and then they emailed me and they said
we don't really have a position for you
this was like a dream turned nightmare
[Music]
hey guys welcome back to my channel love
Liz Kelly your virtual ticket to Japan
today I'm gonna be talking about the jet
program because I think it's actually
coming up soon like you guys can
literally like apply for it now the jet
program is a Japan exchange teaching
program so if you guys are interested in
teaching in Japan jet program is
probably the one thing that you want to
look at first among all the other
programs because the jet program it
honestly it pays the most it gets you to
Japan for free you learn a lot during
your time there I'm gonna tell you a
story about my experience in the jet
program because it wasn't pretty if you
guys don't know me my name is Liz Kelly
and I live in Japan I've lived here for
five years and this channel is all about
life health and travel honestly I can't
escape Japan videos because this is my
life this is my life I started out in
the jet program and that's why I'm here
today to help you guys apply for it and
be the best that you can be if you want
to move to Japan very very hard to move
to Japan when you don't want to teach
I suggest teaching for at least a year
moving to Japan and then if you want to
search for something else there are
possibilities and ways to do that but we
are not going to discuss that today
we're gonna talk about teaching not
saying that the jet program is a bad
program the jet program is actually like
one of the best program some situations
are worse than others you can't really
choose where you live all sorts of
things so this is like the first video
in my moving to Japan series if you're
interested I'm currently working on a
guidebook on how to move to Japan and
what you need documents you need reasons
why you want to move here what to
prepare what to bring all sorts of
things I'm working on that guidebook
right now and it's going to be kind of
like a video course to prep you to move
to Japan because I wish I had that
before I moved to Japan if you guys want
to know anything
you want me to put like a detailed
description of something in this
guidebook please comment down below I
would love to know your questions so I
can put those in the guidebook that's
going to be coming out soon on my
website Liz Liz Kelly calm when I was in
college I was studying Japanese and
education I wanted to be a Japanese
teacher in the States but jobs were very
scarce once I graduated so I decided I
wanted to move to Japan to teach as an
English teacher when you apply for the
jet program you do not have to be a
teacher you just have to have you don't
have to have experience as a teacher you
just have to have a bachelor's degree
most alt jobs alt as in like assistant
language teacher so those types of
teachers are basically like language for
quarters so most of the jobs in the jet
program are just alt positions some
schools will that will allow you to
teach like a full class and things like
that it just depends on your situation
nobody has the same experience that's
all I'm gonna say
so going into this you have to be
open-minded and you have to prepare for
the worst
I applied for the jet program my last
right before I graduated I was very
hopeful I've been wanting to do this for
so long I've heard of so many stories
when I studied abroad in high school I
met a couple alts that did the jet
program and that's how I learned about
it and then I always like aspire to do
this program like all my life and so I
was really excited to apply for it
didn't apply for just one program I
applied for jet program I applied for
interact which is another company that's
similar to the jet program all sorts of
programs that you can apply for so I
applied for all of them just in case I
didn't get the jet program applied for
the jet program filled up a long-ass
application should my essay I turned
everything in I was ready to go I was
excited to hear back and then eventually
I got the interview and I was really
really excited I was like oh my gosh I
can't believe I made it to the interview
interview was not as intense as the
actual application like you would think
that it would be more intense but when I
entered the room the people that were
there were pretty kind and nice and
considerate but some of my interview was
in the Japanese because if you put that
your you speak Japanese they'll ask you
questions in Japanese you don't need to
learn Japanese they just want to test
fit you know you're true to what you say
one through the interview I was pretty
confident and then I eventually got the
job and I was really excited the worst
part was getting all the documents he
needed to move to Japan especially the
fingerprints the fingerprints I almost
wasn't going to be able to go to Japan
because it was damn fingerprints that
police weren't doing them correctly so I
would turn in my fingerprints and they
weren't they weren't going through like
it just wasn't calculating I've searched
everywhere for different police
departments and things like that that
would take me and do my finger prints it
was a worst thing in a world eventually
it went through I was okay to go but it
was just madness the background checks
all sorts big health checks shots things
like that you need all this stuff in
order to move to Japan that was probably
the most stressful part the most tedious
part was application interview part was
easiest and the gathering the documents
part was the most stressful I moved to
all Mori Prefecture and ohmori
Prefecture is very isolating so let's
