Atholl's been writing a fantastic business update to his company and I thought I'd share this piece from him more publicly....
みなさん、こんにちは
みなさん、こんにちは
お元気ですか?私の家族と私は元気です、ありがとうございました。東京は今のところ風邪を
凍結が、幸いにもほとんど毎日澄んだ青い空を持っています。
I am proud to tell you that my Japanese is progressing well. I will leave it to you to find an online translation tool to translate my opening paragraph to give you a small taste of what it’s like to live in a country where you cannot speak or read the language. You will also see that the online translation tools don’t translate with 100% accuracy which adds to my confusion at times and why it’s easy to misunderstand people whose first language is different to yours.
My Japanese ‘skills’ (that may be a slight exaggeration) are now at the stage where I can get by with the basic necessities of everyday life, like saying: please, thank you, hello and goodbye, counting, asking for directions, asking how much something costs, asking what time a shop opens or closes, saying ‘I have a headache’ and ‘can I park here now without paying’? I am sadly still some way from learning conversation to a business level.
Reading Japanese is not without its challenges either. There are three alphabets: Hiragana has 51 characters or sounds, Katakana 50 and Kanji only about 10,000! They are all used together and the writing above is a combination of all three. I can read Hiragana, a small amount of Katakana and I’m fluent in Kanji. Yeah, right! Generally, people need to ‘only’ memorise approximately 2,000 Kanji which is taught up to the age of 14 or 15 at school. Learning a new language at this stage of my life has been one of the most challenging tasks I have ever done, but the sense of satisfaction I get from understanding something new is terrific.
The picture below is one I took last night when Lori and I were going through our mail. We actually had to laugh because as the post piles up we battle to understand what it all means. There are bills for gas, electricity, home phone and internet and a letter from our bank. It is all written in Japanese with minimal English. We cannot make out what period they relate to, if they are indeed electricity or gas (we are guessing) or when they are due for payment. So each month I take my mail to the office and my colleague Sugawara san (my guardian angel who sits next to me), translates a bunch of these so that we can understand them. Lori then takes them to the Post Office or a convenience store like 7-11 where utility bills can be paid. She of course has her Google Translate phone app close to hand when doing that.
I am proud to tell you that my Japanese is progressing well. I will leave it to you to find an online translation tool to translate my opening paragraph to give you a small taste of what it’s like to live in a country where you cannot speak or read the language. You will also see that the online translation tools don’t translate with 100% accuracy which adds to my confusion at times and why it’s easy to misunderstand people whose first language is different to yours.
My Japanese ‘skills’ (that may be a slight exaggeration) are now at the stage where I can get by with the basic necessities of everyday life, like saying: please, thank you, hello and goodbye, counting, asking for directions, asking how much something costs, asking what time a shop opens or closes, saying ‘I have a headache’ and ‘can I park here now without paying’? I am sadly still some way from learning conversation to a business level.
Reading Japanese is not without its challenges either. There are three alphabets: Hiragana has 51 characters or sounds, Katakana 50 and Kanji only about 10,000! They are all used together and the writing above is a combination of all three. I can read Hiragana, a small amount of Katakana and I’m fluent in Kanji. Yeah, right! Generally, people need to ‘only’ memorise approximately 2,000 Kanji which is taught up to the age of 14 or 15 at school. Learning a new language at this stage of my life has been one of the most challenging tasks I have ever done, but the sense of satisfaction I get from understanding something new is terrific.
The picture below is one I took last night when Lori and I were going through our mail. We actually had to laugh because as the post piles up we battle to understand what it all means. There are bills for gas, electricity, home phone and internet and a letter from our bank. It is all written in Japanese with minimal English. We cannot make out what period they relate to, if they are indeed electricity or gas (we are guessing) or when they are due for payment. So each month I take my mail to the office and my colleague Sugawara san (my guardian angel who sits next to me), translates a bunch of these so that we can understand them. Lori then takes them to the Post Office or a convenience store like 7-11 where utility bills can be paid. She of course has her Google Translate phone app close to hand when doing that.
We are living in extremely interesting times in Japan at the moment. The country is undergoing
a significant political and economic shift. For those of you who aren’t aware, 1989 was the
height of the economic bubble here. Since then the economy has endured years of no growth,
deflation, subdued stock exchange and property prices, and almost zero percent interest rates.
Over this period various governments have tried to manage the economy out of this
difficult position. In fact, in the last seven years there have been seven different Prime
Ministers who have all attempted to work with the central bank, The Bank of Japan to
resuscitate the economy. The governments have all increased spending (this strategy
has been contrary to the austerity campaigns being implemented in Europe at the
moment) and as a result the public infrastructure has been excellently maintained over
the years. This continued government spending now means that Japan has a
government debt ratio of over 200% to Gross Domestic Product, the largest percentage
of any nation in the world and second only to America in dollar terms. A new Prime
Minister Mr. Abe was elected in December and interestingly his focus has been to further
ramp up government spending to finally return the economy to growth. In addition his
intention is to weaken the Yen to revive the struggling export sector and to drive up
inflation. Some have called his financial policies ‘Abenomics’ and although early signs
have been promising, economists are divided as to the suitability of his tactics. Time will
tell...
If you are interested in learning more, there are extensive articles on the internet that provide excellent insight into the history, the economics and the strategy of the past and current governments. I will certainly be watching the outcome over the next few years closely, I have found it enthralling.
On a lighter note, in January we had our first snow of the winter, apparently it was the heaviest snowfall in Tokyo in over ten years. This is a picture of a park near our home taken by Lori the following day, what a beautiful city this is, amplified when it’s covered in white.
Until next time,
さようなら
Atholl
PS: if you were having trouble finding a translation tool, this is my opening paragraph:
Hello everyone. How are you? My family and I are well, thank you. Tokyo is freezing cold at the moment but fortunately has clear blue skies almost every day.
If you are interested in learning more, there are extensive articles on the internet that provide excellent insight into the history, the economics and the strategy of the past and current governments. I will certainly be watching the outcome over the next few years closely, I have found it enthralling.
On a lighter note, in January we had our first snow of the winter, apparently it was the heaviest snowfall in Tokyo in over ten years. This is a picture of a park near our home taken by Lori the following day, what a beautiful city this is, amplified when it’s covered in white.
Until next time,
さようなら
Atholl
PS: if you were having trouble finding a translation tool, this is my opening paragraph:
Hello everyone. How are you? My family and I are well, thank you. Tokyo is freezing cold at the moment but fortunately has clear blue skies almost every day.
