Some cool Learning to Speak Japanese images:

Jobs in Tokyo


Image by Danny Choo
If you believe that this should be your table then please send your resume to [jobs at mirai dot fm] and attach your resume *in Japanese* for the following position:-
Technical Qualifications
I am looking for a seasoned front end web developer (for immediate-ish employment) who has backend experience and fits the description of the following to work for me at Mirai Inc:-
-Is proficient with PHP/ImageMagick and has experience working with templating systems.
-Has experience with API’s like Amazon, Flickr, Twitter etc.
-Familiar with MYSQL and know topics like MYSQL Injection.
-Has experience with XSLT or can look at the code and know whats going on.
-Has experience in building web applications using the MVC model.
-Has experience with various version control systems.
-Is a Mac or Linux user or can easily manipulate these systems.
-Is experienced with frontend technologies such as CSS, HTML, JQuery.
-Has experience with Fireworks, Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash (parsing XML with Flash for example).
-Has experience with the command line.
-Has experiencing compiling, building and installing packages on unix systems.
-Has experience with server administration (VI, setting up Crontabs, Permissions etc).
-Has experience developing or using various CGM systems.
-Has a blog or twitter account or demonstrates a excellent understanding with the issues of these medium.
-Can demonstrate ability to produce mockups in Fireworks or Photoshop and export elements to XHTML.
-Mainly looking for a front end dev so if you are missing out on a few backend requirements then please still apply if you feel that you are a ninja on the frontend dev.

By looking at the above list you may have guessed that its a description of my own skill set – I need you to be my clone ^^;
Like many technical folk, my skills were self taught with our friend Google sensei. Tuition fee is free but you need to be motivated to self study and not be like Yui-chan from K-ON! in ep03 ^^;
Other Qualifications
-You need to be well versed in Japanese – at least JLPT level two or equivalent speaking/reading and writing skill. If you can read most of the Japanese version of this post then you qualify for this requirement.
-I’m not concerned with your educational background and don’t care if you have been to school or not. Whats vital is that you can demonstrate that you can do the job.
As a hiring manager at Amazon, I learned that previous education wasn’t vital and that the ability of the candidate to demonstrate that they could do something was key. I saw many hiring mistakes at Amazon of people with MBA’s or PHD’s – well educated but failed to perform.
I need people to be able to hit the ground running from day one.
Having said that, I’m not saying that its not vital to go to school – I’m saying that education is not a criteria I take into consideration when deciding who to interview. How silly do I sound when I say "Ah! Shes Been to Tokyo University – she must be excellent."
Unfortunately most HR and Managers *do* take your previous schooling into consideration and place more weight on it rather than previous experience.

-But, if you are not a Japanese resident (has visa to stay in Japan permanently) then you need a university degree in a technical field as that’s one of the requirements for a sponsored visa.
-I would prefer folks who are interested in Japan and Otaku subculture.
One of the reasons why I set up Mirai Inc was so that I can delight in the remainder of my life while doing the stuff that I delight in – and at the same time being involved with clients who produce stuff that I’m interested in – anime, figures, games and what have you.
If the candidate is interested in these subjects then she or he will delight in the job even more and fit in better with our company culture.
Benefits etc
-Compensation is based on current level of experience.
-The standard benefits are covered including travel expenses, health insurance and pension.
-You will also get free figures, anime merchandise, games, gadgets and a lot more stuff that our clients throw at us ^^;
-Work location is in Meguro Tokyo.
-Working hours are from 10am to 6pm.
-No overtime pay as it is not expected.
As a manager at Amazon, I drew a pie chart that my staff started to call "Danny’s Pie" which if you say very quick could be made to sound like "Dannys Oppai."
The pie is divided into three – each piece is 8 hours. Presuming that you work 8 hours and sleep for 8 hours then you have 8 hours remaining which is one slice of the pie. I then start to cut up the remaining piece.
The 8 remaining hours is needed for things like personal hygiene, nourishment intake, health care (very vital), cleaning, commuting and other chores which are vital in life but generally don’t contribute a whole lot to your career or personal development.
If you subtract the time needed for all the above from the final piece of the pie then all you would have left each day is 4-ish hours which you need to use on spending with friends/loved ones, entertainment/recreation and personal development – learning a new subject, beefing up current skills, researching etc.
Now imagine that you spent more than 8 hours at work. In order to do the other stuff, you would either have to sleep less or start to drop some of the other stuff. Some folks with long work hours drop "personal development" which I consider to be crucial to the development of an employees life, career and well being.
Its is in my interest to make sure that my staff are of excellent well being and just as pleased as I am with work and life.

