applicants I’d guess.

Anyways, finally my time came (being in the last batch before lunch). The panel seemed pretty typical from what I’ve read. There was one guy who was a former JET, another who seemed to be a Japanese professor (wearing a UA pin, heh) and a Japanese lady whom I presumed was from the consulate (but may be wrong on reflection). Not a lot of detail in the introductions, suprisingly. She generally took a lead role in the questioning and seemed particularly interested in my astronomy background. She started things off by asking about it (such as if I’d done observing) and I chatted briefly with the panel about how looking through the eyepiece was a bit of a thing of the past with the big scopes.

The ice broken, we moved on to other things. I think the next major topic was a question, again from the lady, about my interest in Japanese pop culture. I was going. “Uh-oh, am I going to have to try not sounding like a geek about anime so soon?” Nope, she wanted to know if I knew about J-Pop music. I admitted to liking it, even if the groups I’m most familiar with are a bit dated (like Every Little Thing). She thought it was a good way of connecting with the kids. She then followed up with a link to my interest in Celtic folk music and asked how I’d go about teaching Japanese children about it. I mostly talked about comparing it with traditional Japanese music, contrasting both with modern pop music, particularly the traditional instruments that just aren’t used in modern stuff.

From there things branched out and hit a few of the common topics. The usual “why JET, why Japan” type questions, how it fit into my career plans (made note of how offshoring of software jobs might make me more employable as a ESL teacher than a programmer). There were a couple of the typical probing questions such as how I’d respond to having a teacher cancel a lesson I’d planned and have me play human tape recorder, as well as how I’d respond to the stereotype of all Americans owning guns. Both of those I think I handled fairly well. Also asked how I’d handle coworkers that smoked around me in the teachers’ room. Guess I did OK on that one.

A couple ones I don’t think I expressed myself as well as I’d liked on were the “what can you do for JET/Japan” and “what surprising things have you learned about Japan from your Japanese pen-pals?” Tried to reiterate some of the things from my essay on the former, and noted I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well my pen-pal who’s now at UA has been adapting to living here and hope I can do as well in Japan.

Let’s see, what else… Asked about the Japanese classes I’d taken at Pima and UA (particularly which instructor at Pima, good thing I kinda remembered). Whether I liked and could eat Japanese food (told ‘em about Yoshimatsu here in Tucson). I’d mentioned I followed Japanese news, so was asked about the controversy about the Japanese military being deployed to Iraq for reconstruction work as well as who the current Prime Minister was (aced those ). Seems like there were a few more, but I’m drawing a blank on what they were. The interview started a little late and I forgot to check the time so I’m not sure exactly how long it took. Didn’t seem very long and probably was only about 20 minutes.

I guess what surprised me more than what was asked during the interview. Nothing about aikido (which was pretty prominent in my application, especially since one of my letters was from my sensei). Nothing specific about placement choices. Managed to completely avoid the subject of anime. No Japanese language. No explaining my crappy college transcript. Nothing about haiku (which had been the lead-in on my essay). On the whole, tho, probably for the best…

So, overall, I think I’m happy and optimistic about things. If I don’t make it, I’m satisfied that I did my best, didn’t screw up and there were just other better candidates. But I think things look good. Now to start waiting again (and maybe start cleaning out all the junk in the house, just in case…)

[comments from old blog]

tmorgan wrote:
Another one
Ah, remembered another question, got the “What 3 pictures would you show your students to represent America/where you live?” question. Answered a crowd shot of UA or some city to show the diversity of people, one of the wide open spaces and mountains of Arizona and one of my family.
04/01/04 23:06:46

tmorgan wrote:
and another…
“Explain the American election process in 20 seconds.” Did it, but probably took more than 20 seconds when I added the electoral college.
04/01/04 23:07:01

tmorgan wrote:
Oh, a couple questions about after school stuff, like willingness to help in after-school clubs and whether could cope with the usual Japanese after-work drinking/socializing.
04/01/04 23:07:15

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