2.04.2004
Pipe dreams
Things like this make me wonder about the wisdom of studying Japanese. Not that I want to be in Forbes.
My favorite quote from a movie (The Muppet Movie):
Instead I came back to the States. Why is a story I'll tell you someday when you're old enough. I got some good experience there. I wouldn't trade that experience, but my heart isn't in it the way it is when I'm out here in the Wide World, so when the time came, I came back to Japan.
The question is, what will I do next? Every now and then it rears up on me.
At least one part I can answer, I will go to India. For vacation at least this spring.
As for the long-term. It would seem there is more opportunity in India, and less of a language problem as far as work is concerned. But I love Japan too, and I love learning the language. Surely in this world, there is a way for me to work in Japan and India. The next step is to find out how I can do a job that contributes to the world at the same time I'm fulfilling these insane demands.
Uchinaga, selected by Forbes Magazine in 2002 as one of the World's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business, said it is helpful that she spends 40 percent to 60 percent of every week communicating in English.I have infinite conjectures about how I would do working in corporate Japan. Then I think of dusty gulf coast beaches and bookstores, and I know that it will never happen. Or I read something like this or this (thanks to Jim) and I remember my original plan.
'In English, there are fewer differences between the way women and men talk.' The differences that do exist, Uchinaga can ignore by pleading ignorance as a foreigner.
In Japanese, a woman who criticizes a subordinate using the same words as a man ends up sounding extremely harsh. This could hurt the subordinate's performance as well as the woman's reputation as a manager, she noted.
'There is no way I could have gotten to where I am today at a Japanese company,' remarked the sole female board member at IBM Japan, a wholly owned unit of the U.S. computer company.
My favorite quote from a movie (The Muppet Movie):
Gonzo: I'm going to Bombay, India, to become a movie star!Well, that movie was made before Bollywood had a name in the States, and that's kind of how I feel about India. Four years ago I was on my way there to try and get into tech. Of course, India was already a major center for tech businesses, still, there weren't a lot of people heading that way.
Fozzie: You don't go to Bombay to become a movie star. You go where we're going: Hollywood.
Gonzo: Sure, if you want to do it the easy way.
Instead I came back to the States. Why is a story I'll tell you someday when you're old enough. I got some good experience there. I wouldn't trade that experience, but my heart isn't in it the way it is when I'm out here in the Wide World, so when the time came, I came back to Japan.
The question is, what will I do next? Every now and then it rears up on me.
At least one part I can answer, I will go to India. For vacation at least this spring.
As for the long-term. It would seem there is more opportunity in India, and less of a language problem as far as work is concerned. But I love Japan too, and I love learning the language. Surely in this world, there is a way for me to work in Japan and India. The next step is to find out how I can do a job that contributes to the world at the same time I'm fulfilling these insane demands.
