Experience

It’s been almost three months since I came back to Canada for a long-term business trip (and I have not updated my blog for almost three month. Sorry!). I’ve done many things in Canada so far: in Calgary, Hamilton, Orillia, and in Mississauga and Toronto. And what I do now is very different from my previous experiences. I inevitably work with Japanese where I need to be Japanese.

Japanese are funny people. Some of them assume that those who can speak English can do whatever in English, which is obviously wrong. It’s just like expecting them to do whatever in Japanese because they can speak Japanese. But in fact, obviously, people have skills, knowledge and expertise in different fields. Some people simply don’t understand it. One good thing is that I can experience something new unexpectedly thanks to my ability to speak English. Now I work as a coordinator and negotiate with other people in English. When I got this position, I thought “oh, come on, don’t expect me to do whatever. I have little experience in this”. It took me some time to accept the reality, but now I think this is not bad. I like communicating with people. I like mediating or facilitating roles. This can be a good opportunity for me to experience something new and improve skills in this new field.

The current job also makes me recognize that I am somehow different from typical conservative Japanese; I am more adaptable than them. I remember that I wrote something like this in an old post when I worked for another Japanese company in Canada. Probably I can be adaptable not only thanks to my character but also because of the unusual variety of experiences in the past. Now, I need to be adaptable at a higher level, adaptable enough to work with conservative Japanese. I usually try to stay away from those conservative ones because they are a pain. Now I don’t need to be “generous”, don’t need to get along and hang out with them, but need to accept the difference and understand their attitude rather than complaining about their behaviour. You might think “is it that big deal?”. Yes, it is to me. this will be a new experience to me.

I also need to accept, again, that life in unstable. It’s a long story, but I don’t know what I will be doing two months from now though I have a full-time job now. It’s a long story. Whatever happens, it will be a new experience to me. Let’s see.

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