Some JET lingo

In the coming year, I'm going to be throwing all sorts of strange abbreviations, acronyms, and foreign words at you. In preparation, I'm offering a crash course - at no cost to you! - in JET jargon. So when I start talking about how a certain JTE wants me to be more genki despite what my pred told me about that CO, you'll know what to say. ("ESID", obviously.)

• JET: Japan Exchange and Teaching. I posted this definition earlier today, and you forgot already? Anyway, it's always pronounced like the word "jet".
• ALT: Assistant Language Teacher. Most JET Program peeps fall under this job title. For some ALTs, you're like a bass player to the lead guitar, and you get to rock out with your Japanese co-workers and make sweet harmony. For others, you're just a human tape recorder, saying the word "refrigerator" in perfect English six thousand times a day.
  
• JTE: Japanese Teacher of English. An unfortunate choice of letters, since it's too close to "JET". These are the Japanese teachers that an ALT works under.
• ESID: Every Situation Is Different. The answer to any question you could ever ask about JET. Soon-to-be JETs like myself often feel nervous about our future, and we like to ask veterans about their experiences. The nice ones give us advice, but always add ESID as a disclaimer. The mean ones just say "ESID" and nothing else, because they would rather talk to an empty handle of vodka than a JET noob.
• genki: A Japanese word meaning "healthy" or "full of energy". Apparently it can be very important while on the job to act as chipper as humanly possible even if you actually feel like killing someone.
• pred: Predecessor, the ALT that taught at your location before you. They are full of useful information, and I know a lot of JETs buy the stuff they need in Japan from their preds, who are getting rid of it.
• BOE: Board of Education. A JET's home base when not actually teaching classes. I think it mainly refers to the physical building, not so much the organization.
  
• CO: Contracting Organization. The JET Program itself doesn't make the contract with the ALT. Rather, it's up to the educational institution (school district? BOE?) to contact the ALT and set things up.

So I'm still somewhat unclear about how the organizations relate to one another. I think JET is simply the organization that deals with applicants, decides who gets in, and works with individual COs for placing people. However, once you're in Japan, you deal with your CO, and not JET. Also, there are various Japanese government bodies (such as CLAIR, MEXT, etc.) but I'm not savvy on how they all fit into the JET world.

If you're meeting a JET person for the first time, you'll now be able to dazzle them with your knowledge of some of the code words we say to each other. If you say "ESID" to a JET, you'll be guaranteed to get a laugh.

... Just kidding! ESID. There are no guarantees.