The 2008 JET Interview

I reached Takashimaya at 10am and spent 30 minutes fawning over my looks. I then caught a cab to prevent myself from stinking badly due to sweat from walking, and reached there way early. The interview's at 1110am, I was supposed to arrive 10 minutes beforehand and I reached at 1040pm. Gosh, I ended up sitting like a statue at the lobby for 40 minutes!

At the lobby with me was another lady (seems Japanese or Korean!) and the security guard. I did not do much then except act like a statue and stare at the plants outside the Embassy until the lady was ushered through the door for her turn at the interview. The security guard and I started to chat, and I decided to 'risk it' by striking up a conversation on what he was reading in the newspaper - he was reading an article on the prices of the F1 formula night racing tickets here in Singapore! It was rather fun I guess and I learnt a couple of interesting things, such as Singapore actually having a legal race track at the Thomson area in the 70s. There was an interesting fun observation he shared with me about the interviews though, that roughly 80% of those who report for the interview are female and the rest male. Does that increase my chance or what?

It was soon my turn, and I was ushered in by this lady who is very vaguely familiar - it is none other than Ms TN, the lady who deals with the contacting and such for JET! She actually remembered me, perhaps due to the alarm I raised a few months back when I was concerned about my chances of success having rejected once. I should not have raised the alarm I think, but oh well better to be prepared! My concern was that there seem to be different connotations as to which part of the process you tendered your rejection... anyway while I was playing deference and waiting for her after I pass each doorway, she followed up with "You know what to do!" which made me laugh at myself. I tried to make some conversation by asking her about how her CNY has been, and I was once again ushered into the waiting area while the interviewers get ready.

There were three interviewers on my panel, all of whom I have met in my previous interview 2 years back. So uncanny! For the record, there were 5 interviewers last time of which I know privately one of them who had since left the panel. Who remained then? On my left is a/the caucasian, the middle a man of age (Chinese/Japanese) and on the right a Japanese man. The interview started when the Chinese guy told me to start by introducing myself. I should have asked them to clarify if I am introducing myself to 9-year olds, but I didn't and just continued with whatever that came to my mind which I meandered by talking about CNY and how I am a year older when I reached the part on introducing my age. Subsequently we talked about my my professional life in RP, and the Chinese guy was rather interested in hearing the differences between the traditional vs PBL learning environment. That I obliged, though it seemed he either misheard me, I came across too forcefully or he was just throwing a red herring when he asked me about how do I expect to inject PBL into language and to the schools I would be with in Japan. Such horror! I said I would tap on what students already know such as how they would react in their culture and everyday life and use it as a form of contrast with the particular language (in this case English) and explain what are possible hidden assumptions when interacting in such a particular manner in both cultures. That was quite smoking! Of course I will not do that but offer them as skillsets which my Japanese colleagues can call upon if they would like to, rather than me blundering in without much understanding of the local culture! I went on emphasising that I do not think PBL is the best solution and different pedagogies have their issues. I really hope that was just a red herring!

Subsequently apparently one of them flipped through my documents and realised I was a repeat, so the questions became rather easy (in my opinion). I just mentioned about my tight family situation then and how I am now very ready for JET. The Japanese guy asked the usual questions (those that I had in the last interview), such as how would I do if I were placed in a rural area (I told him I'm fine and I can learn much things from an inaka lifestyle). Oh, the caucasian guy also asked me about my placement choices, which was the wonderful time to bring in Hirakata and how I can help in making arrangements for RP students to visit them by being more detailed about what information RP needs before we can get approval. I hope they bought into that, though I did emphasise once again the location does not matter, I chose it because it seemed useful to help RP sort it out. I hope I did not give them the impression that I would neglect my job over there to plan trips for RP! They seemed accepting though...

As usual, Dr. SR's letter of recommendation earned me a question from the caucasian interviewer. According to her recommendation, she wrote she was impressed by the interesting and creative topics that I wrote about in my essays (in her Africa class) so he tried to twist it around by asking me what creative ideas I have to bring the English language closer to the hearts of Japanese students. Those are two totally irrelevant questions! Argh! I ended up saying that I might try food fairs especially in the Singapore context since we are rather obsessed with food. That one did not come through clearly.

Now to think of it, there were a lot of times when I felt I did injustice to the questions raised and the panel was just nodding their head and I did not really get a clear idea of whether they get what I mean, or are they just passing time because they have given up hope. That feeling was particularly strong from the middle of the interview, when they realise I have rejected the programme once. When the realisation-cum-question that I have rejected it once came from them, they became quite "switched off" and started nodding their heads when I thought they would at least be keen in hearing my explanations. SIGH!

Towards the end of the interview, the Japanese guy finally spoke and pointed out I have circled "Intermediate" in the section on Japanese language ability. He threw one bomb on the spot by asking me to share in Japanese what I would like to do in the future after JET. I tried coming up with something about working in international communications between different cultures be it back in Singapore and America, from primary schools to secondary schools, and there he was smirking away. He was nice to correct me on a word though. Damage done. I seriously did not know was it because he thought I was hopeless and he's just toying with me, or that since I'm a repeat then I get the ticket so he's just having a bit of fun. He ended that question with "So you will continue to brush up your Japanese?" and I had to of course say yes.

That was the end of the interview and they did not ask me if I had further questions or whatsoever but wait outside the room for TN to pick me up. She did after a short while, asking me how the interview went (which I truthfully told her they focused more on my RP experience other than my exchange experience) to which she raised an eyebrow and said "RP...". I think she knows my source haha! Alamak! I was rather casual from then which I hope would not come back to bite me as I blabbered a bit of Singlish as I bumped into XY, a secondary classmate of mine who was incidentally the interviewee after me. So scary! Please do not penalise me!

LET ME GO TO JAPAN!!!

* follow up: these recollections came to my mind

The caucasian guy also asked me what are some possibly sensitive topics that I think I would be asked and how I would approach. I only thought of possibly the diversity in the population itself and how different groups have clashing agendas which might be taboo. He prompted WWII (which I guess should be the correct answer) and asked what about it. I said I would not really touch on those topics unless asked, and I will only touch on the more difficult issues outside of the classroom when the Japanese I speak to are more receptive to discussing such as gulp in bars after work.