Planned Happenstance

Have you ever struggled for career choices? In general, the career center in Japan often tells us importance of setting a career goal. This means if we set our short term goal and long term goal, we can reach our destination easily.

Unfortunately, I have a negative image about setting a goal because of uncertainty in these days. This means our career plans are destroyed by unplanned events easily.

To be honest, I grew up surrounded by unpredictable world. When I was in Junior high school, I was really shocked by 9.11. Furthermore, one of the leading companies in the United States, Lehman Brothers went into bankruptcy due to the financial crisis when I entered University. As one misfortune followed another, massive Haiti and Chilean earthquake took place in 2010. This means not only us but also economists cannot predict our future because we are in a unpredictable world.

If we set a goal, it is hard for us to reach it because logical approach can be used only in logical world. Furthermore, it really difficult for us to deal with uncertainty and ambiguity flexibly if we have a clear career plan.

Are there any alternative career approaches?

In the last workshop I attended, I can learn the unique theory: Planned Happenstance. This is based on the chaos theory and it means to transform unplanned events into opportunities for learning.

Under the Planned Happenstance Theory, we do not have to have perfect career plan; however, this is definitely not about sitting in your bedroom and waiting for the right thing ti show up. The point is expecting the unexpected events and prepared for chance opportunities, such as unexpected phone calls, chance encounters, impromptu conversations and new experience.

Extroverted and Introverted

Have you ever thought about the relationship between personality and the way one learns a second language?

Based on my experiences, I strongly believe that our personalities have a strong influence on our learning styles. Basically, the best way to enhance our language abilities is to make friends who are native speakers. That is why most language learners study abroad. However, sometimes it is not easy for us in terms of our personalities.

I will assume that there are two types of personalities: extroverted and introverted. The former is more sociable, talkative and outgoing. Basically they tend to go to parties and hang out with friends actively .That is why it is easy for them to improve their language skills faster.

On the other hand, people who have introverted personalities like thinking and reading. Actually, I am typical introvert and when I meet people for the first time, I am always nervous about how to communicate with them. Furthermore, I like reading books rather than going to parties. That is why, compared to an extrovert, it is hard for me to make native-speaking friends.

According to Dr. Tim Rath, the famous writer of “Strengths Finder”, our personalities were created by environmental factors when we were teens. Therefore, it is extremely difficult for us to change them. The point is how we learn the second language in spite of an introverted personalities.

Although introverts have difficulties communicating with native people compared to extroverts, they also have advantages in enhancing their language skills effectively. Basically, they are good at reading and thinking. In my case, I make an effort to reading English books and write journals in English. This means it is easy for introverts to enhance his or her reading and writing skills.

How do you study your second language? Do you think your learning style is related to your personality?

Enter the Narrow Gate

The Japanese view on religion is a little bit different from the American point of view. Basically, the main Japanese religions are Shinto or Buddhism; however, most young people do not have any religion. Surprisingly we celebrate New Year, go to shrines and have a marriage ceremony at church. I assume that Japanese needed to absorb variety of cultures like a sponge because of geographical issues. It means Japan is an island country and we need to keep up with western countries.

To be honest, I have been attending the Bible discussion class since my friends gave me the Bible three month ago. Indeed I have no religion but learning the Bible is very informative and variable for me to understand the Western way of thinking. In addition, my father told me that if you go to Western countries, you had better read Shakespears and the Bible to learn cultural differences.

My favorite phrase is from Matthew 7:13" Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few find it."

Actually I could not figure out what the "narrow gate" was exactly at first. When I ask my friends, the answers are totally different. Someone said the narrow gate is "honesty" because to be honest all day long is really difficult for us. Another friends in my business class stated that "narrow gate" means niche　market and wide one is a mature market from economic point of view. That is why you have to choose narrow gate if you want to survive. Another opinion is that " narrow gate" means god. To do the right thing is always difficult for us. Learning the Bible is difficult but interesting.

Barbie's Next Career

Surprisingly enough, Barbie's next career is a computer engineer according to the New York Times on February 12 th. As the result of the survey, teens want to become a computer engineers in the future. Barbie also wears a neon-colored T-shirt with a binary code pattern and carries a smartphone and a Bluetooth headset.

Interestingly enough, looking at the comment column, Bill from Michigan states that " Forget it, Barbie, your gig has been outsourced to a hottie in Mumbai..." Furthermore, Daniel Pink, the famous author of "The Whole New Mind" also suggests that an algorithmic task such as computer programming is easy to outsource and replace with competitive workers from cheaper and faster developing countries.

Although the computer engineer has an image of sophistication all over the world, it will not easy for us to survive in the future if we decide our careers based on what Barbie does.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/barbies-next-career-computer-engineer/

Happiness

Although most people think about their happiness all day long, they cannot find it easily because it is an extreamely ambiguous thing. In recent years, it has been more difficult for us to define happiness than in past years because of affluence; we can buy whatever we want. That is, happiness is not necessarily wealth. I also consider all through the day what happiness is and what makes the human heart sing.

I believe that we will find happiness everywhere and it is familiar in everyday life. According to Leonardo Da Vinci, "looking" and "seeing" are different. He reflected sadly that average people looks without seeing, listens without hearing. touches without feeling, eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness and so forth.

I strongly believe that happiness is in your mind and also nearby.The simple things in life can actually bring us happiness.

Twitter Bubble in Japan

Twitter users have been booming recently in Japan. I have been using twitter since last month. Although we have to spend more time if we join Twitter, it is a extremely variable and useful tool to get current information.

Twitter has two significant features compared to mixi or Facebook.First of all, Twitter is like a public journal. It is used a lot by celebrities and companies to attract people who are interested in being up-to-date. For example, in Japan one of the most famous authors Haruki Murakami, popular singer Utada Hikaru and famous tennis player Shuzo Matsuoka and Lang-8 also join Twitter. The second main feature is openness. It means we can access to people more easily.

More importantly, Twitter also has advantages for bilingual people to get current information all over the world because of time differences. If you can read Japanese, you can get up-to-date Japanese information in the morning and you can also get United States information in the afternoon. It means you can correct them for 24 hours.

According to Kenichi Oomae who is famous consultant in Japan, in the 21st century, what they said is more important than who they said. It means our 140 words in Twitter have the possibility to change the world.

Hope for the Best and Prepare for the Worst!

When I was in my teens, Japanese longed for American life, American films and American music. Furthermore, most of the competitive workers in Japan have studied English and got MBA in the United States in order to learn leading-edge business and after that they have worked as a manager or found their own companies to progress their careers. This is because America has been the most powerful country in the world and they have been generating innovative business models and excellent human resources. However, nowadays these situations are changing.

Dr. Fareed Zakaria, Indian journalist and also famous writer of "Post American World" states that although America probably remains one of the powerful countries in the world, we have to prepare for events that are likely to take place in developing countries. Have you ever thought about the world going on? Recently the highest ferris wheel in the world is in Singapore. The richest person in the world is not Bill Gates, just a Mexican guy. Surprisingly, the largest shopping mall is in China. The impressive sixth sense technology was invented by an Indian technologist. Moreover, the biggest film maker in the world is not Hollywood, but Bollywood in India.

Surprisingly, American students realize these facts and face the reality seriously. They are thinking how they will negotiate with the Chinese effectively and how they collaborate with people who are from UAE smoothly by trial and error. Although we cannot predict our future, we can prepare for our careers. We have to say hope for the best and prepare for the worst!