OMG! OMG! OMG!

I’m in the South of France, on holiday, when Laura texts to say that the JET application form is now online! Finally! Unfortunately, as I’m away from my computer and my notes, I’m not in a position to do any work on it. It looks like November’s going to be a busy month!

No news is... er... well, just no news, I guess...

Finally, the JET UK website has changed. It now says:

We are currently waiting for the final go-ahead to release the 2011 UK JET Programme application form and ask for your patience during this time. A link to the online application form will be posted on this page as soon as we are able to do so. The deadline for applications will remain as 6pm GMT on Friday 26th November 2010. In the meantime, we suggest that you prepare all other documents required in your application.

Sound familiar? Yup, that's right, it's more or less a re-tweet of the Twitter update from Friday 15th. Still no real news. get on with preparing those documents, I guess.

Dude, Where’s My Application Form?

Another day, another Twitter update. This one is from 15th October, at 6.37pm

We are now waiting for the final go-ahead before releasing the application form. We ask for your patience during this time.

It sounds like the form is almost almost almost ready to be released. Come on!

Just another Manic Thursday

“I’m not sure I’m looking forward to Sean’s teaching style,” said Laura. “He’s kind of manic, and I think that’ll annoy me.”

And it was true. Whirlwind! Speedy speedy speedy! We dashed through lots of information about approaches to English Language Teaching, which was rather confusing for me – we were using linguistic jargon that, whilst probably commonplace in the field, left me feeling like I was outside of the party looking in, rather than a part of it. Is a mechanic expected to know the names of the parts of an engine on his first day? “PPP… blah de blah… lexis… waffle waffle…”

Confusing, but not impossible. We worked in groups. We discussed. We summarised. We shared. We struggled to start with, but we got there. Taxing, but within our capacity. Stretching us. Testing us. Pushing us. A heavy lesson, but a good one too. As I left, my head was spinning, but a smile was on my lips.

Impatience rising

Is it just me, or is something not quite right with the JET Programme application schedule? Yes, that’s right, they *still* haven’t published the form on their website. I wonder why. I had a look at their Twitter Feed. Not particularly informative:

We are now making final amendments to the 2011 JET Programme application form and hope to upload it to our website by the end of this week.

At the same time, kind of reassuring. At least they’re working on it. At least it’s underway. I’m so impatient!

Our third lesson, and katakana were on the menu again. We practiced by trying to work out which pictures of foods went with which strings of kana. The names of most of the foods were relatively anglicised, and so it was quite straightforward to connect the images to the words once the first couple of syllables were in place: “su – pe – ge… was probably going to be spaghetti, for example.

I felt a bit disappointed in myself when I heard how well some of my classmates knew the kana. I’d only learned a handful of lines. “They’ve probably done some before,” said Laura, “don’t beat yourself up about it.”

To finish, we learned about numbers from 1 to 99. Next week, BINGO!

Magali

Paying for the course took nearly an hour. We spent part of the session getting to know each other, and part of it finding out more about the course. Magali has a very easy manner, and will – I think – turn out to be a great teacher. She is calm, measured, well-prepared, and soothing. I like her. Our reading list is long, but not all of it is compulsory. TESOL is a thrilling subject, and one with a lot of academic study around it. All three of us realised that the course is going to be a lot of work. I think we’re ready for that.

We shared the bus home with Magali. She shops at my supermarket, and rides past Kath and Laura’s on the way there. What a small world.

Crisis!

MMU are out of parchment paper! Laura can’t get her degree reprint!
Kath didn’t know she needed an academic transcript!
My referees haven’t got back to me to say “yes” yet!

Disaster! Disaster! Disaster!

Well, not exactly a disaster, but a good warning to us all nonetheless. How much of our individual application have we each sorted out? And how much more do we have to do? The application form hasn’t been released yet, but that’s no excuse for slacking.

We met, as normal, for our Tuesday night study group. We started with writing exercises, using some Post-it notes to practice our katakana. We then moved on to the Collins Easy Learning Japanese Audiobook for some speaking and listening practice. We covered:

watashi wa igirisujin desu - I am a British person
Brown-san wa, nujirandojin desu ka? - Mr Brown, are you a New Zealander?
hai, so desu - yes, that’s right
iie, chigiimasu - no, that’s incorrect

Lastly, so went the plan at least, was a session on the personal statement of the application. Unfortunately, that was when the crisis became apparent. And that was when the panic started! Well, not panic exactly… but we were quite concerned.

Hajimemashite Katakana!

The lesson today was partly fun, and partly terrifying.

The fun part came first. We learned hajimemashite! and we learned douzo youroshku! and then we practiced them by introducing ourselves to every single other member of the class. All nineteen of them. It felt like being in a room with a colossal echo, hajimemashite! douzo youroshku! hajimemashite! douzo youroshku! hajimemashite! douzo youroshku! hajimemashite! douzo youroshku! We started to learn bowing too. I wonder how long it will take to be able to do it solemnly, and without wanting to giggle.

The terrifying part came when we wrote out the forty-six katakana characters that make up the basic – basic only – katakana syllablery. Overwhelming? Yes. Humbling? Yes. Challenging? Undoubtedly, yes. Impossible? No. Not much is.

JET website update

The JET UK website has been updated. Here's the latest:

The application period for the 2011 JET Programme is expected to start from around early October 2010. The deadline for applications will be 6pm GMT on Friday 26th November 2010. A link to the online application form will be posted here at the beginning of the application period - please visit this page regularly for updates.

I've RSS-ed their Twitter Feed - check out the sidebar for a peek.

Did Kath and Laura pass their TESOL interview?

Yes, of course they did! And in their test, they both got the stationary / stationery distinction wrong at first, but then corrected it. Weird!

"You're the third person on the course who's also doing Japanese at Aquinas," Sean said to Laura, "what an odd coincidence." Hardly Sean! We're all friends!