2009年12月5日土曜日

Speculate Japanese social issue@Furusato

Furusato means "Hometown" in Japanese. For dinner tonight, my student Cyrille who is french and learning Japanese for a year with me invited me Furusato.
Whenever I go to Furusato I feel"home" and enjoy food and talking.
We had good conversation about Japanese culture like " hikikomori(nowhere kid)" ”Business man sarrow、get transferred separated from the family, working late, hierarchy " etc.
He asked me that "I read French woman who lives Japan blog, is it true if your kids draw animals..let's say giraffe and colered blue, teacher said "no giraffe is not blue, has to be yellow! then, if kid does not listen the teacher, in the end teacher apologized parents?"
--- yes, I think it's true. I am not sure school education systems now but at least when I was school, I always felt presserd that make sure I do "the same things" with others.
Japanese education , culture is still a lot of pressher "have to be the same with others"
Originally Japanese learning style is in the Confucian ethic. It is 2500years old ethic but I think Japanese learning style developed based on Confucian ethic.
Invisible Japanese culture, I think many people have presser that have to be a" standard"and ”not haveing a strong individuality" under the pressure from the society, education system, family expectation..
21st century after bubble economics, I wonder, these traditional Japanese structure and modern culture, internationalization creats social issues. Many people are torn or confused between modern and traditional culture and customs?
Should not forget how Japanese economics is growing so fast after WWⅡ, because Japanese people are fold and good at manugfactuaring and group organization work.
*I have little basis, this is just my speculate.

2009年12月2日水曜日

Coach Valerie

First snow December first in Montreal.
Snowing Montreal in the morning, I met Valerie at EM Cafe in MileEnd.
Valerie and I met at Coaching breakfast a couple of times. She has such a nice smile and I really wanted to talk with her. Last meeting, I sat down next to her and briefly we've got a talk. Her back ground is violinist who always tried new things. She used to work at Neurological Institute, worked as a English teacher as a second language teacher. Went to Japan to took a lesson with famous violinist Mr. Suzuki in Hamamatsu with her family for a while and lived in south Africa before.
Absolutely she is very interesting person and we had a such a nice talk.
She said that she really loved learning process being a coach and she could see her self more clarifying her goal and values of her life. I always love to hear that professional coach saw and felt it is very effective and reflect to themselves thire coaching skills.
She totally encourages me to the coaching journey and inspired me.
I feed so lucky to meet her!
It is very interesting to me that when I go to the meeting or conference, you feel instinct you actually have something with the person , she or he can get on well or have something common each other quite immediately.
It's call "en ga aru" = meant to be meeting this person.
Valerie was the person who I really wanted to talk with her when I went to the breakfast meeting.

2009年11月22日日曜日

Ice cidre"Clos Saragnat" at chocolat&Cie



Friday afternoon, I received a letter from Loise who owns her winery in Frelighsburg, Quebec. (maybe 2h drive from Montreal) they gave me and my friend's Mari , tickets for
" Salon Passion Chocolat & Cie " in old Montreal. It was such a nice surprise gift for us.

I met her and her husband Christian when Mariko, I and my best friend Kanako from Tokyo visited their winery this September. (Will write their winery next time!)
They have a passion to produce their ORGANIC apple cider wine, wine everything their by hands.
http://www.saragnat.com/french.html


They had a booth " Salon Passion Chocolat & Cie "Sweets Expo at Marche Bonsecour over the weekend.
http://www.salonpassionchocolat.com

Mariko and I went to see them and we had a coffee together and had very nice and profound talk.
Louise and Christian, both of them are just so nice who have strong belief and passion. Both of them have such a strong will.

We were just a small customer who visited their winery and purchase a couple of bottles but we asked(especially Kanako and Mariko) so many questions and we found how fascinating how they produce their wines and we really moved their passion.

When we came back to Montreal, I wrote her an email to say Thank you . Louise gave me a call and we communicated each other a couple of times. It is very interested that we have nothing common a part from having passion for something, believe something what we do.(of course I LOVE good wine..the most important part)

I was really appreciate it I could meet them and share passion.

Salon Passion Chocolat & Cie is the first chocolate show in the Canada and I never knew there are quite a lots of GOOD chocolatier here. their apple wine are goes well with chocolat.

