Managing for Creativity in Japan » language skills

Obstacles Involved with being Non-Japanese

Chris Berthelsen — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 02:00:28 +0000

“One major obstacle is that you have to speak the language. If you can’t speak Japanese you better be really good at what you do. You need good personal introductions. You need to prove yourself quite quickly. You need to be there. Also, I think that foreign companies are still viewed with suspicion. There is still a sense of ‘what can someone as a foreigner tell me about Japan?’ I think that is a problem. As a foreigner myself, if another foreigner came up to me and said ‘I’m a marketing consultant, I can do this that and the other’ I would say ‘Well what do you know about Japan?…are you Japanese? ‘no’ Well do you speak Japanese ‘no’….well then what are you basing this insight on?

I don’t speak fluent Japanese but you need to at the very least be able to navigate around an office and understand how protocol and meetings work. At least play the game. You can’t not speak the language and not play the game either. You have to know what you’re doing, for example, turning up for meetings. You might think that the meeting is pointless and that you don’t need to go along but you do…they want to see your face. That’s important. In the West you might get away with not turning up to meetings…you really do have to play the game here.”

Rewire your Thinking, Learn to Communicate

Chris Berthelsen — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 02:00:58 +0000

I think that if you don’t know Japanese it will be tough but I wouldn’t say that it’s impossible because I’ve achieved my dream here. You just have to re-work your head because when you are in this country things don’t run your way, they run the Japanese way. So you have to rewire the way you think, not get irritated by it and find out how you can help. As a Westerner, people here are actually really interested in what you are going to say but the issue is working out how to communicate your message. You need to be really mindful and respectful. Understand that they may not understand what you are talking about even though they may understand the words that are coming out of your mouth – it’s a different way of thinking.

Country Specific Skills

Chris Berthelsen — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:00:06 +0000

“(CB: Do you think that specific cultural training, experience or language skills are necessary or helpful? You mentioned earlier that the people who are really well versed in the language and culture are not the ones that are really successful…..)

Well, if you are coming in at Senior Manager level or something you will have come up through the ranks in your home country. People who are more acculturated to the Japanese environment will tend to be at the junior levels. There are cases where people do succeed because there are more job opportunities and different roles for people with a deeper knowledge of Japan and Japanese – you might look at a CV and be surprised that five years ago that person was teaching English. That’s a good thing but I think that there is a reason why you are being brought in as a foreigner. You’re not brought in because you’re able to fit in. Just because you’re able to understand the language it doesn’t mean that you are of the culture it just means that you have been sensitive to your environment. (C: So those skills are not a prerequisite for success in Japan?) No I don’t think so. I think that you need the curiosity to understand that people are different and that they may not always tell you what you want to hear……that they may not be that good at expressing their positions. When I say you need to listen, I mean that you’ve got to be sensitive to the vibe. Take a more holistic approach. I think that people will give you their best if they don’t feel threatened.”

On Learning Japanese

Chris Berthelsen — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:00:56 +0000

“My advice then to someone who is coming is to take six-months or a year to study the language first and then come into the job. If companies would give people that kind of latitude they would have much more successful executives here. But companies say “I can’t take an executive out of commission for a year just to let them study a language!”
That has been one of the toughest things I’ve had to overcome. As my Japanese co-workers and friends come to recognise who I am they understand that I’m culturally sensitive and I understand the culture and I’ve studied the history and all that stuff but I’m not bilingual and probably never will be.”