This wonderful opportunity to teach in Japan was only made possible thanks to Phoenix Sister Cities!
I had always heard good things about the program, and every now and then would read about them in the Arizona Republic. They're way more supportive than the JET program, with all of the teachers (both Phoenician and Australian) living in the same apartment complex: The Shirasagi Residence. Whereas the JET Program just dumps participants all over Japan--even expecting them to find their own apartment--PSC allows us to live in a community with the other awesome English teachers.
The interview for PSC was pretty stressful, though. I was told the entire process would take about an hour, but quite honestly I was done in about 25 minutes.
"You have 14 minutes to answer 10 questions, go!" "You have 10 minutes to plan a lesson, go!"
(This is totally true, by the way.)
Weirdest interview question: "How comfortable are you with trying new foods?"
The stumper: "Name a time in your life when you were most flexible, and why?"
And lots of questions about alcohol consumption. Maybe they've had problems with alcoholics in the past?
Apparently there were 50 applicants for the 2013/2014 positions, 19 of which were interviewed, and only 6 of which were chosen (including me, yay!)
Link to the 2013/2014 Himeji Teach Abroad Candidates:
We've become such good friends already, and I cannot wait to meet the teachers who are still in Himeji, and our Australian counterparts.
More about Phoenix Sister Cities later, but I think this makes a good start to my first blog post, ever.
I had always heard good things about the program, and every now and then would read about them in the Arizona Republic. They're way more supportive than the JET program, with all of the teachers (both Phoenician and Australian) living in the same apartment complex: The Shirasagi Residence. Whereas the JET Program just dumps participants all over Japan--even expecting them to find their own apartment--PSC allows us to live in a community with the other awesome English teachers.
The interview for PSC was pretty stressful, though. I was told the entire process would take about an hour, but quite honestly I was done in about 25 minutes.
"You have 14 minutes to answer 10 questions, go!" "You have 10 minutes to plan a lesson, go!"
(This is totally true, by the way.)
Weirdest interview question: "How comfortable are you with trying new foods?"
The stumper: "Name a time in your life when you were most flexible, and why?"
And lots of questions about alcohol consumption. Maybe they've had problems with alcoholics in the past?
Apparently there were 50 applicants for the 2013/2014 positions, 19 of which were interviewed, and only 6 of which were chosen (including me, yay!)
Link to the 2013/2014 Himeji Teach Abroad Candidates:
We've become such good friends already, and I cannot wait to meet the teachers who are still in Himeji, and our Australian counterparts.
More about Phoenix Sister Cities later, but I think this makes a good start to my first blog post, ever.
Just wanted to note that JET does not expect you to find your own house/apartment, they do that for you (unless you are in Tokyo) and pay most if not all of your rent.
ReplyDelete