Christian and Louise were chosen the dinner with prince Charles(only 84people were invited from all of Canada) last week when Prince Charles was here in Canada.
They were recognized their philosophy and Christian was the first person who produced apple wine cider in Canada and it's important for Canadian culture.

They are totally inspired me how we need to believe what we were doing and challenging spirit.

It was a very nice Sat afternoon we had.

2009年11月19日木曜日

My mom's Friend Bane-san

Last week, I was invited at Bane-san's place for a nice Japanese dinner.

Bane-san who lives with her gentle&sweet French husband in Montreal. Bane-san is from Hiroshima, lived in France over 30years old.

She is a sweet, friendly person, does not look like strong but what she is doing...? She is remarkable!she is a essayist, anthropology researcher and PhD student right now!wow!
Bane-san must me over 60years old but does not like 60's! young and charming.

She moved to France when she was late 20's and started learning French, going university after that doing Master degree.
At this era, it was very rare to going and studying France alone. She is so brave and adventurous obviously. It is nice to have a person who can talk about everything for me like my family:-)

For me, she is a one of the good role model and every time when I talk with her, she inspire me.
Before I left their apartment, she said ” If we have a life GLOW and POWERFUL, it would be nice!"
Wowwow! I was so impressed this word and I just love it!
Certenly, I would love to have a " glow and powerful" life!

今日、久しぶりに話をしたバネさん。。バネさんは30年くらいフランスで過ごした後
今ご主人の仕事でモントリオールでご近所に住んでいらっしゃる母の友人。
広島出身で、母の友達ということもあり、とても良くしてもらっている。

バネさん、気も若いしとてもチャーミングなお人柄。海外暮らしが長いし
英語もフランス語も使いこなせ でもなんとなくのほほーんとして可愛らしい人。
そんなバネさんと久しぶりに話してびっくりした、バネさん今フランスの大学博士号の勉強中。母より少し年上だからたぶん60歳過ぎてる。
すごいなあ~本当にすごい。ご主人のサポートももちろんあるけど(ちなみにご主人はバネさんのことをすごく愛していてとっても優しいの!とってもインテリで憧れのカップル)
バネさんの努力もすごい。
先日お母様がお亡くなりになって、意気消沈していらっしゃったし、海外に住んでいて
すぐに家族に何かあっても駆けつけられないもどかしさと悔しさ。。今の私も他人事ではない。
そんな大変なことがあっても前向きに明るくがんばっていらっしゃる。

励まされるわ~。決して上手は言わないし、ストレートでもそんなバネさんに会って話すとすごく励まされる。
私なんてまだまだ甘いな~って。

そんなバネさんが 「人生 艶やかに 過ごさないとね・・でも艶だけでは よくないからパワフル(力強さ)も必要ね!」って
名言だ!!
私も艶やかに力強く人生を生きたいと思います:-)

2009年11月17日火曜日

The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Center

My friend Julie works at The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Center and I visited there with friends for second time.

http://www.mhmc.ca/en

People knows how suffer bitter fate.

According the museum, Montreal is the 3rd big survivors community after Israel and NewYork.
Julie mentioned so many touched story form survivors and I touched from bottom of my heart. Even the people were confronted with a dire situation, people still consider and help each other.

Born and raise in Hiroshima and my family are also survivor from atomic bomb, I feel we focus on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki too much. When I visited Holocaust museum, I did not know so many things.
Wars, genocide...It is always innocent people to be sacrificed.

As a Hiroshima person, I would like to be a small ambassador for people's happiness.

この週末、友人のジュリーが働いている モントリオール ホロコースト博物館へ。
http://www.mhmc.ca/en

ホロコーストのことは学習する機会があるものの実際に行ってみると知らなかったことや
愛すべきヒューマンストーリーが描かれていてとても心につきささる。

広島出身の私は こういうところでこのような歴史をみると、広島や長崎、日本の歴史を知っていても
世界で起こっている、起こったことをまだまだ知らないことが多すぎると反省する。

ジューリーから ホロコーストから生き延びた人たちの色々な話を聞き涙することも多々。
でもそこにはどんなに悲惨な状況に於かれても、お互いに思いやるヒューマンドラマもたくさん生まれている。
そういう話をきくと、望みがもてる。そんな気がする。

大量虐殺、戦争で犠牲になる人たちはいつも罪のない人たち。。。

広島人として大きい何かができるわけではないが、今もどこかで悲惨な目に合っている人たちを忘れないよう、人の幸せのためになる何かをやっていきたいとそう思う。

2009年11月16日月曜日

Coaching Breakfast Meeting

Friday 13th...Luckly had a good day!
I went to monthly Coaching Breakfast meeting early in the morning. It helds outside of Montreal and I have to leave at6:00 a.m when I attend it.

