JET Interview Status: Completed.
Finally, the time had come. I was finally sitting in the Japanese consulate in Atlanta, waiting for my interview to begin. I went over all the questions they may ask, my answers. I thought about all the events that occured since I'd last been to Japan a year and a half ago. JET would be my ticket back to Japan. Now, I just had to rock this interview. No pressure, right? So anyway, how did it go?
Pretty well, I think overall. I was interviewed for about 15 minutes by a panel of 3 people, one a Japan expert, and two former JETs. Early questions included What was the toughest part of studying abroad in Japan, and Why did I think Japanese politics were interesting. Not too bad so far, and the questions were a good chance for me to flex my knowledge of Japan. Japanese pro baseball even came up in the conversation. Then, I was given some more situational questions, like what would I do in x situation. I was still pretty prepared for these, and I think I gave mostly good answers.
Then they asked me to teach a quick lesson about African Americans. Yay, something open ended. They said, you could use anything in the room but I decided to play it safe and use the whiteboard. I tried to keep it visual, drawing a map of Africa and the USA, spelling out all the tough words, etc. But I'm still concerned that I talked to fast and used to complicated words. I don't think that sabotaged the interview though. Then they gave me the opportunity to ask questions, and they said I has asked good questions and had to think about them for a second, which is a good sign.
So I was pretty relaxed and confident, and I think everything in general went pretty well. I was wearing my power tie, so that helped. The interview questions certainly could have been much harder IMO. Now, concerns. I wished I had simplified my sample lesson more, and somehow displayed my Japanese language skills. Also, hopefully the girl from the embassy didn't think I was being too pushy, I was just trying to be real friednly, honest.
Anyways, I sure hope I get this job. Working at the mall has been pretty lame recently, so that certainly raises the stakes. I really don't know if I can sell shoes for another year.