平成27年意見交換会（CIR都会ver）

My answers were long but as follows:

1
my市では、グローバル化する可能性は十分あると感じています。市役所の交流員として、海外の自治体や民間と連携して、地域に新たな考え方を持っていきたいと思います。例えば、観光の面では、海外の観光業界のリーダー（ホテル等）に声をかけ、宿泊ニーズがますます重要になってくる札幌市には投資してもらって、街の発展化に貢献してもらいます。観光客が増える環境の中で、外国語の研修だけに関わらず、物理的な面も大事になってきます。my市のホテル不足の課題に貢献できたらと思います。これによって、市民の方々も自然に海外のことをもっと自ら知ることになり（日常生活に関わる場合が増えるから）、訪ねてくる外国人観光客と関わることも恐れずに接すことができます。

2
CIRはその海外の会社などとのやり取りができる上で、誤解などをちゃんとお互いに解決するように、事業をスムーズに進むことできるように協力します。
さらに、CIRも翻訳・通訳以上に、日本の社会を外から見ることができるので、ある自治体の効率（物事のやり方）をよくするため、自分の意見を述べる場があれば良いと思います。

3
中間研修はとても役に立つと思います。ただ、残念ながら、時期は４月から来る人たちにとって少し遅れていて、ちゃんと実効できるかどうかは微妙かもしれません。
出版物について、日本語の本は少し簡単すぎると思います。CIRが一番不安で思っていることは電話対応です。電話対応に使うフレーズなどは、指導なしの通訳・翻訳より役に立つと思います。
一方で、もっとも出版物に入ってほしい内容は行政の文書の書き方の説明です。このような内容は中間研修の時に教えられますが、出版物は日本に着く前にもらうもののため、日本へ来る前に復習することもでき、仕事に役立つと思います。

4
jetprogramme.org/en/positions/
現在のJET PROGRAMMEのサイトでは、CIRの役割について、大間かに書いてあります。ただし、実際仕事すると、そういった仕事に関わらない人は一部もいます。配属によって（県庁・指令都市や市役所・役場など）関わってくる業務が大きく変わることをオリエンテーションの時に説明する必要があると思います。もちろん、前任者がいる方々には、もうすでに説明を受けている方はほとんどと思いますが、全般的に、これからもCIRを要求する自治体が増える中で、前任者がいないCIRがいるはず。その場合、そういった方々が期待する仕事にならない場合がございますという注意はとても助かると思います。（最近増える国際部局等以外の配属は①観光②経済③とある施設等）

もう一つ問題として感じているのは、取りまとめ団体とCIRの期待の差。そして、各団体がCIRについてのアプローチが違うため、同期同士で、やることが違って、混乱する場合もある。
例えば、CIRをただ翻訳と通訳だけをやらせて、事業に関わることをさせない場合もあります。言語力だけを求めて、価値観があることを忘れがちで、CIRを活用させないことによって、もったいないです。その他にも、日本語に関わる機会もそもそも少ない、いわゆる、日本語ができるALTに近い仕事を求める団体もあります。この場合は一番CIRの方々にがっかりさせることです。
自分の母国を離れて、ある目標をもって、日本に来ましたが、自分の目標（基本：仕事を通じての日本語の練習が多い）を達成できないと感じるJET参加者は少なくはない。この参加者たちは日本で働くことに対して、ポジティブなイメージを持ちにくいので、日本を第二故郷として思わせるには、仕事の環境もとても大事です。解決方法の一つとして、各任用団体に最低条件を付けることです。例えば、全体の仕事の中で、日本語を使う機会を６０％以上に（翻訳・通訳除く）。そうすると、母国語・外国語で仕事する場合があったとしても、まだまだ十分日本語使う機会があるため、成長もできると思います。

For reference here is what I wrote on my application that I was thinking of bringing up
1. T&I books are absolutely terrible and have not changed in at least 5 years. Can we use a different company or something?
2. Mid-Year Chaos needs to be more interactive. PAs and ALTs get interactive workshops and group discussions, how come CIRs have to sit through 75 min lectures? This is our only chance to KOURYUU with people we don't already know, especially inter-language, and since the newsletter was discontinued this is the only time we can see the effect of CIRs as a whole.
3. it would be great if CIRs could be utilized as 外国人視点 consultants, especially for the Olympics and tourism pushes happening across the country right now--CIRs can be more effective than consulting company+GYOUSHASAN.
4. being aware of the difference between 県庁etc. CIRs and 市役所etc CIRs, basically people who directly interact with the 住民 vs. don't and how that affects your independence and ability to take initiative as a CIR. This is a topic that can be brought up at Tokyo/Mid-Year Chaos.

i'll maybe get around to reading those tl;dr posts in a bit, but cos snell_mouse tagged me, i might as well throw in what i thought about Mid-Year Chaos in particular:

1st year, great, it's whatever. go to those translation and interpreting ones, go to other ones that sound interesting
2nd year, go to ones you didn't go to in 1st year.
3rd year, go to ones that sound interesting if there are any new ones?
4th and 5th year (i know it's not compulsory) but there's nothing really new for us to learn, especially when getting talked at by a really disconnected speaker who doesn't know what a CIR is/does, or by a 2nd year CIR really trying to get involved on JET more or whatever

i found that it's like this at regional ALT SDCs and stuff too. as 3rd year + CIRs, we shouldn't be going there for ourselves, really. if there's anything we can learn from Mid-Year Chaos that is useful then of course that is great, but there has to be more opportunities for discussion between 年目s.

is there any way we can do a kind of matched workshop, where 1st and 2nd years are grouped with 3rd-5th year CIRs. this would ideally be done in language groups to facilitate discussion, but not absolutely necessary, and there is definitely a greater sense of "okay let's do this properly" if forced to do it in japanese, i think. but that's another story.

