How has Japanese aided you in your profession

[BrianM]

i just want to know how japanese has helped u guys in your profesions. I guess this is mainly a question for those who moved to japan and have remained there for many years.

[AussieB]

Well I only lived there for 9 months, but with some further study when I got back home I am now an Interpreter/ Translator.

The work culture in Japan is very different so I much prefer working here but still being able to use my Japanese skills.

[Harisenbon]

Umm.. without Japanese I would not be able to communicate with co-workers, clients, customers and suppliers. I would not be able to get drunk like a fish with customers after work, thus bringing about "nomunication" and increasing my ability to serve my company.

In my personal life, I would not be able to order a beer, talk to my wife, or yell at the kids to get off my damn lawn.

Were you looking for something a little more specific?

[keatonatron]

Well, other than the English teachers, I'm pretty sure everyone who lives in Japan requires Japanese for their jobs. Asking how it has helped them professionally seems like a silly question. (When you got your first job, Brian M, how did your English skills aid you?)

My Japanese will become essential next month when I start attending an all-Japanese school where not one person speaks English.

[Kagemaru]

keatonatron wrote:
Well, other than the English teachers, I'm pretty sure everyone who lives in Japan requires Japanese for their jobs.

Just to be a stick in the mud:

6 periods a day teaching English at a senior high school averages out to 4.5 hours a day using English.

All other communication is in Japanese. Meetings, staffrooms, smoking rooms, etc

Does it aid me?

No.

Is it a necessity?

Yes.

[Yudan Taiteki]

Currently my job is teaching assistant for Japanese classes; it would be kind of hard to do any teaching of Japanese if I didn't know the language.

[keatonatron]

Kagemaru wrote:

keatonatron wrote:
Well, other than the English teachers, I'm pretty sure everyone who lives in Japan requires Japanese for their jobs.

Just to be a stick in the mud:

Just to be a... thing that pulls sticks out of mud, I only mentioned English teachers as a possibility because I figured if I didn't someone could come by and say "I work for Nova and don't speak a single word of Japanese and I do fine!".

I know people like that personally, so I'm positive they exist.

Yes, you definitely can use Japanese if you're an English teacher (I speak more Japanese than English when I'm teaching), but that's probably the only example of a job in Japan where it's possible to get by without (depending on where you work).

[PandanoTake]

I'm also a teacher assistant, as well as a tutor, and communicate socially in Japanese and English.

[suhui]

How about when working in the business/finance profession?

Will it be useful for me to go for a very short exchange program (say 2 weeks?) in a Japanese university?

[two_heads_talking]

well, how about a different spin.. I run into Japanese clients every so often in the "architecture" side of my industry. i also would interact with a few Japanese visitors to DC every so often and I find my knowledge of Japanese to be at least helpful..

I have given directions to different parts of the mall, i sent one poor family on a wild goosechase in DC proper because I forgot exactly where I was.. I was standing right in front the building they were looking for and I thought I was in front of another building.. (yeah, I was a bit embarassed on that one) And I spoke to a client giving him a brief on what exactly was happening with his building .. His interpretor had a sore throat and couldn't speak..

so, I still use it every now and again, but I am not as fluent as I once was.

[richvh]

Well, when I was in Japan for a year, my ability to speak Japanese (or lack thereof) had absolutely no impact on my job, and I wasn't an English teacher.

[spoiler]I was a Marine.[/spoiler]

[flammable hippo]

What I don't get is why an English teacher in Japan wouldn't need to know Japanese. I mean, when you teach your students grammar, vocab, etc, don't you teach it to them in Japanese? I mean English speakers learning Japanese tend to be taught in English, so shouldn't it be the same thing in Japan, only reversed? If your students are able to understand an entire English lesson in English, I don't think they need a teacher anymore.


And to not highjack the thread, Japanese doesn't help me at my job at all. Well, its not really a job since I don't get paid. It's more like a volunteer job once a week...but occasionally a few Japanese people have shown up, but I didn't actually speak to them in Japanese, since they were more keen on using English and it wouldn't have been nice to just switch languages on them just so I could have someone to practice with.

[Yudan Taiteki]

flammable hippo wrote:
What I don't get is why an English teacher in Japan wouldn't need to know Japanese. I mean, when you teach your students grammar, vocab, etc, don't you teach it to them in Japanese? I mean English speakers learning Japanese tend to be taught in English, so shouldn't it be the same thing in Japan, only reversed? If your students are able to understand an entire English lesson in English, I don't think they need a teacher anymore.

Welcome to the wonderful world of English "education" in Japan.

[Infidel]

flammable hippo wrote:
What I don't get is why an English teacher in Japan wouldn't need to know Japanese. I mean, when you teach your students grammar, vocab, etc, don't you teach it to them in Japanese? I mean English speakers learning Japanese tend to be taught in English, so shouldn't it be the same thing in Japan, only reversed? If your students are able to understand an entire English lesson in English, I don't think they need a teacher anymore.

Many of the "English Teacher" programs just use the English speakers as a portable tape recorder.

All you do is read a script--in English. I understand that trying to actually help the Japanese English teachers is strongly discouraged.

[keatonatron]

At my work, a very large majority of the students learned enough English in high school and college that they can understand just about anything you say, if you speak slowly. However, they need a lot of practice to be able to talk on their own and fix their grammar mistakes (they don't need to know why it's wrong, just that it is and what the right answer is).