The JETAA Pre-departure cooking class for new JETs is famed for its heat.
The recipe starts with a balmy base of a July afternoon. We eliminate any hope of a cross-breeze by renting out a closet-sized kitchen in the back corner of Trinity St. Paul’s Church, with only two very small windows and a snugly closed door to restrict airflow. (more…)
A lovely American couple moved into the region this past year and they include me in their mailing list of updates home to family and friends. I love reading them, not just because they are funny and honest, but because it reminds me of what it was like my first year here as well. Everything was exciting, fresh, a new discovery. If I go through my photo album from that time there are exponentially more images of me doing mid-air jump shots in front of random Japanese tourist sites and flashing two-fingered peace signs like Winston Churchill was in town. If you flip forward in my album you’ll notice that pictures these days rarely have me in them, cause I spend most of my time trying to digitally immortalize Noah rather than keep an enduring record of my own stark aging process. Times change.
The Japan Foundation is hiring a Japanese Education Program Officer! The Program Officer will be engaged in the following tasks under the supervision and instruction of the Directors, and in…
Back in Canada, but still looking to live the Eigo no sensei dream? Cybertrans Ltd., is launching Talkalive, a new website to teach and learn English online. Through Talkalive, students…
As you may already know, our beloved JETAA Japanese Language teacher Yoko Sugimoto is leaving us after 13 years of teaching JET Alumni. As she will be greatly missed, it was only fitting that we said our goodbye and gratitude with a warm-hearted Soubetsukai Party.
This was held Monday, June 17th on a gorgeous summer evening with a spectacular view of the CN tower in the West End. Much thanks are in order for Carey Heeney, who so graciously housed the party at her place and for also having an amazing track record when it comes to Japanese class, as she is Sugimoto-sensei’s oldest pupil having started the class in it’s 2nd year of running.
It’s that magical time of year when new JETs are getting ready for their new lives abroad in Japan. It is also a time for everybody’s favourite, PDOT (Pre-departure Orientation), which was held the weekend of Jun 22nd and 23rd at the Japan Foundation.
After eight long hours of information-intense workshops on Day 1, future JETs and alternatives, along with Sempai JETAA members, JAVA and JCSA headed over to The Bedford Academy to wind down and relax on the patio over a few delicious pints and fried appetizers.
Over the weekend of June 22-23, The Japan Foundation of Toronto opened its doors for the 2013 Pre-Departure Orientation for Toronto. More than a dozen Toronto JETAA executives and members welcomed the 60-some new ALTs, presenting detailed sessions on all aspects of the JET experience.
It was the material you would expect: the kind of thing we all encountered at our own PDO events or Tokyo orientation: how to travel, how to teach, how to save, how to survive, how to not get konchoed. Each presenter made the material his or her own, seeking to add spice to the same material we teach every year.
