Beautiful Sound
When you talk about it, you look excited.
When you play it, you look peaceful.
I am happy that you can play it again.
The sound is so beautiful.
I know you are a little worried about playing it, so please take care of yourself. I hope you can continue enjoying playing it.
Interaction
Yesterday, our superiors held a welcome party for us newcomers. It was an unofficial and provided a casual atmosphere, so we newcomers could be relaxed, although we got a little tense when we talked with our superiors. We talked about our business and other things and had a good time together with great dinner at a nice restaurant.
During the party, one of my coworkers suddenly started talking to us in English. Since we work for a foreign company and having been taking business trainings in both Japanese and English, it is natural to talk to each other in English even though we have only Japanese. Actually, it often happens. However, many of us struggle with our languages. I mean, it is easy to forget foreign languages if we do not speak them. The guy, who started speaking English all the sudden, also feels the same. Honestly, I got a little surprised with his feeling, because he has three-year living experience in the US and is great at speaking English. But he said three years were not enough, almost nothing.
I spent one year in the US, and the one-year experience was really valuable. I never forget it. But, as to the language, to me, one year was nothing. Of course, I could make progress in my English, but I really need to improve it more.
As businesspeople working in Japan, we have to speak (perfect) Japanese professionally. But as employees working for a global company which has lots of clients all over the world, we need to be able to speak English and more. And we would be better to handle the languages according to a situation. I mean, we need to choose proper words knowing who we are talking to. Even if it is normal for us to use English words in a conversation and we sometimes want to speak English, we have to tend to speak Japanese to our customers at times. I think now we are on a learning process.
However, I thought yesterday that all we are in a good place. I mean, we are Japanese but sometimes feel like having a conversation in another language and want to improve our language skills. We can work on together.
As I said, we are on the learning process. We never find the end because we want to keep improving ourselves.
Career
Career…it usually means a profession that one does for a long period of his/her life. But I think it could be like an own asset, value of experiences, a vector of life, history, a path of life, and our identity. But we, me and my coworkers decided to consider it as a tree. Each tree grows differently because of geographical features, environment, and sunlight. We grow up with the passing of the years as if it was the growth rings of a tree.
What do you think?
First Week of My New Life
New life just started. I joined the company as a newcomer this week and have been taking business trainings. Time went so fast this week.
I was both excited and a little nervous on the first day. But now, I am enjoying taking the trainings. It is really exciting to work with my peers. And I realized that the company has an international environment and long history, which I think is really great. I believe we have an opportunity to have a broader experience.
One surprising thing happened to me this week was I had been given an opportunity to give a speech in English on the Welcome Party held for the newcomers on behalf of us. Many newcomers speak English much better than me, so I was like “Oh god, why me!?!?!?” I knew our CEO and the top people from each division would come to the party, so I got so nervous. I had only 2 days to prepare the speech and kept practicing everywhere. I was mumbling in my room, on the street, and on a train! I think the speech went well and I felt relieved after that. It was the good opportunity to speak in front of everyone.
There are so many things I have to learn and I need to pass some tests to work there. It is challenging, but I want to do my best and be able to contribute myself.
