Dear readers,
Hi everyone!!
Nowadays, it’s easy to connect with the world through free apps and social media, but I decided to start a blog.
Because social media and chat apps focus so much on being quick and efficient, it’s often hard to really get to know someone.
I’m a Japanese person living in Japan, and I want to connect more deeply with people around the world to share our values, and broaden my own perspectives.
So I believe it’s essential to take the time to clarify my thoughts, even if it takes a long time.
I wanted to create a platform so that people I’ve already met — or might meet in the future — can get to know more about me.
I’d appreciate it if this blog helps you get to know me better and leads to building amazing relationships.
This time, I’m going to talk about why I launched this blog, even though blogs are considered outdated in today’s world.
The reasons I launched this blog
The main reason I launched this blog is to get the readers to know about my thoughts and humanity so that they can decide whether it is worth building a relationship with me.
I want to build deep relationships
Currently, I’ve been enjoying communicating with people around the world through “HelloTalk” – the language exchange app.
While using these types of apps, I always feel like people prefer surface-level matching over truly understanding each other.
It seems like a belt conveyor — people there flow from right to left inorganically.
So, I guess people get bored quickly because they often send inconsiderate or meaningless messages, even if they match with people they like.
I have visions of building relationships with reliable people beyond Japan and actively broadening my inner world.
As a first step toward that, I decided to put my thoughts, visions, and values into words and share them through this blog, because I believe that building true relationships comes from deeply understanding people.
And it might seem like we need to share something about ourselves before we can let people get to know us.
I usually feel that the profile page alone is not enough to properly understand a message sender on HelloTalk.
I have no choice but to hesitate to reply to messages from users without any specific profile or posts.
That’s why I believe it might be easier for people to find good friends if there is a place where they can get to know others from the beginning.
Finally, I decided to start with myself — to share things about myself and the environment surrounding me.
And through that, people might feel more comfortable reaching out to me, because they can understand how seriously I want to connect with people around the world — and my deep sense of humanity.
The reasons I share things in English as a Japanese person
Even though my native language is Japanese, there are two reasons why I share my thoughts in English.
- I want to communicate with people all over the world.
- I believe it is worth sharing in English because few Japanese people try to do so.
Aside from my personal visions, I think learning English is essential for communicating with the world, as English is a global standard language.
In Japan, the number of people who are trying to use English practically is limited, even though quite a few are learning the language.
That’s why I’d like to use English in my own way — not just for studying it.
Surprisingly, the culture of respecting personal opinions has only recently started to spread in Japan.
People in Japan have generally considered maintaining harmony with others more important than sharing personal perspectives and thoughts.
As you can imagine, it has suppressed the diversity of opinions and has led to a closed atmosphere — especially in workplaces and educational environments.
Now, let me talk a bit about what it means to share in English as a Japanese person, with some cultural background from Japan.
The importance of sharing thoughts as a Japanese person by learning English
I talked about this before, but I’m going to share my thoughts again.
I believe that it’s meaningful to share my thoughts in English precisely because I’m Japanese.
As I mentioned earlier, in Japan, people had normally considered observing those around them and agreeing with each other to be the most important way to move things forward smoothly.
Not just in the workplace, but also in school education, people had the same thoughts. So students were usually required to do things in the same way and follow the same directions.
Certainly, when I look back on my past, there were few opportunities to share my own visions and thoughts with someone — and I didn’t even try to create those opportunities myself.
While Japanese people are always working on things seriously and trying to maintain harmony or morals, they are often too severe to others.
It might prevent Japanese people from making decisions and starting new things that differ from others.
When it comes to speaking English, most Japanese seem to be too afraid to make mistakes, so they prefer to keep studying English and staying in their inner world, as always.
But I believe that sharing my own thoughts and experiences enables people around the world to overcome the differences between languages and cultures — that’s much more important than speaking English correctly and obsessing over maintaining harmony with others.
Japan’s old way of thinking and relationships may not align well with a global perspective.
In the future, Japan may possibly move toward globalization, and I want to be able to see things from perspectives beyond being Japanese.
Conclusion:
You might feel that choosing a letter-based way of communicating is a bit behind the times.
It can’t be helped, because people prefer easier and shorter communication than before.
I want to think about how I can help people who get to know me understand me more deeply, and I’d like to be creative in how I do that.
And I’d like to learn English not just to make new friends, but also to communicate in ways that enrich each other’s lives through encountering new thoughts and perspectives.