-You will also get to network with the top players in the Japanese Internet space, anime, figure and game companies, TV production crews etc. Growing your network is extremely vital when building your career.
While I would like for you to work with me for as long as possible, I am under no illusion that you will. I shall encourage and support you to build your career and mentor you so that you can also reach your destinations in life. I want to make sure that Mirai Inc provides you with the environment that enables you to grow and have a load of fun at the same time.
Company culture
We work hard and play hard at Mirai Inc and beleive that we are making a difference in the Japanese Internet field.
We are looking for somebody who has a bright personality, is not worried to question and knows when she or he is incorrect.
We need candidates to question current processes and speak out to provide alternative solutions as to how things can be changed for the better.
Mirai Inc members frequently appear in magazines, on TV and give talks to large audiences. We need somebody who does not mind representing us form time to time in these mediums.
Apart from the coding, we do other things like attend figure, anime and other otaku subculture events. You may be questioned to go with press pass in hand to cover the event. If you are interested in Otaku subculture then doing this would not feel like work – even though it is ^^
As a small company, there may be other chores that I may question you to do. My personal chores include cleaning the staff toilet, hoovering the floor, polishing the tables and dusting down the girls. You may be questioned to fold boxes from the daily sample arrivals for example. I’ll continue to do the toilet cleaning for the foreseeable future though ^^
I have always employed open communication since my years at Amazon. This means that we all agree to say whats on our mind no matter what it is – especially for sensitive subjects. Open communication means that we avoid misunderstandings and feel better about something that maybe nagging in our minds.
Employees are required to speak their minds on any subject no matter what it is.

Finally
You will be working in a team to build a product that wants to change Japanese Internet history – the name of the product is Mirai Gaia.
I cannot acknowledge receipt of all resumes received. If you don’t get contacted by me it doesn’t mean that you don’t meet the requirements – because you *will* meet the requirements otherwise you wont be sending me your resume. I will file all resumes and consider candidates for future openings.
In the near future I will be looking for Account Managers and Program Managers but please do not send resumes for these positions – you have not seen the job description yet ^^
I reckon thats about it – am I forgetting something? Probably so just question in the comments and check the comments before asking.
We look forward to working with you!
The full article that includes this photo lives at www.dannychoo.com/adp/eng/1695/
You may also want to check out www.flickr.com/photos/dannychoo/collections/ for similar photos

