Irrational Exuberance

You are writing a comment about Expectations and Reality for the lowly ALT, here is a quick summary:

When you apply to the JET program you have a lot of expectations. Then you talk to a couple of people who participated in the JET program before, and you get a new set of different expectations. A true JET veteran would tell you that Every Situation Is Different and to stop predicting because you're never going to know.

You are responding to this comment written by JJ on August 19th 2008, 19:05.

Welcome to the world of Engrish. Most of it is some deeply entrenched miasma of feigning some effort at improving the English skills of Japanese. Most Japanese can do it with a little effort, but the culture gets in the way. At some point you will reach a plateau where you've either accepted the realities of it or bailed out. If you accept the realities, you will then have a chance to make of it what you can, but often you will not be wanted to make much more of it. Your life will be 1000 times different in the country side than it will be in a city like Tokyo where ALTs are a dime a dozen and everyone assumes you are an English teacher. They will neither be afraid of you nor respect you there.

Keep this in mind: many see only the annual turnover you will not easily prove your desire to truly be a contributing member of the community AND fulfill the role of "foreigner" These two leave you to the role of the dice of what community you land in.

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