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Guest Blog: The JET Program

Dec. 21 - Today's guest blogger is Mark Dieker, who works at the American Consulate in Fukuoka. He writes about his experience with the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program.

Jim


JET Program Strengthens U.S.-Japan Relations

Me with Japanese students in the mid-Nineties

When I arrived in Mie Prefecture in 1994 to work as an Assistant Language Teacher on the JET program, I planned to stay for only one year. However, teaching at nine middle schools during the two years I lived in Tsu City turned out to be the most transformative experience of my professional and personal life. I not only taught thousands of Japanese students, who have since gone on to contribute to all parts of Japanese society, I also learned to speak Japanese and met the Japanese woman I eventually married.

It's impossible to say how much my English lessons and classes about American culture improved my students' ability to speak English and their knowledge of the world, but I believe that our encounters with each other opened new worlds for both of us. I re-evaluated many of the cultural assumptions I'd grown up with, encouraged my students to do the same, and was thrilled when years later I returned to Tsu City to hear several of my former students hollering out "Mark-sensei!"

Speaking earlier this year in Fukuoka about U.S.-Japan relations

Thanks to my JET experience, I was able to study at the University of Tokyo and later work at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. I am now the Consul for Political and Economic Affairs at the U.S. Consulate in Fukuoka.

What I want to emphasize, however, is that my story is not unique. When U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos recently met with Nagasaki Governor Hodo Nakamura, three of the four American diplomats accompanying the Ambassador were former JETs.

The JET Program has not only transformed my life, and the lives of thousands of others, it has also played a critical role in strengthening U.S.-Japan relations.

Mark S. Dieker

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