MIRAI株式会社 人材募集
そしてあなたの席はここになります。この席はあなたの席であるべきと思う人は履歴書を「jobs at mirai dot fm」まで送ってください。履歴書のフォーマットは自由。なるべくコンビニで買うやつを使わないで、ワードやPagesで作成し、PDFで保存したものを日本語で送ってください。Excelで作成した履歴書は送らないでください。写真不必要。ってゆか、顔で人を判断する多くの企業はどうかなと思います。
必要な技術
現在探しているのはMIRAI株式会社のフロントエンドウェブデベロッパー（即雇用）。バックエンドの知識も多少必要。次のスキルが必要。
-PHP5/ImageMagickが堪能な方。Wordpressなどのテンプレートシステムを理解する方。
-Amazon、Flickr、TwitterなどのAPIを使った事がある方。あるいはAPIをよく理解する方。
-XLSTを理解する方あるいはXLSTのコードを見てすぐ理解出来る方。
-MYSQLやMYSQLインジェクションを理解する方。
-MVC、バージョン管理システムを理解する方。
-LinuxやMACを使いの方、あるいはこれらのシステムをすぐ使いこなせる方。
-ブログかTwitterアカウントを持っている方。あるいはブログを運営する事によってのISSUEを理解する方。
-CGMをよく理解する方。
-CSSやHTMLやJQueryをよく理解する方。
-サーバー管理がある程度出来る方。PHP、ImageMagick、Freetype、MYSQLなどをコンパイルしてインストール出来る方。
-Fireworks、Photoshop、IllustratorやFlashが使える方。
-FireworksやPhotoshopでモックアップを作成し、XHTMLにエキスポート出来る方。
-コマンドラインが使える方（VIやクロン設定など）。
-主にフロンとエンドのデベロッパー（デザイン系）を探していますので、バックエンドのいくつかの項目が足りなくても応募してください。
他の条件
-英語の聞き取りやメールの読み取りがある程度出来る方。
-学歴は一切といません。新卒でも可。必要なのは即戦力。
-男女問いません。宇宙人でも可。
-オタクな方を優遇します。
僕がMIRAI株式会社を設立した理由の一つは、残りの人生を好きな事がやりたかったからだ。ウェブを作る事が大好きで、僕の好きなサブカルチャーグッズを作るクライエントさんも多い（フィギュア、ゲームなど）。これらのことが好きな方のであれば、きっと仕事がもっと楽しく感じる。
その他の詳細
-給与は経験により優遇。
-休みは土日と祝日。
-フィギュアやゲームなどのグッズが定期的に支給されます。
-東京目黒勤務。
-勤務時間は10:00〜18:00。
-残業ゼロ主義です。
僕はアマゾンのウェブサイトマネージャーを勤めた時は自分のスタッフの勤務時間を朝10時〜18:00時までさせました。それでも、まかされたプロジェクトは全てスペック通り、オンタイムでロールアウトする事が出来ました。仕事を効率よくする事によって、残業はする必要はない。
たとえば、人は8時間寝る、8時間仕事するとすれば、残りは8時間しかない。しかし、通勤時間、お風呂に入る時間、食べる時間、うんちする時間、男のプライベットタイムなども含むと、その8時間がたとえば4時間になってしまう。この4時間を大事にしないと行けないと僕は考えます。たとえば、勉強したり、好きな人と一緒にいたり、遊んだり、研究したり。
しかし、8時間以上に勤務すると、寝る時間を減らしたり、その他のことを犠牲にしないと行けない。
社長である僕の仕事の一つは、スタッフが仕事場でだけではなく、仕事以外のことも楽しく、健康よくやっている。
カンパニーカルチャー
Mirai株式会社では仕事もハード、遊びもハード。仕事がハードと言っても、残業は絶対させない。18:00に帰ってもらって、やりたい事やって欲しい。
我が必要なのは元気で明るい人。我の会社の人間はよく雑誌やテレビに出たり講演したりしますので、これらの事をする事がOKな人。
オタクな人を優遇しますが、オタクである事を恥ずかしがらない人間が必要。世間をどう思っているのかは自分の人生に影響をさせる事はしなければ、人生はもっと楽しい。
事務所には抱き枕、おっぱいマウスパッドなどの2次元系のグッズが置いてあります。これらのアイテムに囲まれても困らない人が必要だな^^;
まだ小さい会社なので、その他のことを頼むかもしれない。たとえばフィギュアイベントでプレスパスを使って取材に行ったり。僕は毎朝、スタッフトイレ掃除したり、掃除機をかけたり、テーブルを拭いたり、フィギュアのホコリを落としたりしています。たとえば、毎週サンプルが大漁に届くので、それらの段ボールの処理したりを頼むかもしれない。
自分の考えをちゃんと述べてくれる方。たとえば、今まではこのように何かをやっていましたが、「こうする事によって改善出来る」と言える方。
我はオープンコミュニケーションを採用している。たとえば通常言いにくいことを率直言える環境にしています。こうする事によって、誤解はしない、ストレスはたまらない。社長のおならが臭くてもちゃんと言って欲しい。
最後に
あなたは日本のインターネット歴史を変えたいプロダクトを構築する一員となる。そのプロダクトの名はミライガイア。

質問等などがありましたら、コメントで残してください。全ての応募には返信出来ないので、ご了承ください。
楽しみに待っています！

この写真の含んだ記事は www.dannychoo.com/adp/jpn/1695/ にあります。
コレクションは www.flickr.com/photos/dannychoo/collections/ にあるよ。

Some cool Learning to Speak Japanese images:

Japanese style


Image by kightp
Late 1950s. Butch loved Japan, and took to Japanese culture avidly, learning to speak – and write – fluent Japanese, as well as paint, arrange flowers and serve tea in the traditional Japanese style.

podium


Image by selena lynn
Giving a real half-assed speech at the Happyokai, or speech/presentation show. Public speaking in Japanese… aughhhhh!

Welcome to Dialect101 Youtube Channel. The simplest way to learn languages on the web, iPhone, iPad, Android devices, Laptop, TV and more. Please subscribe to Dialect101 Channel or visit www.Dialect101.com
Video Rating: 5 / 5

US $75.25 End Date: Sunday Feb-05-2012 21:58:28 PST Buy It Now for only: US $75.25 Buy it now | Add to watch list

US $6.95 End Date: Sunday Feb-05-2012 21:58:40 PST Buy It Now for only: US $6.95 Buy it now | Add to watch list

A few nice Learning to Speak Japanese images I found:

Situated Meaning in the Empire of the Indexes


Image by timtak
My understanding of Pierce in this description is sorely misguided. Icons are a seperate class of sign.

