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STUDENT INTERVIEW: Gisele Hirata (SILAC)

Gisele Hirata

Gisele, from Brazil, has been in Japan for one and a half years and started in the SILAC program recently. She is also working in the International Office translating the homepage from English to Portuguese.

Jon: Do you have time for an interview for this weeks newsletter?
Gisele: Yeh, sure.

J: How is the course going?
G: It's intensive - I think my listening skills have improved a lot but I still don't feel comfortable speaking yet.

J: Do you find you have enough time to study after class, whilst also working in the International Office ?
G: It's no problem. I'm actually quite lazy and don't like to study so if I wasn't working I would probably be doing something else.
J: So you can keep up with the pace of the program?
G:Well, if you don't study at home, or don't do your homework you will probably fall behind. I find that if I don't prepare for the lessons on the next day, I get a bit lost in class.

J: How did you find Yamasa?
G: In June I went to the Nagoya International Center and saw some leaflets that had information about Yamasa. I got further contact information from a friend and then I came and visited the school in June.

J: What were you doing before you enrolled in the SILAC program?
G: I was working in Kariya, a city about 15 kilometers from Okazaki.
J: And what kind of job were you doing?
G: I was working in a factory that made fuel gauges for a company called Denso.
J: Did the job help improve your Japanese?
G: Not much.
J: Why?
G: First of all there were a lot of Brazilians at the factory and secondly we weren't allowed to talk whilst we were working. Also, during lunch the Brazilians would all sit together.
J: Separate from the Japanese employees?
G: Yes. I think it was mainly because of the language barrier and because it was more convenient. Some Brazilians don't have a great life in Japan and don't wan't to talk to Japanese. Some Japanese didn't like us, although others were very nice and tried to help whenever they could.
J: Did many of the Brazilians speak Japanese?
G: No, not many. Anything that you needed, wanted, or had to do could be sorted out or arranged by someone who could speak Portuguese so it wasn't necessary to speak Japanese most of the time.
J: How did you come to work for the company?
G: In Brazil, an agency was advertising jobs there and they organized everything - it was all very easy. Everyone who came from Brazil had Japanese relatives so the visa wasn't a problem.
J: So I assume you have Japanese relatives as well?
G: That's right, all my grandparents are in Brazil, living in a city called Sao Jose Dos Campos, an hour from Sao Paulo. I used to live in Sao Paulo with my younger brother because I went to college there.
J: What did you major in?
G: Business and Administration.

J: How is the SILAC teaching faculty?
G: I think they're really good, always willing to help and always very 'genki' which is important cause sometimes you need the teacher to get you motivated.

J: What's your accommodation in Residence U like?
G: Good; I like it. Everything was new when I moved in and it was perfect for me. The only downside was that there is nowhere to prepare food as the hotplate takes up the space next to the kitchen sink, and you can hear your neighbours a little.

J: How does Okazaki compare to Kariya City?
G: Kariya City is really small, so I was surprised how big Okazaki was when I moved here.

J: Had you been to Japan before you came to work in Kariya City?
G: No.
J: Did you know much about Japan before you arrived?
G: I learnt quite a bit from my family - my grandfather immigrated to Brazil from Japan shortly after World War II ended. In Sao Paulo there's a Japanese district where you can find anything from Japan so I had quite a lot of contact with the culture, eating Japanese food, reading magazines about Japan etc.

J: Did you study any Japanese before you came?
G: I studied a little.

J: Why did you choose to come to Japan?
G: I wanted to learn Japanese and I thought working would be a good way to do this, without having to enter a language program, but that didn't happen.
J: Any other reasons?
G: Um, yeh, I wanted to make a change in my life.

J: After you finish studying/working at Yamasa what will you do?
G: It depends on my level of Japanese. I have to try as hard as I can to learn as quickly as possible.
J: Will you go back to Brazil or stay in Japan?
G: Again, it depends on my level of Japanese. I would like to do something in sales or marketing and I know that if you can speak Japanese this can help in getting a job in many Japanese companies in Brazil.

J: Any advice for people coming to Japan to study?
G: When you come and you really want to learn the language you have to study hard and make a lot of friends to have some support so you don't get too lonely. Oh, and I've seen this before on the interviews but I agree - you should definitely learn hiragana and katakana - it'll save you a lot of time!

J: What's it like working in the International Office ?
G: The environment is good. There's not always someone looking over your shoulder and you can work at your own pace.

J: And finally, any message for our readers?
G: Yes, it's something that the explorer Shackleton said. I don't know it in English so I'll have to say it in Portugese:

"Os homens marcham aos confins do mundo por diferentes motivos. Alguns sao impelidos somente pelo desejo de aventura; outros sentem uma intensa sede de saber; os terceiros obedecem a sedutora chamada de uma voz interior, ao encanto misterioso do desconhecido que os afastam dos caminhos rotineiros da vida cotidiana."

J: Thanks for your time.
G: No problem!