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This idea in Japanese called Yutori Sedai, like宽松世代. So basically people who were born, I think after 1985 or 1987, 就是85后90后日本的这一代, because they enjoyed a more relaxed educational system, there was less competition. So I think as you described, they are probably more focused on work-life balance, a little bit more compared to the older generation, for example, like their parents generation.
Yeah.
And the other thing about the work, I don't know about the US, I think to some extent, China is a bit similar to Japan in this… in terms of the seniority, 这种论资排辈, although we don't call them前辈后辈, but this whole seniority thing, is it still very pronounced in Japanese culture especially at work？
Very much so, it's one of those things that's ingrained in people from elementary school, you have the Senpai and kōhai relationship.
就前辈后辈. Do they actually like people would actually call you Senpai？If you were for example in the company a few years before they…
I do hear people saying Senpai I never hear people referring to someone as kōhai, but I do hear Senpai on occasion like sometimes it's almost seemed as a little bit dirty to say the words Senpai.
Get your mind out of the gutter.
That's something that I hear like occasionally people are like er?...but no, like people will use the word occasionally, but there is kind of like this idea where you're a Senpai if you are older than another person or you're a Senpai if your position is higher than another person, sometimes it's kind of difficult to know where is the relationship if you're quite a bit older than the other person, they are supposed to treat you with respect.
But then if you have a higher position than them in the company and they're supposed to treat you with respect, but you can't do both. You have to kind of choose one depending upon the situation, right？And so that can kind of be difficult.
The subtlety of the language, actually, let's talk about language, I know that you have been learning Japanese for years. How is your Japanese？
I just passed one of my proficiency exams. I got the equivalent to N2, which is I almost scored high enough to get N1 and which is actually quite high. So as far as like my speaking goes, I would say that's maybe a little bit lower than like my reading and my listening, but that’s because I haven't lived in the country for so long, but I would say my speaking has actually gotten quite a bit better over the last year. That's something that does come with living in the country.
Of course.
It is quite a difficult language to learn and some aspects... especially for Americans or English speakers. Yeah.
Just on a side note, I have heard Brad speaking Japanese, you're pretty much fluent. When I travel to Japan, if I meet up with Brad, I have to rely on him a lot of the times if I have difficulty explaining myself in Japanese. So you're fluent pretty much, would you say?
Close enough.
But you just mentioned, it's quite a difficult language for English learners like for Americans. What are some of the major challenges？Is it Kanji, 是汉字的原因吗？
Kanji is one of the things that's difficult. I would say it's a mixture of the Kanji and the Grammar. Like when you compare Chinese and English grammar they're quite similar. Everything stays in the same place. I eat apples. 我吃苹果. But in Japanese, it's I apple eat.
And very often you don't say I anyways, you just say apple eat.
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