I have been claiming that while the Westerners tend to be very "logocentric" or linguistic, Japanese are more inclined to concentrate on visual information, especially when it involves themselves. Hence Westerners care about linguistic self-expression, and carry around with them an "Other" or "Superaddressee" that reflects their speech acts upon themselves. And Japanese care about visual self expression (clothes items, things, pointing) and carry around with them, a "mirror in their head" (Heine and Takemoto, et. al).

But, lately I have been forced to realise that Jane Bachnik is right and I was incorrect: It is not that the West is linguistic and Japan is "occular," nor even that Western signs are sounds rather than images, but rather it the difference is in the way that Japanese and Westerners use signs, or the type of signs that they use.

Jane Bachnik claims that Japan is (to paraphrase Barthes) "the empire of the *indexes*".

What are indexes? Indexes are a type of sign, in American linguist Pierce’s taxonomy of signs. Their most well-known subgroup are icons, such as on your computer screen. Icons are strictly speaking, indexes that have a resemblance to that which they represent, such as the well-known trashcan which represents the deletion of computer files and thus has a likeness to its meaning. More purely indexical is the Nike logo, called a "swoosh," which gets to mean "Nike" by virtue of the fact that it is printed on all their products and showed at the end of their adverts, rather than by its similarity to a running shoe. Indexes get their meaning by their "contiguous relationship" with the thing that they refer to. That means that they are often showed at the same time in the same place, or immediately before or afterwards in time and space. Many of the typical examples of indexes are natural phenomena related causally, hence smoke is an index for fire, thunder an index for lightening (and vice versa), and the mercury in a thermometer is an index for the temperature. Perhaps the vital thing about indexes is that they have a direct, one-to-one relationship with that which they represent. As mentioned in my previous post, indexical thought may have a lot in common with "savage thought" as defined by Levi-Strauss. Indexes are one part of the word, used as a sign for another part.

What other types of signs are there? That a sign has a direct one to one relationship with that which it represents may seem pretty much the way that all signs are. But Saussure, and even ancient Buddhists have pointed out that linguistic signs (at least in the West!) are defined by their relationship to other signs, "cat" is understood by its relationship to "bat," and "dog." Phonemic words (at least) mean, have meaning, by virtue of not being other words.

Returning to indexes, another well-known example of an index is a pointing finger. It has meaning because you can see what it is pointing at. Jane Bachnik proposed the theory that indexes are vital to the Japanese from consideration of the importance of such words such as inner and outer ("uchi" and "soto") or front and back ("omote" and "ura"), which are used extensively to describe social interactions. Like pointing fingers but, these spacio-metaphorical words have meaning in contextual locations, and shift their meaning depending upon who is saying them. Inner (uchi) e.g. my family, for me will be outer (soto) for you and vice versa. Bachnik struggles with this shifting aspect of indexes, and I believe emphasises their shiftiness more that I do. Indeed, I reckon that is were Bachnik and I differ. For Bachnik indexes are inherently shifty and subjective, but for me, I reckon it depends upon the culture from which one looks upon them. I will come back to this point but first I will introduce some examples of where Bachnik’s theory of Japan as the empire of the indexes is useful.

A few days ago I was out in a river bay on my kayak and at 6 o’clock, or one or two minutes before or after came the sound of the tannoy sound system that announce this time (and perhaps that it is time for dinner, time to go home from the rice fields) to the local inhabitants. Some of the 6-oclock-sounds were simply sirens, others were the melodies from folk songs (often Scottish, for reasons unknown) and there was one sound of someone ringing a temple bell. Since they localities around the bay were slightly out of sync, the continued for about 5 minutes, before the bay returned to silence. These sounds can be heard at least twice a day, also at noon. In some rural prefectures the local town hall will make announcements such as "the primary school children have all safely returned from their school trip." Sticking to the noon and 6pm sirens, it is clear that that they are phonic not visual signs, so bang goes my theory that the Japanese are into their visuals. This is a very Japanese, very phonic sound. It is also an index. The sounds get their meanings (certain times of day) by occurring at those times of day, contiguously with the small hand of the clock pointing at six.

More importantly, it would be very untrue to suggest that the Japanese do not place considerable significance on language, but the way that they do it is different. It is simple to point to areas in which, from a Western, logocentric point of view, the Japanese do not seem to place a fantastic deal of importance upon language. "Japan is a society without dialogue" as Nakajima points out, (Taiwa no Nai Shakai), in which university students never question questions, decisions are made before committees deliberate (and debate) on the issues, political debate tends toward the grey with the manifestos of all parties being very much the same, rules are often reinterpreted in surprising ways (e.g. "scientific whaling"), there is a lot of flattery ("oseiji"), and there are books extolling the vagueness of the Japanese. At the same time but, there are some instances in which it is clear that Japanese take words *really* seriously.

