The new JET program participants from the Seattle area and community members together at the Consul General’s official residence on July 24.
By Tatsuro Hoshina
The North American Post
The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program’s 2015 participants left for Japan from Seattle on July 25. Sixty-four members joined a departing ceremony on July 24 at the Japanese Consul-General’s official residence to receive a farewell from the local community.
The participants will work in educational institution or local public organization in Japan, at least one year, as Assistant Language Teacher (ALT), Coordinator for International Relations (CIR) or Sports Exchange Adviser (SEA).
They are usually assigned to the countryside, where less foreign educators can be found. This year, however, seems more participants serving in the Tokyo or near metropolitan area, that may advance their internationalization project, like for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
In the ceremony, the guests made congratulatory speeches to JET participants. Consul General Masahiro Omura with Evergreen Glee Club performed a song as well.
The participants are nervous about language and cultural differencies and parting with their families. However they looked full of passion for teaching and their new life in Japan.
“I’m really looking forward to meeting students,” said Charles Christopher, a new ALT serving in a high school in Tokyo. “I want to not only teach but also learn many things of Japan from them.”
Most of them will begin teaching in September when schools in Japan finish a long summer vacation.