Christmas is almost here :)

I didn’t write anything for ages but I came back at last.

Currently I’m living in Sheffield in England and just finished two-month study in Sheffield College.

My stay in England is going to be 6 months in total and this is my first time I've left Japan.

I’m still in my 4th year of Sophia University in Tokyo, but because I’ve already got all the credits I need to graduate and get a job offer in Japan, I have 6 months of nice free time to do anything I want.

In Japan, people normally work in only one company for their whole life. Once they start working, life becomes busy and restless, and it’s quite difficult to change jobs.

This fact made me think of these 6 months as “the last chance”.

I was surprised to learn that many people in Europe are relatively easygoing about their jobs and said they could change their job rather easily.

So, although there are lots of great advantages to lifetime employment and I really like that idea, I still can’t really shake the thought that living in Europe gives me more possibility in my life.

So it might seem the mixture of Japanese and European systems would be better than each of them, but I realised that these systems are quite irreconcilable and if you try to mix them and make compromise, both systems would lose their advantages.

After all we have to choose one system, and I chose the Japanese one.

I think it was quite a reasonable choice because I grew up in the countryside in Japan and educated as a typical Japanese, which means I could do much better in a Japanese company.

But I still haven’t given up my dream to work in a foreign country.

The reason why I started to study English wasn’t for my job, but to learn about more things in the world and acquire a more sophisticated, balanced view of seeing things.

English is obviously the most common language in the world (Chinese is the most spoken one though) and if I can use English properly, I can communicate with various kinds of people from different countries and know opinions of every kind, which would be an amazing thing and I think it’ll definitely broaden my view.

So I chose a Japanese company where I can work abroad for 4-10 years in my life.

I don’t know which country I’m going to work in in the future, but it is quite likely to be in countries like China, Russia, India, Brazil and Eastern European countries which are developing quickly or expected to develop greatly in the future.

Wow, just realised that today’s post became quite lengthy and a bit serious… next time I’m gonna write about my daily life and some interesting discoveries in England.

Christmas is almost here!

I haven't written anything for ages but I came back here at last. ('...but at last I'm back' is even better)

Currently I’m living in Sheffield in England and I just finished a two-month study in Sheffield College. (You need 'a' because 'two-month study' is a noun, so <verb> a <noun>.)

My stay in England is going to be 6 months in total and this is my first time I've (ever) left Japan.

I’m still in my 4th year of Sophia University in Tokyo, but because I’ve already got all the credits I need to graduate and a job offer in Japan as well, I have 6 months of nice free time to do anything I want. (... '6 months of nice free time' is a bit unnatural, I think I'd say '...and a job offer in Japan as well, I have six months to do whatever I want')

Unlike other students in my university, I’d never been to a foreign country, even as a trip, and I never had the chance to speak English at all when I was in Japan. ('couldn't' is also correct but it has another meaning '能力がない' so it can be misunderstood.)

That’s why I decided to spend ('allot' is too formal) the remainder of my student life to studying

In Japan, people normally work in only one company for their whole life. Once they start working, life becomes hectic, and it’s quite difficult to change their jobs as well. ('Busy and restless' is OK, but I think maybe 'hectic' is the word you're looking for).

I was surprised to hear that many people in Europe are relatively easygoing about their jobs and said they could change their job rather easily. (Correct, but you used 'easy' twice in this sentence so it sounds a bit funny.)

So, whilst there are lots of great advantages to lifetime employment and I really like the idea, I still can’t really shake the thought that living in Europe gives me more possibilities in my life.

So it seems that a mixture of Japanese and European systems would be better, but I realised that these systems are quite irreconcilable and if you try to mix them and make a compromise, both systems would lose their advantages. (This sentence is awesome)

After all we have to choose one system, and I chose the Japanese one.

I think it was quite a reasonable choice because I grew up in the countryside in Japan and educated as a typical Japanese, which means I could do much better in a Japanese company. ('Typical Japanese' sounds really strange. What word did you mean?)

But I still haven’t given up my dream to work in a foreign country.

The reason why I started studying English wasn’t for my job, but to learn more about the world and acquire a more sophisticated, balanced view of seeing things.

English is obviously the most common language in the world (Chinese is the most spoken one though) and if I can use English properly, I can communicate with various kinds of people from different countries and know opinions of every kind, which would be an amazing thing and I think it’ll definitely broaden my horizons. (broaden horizons = <meta charset="utf-8">視野を広げる)

I don’t know which country I’m going to work in in the future, but it is quite likely to be in a country like China, Russia, India, Brazil or an Eastern European country, which are developing quickly or expected to develop much more in the future. (I know it sounds strange, but 'in in' is correct here.)

I’m really excited when I think of working in these countries because they have quite different cultures and values from what I’ve experienced/learnt so far, and I can learn them and enrich my knowledge.

Wow just realised that today’s post has become quite lengthy and a bit serious… next time I’m gonna write about my daily life and some interesting discoveries in England.

I also heard my friend in Europe saying that they envied the Japanese stable working system, which is warmer and more family-like.

I’m really excited when I think of working in these countries because they surely have quite different cultures and values from what I’ve experienced so far. Experiencing and learning about these cultures will enrich my cultural frame of reference. (Made a new suggestion here. I think it's not natural to say that one can "learn" a culture. Actually, I think "enrich my mind" sounds better than "enrich my knowledge" - it seems to me that the latter doesn't quite make sense.)