My background is a bit unique. I’m a “hafu” kid(Philippines and Japan) and I grew up going to international school for elementary and middle school where I used English all the time in school and in my daily life, but then as I matured reality hit me and I realized that I’m a Japanese citizen with 0 Japanese skills. I asked my parents to put me into a normal Japanese High school(where I honestly struggled a lot to fit in, became extremely depressed by the time I graduated) and after a couple of blank years just staying at home and working odd jobs, I got into a Japanese university with an all-English curriculum. I’m doing okay now but tuition’s expensive and I feel like I’m heading nowhere in this liberal arts major.(am getting financial help from parents and student loans)
So now I’m trying to decide what the hell I should do with my life. I know I should work on my Japanese and I think it’s pretty good now for someone who had almost no knowledge of the language \~5 years ago, but I look very Japanese and people think I’m slow or weird because of how awkward my Japanese sounds. Basically, I don’t have the “Gaijin Pass” and unless I act and speak Japanese perfectly, people get put off by me because they expect me to be “normal”. At this point I feel like my only option is to work in a factory where I’ll destroy my body in the next 20 years.
I’ve got some interest in programming and people here have said that there’s plenty of programmer jobs where you can get by with only English but I wouldn’t even know where to get started with that. I think getting a computer science degree in english will help me with my goals but my relationship with my parents is rocky because they blame me for “using up all their money on international school”. I never asked to go, they decided to enroll me from Grade 1 because they thought it would fit my background. If I decide to change majors, they’d probably refuse to help financially or even cut me off. What should I do? I feel stuck.
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edit: sorry for the last post, i dont know why that happened with the formatting
14 comments
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There are *a lot* of resources if you’re looking to learn programming, and many of them are actually free. [Free Code Camp] has an excellent program that many people have used to find their way into the industry, and the same could be said of the [Odin Project](https://www.theodinproject.com/).
[EdX](https://www.edx.org/) offers free courses from actual universities, but they do charge a small fee if you want a verified certificate you can put somewhere like LinkedIn.
[Code in Place](https://codeinplace.stanford.edu/) is a nice intro to Python, and they even host one live class per week, but I’m not sure when the next session is starting up.
If you have any questions, u/learnprogramming is a great resource, and a pretty supportive community overall. Unfortunately, this info only addresses one aspect of your post, but I hope you find it useful if you decide to pursue programming. 頑張って！
I mean, as the country ages it may not be such a bad idea to start looking abroad for opportunities anyway. In the interim, yeah you have to do *something* but it’s not unreasonable to start building a bridge to somewhere English speaking with possibly higher salaries.
As far as problems go, speaking English in 2023 is probably one of the better problems to have. It makes you look weird in a Japanese crowd, but like, there are plenty of Asian looking foreign engineers here that don’t speak the language and get along more or less fine.
If you can do IT and speak English that seems like the ticket to me (until AI does everything). I would personally head that direction and broaden my horizons beyond Japan, personally.
Technical writer.
Graphics designer.
HR, PR, SMM.
Junior manager at software company that hires foreigners.
Tech support, tech delivery (person who goes on site with equipment, smiles to the client politely, takes their bullshit when things don’t work, stays quiet) and similar non-tech roles.
Bar staff or desk clerk at international hotel.
Low level position at some government thing that deals with foreign relations or foreigners and then work your way up.
Teacher at international kindergarten.
Homemaker?
Move to Canada 🍁🇨🇦
1. Finish your degree, otherwise you’re going to be paying your parents and student loans without a degree.
2. Finish your degree.
3. I might be repeating myself but take some elective courses in something that interests you and finish your degree.
Just having a degree can be useful even if you don’t plan to go into the field. Just get the degree and it will be a stepping stone. ‘Some college’ doesn’t help you but have a degree (any degree) looks good when looking for a job especially if you plan to go abroad.
If you get programming skills backed up with a degree and experience, the world is your oyster.
I left the industry and became a teacher many years ago because I didn’t give it a chance. However, I realised it was way more of a progressive place to work than the polar opposite of education.
I agree with finishing the degree (how much longer do you have left?). Some electives in programming might help. Then seriously consider travelling and working overseas. If your English is perfect you will be able to travel in all the western countries and having a Japanese passport will make this easier. Living in Japan without Japanese is difficult but living in USA, uk or Australia with strong English is easier. If you’re still finding yourself travel is always a good option and in your situation it sounds like living abroad might actually be easier and give you a chance to reflect
Good luck
Your parents are major idiots. I’m sorry this happened to you. They’ve completely failed to prepare you for adult life in Japan. International school is a step toward university/life outside of Japan and seems like they had no idea what they were getting you into. Just a total waste of time and money.
Most western countries are extremely difficult to immigrate to, so I think you just have to grind your Japanese up to a decent enough level where you can leverage it into a bilingual role in the future.
I work in a big corporate in Tokyo. I have seen many half Japanese people in HR with good careers without having a strong academic background. Big corporates need bilinguals. I would suggest you work on your Japanese. Being a bilingual with some college degree will help you get into HR. Along the way try to apply for internships that should help you find full time opportunities eventually. Good luck mate
It sounds like your high school years weren’t very productive academically. How did you manage to get into university?
So many people like you because many Filipino parent(s) are shitty parents and have no idea how to raise their children both domestically and internationally.
It’s not too late for you— you’re young and you can still learn Japanese. You just have to put in the effort. You don’t have to meet the expectations of the people around you. Just keep working and you’ll find your place.
Exclusively looking for English jobs isn’t an option IMO. Executive jobs will be taken by expats from Western countries, English teaching jobs will be dominated by people with licenses/qualifications, and ALT/Eikaiwa work is shitty. And the truth is if people want a native English speaker they will first pick from a pool of people who are white.
Finish your major, work on your Japanese, and go the shushoku way. There are many foreigners who have done it even without perfect Japanese. Eventually you will probably gain enough skills, get out of a traditional company, and find work at a (good) gaishikei.
Big companies need bilingual workers but they usually want bilingual people who speak proper American or British English naturally.
I share some similarities with you.
I’m hafu. Hust graduated japanese uni with eng based lib arts degree and ended up at a foreign firm (Gaishi). FYI, many of my friends have bad Japanese as well.
I’m taking (leaving) a steamy deuce at work rn so I can’t write too much.
Send me a DM and we can talk if ya want.