Job Discussion Forums

[iverin]

So I've read all of the FAQS and I've been reading posts on here since I got the job back in June. But...

Does anyone have any tips for someone heading to Tokyo in a week? I'm working on memorizing Katakana and Hiragana at the moment in between packing and sorting things out at home. So, I'm wondering what do you wish people had told you before you left for Japan?

[Glenski]

Are we to assume you have a job lined up already? Advice is different if you don't.

My advice nonetheless:

Maintain a lifeline back home. Email, snail mail, personal web site, whatever. Realize, though, that in a short time (month or more) that friends and family will forget about the glamor of your exotic life here because their lives go on as normal, so the immediate responses to your communications may fall off.

Also, try to stay focused on where you are -- Japan. When things go wrong (and they will), don't blame the country or its culture. You have to put things in perspective. Not only does that mean struggling to learn what the culture is all about (business practices, for example, that are not the same as back home), but it also means not imposing your western morals on life here.

Never forget that you are the ambassador for your country and for all other foreigners as well. Act like it.

[iverin]

Thanks Glenski,

I do indeed have a job lined up that starts the day after I arrive. I've been in contact with a few people who live in the city I am going to so I have connections that way, as well as some connections back home. I'll keep the advise about return replies in mind. This is my first time on a plane, first time travelling anywhere other than the US, and my first time (well since I was 12 when I went to Quebec) going somewhere that I don't fluently speak the language. So I'm in for a lot of firsts. I've already had some contact with future co-workers and they seem to be nice people (as much as you can read a person through email) so I'm excited for that. I'm pretty good at keeping my morals to myself, so there are a few things I don't agree with but I would never voice that. Cultures are different for a reason so I don't plan on trying to impose Western ideals into my new life. In fact, I think I'd rather try to work with as many new cultural norms as I can. I figure, if I wanted a life like I have here I could have found a teaching job within Canada or the Us.

[bornslippy1981]

The same things Glenski said, and bring deodorant.

[Khyron]