As an administrative staff of a trading company, Yuka Boshu is handling international trading through maritime logistics, by using her English skills. Until her graduate from high school, where she had been devoting her life into volleyball, she was not interested in neither English nor foreign couuntries during school days. Even more, she did not have a particularly clear career plan for work. We asked the reason why Boshu decided to make efforts to “be able to speak English”, and what happened as a result of that.
Devoted my life to volleyball, I wanted to find a new me
I started volleyball since the second grade of elementary school. I went to high school by sports recommendation. In this way, I had devoted a life for volleyball until I graduated from high school. I had been thinking only about the volleyball all the time, so I didn’t have a specific dream and I could not have an image to go on to university. So I thought that getting marry was one of options when I graduate. However, because I was going university “preparatory” high school, I was quite influenced by friends there, and I went on to university thoughtlessly, but as the university did not have volleyball club activities, the volleyball disappeared from the center of my life, Instead, I was spending a campus life aimlessly.
I had a desire to find a new me, but it was not easy to find to what I could dedicate myself than volleyball. One day, during my third grade and started thinking about seeking employment , when I was passing through the study abroad center, one of staff talked to me to do so. I was not interested in English, nor never thought about studying abroad, but a thought that “It might be nice to go abroad” suddenly came to mind. I decided to check it out what “study abroad” is all about. Since that year there was a Great East Japan Earthquake and my parents were also suffering from it, I was informed that I could get subvention usable for a study abroad. I thought that there was also a force that motivate something, so anyway I gave it a try studying.
Because I have a hard time, I can be successful.
Although I aimed for studying abroad, the TOEFL score a big barrier for me who did not have the experience of concentrating on studying until then. But my competitive nature nurtured by volleyball urged me to study really hard. There was also a tough time when the result didn’t come out well. But I was feeling fun to know what the English is about, learning a new word and understanding the meaning. Also, from the experience when I was doing a volleyball, I was able to continue study because I had the idea that I will not succeed unless I overcome the hardship, and as a result, I passed the exam at the end of third grade. I decided to study abroad for 4 months to Australia from the next summer* in the fourth grade. *Japan’s school year starts from April to March in the next year.
The life in Australia was so much fun . In the classes of the university, I learned various subjects as well as languages. I started from the place where I couldn’t speak English at all, and it was my nature that I feel uneasy unless making effort as twice as others do, and I tried to study at the library even after the class was over. Although studying was, and is, always a challenging for me, I never thought it as hardships. I started to talk to myself, “I could finally find something that I could be driven and let my world open.” Everything I newly encountered was fun, and I made a lot of friends at the university. Even now I still keep in touch with my host family who took care of me at the time, and a lot of friends I met at that time are getting along well now. I think that there were really good encounters.
The lesson of English conversation is not a study but a sense of talking with a friend
Since I came back from study abroad, I started an intern as sales clerk for an apparel company which I had got an unofficial job offer before going study abroad. To be surprised, the first customer was a foreigner. She was the one to purchase the product after I was talking about it as hard as I could. At that time I was a clerk who did not know even how to wrap the goods yet, but the fact that the customer came to the shop for me again a year later was the one of the most valuable experience brought by studying English.
While studying abroad could make me talk basic conversation, it is still far from business level It was difficult for me then, to explain the items in detail such as “This product is made of such a material …” The enthusiasm for better fluency drove me to go to an English school where I could have a small group lesson next to my work place, but due to work circumstance, it was difficult to go to a fixed time and I could hardly go to lessons
At such time, the president advised me to take a RareJob conversation lesson which was introduced in the company as a welfare program. At the beginning, I was talking lessons everywhere such as going and returning from my trips and that made me possible to take lesson every day. Living alone in the center of Tokyo, I was looking forward to talking with someone after work. To be honest, it was far from “studying” at all. My teachers taught me about the Philippines, talked about teachers’ children, sometimes even as counselor for a romance, it was like friends rather than teachers. Also, because there was a role playing test for sales in English at the company, I practiced with the teachers about how to speak politely and in a better way to express myself. When there was a period of sluggishness, a teacher gave me an advice to write a diary in English every day. RareJob English conversation was like the center of my life. RareJob English teachers are all very fun and caring about students.
I was also blessed with a good environment. The company at that time was making active effort to urge their employees acquiring English fluency. Besides RareJob, we often conducted group study sessions etc., A lot of seniors were already taking active part in the company by getting English skills. As well as making use of it at work, “English will help you a lot, so do your best” said the president, and he was routing for me all the time.
What encouraged me to continue was “to work hard for people who took care of me”
I am now an administrative at a trading company. To be honest, I was inexperienced in this industry, so I did not have any job that I was capable to do at just beginning of job hunting. After that, I studied for the qualifications of trade practice and contacted a staff agency again. As a result, a connection had let me to join the company I am working now. My current job is to properly respond to customers who want to export and import goods and maritime operations of vessels carrying our products. Because I correspond with foreign people, I often use English. Since I started from inexperience and it requires specialized knowledge, there are many things to learn, but I have been able to do my best thanks to being able to do what I wanted to do.
If I did not think about studying English in my third year of university, I would not have thought about future career plan. I had no other thing than the volleyball to make me continue, but after studying English, my way of thinking about the future have been changed.
What pushed my back the most was for the people who took care of me. I am not a type of person who try my best just for myself. Although I wanted to stop the volleyball from its toughness at the beginning, I met a teacher who always supported me. The passion to be better for him made me continue. During studying abroad, I wanted to learn properly for the school who supported me learning, and for my parents who offered school expenses. By learning English, I was able to support the customer at my ex-job, and even now I get a contact from the customer at there. Also, I was able to join the current company and meet colleagues whom I can really respect, thanks to English. I love every customer who I met through my current position, and I am really happy especially when I am appreciated from my customers.
Perhaps, I was able to work on various things up to now because I have been supported by my competitive nature which I acquired in the volleyball days and by my faith “I will try hard for those who took care of me”. Keeping such in my bosom, I will continue to do my best working or studying English,
