I'm an expert
Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
I re read what I wrote and I don't even think it came out the right way. I think i meant to ask, why do you have so much knowledge on long stayers either stuck in the system or struggling to get out?
That's what I get trying to post on a phone. Incoherent posts. Doh!
Oh. Well, because I got to see it from the opposite side I guess? When I first got here (I'll use here as in Japan from now on even though I'm not physically there), I had no clue about what foreigners did - no clue about the English teaching thing. Year after year of changing locations and meeting other foreigners, it was just inevitable that (at my age and the places I hung out at) the majority of non-colleague foreigners I met were English teachers. Over the years I just amassed a ton of stories and experiences with them where, and I'm being serious, 90% of them had the same situation before, during, and after Japan.
There's a certain mold for people that usually does stuff like JET, and the minority are the people who are doing it for professional reasons or reasons other than the usual ones. I know you guys don't like being labeled or "reduced" like that, but it's true for any industry's culture..no? I know we don't know each other personally, but for the sake of argument let's say my online persona was an exact match of my real life persona. I don't think most people would be surprised I work in a field like professional/financial services.
Anyway, it's not like I collected evidence and wrote a book on it, but it's also not like a lot of the English teachers there or on places like here or good, old Big Daikon do a good job of disproving the clichés.
As for the wife/family stuff, I'm doing an overseas rotation and was fortunate to be sent back to my home area of NJ/NYC. Now my wife had lived all over the world before we met, but I figured this area would still make the transition easier. And so the last ~2 years I've had plenty of experience of why that has and hasn't been the case. I've also obviously amassed quite a group of Japanese expat friends here through my job and my wife's efforts so I've seen how other halfie couples have dealt with life on this side of the pond as well. And, unsurprisingly, we share a lot of the same.. issues.