So for any of you leavers, or past leavers, did you have to give a speech when you left?
Was it to the whole school or just the staff? And was it in English or Japanese?
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I have a feeling I’ll likely have to say something to the staff, but my Japanese is trash. Was wondering what people’s speeches were like as an example.
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My predecessor did, but I leave part way through July and no one has said a thing about doing it 🤪
I had to give two speeches. One for the staff during the morning meeting ( just a few short phrases), and another for the whole school ( about half a page long). I did both of mine in Japanese, but you’re definitely not expected to do the same. You should be fine doing yours in simple English and then adding one or two Japanese phrases like ” おせわになりました。” And “ありがとうございました。”
If your japanese is bad, work with the JTE or students on translating it.
I’m still working on JET, but they moved me out of one school that I had been out for 3 years and as part of the farewell in April when I got shuffled with all the other teachers, I got to speak in the leaving ceremony Infront of everyone
I started in English and with a joke, mentioning and finally answering all the questions I get every day (do you have a girlfriend -no, do you have a boyfriend -yes, how tall are you -196cm, are you American -no, do you have Nintendo switch -yes and do you speak Japanese -ええ…実は、 and then I just spoke in v. Casual basic Japanese for the rest.
The gasp and shock from all of that was simply the best!
Short statement of how I enjoyed my time with them and wishing them well for their futures.
I gave a speech to the teachers room.
I wrote it up in Japanese with the best of my ability and asked another teacher to look it over. I wanted the teacher to make sure it wasn’t horrific and that you could understand it for the most part. Aside from that, I wanted the little errors to be left in. Yeah, the teacher could’ve made it flawless, but that wouldn’t have been my speech.
I give my speech, crack a few jokes about how bad my Japanese is, and everyone laughs pretty hard, round of applause.
After the morning meeting, the vice principal came up to me and I received the ultimate compliment. I was ready for the nihongo jozu compliment, I was ready to roll my eyes. No, he came up to me and said…your Japanese is 優秀(ゆうしゅう). I was like what? Googled it and I was like my god. I’ve transcended the nihongo jozu. I was ecstatic haha.
Then I went to my JTE and he was like…you have a weird Japanese accent and made some errors. He didn’t even nihongo jozu me, he just roasted my Japanese hahaha.
If they ask you to give a speech, do it. Also make sure to do it in Japanese, and write it yourself. Have someone look at it to make sure it’s understandable, don’t fuss over little errors or mistakes. Make sure to save your speech in a safe place for eternity.
If I hadn’t asked to say something to the students, I think my school would have just watched me walk off into the sunset. But I did end up making a video broadcast due to Covid restrictions preventing normal ceremonies at that time.
(I had a great experience, due to the students, some of the opportunities and the English teachers. But the administrative side was filled with a bunch of shitty people who protected their reputation over their staff)
I had to give a speech at my old visiting school. I wrote it in English and my supervisor translated it into Japanese. I asked her to put in the hiragana/ romaji as well just to make it easier to read. I think it took a couple of minutes to read through tops.
I also had to give a separate speech to just the teacher’s room – that was only a few sentences and my Japanese is decent enough that I was able to do it on the fly.
All 8 of my schools did farewell ceremonies for me with all staff and teachers present. I gave the same speech in Japanese to each one.