I will be teaching over in Japan for the next year as part of the JET Program. Can you offer any advice?

Advice about living over there, how Japanese are toward white Americans, etc..I will be teaching over in Japan for the next year as part of the JET Program. Can you offer any advice?
Japan is a very nice place to live in since everything is easily accessible. Japanese love white Americans, so you don't have to worry about anything. I suggest that you go to this site: http://www.japan-guide.com/ to learn more about Japanese culture and lifestyle. And please enjoy your stay in Japan.I will be teaching over in Japan for the next year as part of the JET Program. Can you offer any advice?
i think it is the most important to be friendly with student. Each school has diff. level. Therefore, if you go to low level of school, student cannot even understand easy English, and they do not pay attention for lecture. They are just not willing to learn,,,unfortunately. If you go to better educated school, there are more student who are willing to learn English. Anyway, in my opinion, the most important thing is how you get being friendly teacher and give fun and attractive lectures. I went really bad high school, and I and my friend never study ,,,,,,. However, I have been always interested in Western Culture, so whenever TA comes to my English class, I was always happy and was always special day. In addition, in my opinion, worse educated school has more students who are interested in western culture, so do not worry which school you will go. Try to teach western cultures in the most fun way. Japanese likes teachers who sees world in the same way with them, so try to see the views also from the students' views. Many japanese cannot speak or understand english compare to other countries. you might have a little bid hard time but there is always hard time and after the milestone, you will gain really precious time. If you need help and ask for it, most people are willing to help foreigners too. When I moved to U.S. first time, I had really hard time (I was practicing how to ask ';May I have a couple of water?'; inside an airplane on the way to come to U.S.....), but now, I have really good time here and enjoying. Good luck and I am hoping you to have great time there!!!
Learn Japanese. Start studying now! There are far too many foreigners here who can not speak Japanese, have a lot of problems because of this, and then act like it is Japan's fault.


Japanese is not a difficult language as long as you study continuously. You will not regret it one second once you get here.





You can have a good time here without Japanese, but your experience will be very limited.





You might want to check out:





www.jetsetjapan.com (a site by JETs for JETs)





www.gaijinpot.com (a site by foreigner for foreigners all over Japan, lots of good info, but a lot of whiny people on it too)
Japanese won't judge stranger's skin color but character individually.