How to read more Japanese in a month than you usually read in year!

It's February. Do you know what that means? It's the end of the first tadoku session!

If you're learning Japanese and don't know tadoku then good job reading this post :D

多読 tadoku is roughly translated as 'extensive reading'. I have the feeling tadoku was a Japanese idea first as it appears on this website (It's pretty easy to read - give it a try!) and the name is Japanese :D

On the page it has the following introduction.
多読って、なに？
多読は外国語で書かれたやさしい絵本からはじめて、大量に読みます。

(this is a very gung-ho translation :D)

What's tadoku?

Tadoku is reading easy foreign language books, starting with picture books, reading a massive amount.

Then the site goes on to list some rules, some of the rules have sub rules I'm just going to whack a selection down.

（１）辞書は引かない！
（２）わからないところは飛ばす！
（３）合わないと思ったら、投げる！
（２）大量の読みやすい本

Here's some translations with my commentary.

• Don't use a dictionary! - They're boring and slow you down!
• Skip the parts you don't know! - You'll know it someday just not today.
• If you don't think the book fits you, get rid of it - reading should be easy!
• Read masses of easy books.

Good rules! Good idea!

But that is not all Tadkou is. Not in the Western world - there's a site called Read more or die. This sites holds a tadoku competition a few times a year for a period of one month. It works via twitter, everyone registers and then they can tweet how many pages they've read. At the end of the month it's totaled up and the winner wins improve reading ability and internet bragging rights :D

My Japanese learning twitter account is @jBalaam. Here is my twittering history:

jBalaam @jBalaam

@tadokubot 60 #manga

28 Jan jBalaam @jBalaam

@tadokubot 20 #manga

28 Jan jBalaam @jBalaam

reddit.com/r/fffffffuuuuu…    -> Japanese Rage Comics check it out!

24 Jan jBalaam @jBalaam

@tadokubot 18 #manga

23 Jan jBalaam @jBalaam

@tadokubot 25 #manga

Not gripping viewing but it shows my reading progress. The number is the number of pages and the hash tag the medium (#book #manga #subs etc). This January I read the first Harry Potter book and understood it reasonably well - I don't know where I'd put my understanding percentage though! 60% maybe 70%. I read along with the audiobook because it makes it easier.

I've tried reading Harry Potter a few times but the tadoku challenge gave me the push to actually finish the book :D One of the side benefits is I can pick up the book and turn to any page and understand what's going on pretty quickly even without audio! After I finished the book, though, I petered out a bit, I didn't set up what I was going to read next and so flailed without a goal. If you're doing the challenge be prepared set goals! Get all your material ready! I ended up reading some of the Full Metal Alchemist manga.

One of the other takeaways is don't worry about failing. Failing actually makes things easier. How many times have I tried to read through Harry Potter - numerous! The first chapter is very familiar to me. I have listened to the audio a lot too; I think I can repeat the first few lines from memory :D  Each time I failed I was making it easier for when I tried again!

Full Metal Alchemist wasn't particularly new to me either as I watched the raw anime and I tried reading some of the manga before so I'd at least learnt 鋼の錬金術師!

So:

1. Take part in tadoku
2. Prepare your material ahead of time
3. Don't worry about failing - it helps!
4. Use audio if you can't don't worry if you can't
5. Read books you find easy (I didn't really follow this one but my heart was in the right place :))

In the end I came 35th out a 100. Not too bad. I read 397.3 pages - another few manga pages and I would have done 400. I think I said I was aiming for 1500 - well there's always next time!

Tadoku announcements aren't very well publicised I find the Reviewing the Kanji forums usually have an announcement. You'd think the site itself would be a good place to go but it only announced the competition the day before it started! Not really enough time to prepare!

Studying Japanese with an Android Phone

Recently I've started using a android phone (the Samsung Galaxy S). Smartphone's using Android are pretty much a small computer in your pocket and there are lots of helpful applications to use when studying Japanese.

The Galaxy S has unicode support as standard and has no problem displayed Japanese characters.


Music

I use the inbuilt music player to listen to Japanese audiobooks - when commuting and sometimes at night (the speakers are good enough for it to play music loud enough to hear even on a bed side table). It plays .m4a files which is the format my audiobooks tend to be in - which is great, few other music players seem to do this.


