japanI am not a JET. I am not associated with the JET programme or any of its affiliates (CLAIR and the like), but that doesn't mean that the teachers that have come before me weren't and as a result, my desk at the Junior High is chock full of magazines, quarterlies and general info packages about "Your New Life In Japan!" None of these are any newer than about 2005 and most just recycle the same old information about shoes, baths and food. A few are interesting enough, offering advice to beat depression and tips on finding the cheapest groceries at the highest quality, but one in particular caught my eye.
The JET Journal 2005 is an average enough publication, obviously circulated yearly, but it does have some nice photos and stories taken and written by JET participants. In fact, I've read through most of the stories and some are very well written. They hold my interest and are paced well, and some have even made me chuckle. But people never talk about good things, especially in blog form, so I will instead focus on one person: Dougal Phillips.
JET Journal runs a yearly essay contest and this particular year they started running a Japanese language version of the contest as well. According to the stats page 23 people in total submitted a Japanese language essay for consideration, and it is here that I was introduced to Mr. Phillips. It seems that Dougal Phillips is apparently proficient enough to write an essay in Japanese without making any grammatical error, as in the intro it mentions that grammar was the number one reason that participants were disqualified. I also found out that Dougal Phillips is a CIR, or Coordinator for International Relations, which once again proves his proficiency in the language as a CIR must have a good command of the Japanese language (as stated on the JET recruiting website). The one thing linguistically that Dougal Phillips seems incapable of is writing an interesting story.
But a boring story about his going to meetings and learning about internationalization is no crime and does not deserve my ire. No, what makes Dougal Phillips special is not that he's a boring writer, but that he's an asshole.
I've never met the man and I'm likely to never as he apparently is from Australia, although I wouldn't put it past someone like him to live in Japan for the rest of his life. No, I make my decision about Dougal Phillip's disposition based solely on his acceptance essay. Well, more like his acceptance paragraph.
In it, Dougal Phillips writes about how he got a "C" on his last Essay in High School Japanese. Now, eleven years later, he wins this award. We are obviously very impressed at this point, so he then offers up some advice. He then proceeds to explain why we (the unwashed masses) don't write in beautiful Japanese. See, the problem is we don't try hard enough. We convince ourselves that our lack of Japanese proficiency is someone else's fault (that is almost a direct quote), and thereby limit ourselves. Now, armed with this sage advice, he informs us that he "look[s] forward to seeing your essay here next year." This is a short lead in to what I have already described as a rather boring short story.
In his essay, Dougal Phillips clumsily takes us from one paragraph to the next in an attempt to explain to us non-verbal cues, high and low-context cultures and internationalization. Unfortunately, he spends only enough time on each subject to basically mention it, almost as if in passing, and then immediately shifts to the next. He complains about work and how it would be so much more efficient if things were done his way and as a sappy final note mentions in the last three sentences about how he has learned to accept people for who they are. No wait, I'm sorry, his exact words were "...Japanese people whom I accept as they are" (emphasis mine).
So why waste time writing about some asshole with a boring job? Because I want to. I personally write because I like to and this was on my mind. This brings me to my final point.
Because of the problems with flow and basic storytelling that Dougal Phillips had with his essay, I got the feeling that he is not inclined to write anything very often. He had months to finish this essay and yet it still read like something a semi-proficient high school student would think is good because Dougal Phillips doesn't spend enough time refining his style; the irony being that, according to his acceptance essay, he claims people don't spend enough time getting their Japanese papers corrected.
Most people look at writing as the art-form that anyone can do. If you can't paint, write. Can't sculpt? Write. Can't draw? Just write! The truth is writing isn't easy, and most writers fall into the trap of just regurgitating whatever is popular at the moment and maybe riding a mild wave of success (case in point: sure were a lot of penguin movies lately, weren't there?). Others, like Mr. Phillips, confuse a small award with being truly proficient as a word-smith. So why did I write about Dougal Phillips? Because I try to write about anything that inspires me so that I can improve my own writing ability, and inspiration can sometimes come in rather unexpected forms.
That, and Dougal Phillips is an asshole.
-Maru!
