Here’s some lingo that I throw around that you may or may not be familiar with…please let me know if you have any requests for definitions that I haven’t thought of.
JET Program: The program that brought me to Japan – see their website for more info.
ALTs: ALT stands for Assistant Language Teacher, which is my title as a worker here in Japan. Other people on the same program here are referred to as ALTs or JETs interchangeably – although JET just brought us here, once in our position we actually have very little to do with them.
JTE: JTE is the Japanese Teacher of English – these are the teachers (I have four) who I work with on a regular basis at my JHS, co-teaching, planning lessons, etc. At school there is one JTE who is basically in charge of me and interacts with the elementary schools on my behalf, with the help of the vice principal who also is like..my bro cos he’s awesome.
BOE: The Board Of Education – this is my direct employer. I am contracted by JET to the BOE of a town, and that BOE contracts me out to a school – my base school is a Junior High and I also visit four elementary schools on a regular basis.
JHS: Junior High School. Okay that may be obvious, but in Japan, elementary school is grades 1-6, so JHS is 7 – 9th graders. But here we call them first, second and third years. (High school is 10th – 12th, then they’re referred to as first second and third years again.)
Gaijin/外人: As one of the most ethnically homogeneous nations I’ve ever heard of at about 99.8% native Japanese – the divide between Japanese and non-Japanese people is often a large and quite obvious one. “Gaijin” is a shortened word for “Gaikokujin” (外国人）- literally “other country person.” In the past “gaijin” has been primarily an ethnic slur and when used by people from the older generations often still is. However with young people nowadays and for foreigners themselves, the word has become rather innocuous, and is more of a way to mock ourselves and our outsiderness. I of course mean no offense to anyone by using this word.
Kansai-ben/関西弁: My pet darling of Japan – the Kansai dialect. It’s pointless for me to try to learn it, but I pick up a lot from my coworkers and people around me, and I find the dialect fascinating. It’s used in the Kansai (western-south) of Japan and is knows as being very..how do you say…salt-of-the-earth. Much more direct and often more informal than Japanese used in Tokyo, I’ve heard that it also sounds rough and manly, though speakers tend to have a pretty strong sense of humor to go with it. But because what we call “Kansai-ben” stems from the shipyards of Osaka through the long history of Kyoto – there are of course many smaller dialects within that category, each with their own quirks and little beauties. Anyway, that’s what I’m talking about when I rave about cute things about Kansai-ben.
My contract: I work here on yearly contracts which are renewed in a process starting in February and ending in May or so every year. I will be returning to the States in late July 2010.
