I am currently employed with the American investment brokerage firm Lehman Brothers, as a salestrader on the Equities Client Services desk. To explain a little about what I do, I am responsible for sourcing supply and accommodating requests of clients who want to short sell. That is, when a client thinks the price of a stock is headed down, he sells borrowed stock, then when the market price actually falls, he buys it back at the lower price and returns the borrowed stock, thereby pocketing the difference in price. I am responsible for speaking to the demand side: hedge fund clients who are looking to short sell, and then to the supply side: locating availability by speaking with trust banks, insurance firms, mutual funds – basically, any possible holder of the stock who are willing to lend.

An important aspect of my job is in dealing with Japanese-speaking clients, who are mostly with overly conservative trust/insurance companies on the supply side. Japan has, for some time, been perceived as a major global economy, and when foreign banks expanded their operations to Japan a decade ago, they ended up alienating local institutions for lack of understanding of the local culture. Recently, firms have tried to alleviate this divide by hiring native speakers. After graduating from Yale University with a Computer Science degree last year, I took the job offer in Tokyo as an opportunity to make use of my linguistic skills.

Dealing with clients on two linguistic fronts have proved to be a major challenge. This is particularly true as communication with a particular client occurs daily, if not hourly, and building a relationship becomes a crucial aspect of the job. Understanding of culture, of common sense, of nuances of words, humor, current events, are essential in servicing clients, especially those who come with a wariness of foreign investment banks and young salespersons who are, in their eyes, reckless and inexperienced. Another important aspect of the job requires quick absorption and dissemination of information. In an environment where quick access to the news implies profitable opportunities, the ability to process news in the original text becomes a hot skill. The reading and writing skills I acquired at Asahi places me ahead of the competition when it comes to extracting relevant news from the media.

I moved to the United States when I was four years of age. After living in New Jersey for a few years, my family relocated to Los Angeles where my parents enrolled me in Asahi. I remembered being surprised by the size of the classes, the quality of education, and most of all, the dedication of the administration and faculty in instilling Japanese tradition in a land where assimilation is the norm. It was easy to take Asahi for granted, after all, it was an additonal day of schooling that was unnaturally forced upon me. But progress is something that goes unnoticed – a passage to read, a kanji to learn, a “shitsurei shimasu” to utter before entering the teachers’ lounge – these seemed like such monotonous tasks. It was hard to see that these would amount to become invaluable tools of self-expression, of information, of communication, tools I use daily.

That is not to say that continuing to balance both American school, Asahi, friends, sports, among other activities, is an easy feat. Having been a swimmer of eighteen years, I understand the difficulty of explaining to the coach that the reason you are missing Saturday practice and/or meets is for Japanese school. There are several incidences where I had to make a conscious decision to continue Asahi. And every time I chose to continue my studies because of my friends, who I grew close to as a result of having shared the same sense of humor and background; of the faculty, who pushed us to think outside the immediate network and have a global perspective; and finally, my parents, who never let me quit, never let me sell myself short of my potential.

My parents are firm believers of the perfect bilingual, that, if started young, kids could successfully attain mastery of both English and Japanese. While my siblings and I had the option of making my own decisions from high school on, slacking on my Japanese education was not an option until that time. They even turned Saturdays into “Family Days” and it was not uncommon during elementary school for both my mother and my father to come together to pick us up from school. We would then go grocery shopping or to a Japanese restaurant – we would be immersed in Japanese culture for the entirety of the day. Having us kids get acquainted with Japanese culture was very important to them. Recently had a conversation with my mother on why she had been so strict about our education. She replied that in all three of us kids she saw potential, but that wasn’t enough. She knew that if we were to excel in anything we had to start young, then persist. If we were to quit Asahi with the argument that we would be working in the US and that Japanese would not be necessary, a few years down the road we would not be able to make back that lost time.

Japanese is not only a tool but an additional opportunity. As long as there are many doors to choose from, the future is never limited. And that is why my parents had always been vigilent about my schooling. I hope that anybody reading this would continue to immerse themselves in both languages, to read voraciously, write at every opportunity. I hope that from their continued education they would be able to get a better grasp of where they come from, of who their ancestors are and more importantly, who they are. I hope that they will take the global stage and not let a linguistic obstacle hinder them. I have only recently started to wade into this vast reality and I am no expert by any standards, but that is my humble advice to current students.