Monday 20 September 2010

Peace Boat

Peace Boat is an NGO that does various peace activities, mostly using a ship that sails around the world. The ship's global voyages start and end in Yokohama, and visit various ports in several continents. On board and in ports they do activities to encourage passengers to learn more about global issues, meet local people, volunteer and assist development projects. That said, there are also plenty of people who just take the journey for the pleasure of a trip around the world.


I was lucky enough to go on Peace Boat myself and travelled around the world for more than three months. I have to say, it was a truly great experience. It's possible to ride Peace Boat for free as a volunteer English teacher or interpreter. I think this opportunity is not well-known.

One thing to consider if you'd like to go on as a teacher or interpreter is that it *is* a job; you will often be busy; it's not just a free holiday. People with an interest in global issues or volunteering experience will be well regarded, and it's good to be a proactive person, willing to participate and volunteer for various tasks. One nice thing about being a volunteer is that from the word go, you are in a team with other nice, like-minded people, and you'll (hopefully) form a close friendship and have some built-in travel buddies. ^_^

If you go as a regular passenger, I'd say the more Japanese you already have, the easier you would find it to be part of ship life. The environment is fairly Japanese, and most of the passengers are Japanese. However, many lectures and main events are interpreted into English, and there are always lots of Japanese people on board who are studying English at various stages and would be pleased to make friends with you.

I think this would be a great environment to study Japanese. You can take a Japanese course on this ship (as well as English or Spanish). I believe they're currently trying to encourage more international participants, and I think it would be great to see more internationalisation of the ship.

It's also possible to ride Peace Boat for part of the voyage.

More thoughts in my next post.

If you're interested in learning more, check out Peace Boat's English site.
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7 comments:

  1. no se que blog hay19 August 2011 at 19:27

    Hi, I have been reading your experience, I also went on Peace Boat and wrote about my experience but in my case it was not good http://peaceboatbadexperiences.blogspot.com/volunteer-teacher-GET-programme.html

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  2. yoko_vibe20 August 2011 at 17:20

    Hi Volunteer GET teacher. I read your blog; I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience with PB.

    For my part, while I would concede the organisation(s) aren't perfect, I genuinely did have a great time. I experienced few of the problems you mentioned, or at least, didn't find them as problematic as you did. I thought the coordinators were hard-working and respectful toward the teachers. Although there was the expectation of a lot of participation and work, I knew it would be that way, and it didn't bother me.

    Also, the voyage I went on was longer than yours, so probably the schedule was less packed; though busy, I did feel I had enough opportunities for relaxation.

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  3. no se que blog hay24 September 2011 at 16:08

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. no se que blog hay24 September 2011 at 16:12

    Hi, thanks for your comments, I agree, organisations aren't perfect but we should keep in mind that Peace Boat is an NGO and I think they should care more about certain problems with the law, and try to do something to deal with them instead of hiding them. My feeling was that this organisation is not transparent, and the coordinators were respectful as far as you agreed what they said, don't think just do it, sorry I don't share this way to proceed. In my opinion, to have the chance of experiencing a global voyage doesn't means we have to accept everything.

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  5. Unknown21 March 2013 at 13:49

    I'm considering applying....is there internet on the ship? I am in on-line school and I really would NEED the internet to do my school work during my off hours...

    Does anyone know?

    Thank you :)

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    Replies
    1. yoko_vibe16 May 2013 at 22:24

      Sorry for the belated reply (I only just realised you commented; this is probably too late to be useful!)... assuming it hasn't changed in the last couple of years, there is Internet on the ship but it's slow and pricey. You buy a certain amount of usage (in minutes I think?) and it's the sort of thing you use for a few minutes here and there when you really have to look something up. It wouldn't be good if you relied on using it a lot...

      Also, if you did work on Peace Boat, I wouldn't recommend being a student at the same time, unless your class load is fairly light. The schedule for teachers is rather busy and there are lots of events on all the time - it's great but quite full-on.

      I would recommend it if you can though!

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  6. Unknown17 July 2013 at 20:48

    Dear Yoko vibe, I am a 65 year old Spanish and English teacher with many different volunteer and overseas experiences. My question for you now is , were there any older teachers hired when you went? I just returned from 10 months in Honduras where I had scattered classes from 6:30 am - 8:30 pm so I think I am up to the workload even if it is heavy. Also, What were the large group classes like? How did the teachers handle that and what did they present? Thank you. I am working on my application. Chris macCormack , Florida

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