Every month, they have a guest speaker and always meeting new coaches. It is very nice way to meet different coaches and some of the are very inspiring.

This meeting, I met 2 very nice coaches.

Louise who is a life and professional coach long time, she lived in Dubai for 18years. She had such a energy and have a lots of experience in different culture. We talked about how I would like to be a coach specializing cross culture field. Before we left, she said "call me anytime. I understand being foreign country,sometime you feel down. If you would like continue our conversation, I would be very happy to talk with you"

The meeting topic was a "Overcoming Marketing Fatigue 101" It was an interesting topic for me but it was a little bit early stage for me to learn/think about this topic.

Two things it was very interested for me;
. Define at least 3 innate advantages
.For each one, define it specifically
.For each one, make a statement of a plan to use it effectively

I had a similar questions from coaching training, It is always good asking myself and see myself.

My answer was
"Consideration"

Especially being here in North America, I felt sometime "wow I am Japanese"(of course I am a obviously Japanese though) moment.
Being in Japan, a lots of people always people read some body's mind. Its because big population and a small land. I think when you live in Japan, you often need to think "what this person's think, want" in a good way. It is a discipline when you live in Japan long time.

Effectively I would like to use this"Try to read other's mind and thought" into my coaching work.

13日の金曜日。ラッキーにも何事もなく充実した一日を過ごせました。
毎月1回行われるコーチングブレックファーストミーティングに行ってきました。
モントリオール外であるこのミーティング(朝7時から9時まで)早朝にも関わらず毎回新しいコーチに会えることと、色々なタイプのコーチに会えるのも魅力的です。

今回は素敵なコーチ二人にお会いすることができとても刺激を受けました。
ルイーズさんは ドバイで18年住みパーソナル・プロフェッショナルコーチとしてのキャリアも随分お持ちの元気でエネルギー溢れる方。
ドバイに住んでいらっしゃったということもあり、クロスカルチャーコーチとしてのアイディアを伝えるととても話が盛り上がる。
別れる時に「外国に住むと色々あると思うから話したいと思ったときにいつでも電話してきて!」って名刺を頂いた。また是非話したいな~。

もう一人のコーチバレリーさんは、バイオリストでありコーチでもある。
コーチにはもともとのキャリアがアーティストの方も多いことに気づいた。
彼女とコンコーディアでのクラスのことを話すと(ちなみに彼女はバンクーバーの大学のコーチングコースで勉強された)一緒にワークショップをしたコーチは英語のネイティブではなかったけど、母国語ではないコーチはアドバンテージ(強み)があるわよ。
まず、Goodリスナーであること。それからパワフルQuestionsがとても有益だと。
べらべら話さないから結局要点をついて効果的にコーチができると思ったわ。
と言っていただいた。

そうか、そういうこともあるんだと とても勇気付けられた。

このミーティングは早起きするのが大変だけどこうして色んなコーチにお会いできる良い機会でもある。

今回のミーティングの中で自分の強みを考えてみて、それをどのように生かすかを言って下さい。というトピックがあった。
こういうトピックは結構考えさせられる。
私が考え付いたのは・・・
「思いやりー他人を思いやる」ということ
こちらに住んで時々気づくことがある。
日本に住んでいると「この人は一体何を考えて何をしようとしているのか、したいと思っているのか」を先さき読む習慣がついていると思う。
小さい国土に人口密度が高いのだから、そうせざる得ないのもあるが日本文化の中にはそういったことが折を見てあるように感じる。
それが自分の中にも感じられる。

私はそういう他人を思いやるというところを強みにして これからのコーチングに生かせればいいなあ そんなことを考えたミーティングでした。

2009年11月10日火曜日

Coching Program has started!


