Transcript↓

Welcome to  “Lost in translation a Japanese life in Vancouver”. In this podcast, Charlie, an introverted, friendless Japanese woman living in Vancouver, talks about life in Vancouver in order to improve her English. I hope you enjoy listening.

One very useful way to study English is to watch TED. Recently, I enjoy imagining what I would talk about if I were to appear on TED. This "TED-like" is a project to talk about my fantasy of being on TED. Anyway, let's just get started.

TED-like episode 1 - The true meaning of Diversity

When I was immersed in Japanese culture, I understood "diversity" to mean creating a company or team that was adaptable to different individuals with various ideas and backgrounds. My understanding was to focus on developing each individual's strengths and creating a robust team through a layered approach of distorted skill charts, rather than a team with a high average score by improving weaknesses. In my previous team in a Japanese company, I noticed that sociable individuals who were easily liked by clients made the best salespeople without any opportunities to write proposals, while I excelled at writing proposals despite being unsocial. Despite my inability to communicate with clients, I was confident in writing up and presenting my projects and was given a role in the team. I admired, "Everyone is different therefore everyone is good," like we were told in our childhood and that made me feel "Teams are great. Diversity is here."

In Canada, in my opinion, diversity means totally different.

When we use the word “diversity” in Canada, it means hiring individuals regardless of their nationality, race, gender, age, or disability. I have seen various company recruitment guidelines that state this principle, although I cannot confirm its truthfulness. Nevertheless, I sense that society is making efforts to achieve this goal.

On the other hand, the soft skills required are not completely diverse. Most companies are looking for people with the same skills as follows: Excellent communication skills, strong team players, self-starters, fast learners, and able to multitask under pressure. Education and experience are vital to apply for even general workers, besides, it is really common to be asked “Can you speak Chinese or French in addition to English?” Companies want individuals who are sociable, sincere, and hardworking, rather than people who are unsociable but can do exactly what they are told.

It is essential to demonstrate that you can talk, understand, and perform your job well. If you fail to show this, you will be perceived as someone who is not doing anything. Managers who determine your continued employment do not assess your work but instead, ask your colleagues how you are doing. Since your colleagues are often highly skilled, they are not good at teaching at all unlike most Japanese. It is easy to remember your tasks if you understand the purpose and priority, but they just teach you how to do various tasks one after another. At my previous job, I found that it was better to make excuses when I failed, rather than honestly apologizing. This was to fulfill the essential sense of diversity, to not discriminate against individuals from different countries with various cultures, backgrounds, and ideologies. Soft skills that are overwhelmingly correct, without discriminating against anyone, are necessary to achieve justice that even five-year-olds can understand.

Personally, Japan's unique perception of "diversity" is certainly due to its status as an island nation. 

We have only one nationality, it is easy to work with people from the same country because we are sharing same values to some extent. Once you dive into a melting pot, like Canada, although you will be accepted whoever you are, you know, you truly need to understand the meaning of “Diversity”.