The Training

July 8, 2007

It is a well-known fact, at least for someone going into JOCV, that the program was modeled after Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) program in the United States. Two years of volunteer service in the third world countries in your specialized occupations, that pretty much sums up the two programs.
After doing a bit of research however, I came to realize that there are some differences as well.
What drew my attention the most was the way two programs conduct their trainings.
JOCV does most of its training at two training facilities located in Nagano and Fukushima, Japan. After the two months of training and arriving in your country, you’ll finish it up by going through three weeks of on-the-job training and continuous lessons of local languages (Swahili in my case). On the other hand, PCV has training facilities in each country the volunteers would work in and the entire two to three months of training is conducted there.
I’d like to find someone who’s gone through two trainings and see what they felt if I could, but it’s just impossible as each program requires applicants to have citizenship of the respective countries. (If I ever get the American citizenship in the future and have some energy left by then, I’ll try to join PCV.) Just by the look of it though, PCV’s method seems more appealing for me. Sooner you get to your country, better adjusted you are to the new environment.
I guess the reason JOCV conduct its training in the way it is, is probably because of the fact that most of the trainees need to learn at least two languages before getting stationed, English (or French or other common/official languages) and a local/national language (a language widely spoken in the region. Again, Swahili in my case). Obviously PCV (and some JOCV trainees like myself) have their English done, but most of the JOCV trainees are required to learn English to begin with. Now, I’m not sure how they’re going to make us acquire sufficient linguistic ability to perform our volunteer services within a time span of two months, but that is not my concern really. (I’d like to comment on my language training but that comes in later.)
So, when someone, who has never really gone out of his/her own country for fair amount of time, needs to learn at least two languages and how to teach, JOCV’s method I think is reasonable. The trainings are conducted in middle of nowhere surrounded only by mountains and forests. (I’m going to be in the Fukushima facility, located about 200km north of Tokyo. Apparently it takes 30min by bus from the facility to get to populated areas of the closest town.) It sure is an ideal place for you to focus just on improving your skills and your languages without having to deal with drastic changes in environment and number of obstacles caused by it such as getting new infectious diseases and diarrhea.
Now, just to make it clear, I’m not saying which one’s better or worse. It probably is meaningless and impossible to judge. Whether the JOCV system works the best for me or not, I’m a Japanese citizen and going with JOCV is the most reasonable and only option for me at this point.
In any case, the only way for me to get to Tanzania is to go through this training.

And it begins tomorrow.