back up a little bit um when I got my
placement I was like that sucks I heard
very good things at all Mori like
there's beautiful festivals beautiful
things it was a new experience for me
because I've always spent my time in the
Kansai region it was in the very south
of Japan
so going to the very north of Japan but
it was also very scary because of the
earth earthquake had just happened like
a year ago and then they emailed me and
they said we don't really have a
position for you I was really confused
my position was to work in a BOE which
is a Board of Education office in Elmore
E so I was like oh that's cool I get to
work in an office usually when you join
the debt program you have a predecessor
this is the how you say it
you have somebody that's the the person
that you're gonna take the place of is
the person that's kind of your mentor
before you move to Japan she told me
that she didn't teach very much she
would go to maybe one school like a
month and I was like oh my god I picked
the one girl that has an education
background that studied education and
they didn't have a school for her I
didn't have a placement at a school like
a specific school she went to like seven
different schools and she would only go
to these schools like every couple few
months so she wouldn't be able to
connect with the students she wouldn't
be able to connect with the teachers I
wouldn't be able to do those things so I
was panicking and I was like okay so
what did they over recruit and then they
didn't know where to put me is my goal
was to teach in Japan like I wanted a
school I wanted to teach this is my
dream and the fact that I didn't really
get that opportunity it was very
disappointing they're like hey we'd
understand if you didn't want to do the
jet program blah blah blah blah blah and
that was disheartening so I said yes and
I said you know I'm gonna be positive
about this I'm gonna be open-minded I'm
gonna go into this have new experiences
meet new people so I was really hyping
myself up I was pumping myself up for
this experience to happen like this is
my dream and I'm gonna be fine
everything's gonna be okay
I was very positive about it then when I
got there when I got to El Morya I was
given an apartment that was literally
nine thousand yen a month which is 90
dollars a month it was a very cheap
apartment the walls were not finished
like if you touch the walls things would
come off with them it was really old
Elmore he's very very cold
I had a bathtub that if the winter got
cold enough it would freeze and I would
have to take a pot of water and dump it
on top of the bathtub to get it to work
and fire it up like it was really
intense living in El Morya at the time
there were no trains going from El Morya
to Tokyo ace I lived in Hirosaki which
is probably the one of the best places
to be in al Mori I think it's a very
small city but it's very beautiful the
castle was probably one of my favourite
castle grounds
I really liked going for walks and
riding my bike around there so it was
really nice it's a very beautiful area
but like I said it was very isolating
and I feel like it's good for like if
you're retired or something when I got
there I wanted to reach out to the Jets
the other jet teachers the jet program
was very very cliquey there weren't a
lot of very nice people from where it
was living I was not I was kind of like
considered an outsider I wanted to study
a lot so I would stay at home I wouldn't
go to the clubs I wouldn't go to the
bars all the time I would sometimes but
it was very very rare because I wanted
to like study I wanted to do my own
thing I wanted to study Japanese so I
would stay at home a lot and study a lot
of the Jets would talk about me back and
be like okay she like doesn't hang out
with anybody she wants to study Japanese
and she wants to you know start a
YouTube channel and stuff like that I
was just told that I was like too much
of an introvert so I was never invited
to things and like all that stuff and
yeah I had to be honest like I was kind
of like an interview introvert but I
kind of wanted to work on my own my blog
I had a blog at the time I wanted to do
my own stuff and people weren't really
appreciating it so if I didn't go to the
club or something to be like oh well of
course she's not gonna go to the club
because you know she doesn't want to
hang out with anybody and that wasn't
really the case my neighbors were
absolutely awful to me and like that
kills my experience a little bit I'm
probably not gonna go into too much
detail but they weren't very nice like
at all and I kind of expected that
because they talked a lot about other
people behind their backs when I first
met them they were always saying so much
crap about other jets in the program
even people that they would hang out
with regularly they would talk about in
a nasty way my neighbors like honestly
if they didn't like Japan and they
talked about Japanese people like they
were a piece of crap and like they
complained about everything and it's
just like if you're if you don't
genuinely like Japan don't move here so
there's a lot of negativity going on
there's a lot of click enos there's a
lot of like immaturity and like that
kind of killed the experience for me I
did have a lot of close friends in all
Mori like I hung out with people I met
some Japanese friends and we would hang
out so I did have like my
group of friends that I loved hanging
out with and genuinely loved talking to
you so it wasn't like I was friendless
completely I'm going to an Japanese
office every single day like I said I