Today there was a tragic tale in the only English language "Japan Today" news site. An eight year ancient Japanese girl committed suicide apparently because she had been the victim of bullying. And the bullying consisted (perhaps solely, since the culprit remains unknown) in finding the word "die" written on her pencil case and books. As the father of a daughter my heart goes out to the parents. At the same time, as a Westerner I find myself confused. In Anglophone countries it has become vogue (and the subject of pop song lyrics) to tell people to go away and die in far more offensive language, but I doubt that many or any of the "victims" feel as traumaticised as this 8 year ancient did. It is clear that some words can be very offensive in Japan, and that the Japanese can take them very seriously with tragic results.

That Japanese take terrible words seriously is supported by the fact that there are few expletives in Japanese. Instead of accusing someone you intensely dislike of being incestuously involved with their mother, one claims that their mothers belly button sticks out. The word for the female sex organs is felt to be so rude that it can not be used, so that Japanese sex educators have had to experiment with the use of "girl willy."

A Japanese teacher of debating skills bewails the aforementioned lack of debate in Japan, ascribing it to the belief in the spirit of words. He argues that debate requires that one examine the pros and cons, the positive and negative outcomes of an act. Japanese do not like to talk about negative outcomes, lest they come right as a result, so debate is often avoided. Hence it is precisely the belief in *the power of words* motivates the avoidance of dialogue.

This phenomena again relates to the theory of indexes. Indexes have meaning by their direct relationship with that which they mean, rather than by their position in a language or discourse. Thus the word death may conjure up the state and event of death far more strongly among Japanese (who avoid even homonyms of the word), than among Anglophones for whom death is associated with life and birth. Speaking the word "death" to an indexical thinker may even bring death upon them, but speaking the word death to a linguistic dialogic thinker may bring them to life.

That Japanese see words as being particularly disturbing is often related to their belief in "word-spirits" (kotodama, shinko). This is the ancient belief that words hare imbued with spirit such that their utterance can make the word come right. Hence for this reason, certain words weakly related to the concept of divorce (such as "go home") are avoided at Japanese weddings lest they encourage the bride to "go home to her parents" and divorce the groom.

Finally, returning to Bachniks feeling that indexes shift more than other types (our types) of sign, I can not agree. Words in western society, even those that underpin our society, such as freedom and justice, excellent and terrible, are interpreted in many ways. That they share particular interpretations, and remain vital to us, is the result of a cultural practice of internalising language via the "Other" "Generalised Other" or "Superaddressee" of language. This linguifying of the psyche does not have to be done, and the Japanese do not do it. On the other hand, that Japanese identify far more greatly with the visual self representations, theire face, and with "lococentric" (Lebra) clasifications of society such as inner and outer (uchi and soto) does not imply that Japanese society is more shifting, but rather that they have learnt to internalise a co-experiencer, a mirror in their head (Heine and Takemoto et al.), something with which to nail the context down, to sew the subjective worlds of experience, these fish-bowls together.

kentanakalovesyou.blogspot.com Visit Remi at www.youtube.com Remi and Ken teach some common Japanese abbreviations en.wikipedia.org In this lesson on how to speak Japanese, the very handsome and gorgeous Remi and I teach you how to use Japanese abbreviations. In the Japanese language, everything is abbreviated. Here we teach you some common abbreviations for stores and restaurants. The reastaurant First Kitchen becomes Fuakin. ファッキン ファーストキッチンMany people thought this was a amusing joke that we made up, but this is right. Some people reckon that Fuakin sounds like an English swear word, but this is how First Kitchen is abbreviated in many parts of Japan. Kentucy Fried Chicken becomes Kentucky… and Family Mart is Famima Starbuck is STa-ba… Now you know how to speak Japanese fluently so delight in exploring Japan and learning more Japanese.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

www.japanesepod101.com Do you want to speak Japanese like a native speaker? In this lesson, you will learn Hiroko’s top three casual Japanese expressions. Using these simple and fun phrases, you can sound like a native Japanese speaker straight away! If you learned a lot with this video, stop by our Japanese language learning website and get other language learning content including other fantastic videos like this one, audio podcasts, review materials, blogs, iPhone applications, and more. ‪www.japanesepod101.com

US $75.25 End Date: Sunday Feb-05-2012 21:58:28 PST Buy It Now for only: US $75.25 Buy it now | Add to watch list

US $6.95 End Date: Sunday Feb-05-2012 21:58:40 PST Buy It Now for only: US $6.95 Buy it now | Add to watch list