Anki

I keep my anki deck on the phone itself. When reviewing I plug the phone in using USB and tell it to mount itself as a hard drive. (This needs to first be set up in the phone settings). As I take the phone everywhere, I now have anki everywhere with me.

Even better there's an anki app for the android; Ankidroid.

 You may wonder what this strange black and white box is to the left - it's a type of barcode and they've used in a Japan for a few years now. Android has an application called Barcode Reader. This particular barcode is for ankidroid. Using your phones camera you can have it recognise this image and it will automatically give you a prompt to download ankidroid - cool right?

Ankidroid works well for me but at this time I don't get pictures or sound, hopefully this will be resolved in subsequent updates.

Vertical Text Reader

Have you heard of Project Gutenburg? It's a collection of free ebooks (mainly books that are old enough to have no copyright). Well there's something similar for Japan - Aozora. But a lot Japanese books have the sentences going from top to bottom instead of left to right on the page.

To read the book easily you'll need a specialised app and Vertical Text Reader fills that niche.

DroidWing

DroidWing is a dictionary viewer for android. You need to have some EPWING dictionaries files but then you can used this dictionary view to search them. It also sports a recently searched items list. The barcode is to the free version but there is also a paid-for version (they're the same but the paid one helps support the developer so if you use it a lot consider upgrading). You have to type the paths to the dictionaries in manually which can be frustrating.

Droid Comic Viewer

This comic book viewer is a great way to read manga or just folders of scanned jpgs. It has the nice pinch to zoom action but also has a number of other annoying actions enabled by default (tap too hard the page turns, press the screen in a certain place the page turns - these can all be turned off so it's no problem.) Excellent file browser too, something I wish DroidWing had.

Simeji

You can view Japanese - but how do you input it? There's no standard way to enter Japanese on the Galaxy S (though it does have Korean annoyingly :D). Simeji comes to the rescue and provides a number of different keyboards to enter Japanese. Unfortunately it totally replaces the default English input and I rather like the English hand writing recognition. My preferred method for inputting Japanese would also be handwriting which isn't supported (a lot of DS apps do an excellent job so it can't be that taxing! There is an app called HanWriting, in beta, that handles korean, chinese and Japanese but it's not quite good enough to be usable yet, in my opinion.)

There are lots of other apps out there but these are the core ones I use.

Creating an immersion environment

I confess I've fallen behind in my Japanese studies (though I have published a book about Video Game Programming, so it's not all bad :D).

I've decided to kick start my learning once again and I think one of the places I was suffering before was not enough natural Japanese exposure. I used Anki a lot and it has tons of content which I'm very familiar with but with out natural Japanese exposure my knowledge of how it all glues together is very limited.

To that end, I decided what I really needed was to live in Japan (which I'm not going to do at the current time) or have access to non-stop Japanese TV. I'm fortunate that I live on my own and can therefore easily create an immersion environment without annoying anyone else too much.

An immersion environment also gives me an excuse to buy some new toys mostly guilt free :)

I ordered the following two items and HDMI cable:
(I already have a TV but it's a CRT and doesn't support HDMI and I want things to be as simple as possible and as high quality as possible)

Samsung SM2333HD 1920 x 1080p 23inch HD Monitor/TV

UK     US (equivalent)

This was the TV that seems to have the best trade off between cheapness, size and quality for my immersion environment needs. There was some mention of the sound being a bit tinny but I'm pretty sure it will be good enough quality for my immersion environment needs.


Acer Aspire Revo R3610

UK     US (equivalent)

The Revo is the blue box on the back of this TV. If you are a bit techy you may have heard of the atom cpus. These are new CPUs that are ultra low power and still quite fast. The acer is a cheap, extremely small, low noise, lower power desktop machine that has HDMI out and is very, very easy to use as a media center. Connecting the Revo to the TV with HDMI means that I can watch Japanese television in high definition.

This is the computer that will play (and to some extent store) all my Japanese television programs.

