Just had mine earlier and it went well I think apart from a grammar question that I completely brain-farted. I had a mock lesson which was a bit awkward but not a disaster hopefully and was asked a couple of things in Japanese even though I said I didn’t speak it. I knew how to answer what my name was and that was it lol but think they appreciated the attempt. They were all very nice and we had a few laughs.
Now the long wait for results begins! Best of luck to everyone!
13 comments
Wait I’m curious. The Japanese member of the panel asked you some Japanese questions? Ive never heard of them asking if you didn’t mention you can
Try to stop thinking about it, it’s done.
But remember for questions like ones on grammar, they aren’t necessarily looking for you to have a correct, textbook answer ready. It’s more seeing how you handle yourself in a stressful situation and how you will handle that in the classroom.
Again, the Japanese portion is the same. As long as you held composure (and tried with a good attitude), it’s likely fine.
I had mine in London last week and it was solely them asking me questions. A lot different to the interview 8 years ago. I was nervous at first and may have fluffed the first two questions but I got more confident as it went along. I can’t tell though, I think that’s the most difficult at the moment. I feel I gave good enough answers but it depends on what they are looking for. Completely frustrating having to wait until April! But it’s done now and whatever happens, happens.
It’s weird but I feel…nothing? I was an alternate last year and I pretty much spent the 2 month wait overanalysing all of the things I said and panicking but now I’m the complete opposite. I don’t think I did terribly but it wasn’t *amazing* either. What will be, will be, I guess 🤷♀️
Im feeling pretty happy about mine. I was planning to get drunk after to help me not overanalyze all my mistakes but when I came out I was “huh, actually I don’t think there’s much to worry about”.
This was my third time interviewing, first time at the embassy in person. Previous time I got made an alternative and I feel like this interview went much better than the last one.
I think I did… *okay*. I stumbled with my Japanese self-introduction a bit, partly due to not being sure what new information (if any) to add which hadn’t already been brought up (as opposed to repeating my earlier hypothetical ‘self-intro in English to a class of JP primary-schoolers’). There are things I think I answered well, and things I think I fumbled a little. But I’m at peace with it — I’ll take some time to self-evaluate for things I could improve on in my interview approach, see how the results come out, and move forward from there.
Overall I feel good about mine. I applied for the CIR role though and I got a lot more questions about teaching than I expected. I didn’t do very well on the grammar questions or a question regarding how I would describe an animal to a Japanese person with little English ability. The Japanese part at the beginning was very short and the passage was around N3-N2 level and the 2 questions surrounding it was fine. The 3rd question that was unrelated was quite difficult and I could not give a good answer. Safe to say that I definitely overanalysised my answers and had a hard time sleeping the night of my interview. Holistically it went well though🤞
Great! My interview was really long! Like, and hour! And it started at least 20 minutes late even though they said they were on schedule. The lesson plan was also surprisingly easy and fun even though when I practiced before hand I sucked. The japanese section stopped as soon as I said I didn’t understand one of the questions, but it was probably because I made grammatical mistakes or misinterpreted the questions. I wasn’t expecting such an abrupt ending. They also asked me about my learning disability and I hope I didn’t blab too much about it because obviously learning disabilities don’t feature the best traits for such a job. But they laughed a lot and were friendly. I‘m really glad that I practiced interview questions with my parents so much before hand. Of course, the more I think about the interview the more mistakes I think I must have made, but when I first came out, I felt like I really had a good chance at getting in. It felt really smooth and easy. I do tend to talk fast and not finish my sentences when I get overly excited, but if I don’t get in, I‘ll know that at least I’ve done my best.
I had my Jet interview today.. honestly I don’t know what to think about it. There were two questions she asked me about uk government which my mind completely blanked out on and I couldn’t answer.
Do you think being unable to answer will affect my chance?
Had my interview yesterday, feeling pretty okay but obviously we all look back at things and think we could have answered better. I felt pretty lucky though, no mock lesson and no weird uncomfortable questions (ie the dreaded atomic bomb question). My panel was super cool and took a lot of interest in my art and art history background and while I didn’t knock the Japanese portion outta the park the panel still commented that it was a nice try. My saving grace is when they asked about my preferred placements, the panel had visited some of the places before and told me I would love my time there 😳🤔 At then end I had some interesting questions to ask the panel and they responded wholeheartedly and we had a good conversation. I had a couple laughs and smiles and I was able to answer all the questions they threw at me (even if two of those were just fluff answers) so I’m hoping for the best despite the anxiety.
My advice as a first time JET interviewee would definitely be to practice the popular questions and practice speaking (duh!). There were several questions they asked that I was ready for because I practiced them but if I hadn’t prepared I probably would have flopped.
They told me results in April so cheers to these next 2 dreadful months of waiting and best of luck to everyone interviewing!
I had my second JET interview this morning. It definitely went better than last year’s which was a total disaster. I got to nerd out and explain why I love ukiyo-e to the Japanese professor which felt good. We almost went over time which seems like a good sign when last year they were kind of like “okay, I guess we’ll stop here” pretty quickly. I feel like I’ve heard everything from “my interview was miserable but I got in” to “I absolutely aced it but got rejected” so who knows what the heck they’re thinking.
I had my interview this morning and it went way better than last year. However, I feel like I was still stuttering and not being as descriptive which im most worried about. But they kept saying that they loved my answers and I spoke Japanese throughout the whole test portion which was an improvement in comparison to last year😊 I don’t want to keep my hopes up too high but we’ll see!
I never like to say if I did good or bad cuz I think that jinxes me. All I can say is I did my best, was happy and energetic, and we all laughed at times. I had about 7 to 10 minutes left, so instead of leaving early I actually showed them a lesson I prepared and often conduct with my students. Overall it was relaxed and everyone was friendly. Now, here’s hoping to being shortlisted.
I found this a few hours after my interview and I couldn’t tell you if this is the actual point system, but just for fun why don’t you score yourself to see where you think you fall under.
I gave myself a 103 out of 120
Personality – 40 points
Ability – 20 points
Motivation – 25 points
English Ability – 10 points
Japanese Ability – 5 points
Overall Impression – 20 points
https://thisjapaneselife.org/2013/10/24/what-does-jet-program-look-for/