As the title reads, I am located in a place that I don’t think has adequate living circumstances nor job expectations. I don’t want to give too much info away because I’d like to have a shred of anonymity… but how would I go about reporting a placement that is “not adequate enough to be apart of the JET program”…. And yes it’s that bad
7 comments
First of all I’m sorry you’re having a bad time… I believe that CLAIR is probably who you actually want to contact.
It would help work out why you think it’s so bad if we had some more details. Is the house ramshackle and mouldy, would replacing that improve the placement? Is there not much school work that you do? If you were given an additional school/duties would that improve the placement?
Additionally, sometimes asking for something, then proving it impossible is a better tactic than just saying “this is terrible and you need to end it”. If you say that, they might just think you’re an angry ALT and ignore you. While if they investigate, they might work out how bad it is on their own if they investigate your placement themselves.
I understand wanting to remain anonymous, so if anything completely gives you away then feel free not to share of course, but if you think the placement could somehow be improved and want advice on that, feel free to talk about that here too.
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Be honest with your supervisor and boe about your living situation. I was dealing with something similar when I was a jet (this was about 15 years ago tho)
My apartment was infested with cockroaches It was so bad that I had to leave and stay with a fellow jet.
So I started out by being nice about it and was getting similar “fixes” to what you are getting. They told me to use the smoke bombs and put out traps etc…… which worked in the short term but lo and behold the following summer? Roaches came back. This next time I insisted that they have the land lord exterminate them but they refused and said that if they did that I would have to pay for the whole building to be fumigated since I was the one complaining.
So at this point I basically told my supervisor that I wanted to move and if that wasn’t possible that I would be returning to USA immediately. It is very expensive for the boe’ s to get jets and even more expensive to replace mid contract so they didn’t want to have to do that and after I gave them the ultimatum they pressured my landlord and got the bugs exterminated. Apparently the guy who lived downstairs moved out about a year prior to me moving in and left a bunch of garbage down there and the landlord never cleaned it out 🤮
Anyways the moral of the story is to go ahead and be forceful. Be respectful but be direct and say that if things don’t improve you will leave. It’s really the only way to get things done in Japan sometimes.
I would try your prefectural advisor(s) to see if they can intervene. If that’s not possible, contact your local AJET, or national AJET for advice. Obviously these are all run by other JETs so they can be kind of hit or miss depending on the current leadership, but this is the kind of thing I would have gotten involved in as a PA.
My impression from my time on the national AJET board is that CLAIR is unlikely to intervene unless the problem is major, and even then we had to push them pretty hard to do anything. Which is not to say that you shouldn’t contact CLAIR if you have a means of doing so, but I wouldn’t make it my first or only stop.
I think with the workload, you just will have to suck it up, although you should have at least one free period a day. But also feel free to raise it and say that you need additional time to prepare lessons. It’s possible that they had a genki JET who was always demanding extra classes.
With regards your apartment, get a teacher over to have a look. I think that your CO3 is just the same as everyone else in Japan with their stove.
Humidity is a constant issue in Japan – it may be worth buying a dehumidifier as others suggest. But do your neighbours have the same issues?
I suppose the question is whether this is an issue specific to your accommodation or whether it is about you adapting to life in Japan. Quite glad that I wasn’t posted to Hokkaido inaka, to be fair. One of the more challenging places to live.
The living circumstances are probably the easiest to fix. You start by talking to you supervisor and your perfectional (edit: prefectural) advisor, you take pictures and video, you invite many people to come look at the horror, and you ask them how it can be remedied. Please be aware that if you’re getting cheap teacher housing right now, the alternative might be something significantly more expensive.
At the risk of being potentially critical, if you are feeling (edit: filling a) position that had one or more predecessors who don’t feel the same way you feel, maybe your expectations were misaligned from the start.
Hi, I’m not a JET (just a lurker who happens to live in Hokkaido!), but no hot water for a shower (or bath too, right?) is 100% unacceptable, so I’d write down how long it’s been like that, who you talked to (and when) and what they said, and email this to someone else and then someone else until someone helps you. (Maybe don’t write it in a “confrontational” tone/format for better results, just a desperately seeking advice/help way.) Our ice cold fresh snow melt tap water is great for drinking, a non-starter for showering.
In the meantime, stop showering because that is terrible for your physical and mental health. Is there a public bath? Save the receipts.
As for the carbon monoxide, can you describe in more detail what type of heater you have and whether it has an exhaust outlet outside or not? Also whether you have measured the carbon monoxide in someway or have an alarm? I personally am very uncomfortable with the kerosene heaters that don’t have an exhaust pipe, and don’t use them, but I do realize they are a thing here. Anyway if your heater is kerosene and has no exhaust to the outside, I definitely wouldn’t sleep with it on, unfortunately. Get an electric blanket ASAP.
About the mold, I know people are saying to get a dehumidifier, but on the other hand it is usual in Hokkaido in the winter to use a humidifier to stay much healthier! So a dehumidifier is the opposite route from the usual advice for a healthy Hokkaido winter. If it is really gross, that is again bad for your health. There’s only so much you can do with cleaning, so if it’s really gross (black mold?) I would take pictures and maybe include them with your email about the shower water?