Dealing with People

One thing about being a foreigner dealing with locals is dealing with disagreements. Sometimes it seems like the cards are stacked against me sometimes, there is somewhat of a cultural difference and at the same time, I appear asian enough to understand the Japanese cultural norms. Then there is also sort of a language barrier, though I wouldn't call it a "barrier" in the normal sense, but my linguistic skills seem to be lacking for me to come off as someone with tact.

This is a source of a lot of recent frustration, leading me to be either annoyed or somewhat depressed when things don't go right.

One of those unfortunate things about language, is it is not nearly so important as what you say, but how you say it to garner the support of other people. There has been many a time when working with other people where i've been right but not persuasive enough to convince people that I am right in a diplomatic kind of way-- in the kind of way that they feel good about it.

It's damn trickly and somehow, I have lost patience when dealing with people. I used to be much better, but when things need to be done, I've hit the point where I don't want to waste time arguing with people and go off and do my own thing.

I think it's something that's developed after moving out and becoming more independent-- I've gotten used to having the freedom to doing my own thing... can especially be a problem if you've become good a becoming resourceful in the way that you don't need to rely on anyone else.

What results is that sometimes you can make the objectively right decisions, but still be politically wrong. Life can be a bitch that way, especially when a person like me operates on the belief that making the right logical decisions should be independent of the person. I've been right in many cases, but not politically correct and dealing with politics in a different language can be a pain... especially if you want to be good a diplomacy.

Nope, it's not one of those things I am good at and I've already stepped on a few toes. Working in a company is kind of different from doing work in a lab... the difference is that I've already proven my self once and its easier to earn the respect of peers in the same age range. Working in a company with much older people tends to be kind of tricky.

Sometimes, I think that this is possibly one of the reasons why not a whole lot of new, dissruptive technogies/business models are created with a group of older people... but I digress.

I need to get around this problem... I need to be better at expressing myself in Japanese. I still have a hell of a long way to go.