I'll be 29 next year and while I'm convinced that determination and conviction can take you pretty far regardless of your age, I also believe it takes a lot of time and effort to become an expert or just generally good at anything. I have already spent 3 years learning Japanese and I'm still desperately going at it, however, past efforts in other areas like math, programming, design and one or two sport disciplines have gone numb throughout the years.

On the good side I think I could still revive programming (there went some good 6 years of my life) and have kept constant in regard to nutrition, health and some light bodybuilding for the past half-decade, so those are in my list of skills to further improve or maintain already.

I believe I'm at a crossroads right now and I want to start focusing on the things that matter. If you are like me, maybe around my age and haven't done anything particularly worth of mention, I think we may be on the same boat.

I've already spent a massive amount of time and energy studying and acquiring Japanese as well as understanding and adapting to Japanese customs, norms and 'ways'. I'm also planning to become a Japanese citizen (naturalize) when I hit the 5 year residence mark.

This means that I'm sharing Japan's future whether it be good or not-so-good and my seek for advice in this thread applies specially to those planning to live and stay in Japan for the years to come.

So, what do you think are some useful skills to have for the future ahead (specially if you plan to live in Japan)? I can imagine many will find this a rather open question, but since this is an off-topic board I figured it'd be alright.

Please note that I mean more concrete and specific things such as fields in which to develop rather than general things like 'independent thinking', 'problem-solving' or 'quick decision making'. For example, 'geometry' or 'knowledge about banking' are concrete examples and that's like what I would be looking forward to hear from you. I would also appreciate if you could briefly explain why you think such skill is worth to have.

I'm in a very similar boat in some ways but I just don't understand what your question is. Apart from the Japanese language, I'm not sure what different things you need to be doing in Japan compared to if you were in any other country (healthy social life, improving technical skills etc etc)

Out of curiosity why do you want citizenship? What is your original country?

NightSky Wrote:I just don't understand what your question is

Alright, now it's in bold.

@NightSky
off-topic: My original country is in South America (not Brazil) and some reasons are: to follow desire, get permanent residence, be able to travel more freely (anywhere), get the ability to vote and integrate more into Japanese society, further my commitment with the country I moved to, widen my range of job opportunities, there aren't many naturalized westerners so I'd be more unique in a way and also I like Japan and want to become somewhat closer to being Japanese.

This is all too vague, you didn't even say what you career is.

Studied CS at uni and worked in the programming field for 5 or 6 years give or take. Now I teach English in Japan.

@dixmox Btw it's not like I'm looking to get personalized advice. Just want to hear what people think are good skills/competencies in general or for themselves.

youasuki Wrote:

NightSky Wrote:I just don't understand what your question is

Alright, now it's in bold.

That's fine I read that part before, my problem is I'm not sure what kind of advice you are looking for. There aren't enough details, its just "what are useful skills for the future?"

Well, the only difference being in Japan is that Japanese is more useful. Otherwise the useful skills are the same as those you might pick if you lived in any other country, being in Japan or getting citizenship doesn't make much difference.

Personally if I were you I'd focus on getting your IT skills up to scratch again and get out of English teaching. But its hard for me to say that's the right advice for you because I don't know anything more about whether you are happy teaching English or what your ambitions actually are.

NightSky Wrote:Personally if I were you I'd focus on getting your IT skills up to scratch again and get out of English teaching. But its hard for me to say that's the right advice for you because I don't know anything more about whether you are happy teaching English or what your ambitions actually are.

Thanks. Again, this is an off-topic board so no need to serious as in worrying about the right advice. Like I said before, maybe you didn't catch that one, it's not about custom advice, I just want to hear people's thoughts. For instance, if it was that I'm lacking the inspiration to chase my own whatever-they-are dreams/goals maybe I can get motivation by reading other folks pursuits.

There is a shrinking population in Japan, which equates to a larger population of older people in Japan while graduating classes shrink every year. The result of this is that there are fewer young people available for the helping professions. There is a large amount of Indonesian and Filipino immigrants eager to work in fields such as nursing or care taking, yet they often have trouble mastering the Kanji which are essential for the written communication that would take place in such a position.

This opening niche presents a few areas one could focus their creative energy towards:

-Consider a Masters in TESOL/ Curriculum design to help bring forth the gospel of Hesig to these immigrants who are eager to work in these fields.

-Consider working in one of these helping professions. I am not certain of the specifics; it would require more research into the topic but I would imagine that N2 would allow you to work in a related field.

-Consider volunteering your time for elderly people. This is something that has crossed my mind; there would be a massive amount of time-on-task of language us, you would likely have to really enunciate your pronunciation to be understood (possibility of deafness), it is likely that these people have little or no knowledge of English - shying away from those forced "do you know how to use chop sticks?" English interactions that one seems to run into here on a regular basis, you would probably feel really good by volunteering and helping this elderly population which must be full of interesting stories.

I am not sure if this is your cup of tea, but I have considered volunteering here. Perhaps I will in good time.

A

＠dabrowskiowski That's a lot of good ideas. I've been thinking myself volunteering could be a good opportunity to practice more Japanese as well as to give something back to the community (in my case, being already fed up with English instruction and everything, as long as it's not something like running an English classroom I'd be thrilled to give it a go).

Don't look for new skills, build on what you already have. You have language skills, obviously. Programming studies, even if you're not up to date, are extremely valuable. It's much easier for someone who studied IT seriously in school to become a professional software developer, than someone starting from scratch.

You should develop that , aiming for a specialization where you can eventually leverage your cultural background and language skills as well (like web application design, Javascript and Ruby, for instance).

If you choose your career path carefully, being a native Spanish and native level English speaker can be a very useful addition to whatever design and programming skills you can develop. Later on, you can stay with that or go in a business management or sales direction, while again building on your existing skills.

(as an aside, web design isn't programming, it's graphic, interface and software design that requires some working experience in coding for the web, but doesn't necessarily involve actual coding - withing a company, coding is usually done by someone other than the designer; however it's much more likely that your background can quickly come into play in web design than if you go in a pure coding direction)

Why did you not get a programming job in Japan? Would you rather be teaching English?

For me, I think that Japanese at a high-school/college level would be really nice. It would be nice to be able to breeze through any book I pick up.

Also, you could go into a book store and pick up one of those big books of 資格. It lists the 資格 that are really popular right now, and the ones that are on the upward trend. (Off the top of my head, I remember that the two big 中国語試験 are really, really popular.)

(Slightly off-topic: if anyone is looking for a programming job in Tokyo, email me and I'll try to hook you up. My company is really hiring right now.)