Everyone needs to read this story (but especially if you are interested in technology and gaming)! Miggs’ employer doesn’t specifically work with Japan, but he is still able to create opportunities where he uses imperfect Japanese to communicate important ideas. Read on to get inspired to get creative in your own way!
Welcome to the Senpai Success Story, where you can read about others who have walked a unique career path using their Japanese language/cultural skills. (Senpai means “mentor” or “teacher,” and the concept is important to understand for anyone wishing to work in a Japanese business setting.)
Fun and Games
My connection to Japan started from a rather unusual (but surprisingly common) thread: video games. At the time of my childhood, many of the most popular games were made in Japan. The fantastical, whimsical worlds that sprang to life through my television screen were built by small teams in Tokyo and Kyoto. As a boy, I wondered, “Where did all this creativity come from?” The characters and concepts in Nintendo games resonated so well with me and others of my generation in America, yet the individuals who brought them to life existed in a completely different culture, located a world away. Why? How? I had to know! That thirst for knowledge stuck with me throughout childhood and into college where I finally had a chance to explore the culture and language of Japan in a more formal setting.
Found In Translation
I’ll never forget my first day of Japanese class in college and the moment my professor, a soft-spoken Japanese woman in her early 40s, entered the room. Without saying a word, she bowed to us, smiled, then immediately began writing furiously on the chalkboard.
「私はマクドナルドでハンバーガーを食べました。」
Looking around the classroom, mouths were agape. I wondered to myself if I was in the wrong class. The symbols looked so difficult to decipher. What I didn’t know at the time, and what my professor eventually showed us when explaining the what-we-thought-was-extremely-complicated Japanese sentence on the board, was that it wasn’t indecipherable at all. In fact, there was quite a bit of understandable language for English speakers in that sentence, if they knew where to look…
マクドナルド = ma-ku-do-na-ru-do = McDonald’s
ハンバーガー = ha-nn-ba-a-ga-a = hamburger
The literal translation of that sentence is: “I McDonald’s at hamburger ate,” which, when appropriately refactored, becomes “I ate a hamburger at McDonald’s.” A significant portion of that sentence — at least the location of the action and the direct object — were in English to begin with; the words were simply converted to the Katakana loan word alphabet.
There is indeed a point to this story (other than possibly making you hungry for hamburgers). In the technology industry where I now work, we may communicate differently, but our goals are often aligned. In other words, we’re heading to the same place; we just have different means of getting there. I consider myself a guide to help folks bridge the gap, and have served in that role in many different ways throughout my career.
Going Beyond Routine
Right now I serve as a Lead Software Engineering Coach at Target Corporate Headquarters, which means my job is to evaluate, measure, and improve engineering acumen and culture of all teams across our global technical organization, which is currently made up of 3,000 engineers of various experience levels. Sometimes that means serving as an engineer (building things), sometimes as an instructor (training and mentoring in our dojo (Dojo at Target)), sometimes as a developer advocate, and even, at times, a cultural change agent. No day is the same.
While my employer currently doesn’t have direct ties to Japan, they are incredibly supportive in allowing us as employees to share knowledge with wider communities in technology. Through connections at work I was introduced to the agile-tech community in Japan, and had the opportunity to share tips, tricks, and insights into improving productivity in remote learnings and trainings through Japanese-language presentations at several Japan-based conferences, including DevOpsDays Tokyo, Scrum Fest Osaka, and Scrum Fest Mikawa.
Outside of my 9-to-5, I spend a lot of time focused on cultural bridge-building between America and Japan. The Twin Cities area of Minnesota is home to three Sister City Organizations with relationships to Japan (Bloomington-Izumi, St. Paul-Nagasaki, and Minneapolis-Ibaraki), and I’ve volunteered numerous times to interpret for visitors and government officials for those organizations, as well as serving on the executive board of one of them in the past. I’ve even had the chance to fuse my knowledge of Japanese language and gaming, having co-founded a game development company with talented software engineer (and best spouse ever) Lisa Walkosz-Migliacio and successfully pitching a Japanese publisher at Tokyo Game Show to release our action puzzle game, Astral Breakers (https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/astral-breakers-wii-u/), on console platforms in Japan.
I’m not a perfect interpreter, and I’ve made plenty of mistakes, but I’ve also built a lot of connections in the process.
Career Advice
For those looking to become more internationally-focused in their careers, I have three pieces of advice.
First, don’t be defined by your job. Harness the skills you have and look to apply them in new ways towards your interest in Japan. I never thought I could practice my Japanese through giving presentations on technology and agile processes to Japan-based conferences until the opportunity presented itself – and while I don’t consider myself fluent, I was able to communicate my ideas effectively, which brings me to my next point…
Be okay with being…okay. Don’t stress about perfection. This is especially true for those mid-career folks who may be in the midst of a mid-career crisis. I’m not a perfect interpreter, and I’ve made plenty of mistakes, but I’ve also built a lot of connections in the process. I focus most of my language studies on conversation and communication (versus reading and writing), because that’s where I find I can be most helpful as a bridge between cultures. As I’ve grown in my career and am now finishing a masters degree in Computer Science while raising a young son, I’ve found I don’t have time for everything anymore…and that’s okay too.
Finally, step out of your comfort zone. If you have the opportunity to act as a cultural bridge, and it’s something you’re interested in doing, take it! Don’t worry about tripping over yourself in regards to your language ability, regardless of your level of study. Not only will you grow as a language learner, but your international network will grow, too.
Connect with Miggs here:
Twitter: @angstygaijin
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-migliacio/
「情熱と勇気があるなら歩き続けるしかない」
「If you have passion and courage, you can’t help but walk on」
