In this episode of the KoreKara Podcast, we spoke to Jeff, a university professor in Japan who didn't have the most straight forward journey to becoming a professor, let alone in Japan. On top of that, he's been doing academic research on how video games can benefit students and the classroom environment. This time, we explore Jeff's unorthodox journey into how he got into actually becoming a professor in Japan, as well as his unique teaching methods utilizing video games. Nowadays, Jeff has recently created a new Arena Card Game called Alternate Souls while he's working as a professor.

If you enjoyed this podcast, we have bonus footage of Jeff talking about his time working as the global head of community relations for the TCG Force of Will on our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/Korepoddo

Follow Jeff and Alternate Souls!

Website: http://alternate-souls.tokyo/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/956103204755308

About Jeff:

Born in New York, Jeff has had a fascination with Japan ever since he picked up an anime drawing book in a middle school book fair. From that point on, Jeff's curiosity with Japan grew further after becoming friendly with his Japanese professor and having conversations about the country itself. He knew that at some point he would go and make that trip to the country himself. Jeff got that opportunity once he was 18 and did a 2 week class in Japan. Despite being a short time, Jeff witnessed everything he ever dreamed of Japan first hand. It was a lush green paradise with numerous temples to explore. Yet at the same time, it was a clean metropolitan society with the most respectful and kind people you would ever find. All Jeff knew was that he will be back. 

That next opportunity came in university where he was ahead of the schedule in terms of required credits to graduate. So he decided to go and study abroad in Japan for 6 months this time. Although it wasn't the most normal study abroad since the Tohoku Earthquake had just happened. But, that didn't stop Jeff's passion to go there. There were the least amount of foreign exchange students at that time, but Jeff found it to be the best situation, since he could become friends with everyone regardless of their nationality. Normally, students would form cliques around nationalities, so this presented an amazing opportunity for Jeff to meet others. Despite the irregularities of this study abroad, Jeff thoroughly enjoyed himself and created a wide network of Japanese and foreign friends along the way.

However, returning to New York was a dark time for Jeff. As a recent university graduate, work was hard to come by. He was stuck in between being overqualified for lower skilled jobs and under qualified for higher skilled jobs. He was stuck working at his Dad's business while spending every minute outside work interviewing for a new job. Finally, he decided that enough was enough and decided that he wanted to do a teaching job in an Eikaiwa in Japan. 

This experience at the Eikaiwa became an extremely refreshing decision for Jeff. Despite, the difficulties of working  in Japan, he solidified his new passion in teaching and knew that it was what he wanted to pursue. From there, he got a masters degree and started teaching in America. After gaining the experience, he went back to Japan and began his career as a University Professor.