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Page 4 |
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The Saitama Mama |
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The JET Programme must find a uniformity for prefectural ALTs |
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-Anne Grieve, 1st year ALT, Saitama-shi I wonder how often those of us who have found cause to complain of our situation in Japan have heard the phrase ‘every situation is different’? In fact, it appears so often that it has become an acronym bringing enquiring looks from first years and tired disgruntled noises from the old timers. Perhaps it is true, as the old saying goes, that the grass is always greener on the other side, or the tatami more plentiful, or the kenshyuu more generous. The point is though, why should I constantly be looking over my neighbour’s fence? Simply, I suppose, because, to continue the metaphor, when I moved into the house, I didn’t know the fence existed. When we signed up for JET it was clear that placements were to all extents and purposes random and preferences could be made but no guarantees were given. It was not made clear however the extent of the divisions between the prefectural and municipal situations concerning accommodation. The main problem with these discrepancies is that we are almost powerless to change our situations without a lot of money and a good deal of fluent Japanese and perhaps the extreme chagrin of our colleagues. It seems incredible to me that the JET programme, having sought out and brought young native English speakers to Japan, should so abandon those prefectural ALTs into what for some amounts to a tiny one-room cell with no bedroom, or real cooking and storage facilities. We are pushed into what is for the schools the most convenient and cheapest accommodation for them. Thus the school pays no key money, such as is provided for municipal ALTs, and we are left wondering for whom on earth these places are built. The answer is simple: young Japanese people, who store their belongings in their parents houses, who eat out constantly and merely use the space to sleep. The space in which I spend my evenings measures approximately 6ft by 12ft and for those unaccustomed to these measurements I am considered quite short in my country at 5ft 3inches. Of course initially such a living space seems okay, even novel in its own way, however after a year it begins to depress. Constantly knocking things over which are piled vicariously upon slender stacks of drawers and realising that to tidy up you merely have to stand in one spot and pick up around you. There are many other ALTs who suffer these living conditions. Some never complain except to their friends, others who are able to, simply move and pay their own key money. However, since most ALTs are fresh from university and largely in debt, these are a lucky few. Others like myself have tried and sadly failed to improve their situation. I was shocked to find previously friendly or indifferent work colleagues, my supervisor and Kyoto sensei, suddenly expressing the opinion that I was an ungrateful, moaning foreigner. These feelings I believe stem mainly from the Japanese teachers’ frustration that it is the Prefectural Board of Education that is responsible for providing decent accommodation and yet somehow they escape this responsibility. Somehow it is nobody’s job and thus gets lumped onto supervisors who are not realty agents and mostly don’t know and don’t care where you live only that there is no money for it and you’d best take what you get. When on earth is the JET programme going to listen to the countless people trapped in Leo Palaces? The JET programme can be extended to a three-year period, even longer now in some cases. Is it possible that any Japanese people live in such places for that amount of time? I highly doubt it since they are free to make their own life choices, as any individuals ought. Since it is quite obvious that cheaper, better, larger accommodation is available, the fact that some of us are forced to remain in sub-standard inadequate housing, simply because somebody decided years ago that that was the way it was going to be frankly exasperates me. I have decided to ‘gibu apu’ and am leaving Japan in July of this year. I wish my replacement luck in their new life in Japan and hope that he or she is very small, very short and very tolerant |
