hello internet Dyce Quirk here let me ask you a question do you want to move to japan in fact do
you want to live and work in japan well if you do you're in the right place because in this video
i'm going to be telling you about what the jet program is and i'm also going to be giving you
a general overview of the entire application process and i'll be giving you some information
that should be incredibly helpful while going through the application yourself so that you
can increase your chances of getting into the program and if you stick to the end of the video
i'll give you one bonus tip that should definitely help increase your chances of getting accepted if
you're new to my channel nice to meet you my name is tim fordyce and i am a 2020 accepted applicant
and so i was just like you i was doing as much research as i could to prepare for when i applied
so i wanted to give you a head start by giving you a comprehensive yet concise overview of the entire
application process this is more focused on u.s. applicants but if you're a applicant in
some other country well don't worry because a lot of the information inside of this video can
also be helpful to you so make sure you check it out now let's not waste time and let's get to it
the jet program is an english teaching program which started in 1987 and it has three different
jobs that you can apply for there's assistant language teachers which are alts there's the
sports exchange advisors seas and then there's the coordinator for international relations
or cirs now most applicants in this program are alts so that's what we'll be focusing on in this
video each year nearly 1 000 us applicants are accepted into the jet program as alts
and those alts are placed in either schools government facilities or boards of education now
this is the only exchange teaching program that is operated by the japanese government but it's also
the largest exchange teaching program in the world and i can completely understand why because the
jet program gives its participants the opportunity to spend three to five years living and working in
japan some of the responsibilities given the alts require putting together lesson plans assisting
the head language teacher participating in both school events and after school events like clubs
and then also being active inside of some community events that take place in whatever
prefecture you're put into in addition the jet program comes with a number of perks as well
in comparison to some of the other programs you could enter which include but are not limited to
a higher starting wage working regular school hours excellent insurance and also my
personal favorite access to alumni volunteer social and professional development events
hey now so in this next section he's about to tell you exactly what the jet program
is at its core so you're going to want to make sure you pay attention
and use it during your application process so be cool and take notes okay you may continue
the jet program's aim is to quote increase the mutual understanding between the people of japan
and the people of other nations to promote internationalization in japan's local communities
by helping to improve foreign language education and to develop international exchange at the
community level the program is essentially number one trying to create an exchange of
culture and cultural understanding number two it's trying to increase the people of japan's desire
to expand internationally and number three it's trying to create an opportunity for the
people of japan to interact with a foreigner at a grassroot community level and they accomplish this
by seeking out ambassadors or representatives like us who will represent our home country
and hopefully create positive experiences with a foreigner and also create different cultural
exchanges with people in the community and they have us teach their students the future of japan
so that we can create positive experiences with them and hopefully increase the probability that
they will branch out into internationalization later on and honestly english is an excellent tool
to promote internationalization because it opens up so many opportunities for both travel and for
business exchanges also keep in mind that 98.1 percent of the entire population of people living
in japan are japanese that means less than two percent of the entire population that lives there
are foreigners so with that being said the jet program wants to expose the japanese population
to good representatives of foreign countries and promote not only good relationships but also
positive experiences that will inspire internationalization also jet wants you
as an applicant to take everything that you've experienced in japan and everything that you've
learned about its culture and share it with others it is an exchange program after all and so they
don't want to just inspire internationalization in the people of japan they want to inspire it in you
as well and so if you're planning on applying as a pro tip keep this question in mind how will i
take my experience in japan and everything that i've learned about its culture and share it with
others in my future maybe it's in your job maybe it's in other things you plan to do just make sure
you keep that question in mind okay now that we've talked a little bit about what the jet
program is and we've talked a little bit about what jet program aims to accomplish let's take
a look at a general overview of the application process that way when you're applying yourself you
can more easily wrap your head around everything that they're asking of you and if you find this
video informative or helpful please remember to smash that like button and share it with somebody
that you think could benefit from it also if you really like our content and you want more of it
make sure that you hit that subscribe button and hit the notification bell
first we'll look at eligibility to be eligible to enter the jet program you must number one be
interested in japan remember the program is all about internationalization and if
you're interested in japan you'll be more uh likely to deepen your knowledge of the culture
and language and everything else once you go over there plus if you're interested in the country
you're more likely to interact with others and create these positive community exchanges number
two you have to be both physically and mentally healthy now honestly because of not being able
to speak with people because they're not speaking your normal language it can result in loneliness
and also depending on the weather and the location that you're at and how you have to travel in that
location it could be physically demanding so the people in the jet program they honestly
want the best for you so keep that in mind when you're looking at number two's
requirement number three you have to be a citizen of the united states before the application
deadline if this is something that's a concern for you i'm sorry god speed number four you have
to hold a bachelor's degree before the designated date prior to the departure date and that seems
pretty self-explanatory number five you have to have the ability to adapt to the living and
working conditions in japan and this just means japan's culture might be significantly different
from the culture that you're coming from and you basically have to ask yourself this question
first off how well do i deal with change and am i willing to accept things in their culture that
might be different from my own make sure you ask yourself that wow there are a lot of these
let's uh speed through the rest number six you must have excellent pronunciation rhythm and
intonation of the english language number seven you must not have been in the jet program for
three years prior to the application year number eight you must not have declined a position
for the jet program in the previous application year number nine you must not have lived in japan
for six or more years in the last 10 years number 10 you must have some interest in maintaining
relations with japan after the completion of the program number 11 agree to live in japan