(I shopped around and managed to find a slightly newer version cheaper on eBuyer than on Amazon but this probably varies day to day. I must add: the eBuyer website and in particular it's registration / checkout service are terrible and needlessly complicated and invasive. But slightly cheaper is slightly cheaper!)

Putting it all together.

My internet is not really fast or reliable enough to stream Japanese TV and I find such streaming sites can be slow or suddenly disappear. I want the immersion environment with as little fuss as possible - no messing around if I suddenly lose internet connection, or a streaming site goes down - just simple always on immersion.

I have quite a lot of video files of Japanese drama and some anime on my computer so I'm going to fill up the revo and have it shuffle them. I'll leave it on like background TV and that's it - simple. The revo is a full computer and it can play 1080p files, it won't have any codec trouble which something like the Xbox 360 or PlayStation certainly would (speaking from experience). With some tweaking it can be turned into a full media centre with remote control and a nice flashy GUI interface using something like the XBMC.

I can also grab more drama from sites like d-addicts. If you are going to use d-addicts they've recently changed how the torrents work if clicking the green arrow next to the torrent name doesn't work try clicking the red arrow :D

When choosing a suitable media centre computer I also considered the ASRock ION but it was more expensive and seemed to require a lot more tweaking to get it ready (installing operating systems and so on). It was also a bit bigger and forum posts said it could be a bit noisy - which is the exact opposite of what I'm after. I don't need something like the Xbox 360 where it's a like a small jet engine shuddering away under the TV :)

Update

I'm now happily using this set-up. Nodame Cantabile is playing in the background at a nice high resolution totally divorced from this computer which I use for anki / web browsing / programming.

The default OS for the Acer is pretty rubbishy so I followed this very handy Lifehacker article and installed XMBC (using the Live Disk put on a USB key. My Revo has no net connection but luckily this proved to be no problem, I can just copy everything across).

The Samsung TV has a bit of overscan too which is very simple to correct in XMBC, there's a video calibration mode where you can pull the corners of the screen in. It's very happily playing 720p at the moment I don't have any 1080p files on there yet but from what I hear it should all be fine.

I had to fiddle a little with the options to get the HDMI sound working but it's all great now, total setup was maybe an hour or two.

What is LOVEFiLM like?

So my master plan was to sign up to the online rental place LOVEFiLM and watch tons of entertaining Japanese media each month.

After a week and bit I've cancelled my subscription. (There was a two week free trial).

So why did I quit?

-Two DVDs one return envelope? I order two DVDs and it only comes with one return envelope. I want to watch one send it back, then one the next and send back. This isn't made easy, so it's slow.

-Slow. Send a DVD back, one day to arrive back. One day for the next DVD to be chosen. One day for it to be sent out. So with the 2DVD package, you're lucky to get two films a week.

-Searching sucks. You can't search by language.

-DVD data is incorrect. Some DVDs are labeled as Japanese language when they're not. Some DVDs are labeled as Japanese but the English subtitles can't be turned off.

-Selection sucks. I don't like Yakuza, Samurai or Horror films, I don't watch anime much. There are no 'normal' Japanese films and no Japanese dramas.

So it's not for me. But there's a two week free trial so by all means give it a go and judge for yourself.

How to get more exposure to Japanese

I think mindset is the most important thing. This is represented excellently by Luiz from Brazil in this blog post:

The day has 24 hours. Assuming you sleep 8 hours a day, you have 16 hours. So if you listen 8 hours of L2, you have heard more L2 than your mother language. It’s simple, not?

You don’t need to listen more L1 because you already know. Spend your time listening L2!

When you’re studying or working, you are listening a lot of things passively, right? So change all to L2! Put you headphones and imagine you are in the country where the language is spoken.

Remembering the calc:
(24 – s) / 2, where ‘s’ is how much you sleep in hours.

Where can I get Japanese language films in the UK?

This was a question that baffled me. I wanted to get as much Japanese input as possible. But it's very hard to get access to Japanese media in the UK (especially outside of London). I ordered some DVDs from amazon.co.jp but this proved to be extremely expensive and I had to pay tax.

