Have been living and working in Japan for about 4 years working in sales. I currently enjoy my role, but as I get older I’m not sure if I can handle the high stress environment of sales, and always being at the mercy of KPI’s and targets.
However, without N2/N1 level Japanese (at minimum), then it seems that the only options for most English speakers are teaching, recruitment and software engineering.
I’m trying my best to build a life here in Japan, but I feel that without speaking Japanese there’s always going to be a barrier that will stop me from getting the most from this experience.
My long term goal would be to be an entrepreneur or work in some exciting area of work such as marketing, real estate, etc.
Self studying is something I have tried for a long time, and I have failed to make any meaningful progress for the most part. Personally, I’m someone who needs to invest 100% of my energy and focus into something to make real progress.
This has brought me to the conclusion that maybe doing 1.5 years in a language school to reach N2 might be the best option. It’s quite expensive, and means I’d need to stop working full time, but I’m worried that in the future I will look back with regret if I dont start taking Japanese study more seriously.
For the last few months work has been getting increasingly stressful, and it’s having a big impact on my daily life. On top of that, just general stress from not understanding anything around me and not really having any friends, which is quite isolating as you may imagine.
If I can’t manage to overcome this pressure, I feel that I may end up leaving Japan.
Appologies for such an unorganised post, but at this stage I’m just not sure what other options are out there. I doubt I’m the first person to have this experience, so if any advice would be great!
**TLDR:** Not sure how much longer I can continue high pressure sales career. Need to reach N2/N1 but not sure if language is worth the time/financial commitment. May leave Japan if the stress continues.
by Last-Masterpiece-598