JET帰国歓迎レセプション 2006年1月27日在ヒューストン日本国総領事 加茂佳彦
皆様、こんばんは。Good evening. My hearty welcome to everybody and welcome back to the recently returned participants of the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program in particular! I understand there are six JET returnees among us this evening. I do hope that they had a good time in Japan or at least got something from their JET experience, since they invested some of their best years in Japan. Now it is time to get moving to next. I hope by this time they have successfully soft-landed on their local communities in the US without much difficulty.
でも日本語は忘れないで下さい。日本語を話していると日本の心が自然と分かります。家のなかで靴を脱いだり、上品におじぎしたりする習慣も悪くはありません。こちらでも、時々は思い出して、是非、試して見て下さい。This is what I want to say to the JET returnees.
Today we have invited members of several local Japan-related organizations in order to help them maintain and build new contacts with other people who share similar interests in Japan. These include the Japan-America Society of Houston, the Japanese Association of Greater Houston, the Japanese Business Association, the Japan External Trade Organization, the Japanese Teachers Association of Texas and, of course, the JET Alumni Association. We have also invited a representative of the Junior Chamber for networking with young local business-executives.
The JET program is 19 years old and is still growing. It has branched out to 44 countries for recruiting participants and currently 5800 young people are operating throughout Japan. It has 44,000 alumni. Some people say that the JET is by far the most successful program that the Japanese government has ever run. It was intended to bring internationalization and English language instruction into local communities in Japan. It is no doubt that there has been a great change in English classes in Japan since the inception of the JET program in 1987. Younger Japanese can command much better English thanks to the JET participants’ hard work.
The JET program is broadening its significance in connecting aspiring young people of the world after all these years. Some of the alumni are taking important positions in business and government of each country. We look forward to your success in life and continuing interest in Japan and support to JET.