worked in a BOE and I was giving like
zero tasks I asked them like what should
I do they're like oh we'll create lesson
plans and like create lesson plans for
what and they're like oh we'll just
think of some ideas just in case you go
to in a school next week or something
and it's just like you can't make a
lesson plan without knowing what's the
what they're teaching or what they're
learning I asked if I could study
Japanese and they said no it sucked to
learn Japanese especially in almari
because they speak in such a different
dialect it's not the dialect that we
learned like learning a whole new
language and I'm worried not even like
Japanese people from Tokyo or like Kyoto
they don't even understand this region's
dialect it's called tsukada Ben and it
was it was intense it was a very
different sounding language so the
studying thing I couldn't do which was
stupid
they used Internet Explorer most of the
time who uses Internet Explorer I was
literally like going insane sitting in a
desk eight hours a day not going to
classes not learning not teaching I had
no experiences it was really really
depressing and I was getting to that
point where I would just like go home
and cry because I had no no work I had
it sounds great in hindsight like it's
just like wow you have a job you're not
actually working you're getting paid
that's awesome it's great that you get
paid to do absolutely nothing but it can
drive you freaking mad if you have
nothing to do I prefer to stay busy I
prefer to do a job and get paid when you
have a dream and you want to go to Japan
and you want to teach like specifically
like they put the girl that studied
education in zero schools
what a waste is like such a waste of my
time my future is more important they're
not giving me the job that I was told
that I was gonna be doing that I was
hired to do honestly when you don't get
what your contract says then that is a
huge reason for you to quit so I decided
to quit check your contract cuz it does
say that you can quit 30 days in advance
most contracts say that there are some
contracts that say you have to
your plane to get back luckily my
contract didn't say that it was just
like you have to give a 30-day notice
other thing that they told me before
before I decided to quit they told me
our BOE is getting rid of alts
we don't want an alt anymore we don't
want to pay you anymore so you're gonna
have to move somewhere else' no mori and
you're not gonna know until a week
before so you can't decide where you're
moving so I was like what the this
was like a dream turned a nightmare I
needed to figure out what I was gonna do
so I contacted somebody that I had met
in Nagoya during my internship beers I
did an internship in Japan like a couple
years prior and I asked if he had a
position at his job and he's like I
don't I'm not looking for anybody right
now I'm not looking for a teacher right
now but I will help you find a job so he
found a couple positions for me and one
of them being an international school
which ended up being like one of the
worst jobs got into that and - and
that's like another story time video
right now I'm working at a really
amazing company I've been working -
teaching it's a school that I've been
working with for like three years he got
me this job this international school
job but I had to fly to Nagoya to get
the interview and I was like crap I have
to fly to Nagoya I have no days off left
what am I gonna do cuz I took some
vacation time already and I was like
crap I ended up just going anyway so I
ended up flying to Nagoya on one of my
weekends it was the busiest time of my
life I didn't want them to find out that
I was looking for another job this is
dependent on my future flew to Nagoya
and a snowstorm - is like during the
winter it was like the worst time ever I
thought I was gonna die did the
interview got the job that day which is
pretty awesome when I came back I took
my I was terrified but I took my
supervisor out for coffee and I was like
I quit there's the hardest thing I ever
to do but it was the best decision of my
life and they were not happy about it
they were really really bitter about it
but you know what when you don't give me
a job then you're gonna suffer the
consequences that's so unfair to my time
and my life asked him I was like what's
my schedule the next three months and
he's like oh you have no schools for the
next dream
guns June July August no schools I ended
up leaving the jet program a month or
two later and I remember packing all my
stuff was really sucky like but shipping
my stuff from Almora to Nagoya was easy
that was like the start of a really bad
relationship that I was in if you guys
want to know more about my story I have
it I think it was like called the mini
documentary of my life and on this
channel you guys can watch that make
sure you read your contracts before you
sign anything obviously I wanted to try
out going to Japan in the jet program
because it was my dream but I wasn't
doing the thing that I was hired to do
please share this video with anybody
that's interested in going to Japan or
interested in applying to teach in the
jet program yeah so thank you guys for
watching and I'll see you guys next time
hey guys thanks for watching I just
wanted to say that this was just a very
rare experience there's a lot of people
that had really good experiences in the
debt program so don't be afraid to apply
it's a good program to get your foot in
the door like I said before so don't
hesitate to ask questions in the
comments and I'll see you guys next time