Discussion

Working and Communicating with Japanese Engineers

jamesbelchamber: Could Project Managers start talking to me like the suggestion in Scenario 1 too please, that's clearly better.

avidiax: I feel that everyone could learn and apply the idea of having clear, concise language without jargon.I've hear this notion called "international English". English spoken in a way that non-native speakers find relatively easy to understand and follow.The hard part of this is that non-native speakers will rarely ask for this. It's a gift that you have to give, and a gift you have to encourage others to give. And most of all, it needs to be done in a way so as not to be condescending, by simply being clear.

onion2k: Lush, the bathbombs company, has an internal tech team that builds the apps, website, and point of sale systems. I worked there for a little while on some web-based tooling for payments which involved working with the Japanese team who did the tech for the Japanese site. They were really good. Everything was incredibly clear and easy to understand because they had to put a lot of effort into written comms due to both the language barrier and the time difference. I built a great appreciation for what concise, high quality communication looks like.It's both getting a role where you're forced into improving. I'm definitely a better communicator than I was before that job because of it.

lysace: Text is often a lot easier than speech.

duskdozer: Yeah, a lot of these seem to me like just good communication skills. It's just disproportionately helpful for non-native speakers, I guess.

NalNezumi: I worked in Japan for 5 years and due to being able to speak both Japanese and English fluently I almost always ended up doing translations along engineering (many times I was moved team just because of it)I think the article make some good point. To expand on some points>Make your English understandable.I read on bbc a while back that in international workplace, the worst English speakers are the British. My previous manager was British, and I had to tell him this by asking everyone in the room (in Japanese) after his presentation "so did any of you understand the English?" and everyone said no. Then I presented the same thing in English and everyone understood it. The brits use the most advanced English, so while (to them) it might sound condescending, but I tell them to imagine speaking to a middle school student, or thing of "globish" [1]>One of those habits common to people from Western countries is being more direct and assertiveIn my experience this is not true for westerners. They like to imagine themselves that way but except for maybe west coast Americans and the Dutch, most culture have a coded way of getting their point through without being direct.>Look beyond language>Another difference involves when to speak during meetings or presentations. Japanese speakers tend to “wait their turn” to speak. During presentations, they almost always defer questions and comments until the end, when the presentation is finished. Non-Japanese employees, on the other hand, are more likely to speak up as soon as something comes to mind.Actually this might be related to the language. My partner (speaking 4 languages fluently including Japanese) pointed out that because in Japanese, the verb is at the end of the sentence, if you interrupt someone mid-sentence it's really hard to guess what he was about to say. So most people "listen in" and interruption is extremely rude because it's akin to ignoring someone.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globish_(Nerri%C3%A8re)

sunray2: Sounds really nice! Do you have an example of the concise, high quality communciation the Japanese team used? It'd be interesing to see what they focused on to make it so clear.

chii: Wouldn't that international english be the same simple english (e.g., https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)?

bythreads: Worked for years in japan, beg to disagree.Love japanese and japan but their work culture is horrific - Japanese are inefficient and the veneer of looking to work "hard" is more important than the hard work itself. People often stay until ridiculously late just to show they "put in the effort" which is more important than outcome.Then again that happens in many other countries as well ...

tjpnz: I have some familiarity with the company the author's from - they were miles ahead of other places in terms of the support offered. They would hire people who could do simultaneous interpretation and assigned multiple interpreters to meetings so they could take breaks (it's exhausting work). This would also extend to business trips, even when there was only a single person needing support. The process felt very natural and I still don't think it can be fully replicated by the AI based solutions we have now. The tips offered in TFA are valuable in practice, but you're going to still want an interpreter in many situations.

atoav: [delayed]

developers from the West see no problem with clearly stating their opposition to a topic and listing the reasons why they oppose it—in many ways, this is seen as good, clear communication. This style can sometimes be jarring to Japanese speakers, who generally prefer to avoid anything that could be taken as blunt or confrontational.

ilamont: developers from the West see no problem with clearly stating their opposition to a topic and listing the reasons why they oppose it—in many ways, this is seen as good, clear communication. This style can sometimes be jarring to Japanese speakers, who generally prefer to avoid anything that could be taken as blunt or confrontational.This was buried at the end of the essay, but is one of the most important points.I worked (not as a developer) in a company that was acquired by a Japanese company. Meetings were structured, and debate was kept to a minimum. If there was disagreement (typically framed as a difference of opinion or conflicting goals) there would be an effort to achieve some sort of balance or harmony. If the boundary was not hard, it was possible to push back. Politely.Also, if Japanese colleagues expressed frustration, or were confrontational, that was a red flag that some hard boundary had been crossed. This was extremely rare, and replies had to be made in a very careful, respectful way.

keiferski: From what I understand, it’s not so much that all disagreement is to be avoided entirely, but rather that it should be done on an individual level prior to the meeting. So the fundamental difference is that a western company may use the meeting as an opportunity to discuss and debate an issue, whereas that process is done before the meeting in Japanese corporate culture.