Just a collection of terms you’ll encounter on this site and within the JET/ALT community

Official Terms:
ALT: Assistant Language Teacher, the “official” title of 90% of JET participants

CIR: Coordinator of International Relations, the other 10% of JET

JET Programme: The Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme. This is the program I came to Japan on. I took the scenic route with this program (I was rejected the first year I applied, and wait listed the 2nd) so if you want any JET words of wisdom, please feel free to comment on one of my posts and ask.

JTE: Japanese Teacher of English, the people you work with at school. Remember, just because they teach English doesn’t mean they speak it.

CO: Contracting Organization. Either the prefecture, the city/town, or sometimes just a school that your contract is with.

BOE: Board of Education, they sign my pay-stubs.

Municipal/Prefectural ALT: This boils down to who pays you. Municipals are employed by  their local city/town/village BOE while Prefecturals are employed by the Prefecture BOE. Generally, municipals work in elementary and junior high schools (and usually have many schools) while prefecturals are in high schools and have a base school and maybe a visiting school. This is not always the case, though, see next term for why.

Unofficial terms:

ESID: Every Situation is Different (aka YMMV: your mileage may vary), the unofficial motto of JET. The cop-out explanation for why workload, living situations, and life in general varies so greatly from JET to JET.

Human-tape-recorder: A term to represent the fact that many (if not most) ALTs aren’t so much teachers as they are a resource of correct pronunciation. And your JTE still might used the tape that came with the textbook over using you.

LBH: Loser Back Home, a social awkward foreigner who comes to Japan and gets Japanese friends and maybe even a reasonably attractive girlfriend based much more on his gaijin-novelty-ness than his personality. Usually used in reference to a male, though women certainly aren’t except from being an LBH.

Japanese Words

Nihon: The Japanese word for “Japan”. “Nippon” is a more emphatic, patriotic way of saying “Nihon”

Nihongo: The Japanese word for “Japanese”. You can add “go” to most country names and it will mean that country’s language. Example: Furansu = France, Furansu-go = French.

Eigo: The English language

Sensei: Teacher, or master of something. So “Eigo no sensei” means “English Teacher”.

Gaikokujin, Gaijin: Foreigner. “Jin” means person, and “Gai” means outside. “Gaikokujin” (outside country person) is considered more polite.

Machi: Town. Cities in Japan basically break down into “-shi” (city), “-machi” (town), and “-mura” (village). My town of about 25,000 people is classified as a “machi”. Don’t be fooled, though, there are plenty of so called “cities” that have many more rice fields and mountains that people.

Daijoubu: This means “okay” or “all right”, very handy

Japanese Names

Tokyo: The capital and largest city in Japan. Well, kinda. See, Tokyo is one of the “prefectures”, but within Tokyo prefecture are 27 “wards” which constitute the city of Tokyo, however all those wards are run like their own individual cities. All you need to know is the general area is Tokyo, and there’s a lot of people.

Kanto: This literally means “East District”, and is the region of Japan that I live in. There’s a lot of reference to “Kanto style” as oppose to “Kansai style” (The “West” District where Osaka and Kyoto are located).

Shinjuku, Shibuya: Two “wards” in Tokyo, this is like the downtown, Times Square area of Tokyo. Many blinking lights, kinda intimidating.

Saitama Prefecture: I have no idea how the Japanese word “ken” got translated into “prefecture”, but a prefecture is basically a state/province, and Saitama is the name of the prefecture I’m in. It’s directly north of Tokyo, and if I catch the right train, I can be in Downtown Tokyo in an hour. I can’t complain.

Omiya: This is one of the wards in Saitama City, the prefectural capital of, you guessed it, Saitama Prefecture. It’s a popular meeting place for Saitama JETs because a lot of train lines come into Omiya. Plus considering how big is it, Omiya is an awesomely easy to navigate station, unlike certain other stations *cough* SHINJUKU *cough*

Fuji-san: Mount Fuji. “San” means “mountain”, and conveniently enough, is a suffix that means “Mr/Mrs/Ms”. I can occasionally see Fuji-san from my town, it’s impressive even from 75 miles away.