Assignment 3 - Michael Sellers

Every other year, during summer break, my family takes time to visit my mother's birth country of Japan. While there, we stay at my grandmother's house in the rural parts of Saitama prefecture. During our most recent visit, this past summer, I began a job working for a moving company. 

As a result of Japans strict social rules, maintaining a job in Japan is quite stressful compared to in America. First, one must understand the rules that govern how one can talk and act around workplace superiors. Then one must understand how to talk and act around customers. Often times in my personal experiences, I have found that I experience an incredible degree of difficulty expressing myself in Japanese while continuing to keep a respectful tone when talking to a superior. So, one can imagine the amount of stress I experienced when my coworker had a bad attitude as a result of my inability to express myself while also keeping to the social rules. 

Being immersed in this culture that is completely different from what I am used to was difficult. The stress of these situations haunted me for some days after, but I eventually came to terms with what happened and moved on. 

This experience taught me many things not only about employment in Japan, but also about myself and how I deal with certain situations. When negative feelings such as stress or anger are present in me, I learn what I can from the situation and try to move on.