Woo, busy week. Which is surprising because my boss seems to think giving me lots of time off is a good way to motivate me to work more. (Seriously, this may sound like sour grapes, but having been told by him "I don't have any problems with the way you work, but some people on this 'team' are letting everyone else down so I'm cutting everyone's hours to get their attention" has left me less then confident in my continuing at that job.)
So, I had my final presentation in Japanese class on Wednesday last week. My friend Stef, Shuntaro and I put together a Manzai performance which was something short of Genius. Although its final form was significantly less misogynistic than it original form, I was still a little concerned about what our ultra-feminist instructor would think. Rather than being offended by our rather raunchy stand-up routine, she laughed through the whole thing. I consider the whole thing a success.
Actually, Wednesday was a big day. I got a new job, so now I can quit the above mentioned job without worrying about paying rent. With any luck, this new job will even pay enough that I wont be living off instant Ramen in July when, (I hope,) I will be in Japan.
Ah, yes. My exodus is finally coming together. I got a call back from the Embassy of Japan, on Friday. I had applied for a position through the JET program in November. Got a call back for an interview in January, and I BOMBED that. Well, I bombed the language component. I was applying for Coordinator of International Relations, CIR, position, and since much of your work is related to translation in one form or another, there is language test.
Unfortunately, this was a written test. While I might have been ok in a Oral Q&A session, being given a page and being told to read it is probably the worst thing they could have asked me to do. Reading is not a strong point for me in Japanese, so I bombed the test.
Luckily, this is Canada, and people don't really give a shit about going to Japan.* So, despite the painfully bad language test, I got a call; they're changing my application to ALT, Assistant Language Teacher, otherwise known as Tape Recorder Bitch. Its not pretty, but it gets my foot in the country. Everyone I know says I should suck it up, do a year as a tape recorder and then I'll be free to find a real job in Japan. I think this might be good advice....
Also, I'm getting fat again, so I'm going to the gym tomorrow. Yeah ME!
*(This is based on what I've been told about the selection process in the States, and not some commentary on Canada. According to my friends at U Pitt, the selection process is much less friendly in the US, and even highly interested people often have a hard time getting an Interview.)
So, I had my final presentation in Japanese class on Wednesday last week. My friend Stef, Shuntaro and I put together a Manzai performance which was something short of Genius. Although its final form was significantly less misogynistic than it original form, I was still a little concerned about what our ultra-feminist instructor would think. Rather than being offended by our rather raunchy stand-up routine, she laughed through the whole thing. I consider the whole thing a success.
Actually, Wednesday was a big day. I got a new job, so now I can quit the above mentioned job without worrying about paying rent. With any luck, this new job will even pay enough that I wont be living off instant Ramen in July when, (I hope,) I will be in Japan.
Ah, yes. My exodus is finally coming together. I got a call back from the Embassy of Japan, on Friday. I had applied for a position through the JET program in November. Got a call back for an interview in January, and I BOMBED that. Well, I bombed the language component. I was applying for Coordinator of International Relations, CIR, position, and since much of your work is related to translation in one form or another, there is language test.
Unfortunately, this was a written test. While I might have been ok in a Oral Q&A session, being given a page and being told to read it is probably the worst thing they could have asked me to do. Reading is not a strong point for me in Japanese, so I bombed the test.
Luckily, this is Canada, and people don't really give a shit about going to Japan.* So, despite the painfully bad language test, I got a call; they're changing my application to ALT, Assistant Language Teacher, otherwise known as Tape Recorder Bitch. Its not pretty, but it gets my foot in the country. Everyone I know says I should suck it up, do a year as a tape recorder and then I'll be free to find a real job in Japan. I think this might be good advice....
Also, I'm getting fat again, so I'm going to the gym tomorrow. Yeah ME!
*(This is based on what I've been told about the selection process in the States, and not some commentary on Canada. According to my friends at U Pitt, the selection process is much less friendly in the US, and even highly interested people often have a hard time getting an Interview.)