The current solution to this problem, for me, is LOVEFiLM. There's a two week free trial at the moment (though you still have to enter your card details, and if you don't quit before the two weeks are up then it automatically starts billing you. Anyway it's reasonably cheap £14 pounds a month for the option I chose)

LOVEFiLM is an online DVD rental place, like netflix in America.

The option I chose I can rent two DVDs at once. I chose some films (I can even queue up a selection). They send my the DVDs with a prepaid return envelope. I can hold on to these for as long as I like. When I send them back then they'll send me the next DVDs selected in my queue.

So far so good right? The last remaining question is - how many Japanese language films do they have? Well this is a hard one to answer because search by language is broken, this is super annoying and I almost didn't sign up because of this single issue. But if you find one Japanese film, then you can click on the director or actor and find linked films.

There seems to be a vast amount of Anime films and series, Yakuza and Horror . . . and not much else :( But I'll give it a go and I'll be updating this blog with info about the films I watch.

This is my list at the moment:

[15] 20th Century Boys     
[15] Alive     
[15] All About Lilly Chou-Chou     
[18] Azumi     
[15] Blood - The Last Vampire     
[18] End Call     
[15] Gantz - Vol. 1     
[18] Graveyard Of Honour     
[18] Infection     
[15] Kai Doh Maru     
[18] Legend Of Ando Family, The - The Road To...     
[18] Marebito     
[PG] Millennium Actress     
[15] Shogun's Samurai     
[18] Sonatine     
[12] The Place Promised In Our Early Days     
[18] The Triple Cross     
[15] Tokyo Drifter     
[18] Village Of Doom     
[15] X-Cross 

20th Century Boys

My current plan is to check these films out see what I like and once I run out I can just quit my subscription. It should work out far far cheaper than amazon with much greater variety. I can try to do something similar to Khatz's sampling 100 cantonese films in a month. Though I'm probably looking more 60ish is I have two dvd plan.

How to make a Japanese immersion environment - Tip 1

If I reflect on how I waste my time, a lot of time seems to be spent flicking through the various music channels. I like music videos, I like new music so it's not hard to find myself doing this. Though it doesn't help my Japanese.

What would help my Japanese is having a Japanese version of MTV! But where can I get Japanese music videos? Youtube of course.

I want my Japanese MTV to play in the background, I don't want to be actively searching through youtoube everytime I want some background music with pretty pictures. So I will download the youtube videos!

How can I download music videos? Well I'm using Firefox (other modern browser such as Chrome and Opera probably have ways to do this to) so I use a firefox plugin. The plugin is called Video Download Helper. It was the first one I found and it works nicely.

It adds a icon over the youtube player. If I press the icon it downloads the video.

The only task remaining was to find some good Japanese music videos. Music video in Japan is abbrievated to PV (promotion video). So a good search term might be

"radwimps pv"

This will get me a nice list of radwimp videos to download.

A few other interesting Japanese language artists include:
Rip Slyme
Dragon Ash
Zeebra
Aktion
HI-D
BoA
Ogre you asshole

If there are any more you recommend add them in the comments!

A self study plan for learning Japanese

This is a booklist (mostly) for learning the Japanese language.
Before embarking on this plan - learn Hiragana and Katakana. Just memorize them, it took me a day or two.




0. Learn to Speak and Understand Japanese with Pimsleur

These are languages cds - yes they're very expensive, so I suggest borrowing them from a library. They aren't the most exciting material - but they will ensure your Japanese pronunciation is correct. They also provide basic listening and speaking skills.


1. Remembering the Kanji I: A Complete Course on How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Japanese Characters

This book will teach you to write all the commonly used kanji. You won't know the readings but you will understand kanji and it takes a massive stumbling block out of your way. I recommend it's use in conjuction with the Reviewing the Kanji website.



2. Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar

This is an excellent book - it's grammar explanations are terse but it has a lot of example sentences. I find the best way to learn is through examples. This book also manages to cover quite a lot of grammar for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test - I've heard just over JLPT 3.


3. Smart.fm

This is a free website and a great way to bulk up vocabulary. (Here's how I use it with anki)


4. どんな時どう使う 日本語表現文型辞典

The slow move to Japanese only text. This book contains the most important parts of the Japanese grammar. If you're interested in the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (aka the JLPT )- well this book contains all the grammar points tested, for all four levels. It has explanations in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean. It's a reference not a text book but if understood, this book will help unlock most Japanese.

