Tip 102: Part time jobs to serve others

When I first arrived in Tokyo in August 2005, I worked hard to build my connections by attending networking events such as product launches, IT discussions and many others. I also filled my diary so I could meet with a recruiter each day and was searching databases to cover as many recruiting companies as possible, both large ones and smaller ones. It turned out that it was a smaller recruiting firm who was willing to have faith in my abilities and convinced a large company to meet me. I got my first job in Tokyo on my 2nd month of job search and it was just 1 more month before I had to leave Japan on completion of my internship. Got my job, but I did not want to stop the networking mode and decided to teach English and Bahasa Indonesia part time on weekends and after work on weekdays. Its really small money, but its about serving others and connecting with new people. We live in a society where everyone has specialized roles and we could easily just keep to ourselves and not meet anyone. Nowadays, we have online banking, transporting companies and wedding planners to help people instead of getting the help of friends and many other servicing companies. Yet, connecting to new people and serving others fulfils a greater call in our life. It could even produce unexpected results of having others return the gesture at our time of need. The bottom line is we are never self sufficient in this society. We need to give as well as take from others.

I taught 2 classes of 2 hours each in a week. Throughout my 3.5 years in Japan, I taught 6 students and got to know them well. I charged a fee of only 2500-4000 yen (USD25-40) per hour while other teachers or schools would charge much more and some may think that its not worth the effort at all. I was of course not an experienced teacher like others who do it on a daily basis, though I had previously part time lecturing experience back in Malaysia. However, I tried to understand the needs of the students and saw how I could help them besides just teaching English such as introducing them to recruiters, preparing them for job interviews and finding out what topics of conversation they were most interested in. As I got to know them better, they also got to know me better and that's a valuable exchange especially in Japan where people tend to be more shy to share their personal lives. As it turns out, one of my students later got transferred to work in Hong Kong last year. I did not expect that I would one day meet up with him and his wife in Hong Kong. Later, I found out his wife was ranked 8th position in Hong Kong for women's tennis player in just a short span of less than 1 year upon her arrival and has already a large network of influential people. They invited me to a tennis tournament held at an exclusive club house near the Peak of Hong Kong. They also shared with me from the point of view of Japanese people how they adapted to Hong Kong and what areas were preferable for accomodation to them. Its certainly a great priviledge to have made new friends. Would not have been possible if I had not took the trouble to connect even through part time jobs.

Do share any other tips you have found useful in adapting to a new land.

(All photos show Ladies Recreation Club at the Old Peak Road, Hong Kong that I was invited by my ex students, a Japanese couple).