what i think everyone finds the most useful is speaking to other CIRs, knowing what they do, how they tackle work, how they overcome problems and hurdles at work, how they communicate with coworkers, what they do on their down time, etc etc. it's also why the T&I seminar in that place with the Lake and NOTHING ELSE is so good, because you hear people interpret and you think "omg yeah, i totally didn't think of that [line of thinking/approach] to interpreting that sentence. that's neat."

that different perspective is really important because as a CIR it's so so easy to get caught up in your own world and just accept your work as final, and not challenge anything, especially given the strength of the "well, it's always been this way" thought process that is so prevalent in many places.

so, tl;dr here is what i suggest

- make the discussion at the end of day 2 at least 50% longer, with no interruptions from モデレータ about moving on to next topic or w/e.
- have CIRs prepare topics of discussion in advance (1st and 2nd years mandatory, 3rd-5th optional) to bring to the discussion. a synopsis of these 相談したいこと can also be submitted to CLAIR (not through supervisor/work) so that they have a better idea of issues that CIRs (struggle to) deal with
- encourage personal anecdotes from older CIRs and advice on how to deal with issues. it can be as easy as making the 事例発表 thing in the PA conferences, where there is a real case and people talk through it to come up with ways to solve the problem or whatever

and lastly, gfdi can we stop with the 75 minute lectures. make them interactive or something at least. give us some kind of activity to keep us engaged. at best, these speakers are knowledgeable and eloquent about a subject that is often boring or only somewhat applicable (YOSAN guy), and at worst, they are often completely disconnected with what CIRs are and do, they are terrible speakers (国際プロトコル guy), or the topic is something that is only applicable to 1st and 2nd year CIRs who have yet to deal with the issue or have yet to come up with their own solutions to it, making it redundant for older CIRs who have already solved it or who have already settled into the system.

i know it's hard to make things to tailor to everyone's needs and desires, especially given how variable the role of a CIR can be, but it can't be this hard to make a good 研修 that is applicable and a good use of everyone's time. i think it would be easiest to break it up into more, shorter workshops. make each one 45 minutes instead of 75, and that gives people more opportunities to attend more workshops, while making it easier on everyone as well.

ultimately, i wish i had more time to help younger and less experienced CIRs deal with their personal issues at work, rather than listen to the "least worst" workshop on offer at a given time.

hello gif

Would anyone be interested in reading a write-up of the meeting? I know I'm going to take notes anyway but I'll take better notes if anyone not going wants to read what happened at the 意見交換会.

Yes plzkthx.

I'll be repeating a lot of people if I ramble too much, but for numbers and additional support's sake I feel like I should be adding my voice.

So I'll try to keep it short and simple and just say what I 同感 with:
- More discussion time at Mid-Year Chaos. I don't hate lectures, but I've always found the most valuable part of conferences the chance to share our experiences (and particularly things that worked) with others, and get advice in exchange.
- T&I books are awful and need updating.
- 外国人視点
- More 交流 and networking for CIRs. I had met a grand total of one current CIR before Mid-Year Chaos, and that was my PA (and former coworker since we were both ALTs in the same town before becoming CIRs).

If CLAIR doesn't change the lecture based format of Mid-Year Chaos, something I would really like to see (although I understand that it would be very difficult to implement) would be block or regional 研修会s. I don't feel like Mid-Year Chaos was enough time for everything I wanted from it, so if we could do a regional conference (say, Kyushu and Okinawa, or Tohoku, or whatever) that would be a pretty cool resource and hopefully another way to meet and share ideas and knowledge. Ideally it would be less run by CLAIR and more by CIRs in the area, the way that SDCs are.

Of course, that still runs into the issues that Grex brought up about conferences becoming less useful over the years, and might accelerate that process.

This is the best. 

This is also exactly what CLAIR promised they would do when they cut off the counselling role of PAs. They said they would be supporting COs more and letting them know how to best make use of ALTs/CIRs in an internationalisationy way. They have shown no COs here any guidance in that regard as far as I am aware and if their idea of internationalisation is that thing that guy (attempted ) to explain to us at Mid-Year Chaos they are way off the mark. 

The language they used implied it would be CLAIR helping the COs out more and that the PA's would be given workshops on this at PA Conferences. They repeated this twice.

And yes I was talking about that guy. I agree with all of what you said. 

I think the goal for them was 発信ing the 魅了 or にっぽん。 They thought they were doing some exchange but they were just showing off Japan (I wasnt there but that was the impression I got). 

Thanks for the saks. 

I just hope what they are telling them at these seminars is not to do events like they did in Kanazawa. But it is good that they are doing things. 

Well good luck to all those who attend and let us know what comes of it. If we start compiling best practices for using JETs here we'll definitely share it so others can benefit.

OMG hahaahhahah. wow your soup sure took his/her own sweet time to let you know.
but actually, they ought to email you directly about all these so I'm surprised you didn't know earlier?
oh well.

CONGRATS.

This is great! (:

No, no direct emails here : ) It all gets filtered through a supervisor. To be sort of fair to them I was out at the interpreting training last week.

I've also learned to ask whether I have to book the hotel and train too or I will end up with a fun surprise right before the event.

Didn't you have to put your own email when you wrote your application?
Like your work email?

I got information to my work email direct too because I had to fill out some form with my bank details and my soup was like "hue sorry can you send that yourself."


Anyhow! Just FYI then!!
For the flight+accommodation, we will need to book it ourselves, and then probs mail to CLAIR the 領収証+搭乗券 etc after the thing is over.
Which means we gotta book and pay for it first.

Make sure you have two hotels+flight packages to 比較 and pick the cheapest of the two.