My First Blog

Hello, my name is Dong and I am from China. I joined Okura Shoji, a trading company for apparel materials, this June. 

In this post, I would like to share my self-introduction and my impressions as a foreign new employee. 

I studied finance at a university in China, graduated in June 2018, and came to Japan in October of the same year. 

One day in my second year of university, I saw flyers for a foreign language cram school being handed out, and I became interested. I wanted to study a foreign language alongside my university courses, so I started learning Japanese.

I am often asked, “Why did you choose Japanese?” The answer is that I liked Japanese fashion, cosmetics, idols, and so on. I hoped I could improve before graduating from university. 

Why I came to Japan 

There is a word in Chinese, “舒适圈.” In Japanese, it refers to the range of familiar daily activities where you do not feel anxious or worried, the so-called comfort zone. When I graduated from university, I wanted to try new things while I was still young, so I decided to step outside my comfort zone and came to Japan.

My first job!

After coming to Japan, I attended ABK Japanese Language School in Sengoku, and after a year and a half, I finally got a job. I joined the apparel-related company I had long admired.

This was my first job in my life, and overseas at that, so to be honest, before joining, I was worried about many things, such as whether I would be scolded by my boss if I could not communicate in Japanese, or whether there would be power harassment like in a drama... In the end, those worries were unnecessary. Everyone is kinder than I imagined!  

As for the work itself, no matter what the task was, my seniors taught me carefully. I am impressed that nurturing new employees from zero is one of the good things unique to Japan.  The first thing that surprised me was the greetings. Our company uses the greeting “Maido!” but I had never heard it before. During the first week, I worried that I would be seen as rude because I could not greet everyone the same way. 

Also, because Japanese is not my native language, my response is often slow. When talking, I sometimes suddenly go quiet, but in times like these, it is not because I do not want to talk; I am converting in my head from Japanese to Chinese and then back to Japanese what I heard and what I want to say. Foreigners living in Japan may be able to relate.

Summary

Thank you for reading to the end.

What I want to say at the end of this article is that although these are difficult times due to the novel coronavirus and life may become tough, you are not carrying your pain alone. I wish everyone safety and good health. 

I will continue to update apparel-related articles and my interesting career path regularly, so I hope you will keep reading. I apologize for the long post, and thank you very much.