Butler woman teaches in Japan
Jennifer Smith has always loved the culture and language of Japan.
That fascination led the Butler woman to a dream job in that country helping others understand our language and culture.
Smith, a 2010 Butler High School graduate, is spending the next year teaching with the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program. The program places young adults from across the country in Japanese schools to help teach the English language and culture.
It is a dream she has been working toward since high school.
“I felt strongly that I wanted to do something after graduating that used my Japanese and also gave me an opportunity to improve it,” Smith said.
She credits Butler High School Japanese language teacher Masami Schaper for pointing her toward the JET program.
Acceptance into the program is a rigorous process, Smith said. It began last fall with an application in which she had to detail her familiarity with the Japanese language and culture, as well as every Japanese language course she'd taken in college, followed by an interview at the Japanese consulate in New York City.
Smith is a 2014 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh where she studied Japanese language and culture.
“I had been planning on doing this since high school, so it was a really stressful time,” she said of the months she waited to see if she'd been accepted.
Smith received her acceptance in April and moved July 27 to Japan. Her teaching assignment began Aug. 25.
She was placed in the city of Kesennuma, which was devastated in the 2011 tsunami and earthquake.
As an assistant language teacher, Smith travels between three elementary schools and two junior high schools and team teaches English with Japanese teachers.English education is mandatory beginning in fifth grade, and students must continue their English education through their senior year in high school.Although Smith is the only non-Japanese person at her schools, she says she “couldn't be happier” with her placement.“The students and staff are all extremely kind and curious about foreign cultures,” Smith said. “It's a very welcoming environment.”In the course of a week, Smith travels to several schools teaching between four and six classes at the elementary schools and three or four at the middle school level, which is grades seven, eight and nine.“The children definitely love learning about culture and holidays,” she said. “They're very curious and bright.”She said her biggest challenge comes with the complexity of the English language and finding effective ways of teaching apart from repetition.Smith said arriving in Kesennuma, which is in the Miyagi prefecture in the northeastern part of the main island, was a shock.“I was absolutely a little surprised and there are still many without homes,” she said of viewing the earthquake and tsunami damage for the first time.Despite the fact many communities and neighborhoods were destroyed, she said the people are “incredibly high-spirited.”Smith said the Japanese government has provided “recovery housing and recovery shops” for those who lost their homes and businesses, but there are still people who cannot get a home. Things are slowly turning around though, she said.“The progress I've been lucky enough to see first-hand is amazing,” said Smith.Smith said her family has been “incredibly supportive” throughout the process.“We were all or nothing for her to go for her dreams,” said Smith's mother Molly Sybert.Sybert said Smith's passion for Japan began early on with the woman buying Japanese language books in middle school. When Smith started Japanese language classes, Sybert said her daughter “bloomed.”“It was something that was meant to be,” she said.Sybert said she Skypes with her daughter often and takes the computer along to family events so Smith can feel included remotely.Schaper, who has taught Japanese in Butler for 15 years, remembers Smith as “very passionate about the language and the country.”She said Smith was very active a few years ago in the effort to keep the Japanese language classes at the school.The JET program, which is run in the United States through the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C., began in 1987. Each year it receives more than 4,000 applications. Of those, less than 1,000 people are selected to participate in the program.