ran out of fingers number 12 obey all japanese laws and number 13 have finished any periods
of legal probation then there's the unofficial number 14 which just says that you should be
interested in working with students teaching and also in the japanese education system now that's
a lot of requirements but we're just getting to the hard part now let's finally look at the
application process first thing you should know is that whenever you're applying for the program
those applications it's for the following year so you'll be filling it out in 2021 and it'll be for
the 2022 jet program uh those applications open up anywhere from early october to late november and
also sometimes it goes into early december depending on the year to start your
application first you're going to need to make an online account on the jet program website
for the year that you're applying now this portal or this online account is going to be where you
submit or upload most of your documents now there will be a few documents that you have
to give to them physically or give them a physical copy of but you'll be told which documents those
are as you go through the process so this is basically going to act as your home base
now that you have an account you can actually start on the jet application itself and man is
it a doozy this application has so many different categories about so many different topics and
you're going to want to get started as soon as you can just so that you can think about and get the
paperwork needed for a couple of the topics you might not have known they were going to ask about
within this application form there are a number of documents you'll have to upload and those include
a self-report of medical condition and this will be a pdf that you'll have to print out and have
filled out by a doctor so you'll need to schedule an appointment a statement of purpose or sop that
is two pages long and double spaced and this is probably the most important document out of the
whole bunch and so we're gonna actually cover that in another video two letters of recommendation
and one has to be from an academic source like a teacher or professor the other has
to be from a professional source like a boss or manager all college or university transcripts
and when i say all i mean all of them if you're at one college for one year and another one for three
years like i was you have to get the transcripts from this college as well as the other college
that you went to for three years and they all have to be official transcripts they can't be copies
proof of graduation or an expected date for your graduation basically a diploma and proof
of citizenship so that includes a passport birth certificate or neutralization papers and since
you're going to need a copy of your passport and you're going to need your passport to go through
the program anyways i would just recommend using that and some documents that aren't required but
are going to be very helpful for getting accepted into the program include let me read this real
quick a teaching certification uh t-e-s-l or t-e-f-l certification basically teaching english
as a second language and teaching english as a foreign language certification a japanese language
certificate jlpt the japanese proficiency language test and honestly if you mention any health
conditions you'll need a statement of position and if you mention anything as far as like a criminal
history you're going to need a criminal a criminal history background check which both the statement
of position and the criminal history background check are going to come up later so these are all
good documents to have now after we've completed the whole application and submitted all the proper
documents in january they'll be sending out information about if you got accepted for an
interview and for that you're going to need to fill out some information about where you're
going to go for your interview when you're going to go and with which group at this point if you're
accepted in for an interview you'll have to number one fill out a release form number two have a
sealed copy of a federal background check that you can turn in at the interview unless told otherwise
and number three you'll have to have a interview voucher that's filled out
then in february you'll take your interviews and the results from those interviews will come out
sometime from late march into early april um if the interview goes incredibly well and you
get accepted you'll be expected to fill out a health check sometime between may and july which
is basically the statement of physician that i mentioned earlier you'll also need to fill out
a reply form which they will send you at this point and that is basically just you letting
them know that you've accepted their offer and are part of the jet program and at this point you've
made it into the jet program congratulations so honestly there's a lot between this moment and
the moment when you actually start teaching in japan but in this video i just wanted to cover
the initial process of applying for the program so that i could help you guys with applying and
knowing everything that's going on so that you'll have a much easier time flowing through it all
but i did promise that at the end of this video if you stuck around i was going to give you a pro
tip that would help you in applying for the jet program and getting accepted and i do intend to do
that but first if you found this video informative or helpful please remember to smash that like
button and also uh please remember to hit the notification bell and turn on all notifications
if you want more information about japan from this channel or if you want to see our other videos
where we talk about the jet program which are coming up soon in addition don't be stingy if
you know somebody else that's applying for the jet program remember to help them out
by sharing this video with them if you think this could be helpful to them make sure you
share it okay so let's get started on that tip now the bonus that i want to give to you is be
visible what i mean by that is don't wait until october when the application opens for you to
start applying yourself towards the program or trying to get into the program instead go to the
consulate that you're going to be applying to and ask questions like what events are taking place in
this area that are related to japan and after you figure out what events are taking place actually
go to them and start building relationships honestly it's the consulate's job to go to
these different areas and to know about all the events and if they see you building relationships
with other people there already practicing internationalization and already practicing
being a good representative then when they read your sop or when they read your application it's
going to bring life life into your paper that's not going to be in everyone else's so make sure
that you're actually being visible before the application starts also a second little tip
uh in the description below i'll be including a number of links to different videos i make that
have to do with different parts of the application process like the interview process or the sop and
right now a lot of those uh different sections will be marked as coming soon and as i continue to
make the videos i will change those coming soons to links so make sure you're checking those out
frequently and also uh if you are applying for the program tell me in the comments why you're
interested in going to japan uh honestly i would love to hear what you have to say and i would love
to know why so please leave that in the comments below and having said that thank you so much for
checking out this video i hope that it was helpful in some way whether it was helping you understand
the application process or gave you some ideas so that you can have a better chance at applying for
the jet program and we really hope that it was helpful because here at dice quirk we're all
about helping you experience japan so with all that said thanks again and dyce quirk out you