JCC E-Magazine September 2017

Featured Article of the Month

By Ms Cheryl Phua

My placement on the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme as a Coordinator for International Relations (CIR) was from 2013 to 2015. I was placed in a small town called Yukukashi-shi in Fukuoka Prefecture. Yukuhashi-shi has a population of 70,000 people with an estimate of 350 foreigners, largely made up of Korean and Chinese. Besides translation and interpretation work at the city hall, the bulk of my work revolved around organising activities and events that promoted cross-cultural understanding and communications between Japanese and foreigners living in the area.

International New Year Party in 2013.

One of my first assignments was to organise regular English Conversation Class. Although I have done private tutoring during my university days, I was really worried as it was my first time teaching a classroom of more than 20 people. At the beginning, I was lost with what and how to teach as the English level among the participants varied a lot. Gradually, I picked up the momentum by approaching participants to find out what they would like to learn, researched and read up materials on the Internet. I was really impressed with some of the seniors’ perseverance and effort in learning. Honestly, I learnt a lot about the way of life from the participants as compared to them learning from me.

Barbeque session together with students from the English Conversation Class.

In my early days at the city hall, I received a request asking for Children’s English Class for young children. I took on the challenge and created a programme called “Let’s Enjoy English” with the help from fellow JETs who were assistant language teachers. The purpose of the programme was to allow children, between 3-7 years old, to enjoy learning English through songs and stories. It was very heartening to see children who were initially shy to open up, get better at pronunciation and responding positively in class with me. What really impressed me was how the parents, mothers and occasionally fathers, also sang and danced with the children at class.

Monthly radio recording of “Waku Waku English” at Star Corn FM.

9 months into my placement, I was tasked to organise a series called, “Multicultural Learning Seminar” to promote cross-cultural learning and understanding. Foreigner speakers living in Fukuoka were invited to share about their country’s culture, living habits and the differences from Japan. Speakers from Brazil, Thailand, Korea, Australia, China and Italy came to the little town and shared about their country through games and activities such as song and dance. Being a foreigner in the town, I also shared about Singapore through activities, presentations and even cooking sessions. Before this, I would have never thought that I would teach others to cook some of Singapore’s famous food, such as chicken rice, yusheng, pineapple tarts and bak kwa. In return, the Japanese ladies taught me some Japanese culinary and kitchen culture in handling food.

Celebrating Halloween Party at Yukuhashi Kampong Spirit.

The lovely thing about being in a country with 4 seasons was that there were always seasonal food, festivals and changing scenery to look forward to. Keeping an open mind, I took the chance to travel around Japan, made discoveries of the lovely seasonal food and went to different festivals. For example, I never knew what fresh figs looked like. After trying the real fruit, I totally fell in love with it and there was no turning back. One thing that left a deep impression with me was an event organised by Yukuhashi-shi shopping street that allowed residents to full dress up as a maiko or oiran. It was something that I had initially thought took place Kyoto was actually happening at the small town. Together with other participants, we braved the cold winter and made new discoveries as we walked along the shopping street.

Common sight behind my office during Spring time.

Overall, the JET progamme gave me the opportunity of experiencing many, many things for the first time in my life. There were definitely ups and downs. Yet, keeping the mind and heart open allowed me to assign meaning to the circumstances and conditions. And therein laid the chance for change and an opportunity for growth. Decide today what meaning you want to attach to events in your life. This is your present for yourself. The time on the programme has become an important chapter in my life that I will never forget. Life is short so follow your dream and live a life of no regrets.

Visit to Kawachi Fujien Wisteria Garden in May 2015.

About the Author

Ms Cheryl Phua was a CIR at Yukuhashi-shi in Fukuoka Prefecture for 2 years, from 2013 to 2015. After the returning from the JET programme, she is now working in the social service sector in Singapore. Cheryl is currently the President of JET Alumni Association Singapore from 2017.

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