The WinBe Rejection - I had applied to this company through http://www.gaijinpot.com to be an English teacher for one of their schools in Mie. I heard back from their recruiter pretty quickly about setting up a telephone interview. Here's their English site and their Japanese site, in case you are interested.

Upon doing some research about the company itself, I learned some unsavory information... most of it was heresay, and therefore unconfirmable. People on forums like to talk, so I took it for what it was, at least. Upon further investigation, it became apparent that some people are on a private crusade against WinBe. Check out this link, for example:

http://winbe0.tripod.com/index.html

Troublesome, yes? Dilemmas, dilemmas... It would be very discouraging if I signed a contract with a company and was stuck with a nightmare job because of it.

The phone interview was, to say the least, bizarre. The interviewer was an English speaker who clearly had not used his English in a very long while. Somehow, I ended up blabbing on about my Modern Languages and Cultures Seminar. Then, I asked him some questions about the school, about transportation and living costs, etc. My school day would have been from 1-9pm. It's basically an afternoon studying school. The students range from preschool to adults. The interview didn't take very long, and he said I would hear from them in 7-10 days.

I didn't get my hopes up. Not too much, anyway. After 12 days, I received an email politely rejecting me. Such is the job search? I'll keep trying, anyway.

See the problem is that many teaching firms in Japan will only look at your application if you are already living in Japan and have a valid working visa. To get a valid working Visa, you need a Certificate of Eligibility. You get your Certificate of Eligibility from your employer in Japan. Do you see the dilemma?

Oh, and I've also been turned down by NOVA Group. That was a big disappointment. I think I might try with them again, though; they are such a big company that they may not notice that I've applied twice already. Or, they will blacklist me. Either way, it should be interesting.

On a side note, I have several other jobs prospects in mind. I would prefer to be an English Teacher, as opposed to an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher). My impression of ALTs is that they get jerked around a lot and don't have much of a say in what they do.I've also been deviating from English Teaching into other possibilities, like... INVESTMENT BANKING! zzz...

I finish my TESL Certification pretty soon, by mid-September. Maybe that will make me more marketable.

Here's a little background information, for those of you who don't know me all that well, or that I've fallen out of touch with over the last couple of years. Even those of you who DO know me may not quite understand my motivations, so I'll explain myself, briefly.

Ever since I was little, I've been interested in Japan, albeit on a superficial level. I liked to play with Origami. My older sister went to a Japanese language camp. When I was in high school, I liked watching Anime and playing Final Fantasy 7. These are all simply on an interest level. To be honest, I knew very little about the country and its people.

In College, however, I took many courses about Japan. With Professor Hauser, I took history courses about Ancient and Modern Japan. With Professor Pollack, I read the tale of Genji (again). With Professor Bernardi, I took a closer look at Anime and realized that I may not like it as much as I used to. Perhaps I grew out of it. Some Anime I will always like, but others... not so much. Also, I studied Japanese Women Writers with Professor Bernardi, which basically covered any woman writer of any notable fame in the last century in Japan. In my Silent Cinema class, we watched 2 silent films from Japan. While I found that I understood Japanese history and literature very well, I remained completely ignorant of its Modern, current culture. Then, I took Modern Japanese Culture in my final semester, which made me realize that, as with many modern cultures, Japanese culture is really messed up. Politically, Socially, Economically. But, I'm not one to talk about other country's problems.

With all my interest in it, where are the language courses, you may ask? I took Japanese 101 and 102 with Shino-sensei, and 151, 152, 202 and 203 with Tamate-sensei. They are both very good, helpful teachers. After that point, I had to graduate, as I started in my sophomore year on the language track. Kind of disappointing, as it merited me only a culture major and not a language major. Had I started my freshman year with Japanese language Classes, it would have been a different story.

The high point of my college years was definitely the 2 months I spent in Japan. I lived with a wonderful family who were very kind to me and helped me in any way that they could. I met good friends and went to a very excellent school. I climbed Mount Fuji and saw the parks and temples of Nikko.What resulted from my time in Japan was the realization that I don't know nearly enough Japanese to claim that I know it. I'm not even close to fluency, even after all my studying. The exposure to the culture, the language, and the people, however, made me want to go back to Japan. Very badly.

Now that I'm out of college, and I have no desire to go back to school any time soon, I will need to continue my own study of the language. It will require much discipline.

Of course, the best way to learn the most Japanese in the shortest amount of time is to go to Japan. That's where this Blog comes in. I intend to use it as a record of my Job Search, my move, my stay and my departure. It is a good way to stay in touch with people in the States, and let them know what I am doing.

So, there you have the background. It will be, of course, chronologically organized. It is very possible that I may not even go to Japan right away; I may need to pass one of the Proficiency exams first to increase my marketability to Japanese companies, or American companies with operations in Japan.