My personal interview was scheduled for 6pm, so I got there in plenty of time and sat in the hotel reception trying to think of answers to questions they might ask. I also had a quick look through my CV and tried to remember what I'd written in my 500-word essay entitled 'Why I Want to Live and Work in Japan' - I handed in the only copy I had the previous day and forgot to print one for myself... It came round quickly anyway and I made my way up in the lift to floor 6 and along the corridor to room 624...
Matoko came out of the room at precisely 6pm and the interview began. First of all, I was told I had to spend 10 minutes preparing another lesson of which I was to teach 5 miutes of to Matoko as if she were a beginner Japanese student of English. This was a bit of a shock, but I gave the lesson on 'I used to...' 'but now I...' i.e. 'I used to have long hair, but now I have short hair' and that seemed to go quite well. Next I had al little bit of feedback and went through another minute of the lesson and we moved on to lots of basic questions about what sort of school I'd like to teach in; what sort of location I'd be interested in; about the teaching schedules; expectations of teachers and many other things. The whole thing took about an hour and fifteen minutes.
