How to be a professional worker Hello, Today I'd like to write about the first step to get a job in Japan and the UK. I found a lot of difference to find a first career after graduate school between two countries. In Japan, most of university end their BA and MA courses in March, and New graduates start their first job from 1st April. In general, when students become 4th year students ( final year of Japanese uni) , they starts to find their first job at once. Each company has original Job application desks which open only for new graduates. The application process is completely different from skilled worker. Big companies often start the desks from February and the applications end between spring and end of summer. In October, the companies give official offers to students. Before that, they just give "early unofficial offer" to students until October. For the newly graduates, the companies offer jobs not only one or two students but also sometimes big companies offer the job to over 100 new graduates at one time. Most of cases, the companies does not have "Junior" role and also does not have "trainee" as well. For example, my first career started as "Designer", and even though we received training from older employees, our salary is almost same as 2-3 years experienced workers. In the UK, the companies have a lot of unpaid role for newly graduates. In addition, I heard the students start finding their jobs after graduates. Sometimes the students starts their career as internship trainees , then they will get their junior role after finish internship if they are good worker. In this case, I really like the Japanese system. New graduates tend to not have enough money to live, Earning enough salaries is good to concentrate working at new place without any worry of finance. About my personal circumstance, Now I stop my career at a game industry and become a MA student at a film school. My last role at game industry was lead artist / art director, in the time, I relatively got enough wedge from companies. However, I'm really worried after finish the film school. I don't want to start my career from "un-paid". Hopefully I hope I can successfully convert my role from game to film. But it may be difficult......hmmm

how to use a gesture which is putting the palms together to Japanese people Hi, Today I would like to write about the famous gesture. Some non-Japanese people put their palms together with bowing when they realised I am Japanese and they want to say "Konnichiwa!" I always told them that it was a wrong gesture. Japanese people do the gesture when we are begging, saying sorry or praying to someone/Gods/Buddha. To Gods and Buddha, it is no problem, but for a real human, you may be looked childish when you begging someone to something with this gesture. Here is a diagrams which I drew. We never do the gesture for greeting! It is quite weird for Japanese people. I know some of other Asian countries do the gesture for greeting. However, even we believe same religion Buddhism as other Asian countries, the gesture has a different meaning for each countries. If you want to say "Konnichiwa (Hello) " to Japanese people, please say that with a little nodding.

Difference of footwork between Japanese and European I'd like to write about "walking style" of Japanese and European. When I started living in the UK, I was surprised about footwork of European people. Because European people normally walk with longer steps than Japanese and they don't hesitate making noise of footsteps. Sometime I felt the behavior looks out of manner. For example, The person who are walking a corridor of 1st floor of school with sound of footsteps, Even the step is normal, The person may looks swaggering without care other people. (Every Japanese school has slogan " Walk corridor with silence!" ) In this case happened in Japan, the person should pay attention to avoid making noise and the person should work with slow steps. Generally speaking, Japanese people try to reduce noise of footsteps in every occasion. My mother used to warn about my footsteps when I was a child. As a result, I always walk with paying attention to the noise. After I grew up, I always move my foot like dragging on the surface of floor. The way of walking follow Japanese manor and I've never thought it looks weird from other people. However, I read an old British essay about a woman traveled Japan in early Meiji era (1870?) In the book, British lady described like "Japanese people walk with a slow dragging motion without lifting their feet, it looked miserable" I was totally surprised. because even only the footwork , it has a culture difference! This custom may originally came from the difference of traditional building structure. European buildings tend to make brick and stone, the materials are not easy to brake and the noise is not effect to down stairs. On the other hand, Japanese houses are mainly built with wood which means easy to brake and the noise through a flat and floor. Japanese traditional tatami is also not suit for walking loudly. Learning culture difference is quite fan!

The Harry Potter Studio Tour London Today I went to The Harry Potter Studio Tour after I finished today's work at a work placement. It was my second time I visited there, but they have done a lot of renovation during a year, so I could enjoy it again. New Hogwarts express and Kings cross station were built in the studio, It's awesome quality of set buildings and I really enjoyed watching each details. Some of the sets looked quite fake, but I guessed that once those sets are shotten from cameras it becomes looks real ( because of that, mainly cameras focus on the character) I learnt a lot of things which are useful for my MA studying. It's worth to visit if you travel in London!

different pronounceation makes me confusing Hi, Today I would like to write one of my problem about making conversation in English. Although I'm studying MA course and worked at game company before enter the school, I still feel I cannot catch the words that native speakers chatting. I guess the reason why I feel that is I always learn English with proper ways (e.g. using textbooks and going to school). My English skill is lack of knowledge of slang and spoken words in casual situations. Other reason is Japanese education is based on American English. For me, British women's voice is quite hard to hear because of speak faster and their accent is different from I learnt. I can understand BBC narrator's speaking, but in the case of normal chatting, my understanding is horrible! On the contrary, I feel British older people and male voice is easy to catch their voice. Of course Japanese accent is another big problem to learn accent of British English (It's far different and I only used Japanese just 2 years ago!) I hope I can solve the issues during I stay in the UK :<

First Post Hi! This is my first post at italki. I'm a Japanese woman living in west London :) I wanna get opportunities to speak/writing English and make a lot of friends here!