so it's your friend Anming here again from
the oriental pearl channel and i'm with my friend katie hello
how about working in japan is that tough it's tough
and not so tough because again i cuz the way i look they don't assume they think
they assume that i don't know too much about
japanese culture oh well you know she's a foreigner so we'll give her a little bit of leeway
You have a Japanese passport
I will do my best. Entertainer
Solo rickshaw
Do you want to try? Try Try Try Yes Try
i want someone to ride with me it's so lonely
just to do that alone okay so tell your friends to ride with me the
guys with the short shorts yeah they can ride with me
well it's really fun to ride in one of those
if you have someone to ride with i don't particularly want to ride in that
alone that is just a little bit too sad so um
yeah, no jinrikisha for me i don't want to ride alone that's lame
are you supposed to eat sushi with chopsticks or with your hands like the
traditional way you know what everything going on I'm just gonna stick with these you know what I mean
i'm gonna have some of the salmon
so it's your friend ann ming here again from the oriental pearl channel and i'm
with my friend katie hello i just wanted to interview you and ask
like a few questions about growing up in japan go for it
and you spoke english to your dad he's from california
and you spoke japanese to your mom yes when i was growing up that's how it was
like neither of them would back down from there
from their language so i was like all right gotta figure it out
so what did they speak together they did speak together
in like like it was a mix when they spoke together it was kind of like a mix
too so they would better understand each
other but when i spoke with them they would speak their language
and you went to school in japan too right i transferred in middle school
so like in the middle of middle school like second year of middle school then i
transferred to a japanese school only knowing hiragana so i did work hard
for that this is why and i only so english was my
strong suit though what's funny is that so like when
i first transferred they were like in like mid-term
testing so i was like i could take the english test because like
i can speak english duh so i took english test and like
i was very confident in what i like what i did
and then she marked something wrong on my paper right it's like
how dare you I am American
I started questioning myself
do i not know english as much as i thought i did so i like double checked
like my family my friends back in like the states i was like no i'm not wrong
so i went back to the teacher and she told me that like the
word that i used it's the same meaning but it's a word that they haven't
learned yet right so she marked me incorrect but in
actuality it was just translate the the sentence so the sentence wasn't
wrong it's just a word that they haven't used
right so i was like okay that's weird that's that's when i started getting an
argument yeah we weren't on the best of terms so
teachers were difficult how about the other students because there's a lot of
articles out there about bullying in japan is
that's a thing in japan how is that is it
It's not even just in school it's like all over the place but
like me personally i don't think i went through a lot of bullying i don't
know so the other how did the other kids treat you were
they cool they mess with me because i was already arguing with the teacher
like because in japan you don't like if you're a student you don't
challenge authority i don't think that's a thing that happens a lot
right so me to be new and then like second day in be like excuse me but i
think you're wrong like whoa whoa second day
second day and she's like all over the teachers it's an authority figure
so i think i think that kind of pushed them away from like oh i might not want
to mess with her i don't know i'm hoping that's what it
was a little bit i'm hoping that's what it was i know what you're talking about
about the authority thing because i learned that very fast in my japanese
class for japanese language i questioned the
teacher's authority or no i didn't question her authority i
just didn't want to do something i was too nervous to talk on the first day and
she's like just do it
and i'm like nahhhh
and then she's like you have to i'm like oh no
I don't want to do it and then that just set the mood for the rest of the year and it
wasn't good from messing up on the first day so i
know what you mean how about working in japan is that tough
it's tough and not so tough because again i cuz the way i look they don't
assume they think they assume that i don't know too much about
japanese culture oh well you know she's a foreigner so we'll give her a little
bit of leeway
You have a Japanese passport
can you use it to get out of work early and stuff or
take days off i don't know about that because like i'm trying to get out of
overtime... nice try have you ever taught english here?
I tried... well... 3 days
In Japan there's a saying for that
i didn't teach like i didn't teach specifically just english i taught
dance to children and they're like english and dance i was like no they
gotta focus on one or the others like i can't do this
because they're not listening to me when i'm speaking in english and i'm trying
to teach like which one do you want me to focus on this is like both
they're not getting either or if i'm trying to do both these are like little
little kids too it's like teach like english and
dance like nah that's not happening one or the other they don't understand
I'm too passionate about both to let these kids slide
that's that's really hard if they're like very low level or
this kid was three years old okay that might be a little unrealistic
yeah like english and dance like this this kid's not gonna get english
like let alone dancing they're gonna learn how to tune out english yeah
they're gonna learn how to tune out a lot of this
people ask why foreigners are often english teachers here and i
i don't think that that's true because there's a lot of foreigners there's
chinese there's vietnamese there's koreans there's some americans
a lot of those foreigners are working other jobs but
if you mean western people in particular why don't they work
i.t jobs here why don't they go into offices or do engineering it's simply
because the salary is lower and the hours are longer
so why would you torture yourself if you can make more money in america
and work less hours why would you come to japan to do that
it's way more appealing to say people from china who can come here and get a
higher paying job and possibly well a much higher standard of living
but i mean why would you come here to teach english because
you probably wouldn't want to be an i.t engineer here
you'd be better off doing it in america as with most jobs
just make your own company go ahead Do you really want to come here and make
less money and work more hours NO
there are jobs that you can do here other than teaching english but
um it might be better off at a foreign company
you'll get more money probably
But visa wise if you just need something real quick then go for it that's what i
think that's what a lot of my friends do like yeah i need a visa so i'm just going
to teach for a little bit and then find what i really want to do and then i'll go do that
what did you find i like this a lot do you have to buy it you might you
might have to buy it you need it
you need it this is why i don't go out
shopping with friends we just blew our budget for this video
today wait you're not going to buy it he's so disappointed
i'm just joking because here everything is overpriced
well that's true that's true i found that out the hard way last time
are you sure you don't want to buy it i can't hear you
gotta your clean your hands right clean yourhands wash your hands everybody wash your
hands wash your hands there's no soap you know what the smoke is for you know
what it's for right not exactly it's supposed to it's like
when people like like what she's doing like when they do
that to the head it's like so they can get
like smart or whatever like if you have anything that's wrong with your body or
something like that that you want to kind of like
bring good omen to you use that smoke and then put it on like put it on yourself
you have your own youtube channel I'm starting my own youtube channel i have it
do i have any videos up we getting there
i saw one there's one there's one we're getting
not even an introduction we're getting there and you're doing harajuku fashion
i saw you on instagram yeah so i got so because
through dance i met a lot of people in the creative like
like a lot of people that are creatives youtubers
videographers photographers fashion like just i got to meet a lot of people and got
opportunities so that led to a lot of people think i model as work
but i don't okay i might look into that too
like work for a japanese company because i heard those um
they're pretty harsh they're pretty harsh they have a lot of
rules you lose a lot of freedom entering one
of those see i don't like being told what to do
like no i got that impression but really i'm the
same way too I don't like being told what to do. You better have a good reason to tell me i can't go outside
like yeah they have like a curfew and stuff they have curfews and stuff or
like you can't hang out with these people
don't tell me that. Why do you have to be so strict you're not my mom
don't tell everyone you have a boyfriend i know if you're
like an idol. it's all true
so what's your goal in the future what do you want to be where do you want to
go there's no end game but i do want to so there's no end game but i do have
like a lot of things that i do want to do
youtube is one of them to connect with a lot of people that's what i want to do with it
in the end i do want to dance based
all right thank you katie thank you for
interviewing me yeah yeah we just met on the street one day
literally what happened that's how it is that's how you meet the
coolest people sometimes facts that is facts all right see you next time