Post script: You may have noticed I used Dougal Phillips name a lot instead of the personal pronouns "he" or "him" and the like. This is because I would like to see if Dougal Phillips ever Googles his own name. I'm looking forward to the results.
hee hee, dougal google...
The JET Journal 2005 is an average enough publication, obviously circulated yearly, but it does have some nice photos and stories taken and written by JET participants. In fact, I've read through most of the stories and some are very well written. They hold my interest and are paced well, and some have even made me chuckle. But people never talk about good things, especially in blog form, so I will instead focus on one person: Dougal Phillips.
JET Journal runs a yearly essay contest and this particular year they started running a Japanese language version of the contest as well. According to the stats page 23 people in total submitted a Japanese language essay for consideration, and it is here that I was introduced to Mr. Phillips. It seems that Dougal Phillips is apparently proficient enough to write an essay in Japanese without making any grammatical error, as in the intro it mentions that grammar was the number one reason that participants were disqualified. I also found out that Dougal Phillips is a CIR, or Coordinator for International Relations, which once again proves his proficiency in the language as a CIR must have a good command of the Japanese language (as stated on the JET recruiting website). The one thing linguistically that Dougal Phillips seems incapable of is writing an interesting story.
But a boring story about his going to meetings and learning about internationalization is no crime and does not deserve my ire. No, what makes Dougal Phillips special is not that he's a boring writer, but that he's an asshole.
I've never met the man and I'm likely to never as he apparently is from Australia, although I wouldn't put it past someone like him to live in Japan for the rest of his life. No, I make my decision about Dougal Phillip's disposition based solely on his acceptance essay. Well, more like his acceptance paragraph.
In it, Dougal Phillips writes about how he got a "C" on his last Essay in High School Japanese. Now, eleven years later, he wins this award. We are obviously very impressed at this point, so he then offers up some advice. He then proceeds to explain why we (the unwashed masses) don't write in beautiful Japanese. See, the problem is we don't try hard enough. We convince ourselves that our lack of Japanese proficiency is someone else's fault (that is almost a direct quote), and thereby limit ourselves. Now, armed with this sage advice, he informs us that he "look[s] forward to seeing your essay here next year." This is a short lead in to what I have already described as a rather boring short story.
In his essay, Dougal Phillips clumsily takes us from one paragraph to the next in an attempt to explain to us non-verbal cues, high and low-context cultures and internationalization. Unfortunately, he spends only enough time on each subject to basically mention it, almost as if in passing, and then immediately shifts to the next. He complains about work and how it would be so much more efficient if things were done his way and as a sappy final note mentions in the last three sentences about how he has learned to accept people for who they are. No wait, I'm sorry, his exact words were "...Japanese people whom I accept as they are" (emphasis mine).
So why waste time writing about some asshole with a boring job? Because I want to. I personally write because I like to and this was on my mind. This brings me to my final point.
Because of the problems with flow and basic storytelling that Dougal Phillips had with his essay, I got the feeling that he is not inclined to write anything very often. He had months to finish this essay and yet it still read like something a semi-proficient high school student would think is good because Dougal Phillips doesn't spend enough time refining his style; the irony being that, according to his acceptance essay, he claims people don't spend enough time getting their Japanese papers corrected.
Most people look at writing as the art-form that anyone can do. If you can't paint, write. Can't sculpt? Write. Can't draw? Just write! The truth is writing isn't easy, and most writers fall into the trap of just regurgitating whatever is popular at the moment and maybe riding a mild wave of success (case in point: sure were a lot of penguin movies lately, weren't there?). Others, like Mr. Phillips, confuse a small award with being truly proficient as a word-smith. So why did I write about Dougal Phillips? Because I try to write about anything that inspires me so that I can improve my own writing ability, and inspiration can sometimes come in rather unexpected forms.
That, and Dougal Phillips is an asshole.
-Maru!
Post script: You may have noticed I used Dougal Phillips name a lot instead of the personal pronouns "he" or "him" and the like. This is because I would like to see if Dougal Phillips ever Googles his own name. I'm looking forward to the results.
hee hee, dougal google...
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Re: :p weird I was honest too. - lol
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