I’m half Japanese and American but lean towards English as my main language more than Japanese.
A lot of my friends have told me my Japanese can come off as rude or provoking so I’m currently nervous to get a job.
Any jobs where I don’t need to worry too much about being polite (language wise), that an inexperienced uni student can do?
Wish I could ask my parents but they keep pushing the idea of teaching children English which I don’t want to do.
Edit: Major English literature
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Work on your keigo. As for tone, it’s basically the same rules as English but some learners focus so much on WHAT to say that they don’t consider HOW to say it, so be careful regarding your tone as well.
If you search Google in Japanese there are a lot of guides regarding keigo.
Maybe look for jobs at places that are a little more international and are more lenient towards and have experience with people like you? Basically gaishikei places. It can be hard with what you’ve said about your language ability in a more “dome-dome” company.
Are they friends or classmates? They are also your competitors and you have a huge language advantage over them being bilingual. But, from your post, it’s impossible to answer your question. The only info you gave is your language ability. How can anyone suggest a job when they don’t know anything about your major or skills?
I have not much first hand experience but just checkout jobs that request English knowledge. First they will always prefer you over others due to your fluency, second they don’t care much about the Japanese imperfection (they ask for English after all). There are many positions where the languages are your advantages (besides obvious teaching and translator), such as sales, marketing, foreign affairs, literally everything that involves communicating with or non-Japanese.
Half jap here too and ive been told the same thing. I’d be nervous working in a corporate setting too, luckily I’ve only done work in casual settings.
I’m a quarter Japanese, but spent almost my whole life in the US. After coming to Japan I’ve worked in clinical settings and medical research where Keigo isn’t so necessary outside of emails. Which, if you google “xyz 敬語” you’ll get results or templates in Japanese. That’s really useful if you aren’t sure about something. So in the future if you can find jobs that are not client facing I think you’ll do just fine!
For now, given your English major, how about working as an editor? When I was in my masters program I edited so many journal articles and papers. The doctoral students, doctors, and professors won’t care so much about your Keigo, only getting their articles past the editors for publication. I charged about ¥5000/hr
Go get a part time job at a service job like konbini or family restaurant. Those people have to use Keigo 24/7. You will learn to speak it naturally in a week
>Edit: Major English literature
And
>Wish I could ask my parents but they keep pushing the idea of teaching children English which I don’t want to do.
Well, do you think you can learn the keigo for *would you like fries with that?*
Just practice your Keigo.
Japanese people that spent their entire lives here suck at Keigo until they start working at a job that requires it.
If you speak Japanese it won’t be hard to pick up, it’ll take a couple of weeks at most
Go into construction or manufacturing. Any job where you have to worry about being polite is going to eat away at you. You’ll become an old burnout like me, not worth it hahaha.