Japan Society of Boston Meets Rachel Eio (Osaka, 1997-1998)
In partnership with Japan Society of Boston, USJETAA is proud to share the JSB Meets JET Alumni interview series which explores the JET experience across Japan.
In January of 2025, Japan Society of Boston got to know Rachel Eio (Osaka, 1997-1998).
How has your connection in relation to Japan changed since living in Japan?
I have been incredibly lucky to build a career in teaching around my understanding of Japanese language and culture. After I returned from JET, I completed my MA in teaching Japanese and started the Japanese program at Brookline High School in 1999. Brookline's first sister-school relationship with a school in Japan was with my mentor from JET (who worked at that time at Nagano High School in Kawachinagano) and we visited each other's school for many years until his retirement.
Now, we have a sister school with Kyoto Gaidai Nishi High School in Kyoto and I bring high school students there every other year (and host students from Kyoto in Brookline), so I still regularly visit Japan. While I only teach one class of Japanese now as the World Language Curriculum Coordinator, sharing my love of Japanese is something that I think about everyday in my work! My experiences on JET and studying Japanese have been some of the most important and transformative parts of my life and they changed my understanding not only of Japan but also of myself.
