I just found out on Wednesday that I have been accepted into the JET Program and will be leaving in August to teach English in Japan! I am very excited, but my head is still swimming with everything I need to do before I go.
Mainly, I have to learn Japanese.
Luckily, I found out that I will be moving to Japan just before I left for YFU's Japan Pre-Departure Orientation in San Francisco. While the students are learning "Survival Japanese" and etiquette, I will be learning too! The YFU alumni here have also been a great help with finding resources to learn Japanese. Per their suggestion, I have just begun with the JapanesePod101.com podcast. I would highly recommend it to anyone attempting to learn Japanese on their own! So far its been easy to follow along with the basics and you can replay the lesson as many times as you need to make sure it sticks! (So many exclamation points! Can you tell I'm excited?)
I also lucked out because most of the teachers here were past participants in the JET Program, and all of them have lived in various parts of Japan at different points in their lives. They have served as such an incredible resource for all my questions.
I do not know where I will be living yet, so that limits the research I am able to conduct, but I will be happy no matter where am I placed and I am excited to find out!
(For those of you who are unfamiliar with the JET Program, check out their website here: http://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/JET/)
(For those unfamiliar with YFU go to their website here: http://yfuusa.org/)
