IrishOboe

It has been brought to my attention that there are some of you don't know what I'm doing here in Japan so here is a very brief summary.  I am here with the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program, which is organized by the government of Japan and has brought nearly 45,000 people from all over the world to Japan over the last 19 years to promote internationalization.  Most JETs (including me) are ALTs (Assistan Language Teachers), and in my case I am at a high school where I team teach with the JLTs (Japanese Language Teachers) sometimes following their lead and sometimes creating my own curriculum.  I am just outside Kofu, the capitol of Yamanashi-ken.  Yamanashi is the prefecture just west of Tokyo and has Mt. Fuji on it's southern border.

Why am I doing this?  I lived in Italy for 6 weeks last summer and had a great time learning a language surrounded by native speakers.  6 weeks wasn't long enough so I looked into longer programs and for various reasons I ended up with JET.  My goals are to learn a decent amount of Japanese, get teaching experience and a look into the Japanese educational system, assimilate all the stuff I learned at Eastman and UR and be free to study, practice, and learn what I want to and think about what I want to do with my life now that I'm outside of the Eastman bubble.

Please email me if you'd like my contact info or just want to say hi.  My email is under the About IrishOboe link.

I hope that provides sufficient background!