(日本語文は下にあります。)
Finally The Professional and Personal Coach Certification (PPCC) program at Concordia University has started this weekend. It's a very intensive (17h over the weekend!)
My 7years dream comes true!! It was a long winding road to have this opportunity...never expected it was happen in Montreal.

Certainly,It's a fascinating and I am very excited a journey to be a coach.

I was very nervous but excited. Could not sleep the day before,,eating bagel and cheese at 4:00a.m .. I felt euphoric maybe.


24classmate are various age, career,profession. Every people have profound life and Work experiences.Professors are just so wonderful so do Staff.
I totally got stimulated from them
A lots of interactive practice, excises, Role playing, discussion. It is totally different learning style from typical Japanese school.
The class is welcoming and appreciative.

The course designed really well and I am sure it is very hard work to developing these kind of interactive course for the professors.

Although all excises were great, I really didn't like one excise. I had to gaze other person face to face for 5min. Thinking of other's, her/his personality, sorrow,life etc while I gazed. I can look some body's eyes while I'm talking quite well(I think..but I have to admit I can't do this well in Romance ;-)

Being Japanese, I had to train how I can use eye contact effectively..Japanese culture especially Business filed, it is rude gaze others. You have to make
triangle on other person's face between nose and eyes. then you will see these triangle while you have serious discussion.
I was totally wanted give up this excises and step out the room because I felt very very shy. I am outgoing person but when I express my honest feeling, I always have
shyness barrier. That was exactly same feeling. Yes, I wear social mask sometime.
I had to face and admit my"real"personality and reflect on myself.

Amazingly I could express my honest feeling while we had discussion for 2days and I feel very good energy and synergy and the course was absolutely energizing for me.


To be honest,it is very hard to understand nuances of the words.It's a challenging for me to express myself and understand others with the right emotional tone.

Have to try hard work for the course but I am very excited with nice people!
I just would like to big Thank you for my family, friends and important person who support me and brought me.

ganbarimasu yo!("I try my best" in Japanese)
Amazing coincidence-my favorite musician Oscar Peterson, the building where I study
is next to Oscar Peterson hall! I feel lucky :-) 

とうとう念願のThe Professional and Personal Coach Certification (PPCC) program
コンコーディア大学プロフェッショナル、パーソナルコーチ資格のプログラムが始まりました。7年間ずっと持ってた夢。。やっと形になり始めました。
ここモントリオールでそういうチャンスがきたことをしみじみ考えると怖い気持ちと期待感で前日は眠れず夜中の4時にベーグルとチーズをかじっていました。

初日行ってみると24人のクラスメートは職業も年齢もこれまでの経験も実に様々。
でもいい気に包まれ和やかにクラスがスタート。
かなり深い人生経験を持っている人がクラスにはたくさんいて、それだけでも刺激的。コースはものすごくたくさんのインタラクティブなエクササイズでデザインされていて、実地で練習をしていく内容になっている。まさにこういうコースを受けたかった。

たくさんの訓練、練習の中でひとつだけ逃げたくなった練習が・・
相手の目を5分間見つめて、その人の性格、これまでの歴史、悲しみ等を考えてみるというエクササイズ。
無理!恥ずかしさが先立ち、目を見続けるのがつらかった・・・
いつもふとしたとき、本当の気持ちを言わなきゃいけないときにこういう恥ずかしさを感じる。そう、自分の弱さとか見たくないところもみとめなきゃいけない。。。

たくさんディスカッションの時間が有り、私には英語の細かいニュアンスそして自分の気持ちをきちんと表現しなきゃいけなかったり、相手をきちんと理解しなければいけないという面で
やはり英語での授業は大変。
これからたくさんの本を読んでリポートを書いたり、訓練もたくさんありまたそのレポートも書かなきゃいけない。
人よりきっと時間はかかるけど楽しみながらでもたぶん苦しみながら(英語がね・・)勉強をしなきゃいけない。

でもでも、きっと素敵なコーチになるためにがんばります!

何よりもここで勉強することをサポートしてくれている、家族、友達に感謝感謝。
がんばりますわ!
奇遇にも 私の愛するオスカーピーターソン、その名のついたホールと同じ建物で勉強しています。