Program exposes participants to diversity of Japan

Thursday, October 15, 1998

Program exposes participants to diversity of Japan

JET: Exchange helps educate people from both sides of the
Pacific

By Andy Shah

Daily Bruin Contributor

Living in a rural, frigid region of Japan wasn’t exactly what
Joseph Lee Sañosa expected from a foreign exchange
program.

Leaving California with expectations of staying in a
metropolitan city, he ended up in a rural area with heavy snowfall.
But he said the experience allowed him to see that Japan was more
than Tokyo.

"Each region of Japan is different, and the people are all
different," said Sañosa, who stayed in Komochi Village in
Gunma. "It really opened my mind."

Exposing foreigners to the diversity of Japan is the goal of the
Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program, which sent Sañosa
to Japan.

"We want to show students what Japan is really like. We want
mutual understanding," said Sañosa, who now works as a JET
coordinator in Los Angeles.

The program, sponsored by the Japanese government, is open to
students who have at least a bachelor’s degree, but proficiency in
Japanese is not required to participate in the program.

JET was established in 1987 by the Japanese government, and
attracts applicants from 34 countries.

Of the 5,400 participants in the program, about half are from
the United States.

UCLA sends the most students through this program in the areas
of Southern California, Arizona and Colorado, said Mitsuji Suzuka,
the director and consul for the Japan Information and Culture
Center.

"UCLA is neck-and-neck with the University of Hawaii in sending
the most number of students in the jurisdiction," he said.

Students can choose to get involved in two programs: the
Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) program, which expects students to
assist in teaching English to children. About 90 percent of
participants choose this program.

The Coordinator for International Relations (CIR) program places
students in local government offices and expects them to help with
activities like translation, receiving guests and advising on
international exchange programs. Japanese proficiency is required
for CIR.

Students are paid approximately 3.6 million yen (roughly
$27,000) for their work, and can stay with the program for two
years without tax exemption, Suzuka said.

Students are responsible for their own housing, but are often
put up for free or at lower costs by their host institutions.

Suzuka said another goal of the program is to help both
foreigners and Japanese people break stereotypes about each
other.

"Some Americans have the stereotype that all Japanese people are
workaholics and don’t have a sense of humor," he said. "Americans
who come here will see that everybody is different."

Sañosa, who went to Japan in 1994 while studying at the
Monterey Institute of International Studies, said that Japanese
people held their own stereotypes of Los Angeles, his original home
town.

"They thought we all owned guns and were really rude to each
other," he said.

Sañosa added that JET tries to recruit Americans for the
program who represent different cultures and ethnicities.

"We want to show the Japanese students that American doesn’t
necessarily mean having blonde hair and blue eyes," said
Sañosa, who is Asian American.

He said his students quickly caught on that he was American, and
asked him questions about holidays like Thanksgiving and
Christmas.

"I even got to play Santa Claus," he said.

Last year, Suzuka said about 400 students applied for the
program, and 167 were admitted.

Personality and flexibility are more important than grade point
average as determining factors, he said.

"Students have to be very flexible, because it is very hard
adjusting to life in a foreign country," he said.

Sañosa said it took him six months to get adjusted to life
in Japan.

"I had to change the way I think," he said. "I started to get
more involved in the community, and then I met more people."

He said helping teach English to Japanese students was
enjoyable.

"They had four days of grammar with their teacher, and then one
day I would come in and have fun with them," he said. "I would
teach them nursery rhymes and basic words."

BAHMAN FARAHDEL/Daily Bruin

Campus tour guide Ben Kotnik (center) leads Yashiaki Nishizawa
(left) and Shigeyuki Honma (right), who are both managers with a
group that runs a Japanese-American educational exchange program
called JET.

Comments, feedback, problems?

© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board[Home]