Final notes

I think after using these resources the reader will have an excellent handle on Japanese and easily be able to tackle "Japanese in the wild" with the minimum of fuss. It also leads quite nicely into studying for the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). For the JLPT the preparation books for the exam should be purchased too.

This is the meat of what I'm using to learn Japanese - though I have plenty of other books I also use. I'll save my thoughts on them for another post.) I'm currently using smart.fm and どんな時どう使う 日本語表現文型辞典 - as well other textbooks, manga and normal Japanese books to study.

I'd like to hear other people's lists and suggestions. I think I'm missing something like Kanji Odyssey - that would help in guessing the readings of new words. (Though I've had some luck guessing word readings just from large amounts of exposure to words via smart.fm)

Little known Google search commands that will let you get perfect example sentence everytime

Or how to search for example grammar. Getting excellent Japanese example sentences can be tricky!

Especially if you want grammar. Recently I was after examples of "from A to B", "from A until B" which in Japan would be "AからBまで".

Just whacking　から　into ALC doesn't help. Pages and pages of sentences yes - but not of the particular point I wanted :(

JGram　could be worth a look, and look I did but I didn't find too many examples. So time to bring out the power tools.

I typed the following into google:

"*から*まで"

The quotation marks tell google this is exactly the order of words that I want. The star characters are wild cards. That means anything can go there as long as it　has から in the middle and まで at the end.

Of course this will return natural Japanese, so some knowledge of the language is required :D Still it gave excellent results.

朝から晩まで本を読んでいたい
最初から今まで
AからZまで
プロポーズから結婚まで
はじめから今まで

Also some rather gross pregnancy results "How long until birth from when I start to get bloody mucus discharge" Lovely. Still, memorable right? Though I must say I didn't add it.

How do I learn Japanese online and off?

I am not really in a position to answer this, but when has that stopped anyone on the internet from voicing an opinion?

The key is saturation.

For example I want to learn what どうやって means. First I get the basic definition by moving my mouse over it.



If you're wondering how the hell that happened well first; I'm using Firefox to browse the internet - and so should you. Second I have a Firefox plugin called Rikaichan. This is a Japanese dictionary that automatically spells out the definition of any Japanese word you hover your mouse over.

So now I have a rough idea of the word's meaning but no real examples of it's use. At the moment I'd forget the word in mere seconds - so I need to lodge it my memory. I do this by getting lots and lots of example sentences.

How best to get lots and lots of example sentences (with a nice English translation)? Well the ALC dictionary lets you search all it's example sentences (instead of providing just those examples associated with the definition)



Using firefox searching ALC is just a click away.

This gives over 5 pages of sentences. I collect every single one that seems simple to me. Saturation! If I know all these sentences there's no way I won't know the meaning of どうやって it will be impossible. Any sentences that seems too tricky for me I just ignore. I'm focusing only on the use of どうやって.

# どうやって帰ればいいの？
How am I gonna get home now?

# どうやって行くか分かる？
You know how to get there?

# どうやって食べるの？
How do you eat this?

「こんないいレストランをどうやって見つけたの？」
"How did you find this nice restaurant?"

# どうやってあそこに入ったの？
How did you get in there?

# どうやってこのコンピューターを消すの？
How do I turn this computer off?

# どうやってこの子に説明したらいいかな・・・
How can I explain this to him?

etc until I can bare no more.

Right, now I add them to Anki, my spaced repetition flash card program.

This program will test if I know the sentences I've added. Now because they're all pretty similar it shouldn't take long for me to have learnt them pretty well and be pretty confident how どうやって works because I've saturated myself with it.



If I'm feeling particularly industrious I'll add a picture. Also I write the English meaning in white text, so I can't read it without highlighting it. That way when I'm doing my reviews, for the most part I'll be in Japanese only mode.

And that's it. Now do this for every alien Japanese word you come across ha!

