June 2012's ARCHIVES

I soon got used to living in Japan. Now, I had been working on software development project in short term which one company gave by today. I was busy recentry so it has been a long time since previous update. As I just came back from Canada, I am aware of some parts of difference of working space which is between Canada and Japan. Therefore, feeling it is new though I used to work a long time in Japanese working space. In this article, I would like to write down about topic what working space is different from Canada and Japan. This is the first article which theme is "Canada and Japan" as I told previous article. I am going to write about "Canada". But not sure that is totally Canada. Because I had worked for just one Canadian company. It would be just my opinion. Don't be bothering.

Welcome party within office hours
The thing which welcome party and farewell party are held on is same. In Canada, they also have some drinks at pub near office at the time. Just a part of differece, it is held on within office hours. In Japanese case, basically you have it around 7 or 8 PM at any pub. But it is basic way to have within office hours like around 3 PM in Canada. Even if you don't go to pub, they order pizza delivery and have lunch together. Anyone is there who start drinking even lunch because office is always suffering some beers in their fridge. The company which I was working has a good relationship with Canadian pizza chain so they have pizza lunch together a couple of time in a month even if there is no reason.

Easy friendship
There are some of relationship in world, Boss and assistants, senior and junior, client and vendor. In Japan, you need to use some way to be polite like respect words. But though I cannot say no manner, it is much frank to have a relationship if you compare with Japan. On the email, you don't have to use "Dear Mr. Shinya,". You can do "Hi Shinya," or "Hey Shinya," as the way to send to friends. Also they don't have a way which you need to make a bow so the first make shake hand or easy hug with lady. It is like same way with anybody. But I don't think there are no manner. It is hard to explain. They absolutely show their respecting mind with small behaviour as action or words. For example, when junior developer is asking something to senior developer, They show their respect mind in actual words as "I know you have many experience and high skills so my opinion might be wrong. But I think my way is better, don't you?". This is the thing which I can say any parts of culture, not just make to be polite. I think they don't make standard as "way" and they want to make polite with own way if they want to be polite for the person who should be . But it might be strict to act "lady fast".

Delayed certification
You need to show delayed certification when you are late for start time to work. In Japan, it is needed by big company, more and more bigger.  TTC which is subway in Toronto is going on and it is happened to be running late some times. But I have never seen that subway stuffs are giving a paper as delayed certification at any stations. Although it might be one reason the company is not big, they don't manage what time you come to office or leave. You can come by 11AM and if you are running late, it is better to tell them. As the thing, you can leave early if you come early.

Nomi-nication
It always comes topic up when you are talking about "Young people is ..." in Japan, "Nomi-nication". The word is created by Japanese people which means that it is connected "Nomu(Drinking in Japanese) "and "communication" as drinking and communicating. I guess that it means to hang out to drink with not like boss or co-workers as they are thinking of it badly. I don't think there is an opportunity to have some drinks with them a lot in Canada. As I did say before, they have relationship to frank so you are not forced to hang out with co-workers as don't have drink drinks with not like person on private. They have welcome party and farewell in office hours therefore it is not "force". Just work. Anyway, I really like to drink so I don't think that is forced if it might be forced lol But There weren't  no chance to drink with co-workers. We used to drink one time a week or two weeks after work or even weekend. Because there are many co-workers who much like to drink. That was good thing for me. Then I could learn about Canada and improve my English. In my opinion, welcome to me for "Nomi-nication".

Development Office
Our work space was the office which is easy to see with glass wall. My desk was much wide in comparing with Japanese one. You can have a seat with 2 or 3 people at two desks. It has many cushions which would be chairs and table tennis field, table hockey and Wii as TV game hard so exactly like foreigner office. I felt strange when we were playing "Mario Party" on Wii using big screen of office in Canada as we are playing it which I used to play Japanese game with many kind of national people. And The events which Apple or Google has are famous. We had watched on office's TV with all. I thinks it was excited in that to IT developer. Actually, some of co-workers was joining last WWDC in this year and you can feel much close to trend topics which is in IT industry.

Sports
The company has some of sports team and we are playing at team each seasons. On summer, beach valley and on winter, Ultimate Frisbee inside. Torontonian really likes to play sports like fitness. There are many chance to play some sports. Periodically, Some place, inside field or beach, provides sports leagues and you can join them easily. Also our company is joining it. They are playing every weeks after work. Of course, it feels free to join or not. As you wouldn't play "Ultimate Frisbee" which sound like playing football if you are in Japan, it was very worth experience. I could learn some of words in those experience. "Over", "I got it", "Good try" and "Good game".

Event
It might be special with the company which I had worked. There were many events. Especially, Halloween and Christmas. Both of events are much important in North America. We were enjoying at the time. At Halloween, they mentioned to need us to wear a fancy dress and it was held on party at their office. There was a guy who wear like Captain America which was famous in North America or who wear like Robbin Food so everyone have "fancy" then I could know how it is important thing for them. Basically, they decorate pumpkins. They are really fast to make decoration and I was interesting in the skill ti decorate punmpkins. At Christmas, we have a time to give gift for each other also have a holiday party as Christmas. We had a great dinner at Steak House like s little bit expensive. In other side, We went to night club which is in Hotel also they booked a booth for us and had a dancing with co-workers. I cannot expect that go to night club with whole of employees in Japan. "Big beer and fun for employees!", "Boss, Take care of employees!". That was a rule for the party.  So I had some of thing and they kicked me out from the hotel. But my boss brought me to my house... It is my memorial thing they called me "Mr. Holiday Party" later.

Also in Japan, I could see many offices because I used to change company to work on project. But I knew it is difference of atmosphere and environment at their office if county is different. Not sure, but I can say Family for Work in Japan", "Work for Family in Canada". It meant which one is important, work and family. I knew the thing and had some experience because of going abroad to Canada. Seeing is believing.

Talk to you soon!

 

PROFILE

Hi I'm Shinya Hasegawa
I was born in Kanagawa,
Japan and 30 years old.
I'm IT Engineer of year 8th.
I'm challenging globalize
by IT engineer.
I arrived in Canada on February 2011.
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