Language Ability

Posted on 2006/04/10 15:33:27 (April 2006).

[Monday 10th April]
It was a little bit of a struggle getting up and into work in the morning, it had been a very fun weekend and so predictably the thought of going back into the office was not totally welcome. Actually though I had a pretty reasonable day. I got a lot done, and also out of the blue had a "power lunch" with the big head honcho of the division I work in, who was visiting from the US for a few days. I was put on the spot a couple of times - clearly he assumes as I'm working in Japan that my Japanese is a bit better than it actually is, so he had me translating the menu, ordering food and so on, as well as doing a bit of interpreting for a colleague of mine who doesn't speak much English. I think I pulled it off reasonably well though actually.

Language ability is always something at the back of my mind when doing this job - originally the powers that be were not totally sure about giving me the posititon, apparently, given the concern over whether or not I'd be able to cope in a largely Japanese speaking office. So I always feel really good when I can successfully demonstrate to someone high up that I can actually get by, more or less.

Way to go John! I told you that it only took time to get better!

Posted by Lox at 2006/04/10 16:53:30.

John, I wonder. Do you intend to stay in Japan and make your life there, or is it a temporary thing. Is it because you had a good opportunity for your work or is it because of Chie? Is she willing to follow you if you were to come back to England? I know, these are private matters and it is surely none of my business, but, you know, for me curiosity is a sign (and not a lack) of respect. When I ask that kind of questions, it means that I actually care about the person... (but don't worry, it is not a love declaration!)

Posted by Sheri at 2006/04/11 09:35:39.

Sheri: oooh a complicated question indeed!

Fundamentally though it is because of Chie. It is a lot to do with having Chie near her family. She can go and see her parents for the weekend now, it is easy to talk to them on the phone without the akwardnesses of time zones, and her sister lives in Tokyo so we see her pretty often. Unfortunately it is a sad reality of being from two different countries that these sorts of privileges are only ever going to be available to one of us at any point in time.... but it certainly wouldn't be fair for it to always be me and not her that was close to my family.

Partly living in Japan is sort of an experiment. I'm not sure if either of us plan to make this a permanent thing, but up until now we'd only ever lived in England together. In fact Chie had lived most of her adult life in England (she went to university there), and so we had no real evidence on which to base a decision of where we want to be long term. It wouldn't be fair for me to say I didn't want to live in Japan without having even tried it.

The career side of things is much less important. I really didn't want to throw my career away, so I was really against the idea of coming here to be an English teacher or something. Luckily I did manage to get a job in digital TV, although thus far it seems staying in the UK would probably have been a better move careerwise, at least in terms of hard cash. On the plus side though it did sort of force me to leave my previous job, which I'd been in for too long (seven years) and it also gave me some momentum to finally get my PhD finished - again, something that had been hanging around for seven years.

Perhaps in the long term it might prove to have been a good move - if nothing else I have developed an extremely deep understanding of the Japanese technology for interactive TV. Judging by the reactions from Japanese industry professionals when they hear an English guy is working in this area, I think I must be in a very unique position as a non-Japanese person who really knows about this technology. Whether or not there is any real benefit in being in that unusual position remains to be seen though.

Posted by John at 2006/04/11 15:51:47.

You could also split the difference and live in a third country...

Posted by Sheri at 2006/04/11 16:46:45.

I wonder if your boss was actually giving you a half-year appraisal, as I believe your original start date was October 11th?

Posted by Mum at 2006/04/11 19:37:20.

Hmmm actually no, I started on the 24th, so I'm still a couple of weeks off 6 months.... but even then I don't think anything particular will happen - my trial period was officially three months, and nothing happened at the end of that!

Posted by John at 2006/04/12 14:28:24.

... they didn't sack you John, which is usually quite a good sign!!

Posted by Kev at 2006/04/13 21:55:48.

Good point Kev!

Posted by John at 2006/04/14 12:59:58.

Now thats odd, it appears that John has time travelled one hour into the future to make his last post, by my reckoning its is Friday 14th April 2006 at 12:15 in 24 hour clockness.

Posted by Kev at 2006/04/14 24:16:22.

Yea now that is odd Kev. At the moment we are eight hours forward in Japan, and I was on the train on my way back from work when I posted that yesterday - so it should have been just before 8 o' clock Japan time, making it just before midday in UK time. An extra hour appears to have been randomly added on!

Maybe the server temporaril went on holiday to somewhere in Europe?

Posted by John at 2006/04/15 03:47:46.

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