How to pass the JET test and interview

Once your essay is accepted you will be given a date to arrive at the embassy.You will also be asked to be formally attired. Make sure you are there at the right time and dressed correctly – a suit with a tie. It’s probably best to avoid wearing a black tie, you will be dealing with Japanese people. Black ties are only ever worn at funerals in Japan.

I turned up very early to my interview and test – and they were able to take care of me immediately. Not everyone turns up, for a variety of reasons, so you may as well try going early. Also it’s an embassy so you’ll be going through a metal detector – therefore, unless, you want to be delayed – don’t wear too much metal.

The Test

You will be given the test before going in for the interview. Before arriving – you should be up on all the latest news. Read the broadsheets for a couple of weeks – check out the BBC website – make sure you know what’s happening in the world.

I live in Britain and here are some of the questions I was given on the interview:

What’s the population of Britain?

What’s the population of Japan?

Name three Japanese cities?

Name a Japanese author.

Name three Japanese films.

Who is the forth in line for the British throne?

What three British films would you recommend to a Japanese person and why?

What’s the name of the Japanese prime Minster?

Who the leader of the British conservative party?

What are udon and ramen types of?

What party is currently in power in Britian?

These are the types of questions you’ll most likely be asked. You must know you’re country reasonably well. In Britain you should know the Royal Family names and relations. You should also know about Japan – basic stuff political, the emperor, some musicians authors and films.

Together with this you will be asked to correct some English text – this should be extremely easy. Read it out loud under your breathe if you need to. The problems will be with grammar, word use, spelling and punctuation. Provided you’re first language is English – it should be a walk in the park.

Make sure you keep an eye on the time and if you pace yourself finishing should not be a problem. It may also be worth noting that I passed this – I have no idea about populations, I have no idea about the royal family. By reading this you will be able to research ahead of time!

The Interview

You will be led to a room – possibly you’ll wait in a line, probably spending you’re time feeling anxious and nervous. When you get in they will ask you questions – these questions will be general such as:

“Why do you think you’d make a good teacher?”

“What would you do if a Japanese teacher made a mistake in front of the children?”

Then there will be a number of questions the specific to your submitted essay and application.

“You had your first choice as Osaka – why is that?”

“So it’s say’s here you’ve been to America – what did you do there?”

And so on.

In my opinion it’s attitude that’s important you should appear friendly, enthusiastic and excited. Don’t appear disinterested, bored, cold, timid or shy- these are big turn offs. Try not to interrupt the interviewer(s) (I had two). When you give an answer make sure you have a clear logical reason for you answer – for instance:

“I would talk to the teacher after the lesson about the mistake – as I wouldn’t want the teacher to lose face in front of the children. They must respect their teacher and know that he is a reliable source of knowledge if they’re going to learn from him”

Or

“I would correct the mistake immediately – it’s best that the children know the correct English right away. They will also feel more comfortable knowing that everyone can make mistakes”

They may ask if you have any questions or “is there anything else you’d like to add?” – try to have prepared something before hand and try to end on a positive note. Such as “Yes I think I would a very good teacher and am very excited about the prospect of teaching and living in Japan”.

With this advice hopefully your interview and the test will go smoothly.

How do I write a good JET essay?

Let’s start with the essay. The essay should express why you want to go to Japan and why the Japanese government would want you in Japan. Here are some general tips.

1. Stay as close to the word count as possible.

Going over by a large amount or being under – already shows you’re not willing to pay attention or follow the rules. In Japanese society rules are quite important and bending them is something that isn’t done without a very good reason. Don’t fail at the first hurdle.

2. Make sure your English is perfect – they’re hiring you to be an English teacher!

I’d suggest that you have some one else proof read your essay. You should also ensure your grammar is formal and correct – use which and that correctly for instance. Use a word processor or something that will allow you to spell check.

3. Try to avoid talking about what Japan will do for you – concentrate instead on what you’ll bring to Japan.

Don’t just say “I want to go to Japan to learn Japanese, see Japan, study Japanese culture”. Try and say I want to go to Japan “to become involved in the community and experience Japan from the inside. I want to be able to introduce my country to lots of different people. I want to make English fun and easy to learn. I want the children I teach to become confident well rounded English speakers – who can converse with foreigners.”

