In August this year, over 3,100 young people from 28 countries gathered at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Tokyo to participate in a Japan Exchange and Teaching orientation program. There to welcome the new JET recruits was Thabiso Kgosana, a South African working in his third year as an assistant language teacher in Fukuoka.
During the three-day orientation program, participants had the opportunity to listen to Kgosana speak on such topics as experiencing culture shock and being a JET of African descent. This is the second year that Kgosana has been invited by the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations to speak at such national JET assemblies.
Kgosana's reputation as a teacher and workshop facilitator is well-known in Fukuoka, where he has been based for the last two years. He is frequently asked by the local board of education to teach workshops for local Japanese teachers of English on how to effectively work with native English teachers. His English summer camp courses are also extremely popular with the local children.