During my\u00a0internship in Impact Hub Kyoto, I worked on my project\u00a0on designing the member’s wall and it\u00a0turned out to be a really amazing experience. I learned a lot from this\u00a0especially how to corporate with Japanese collegues under the collectivistic culture here. It is different from what I experienced in America \u00a0since\u00a0the working environment in the US is always\u00a0easy to get in. Everyone around seems talkative and\u00a0outgoing and easy to build up\u00a0relationship with. However, in Japan, it took me a long time to fit in and establish my role in the group since nobody was what I was good at and how I could contribute to the group. In the beginning, I jumped in with the identity of a foreign student from the United States of America, which means I automatically received some\u00a0sort of credibility and\u00a0respect from my Japanese colleagues as a professional and fresh blood from abroad. However, on the other hand, it makes me harder to get involve into the group since my “price” is high and they cannot treat me as a normal new-comer doing messy chores. At the beginning when I was talking to them about my thoughts on some club issue, I could easily found Erin san and Tomo san were\u00a0uneasy with some of my ideas but they\u00a0said nothinng.\u00a0Also, they felt nervous talking with me or ask for\u00a0favor since they were unsure if I can understand what they said or unhappy to do messy little stuff.\u00a0\u00a0Here, Japanese language ability is also another factor that deeply affects our communication. Since this is a working place, people tend to be speak fast and concise, and it is frustrating to ask your partner to repeat what they said for several time, because your Japanese is not good enough. You can easily get the feeling that you are impairing the group efficiency and making your co-workers to sacrifice their time and energy to your stupidness. What even worse is that Japanese is so delicate that your partner would never understand what you want to say or even confirm unless you use the right wordings. Sometimes you will try to make the story long to let them understand, but this is\u00a0so inefficient and usually\u00a0in the end, both of you would got lost and ended the conversation with silence.<\/p>\n
Still, I chose to stay there because I wanted to try best to see\u00a0if I can get involved into this Japanese working environment. Also, l like all the staffs and the cool Noh stages and Bamboo yard in their space.<\/p>\n
After I patiently helping with little thing, keeping participating my work, and attending some of their gathering, \u00a0I kind of felt that they gradually being more and more relaxed on me, which means they are\u00a0accepting me as one of their member. After all, it is one of my best time studying abroad in Kyoto, and my Japanese did improve a lot from this.<\/p>\n
So, I will say it is a good but rare experience to work with Japanese people in Japan. Usually my US friends would get worried and upset when they found they cannot get into the Japanese community easily. I will say the way of entry is different since you cannot just build up good relationship with them by talking with\u00a0them\u00a0only, but also to show your effort and contribution to the community, as well as\u00a0pretty fluent Japanese, the basic requirement for communication. From time to time after the group member confirmed that you are\u00a0hardworking and\u00a0good in nature with their eyes, you will\u00a0automatically receive an invitation for dinner gathering and next time when\u00a0you come, you will find everyone is relaxed. Without saying anything, you just become one of them, and everyone knows. Also, you will find\u00a0ask them to get things done\u00a0will be\u00a0much much easier and faster.<\/p>\n
Oh, it is really Japanese, isn’t it?<\/p>\n
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By Xiaoyu Liu, Brandeis 2014er,<\/p>\n
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During my\u00a0internship in Impact Hub Kyoto, I worked on my project\u00a0on designing the member’s wall and it\u00a0t … \u7d9a\u304d\u3092\u8aad\u3080