4. Stress any foreign experience you’ve had.

Every year a few successful JETs arrive in Tokyo and basically break down and want to go home. In the past some have even committed suicide! So try to leave off talking about how important your family is and your bouts of depression and self mutilation. Say the countries you’ve been too / lived in and give solid examples of how you immersed yourself in the culture. The JET guidelines ask for examples of were you’ve had problems with a clash of cultures – you should read this as “Write about how you’ve had to adjust to a certain culture”. Emphasise your success at adjusting.

Don’t worry if you’re not an experienced traveller – the girl I flew out of London with – it was her first ever time on a plane.

5. Don’t make things up.

If you say you have lots of Japanese experience – then you should be able to hold a conversation in Japanese. They will test this in the interview. In the interview your essay will be cross examined – so you must be able to back all of it up.

If you chose a certain area to be placed in (which you should as it show’s you’ve looked at Japan – and know which area you think you’d like best) you must be able to say why! They’re going to ask you!

6. Show you’ve prepared

If you’re studying Japanese say so. This shows a great deal of commitment. The same goes for studying Japan and reading about it. It show’s you are serious about becoming a teacher.

These are the points to keep in mind when writing the essay. Next we’ll cover the interview and test.

How to work in Japan by applying to the JET programme.

The JET programme is a way to work as a teacher in Japan. You need a degree – it doesn’t matter in what, it also doesn’t matter what level. I know a person currently teaching on the programme who has a third in computer science. It’s also quite common if you’re applying to the JET program from University to apply before your degree is actually confirmed.

That’s all - you don’t to speak Japanese, you don’t need to know anything about teaching. You do need to be reasonably young. You may not be allowed on the program if you’re over 40. You can however come on the program with dependants such as a children or a husband / wife. You will be given an extremely liveable salary and assigned to one or more schools. Working hours tend to be from 8:30 to 4:15 and you may also have days off during the week (if you’re extremely lucky).

That’s enough on the details of the program, let’s get to the main points – how to apply for the Jet program, how to get on the JET program. Applying is pretty easy go to this webpage, download and fill in the form, then send it off at the correct time.


Next you need to know what they’re looking for in a candidate. They don’t just want an English teacher – they’re also looking for some one to represent their country in Japan. Japan is quite a closed country – the people who live here tend to be Japanese and Japanese only. It’s quite unusual for a Japanese person to see a person who isn’t Japanese in the flesh. If you have dark brown skin it’s even more exciting for them. They want people who seem extroverted and enthusiastic. They want Japan to be introduced to foreign cultures. At the same time they don’t want to invite over some who is going to cause trouble – criminals for instance. Japan’s laws on marijuana are very strict. Each year some JET’s go to jail – these are the JETs they’d prefer to stop hiring.



My nearest neighbour on the JET program, when he arrived in Japan his predecessor was in jail. He had been growing marijuana in his room! Don’t do this. If you feel you can’t go a year with out weed you’re probably best not applying. Getting caught with this drug in japan – at the very least - you’ll be banned at worst you’ll spend some time in a foreign jail. Of course harder drugs will cause you even more grief.

If you’ve studied Japanese at a university level then you are a shoe in for the JET programme. Provided in the interview you don’t tell them how you like to kill people – you’ll be accepted. Optionally you could apply for a CIR position – here you would work in a Japanese office, this requires a very high level of Japanese though, so be warned.

They’re also looking for diversity. I believe they’d rather not send a 100 anime-loving otaku types to Japan. If you live in America and once worked as a cowboy – they will probably love you. Try to think what you have to offer that’s unique and useful when representing your country abroad. Did you study history if so that’s excellent- make sure you stress how useful it will be.

On the teaching side – teaching experience is good but by no means necessary. Try and give concrete examples of how you have worked with kids and teenagers in the past. The most important thing is enthusiasm and that you seem to be outgoing. You should try not to seem cold, reserved or prudish – they’re after a sense of fun.


Now you have a generally idea of what type of person they’re looking for. The next step is to pass the various steps.

There are two main steps once you are eligible. The first is a written essay that you must send in. The second is an interview and test at your nearest Japanese embassy.

How to write a good JET essay
How to pass the JET test and interview