Studying Japanese to discover my homeland

Before entering the university, I was a Japanese whose native language was English. Due to my father’s work, I had lived overseas since I was three. I learned English while mimicking how others talked. To further strengthen my English skills, I spoke with my family only in English.

My family moved every few years from the U.S. to Japan and then the UK. After that, I entered an international school in Japan as a senior high school student. I had spent my life speaking English up to that point. Around the time I graduated, it occurred to me that I should not let my Japanese skills remain too low and began putting serious effort into learning Japanese, the language of my homeland.

Around the same time, I developed a strong wish to learn Japanese culture in addition to its language. While living overseas, I would sometimes show my friends simple Japanese customs like how to use chopsticks, but it was unnerving that I knew almost no Japanese.

This made me want to enter the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Sophia University where I could further enhance my language skills that I had developed while living overseas and at the same time learn Japanese culture. After I made that decision, I switched to talking to my family in Japanese. I began to study Chinese characters very hard from scratch.

Then, one day, I found myself dreaming of helping others in the future using my life experience.

Strong passion leads to an ideal company

After entering Sophia University, I assisted with school events and worked part-time as an instructor for an online English class. I have a feeling that these experiences unknowingly led to my personal growth.

I was quite worried about job hunting because I was not sure how it would go for students of fall admission and whether or not I could manage job interviews in Japanese. An older student I knew recommended the Career Center, so I used it to ask about job-hunting schedules. There, they showed me a schedule that would allow me to start work from April. This put my mind at ease. A center worker also gave me detailed instructions on how I should prepare for the job-hunting process.

Looking back, being able to consult with the Career Center became a big help for my job hunting. My original intention was to use my experience and abilities to help others. With this in mind, I began looking for a company, regardless of the industry, where I could realize my ideal self.

When I was in my third year, I joined an online exchange program with Sophia graduates* in February. It was an internal event, and I believe it helped me decide the direction of my job-hunting activities. In that event, there were tables where graduates sat in a virtual venue, and participants could talk to them online. I went to multiple tables and told graduates about my dreams and what I wanted. They listened to me and introduced various ways to approach different industries and my dream. This event allowed me to develop a realistic mental image of how job hunting would go.

Job interviews were my biggest concern. For this, I actively utilized the resources at the Career Center. I scheduled appointments nearly every week for extensive practice sessions. Some advisors were proficient in English, which greatly aided me. Initially, I struggled with translating my thoughts from English to Japanese, but over time, I learned to think and speak in Japanese, even mastering the polite form. While initially lacking in this aspect, I improved by emulating others, leading to a rapid enhancement in my ability to express myself.

Looking back at my job hunting, I came to the conclusion that there are many ways to do it. At the beginning of my job-hunting process, one of the Center workers said to me that there were no professional job seekers. Through my experience, I totally agree now. In my case, I had an idea that I stuck to and was able to find a company that I wanted to work for. It is difficult to explain, but I instinctively knew that it was the right company for me. I want to continue following my intuition and pursuing my path, cherishing my inner voice along the way.

*The exchange event has gone offline since 2023.

※Please note that the content of this article is subject as of October 2023