Clouds Taking A Walk 雲とお散歩

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

Walking is good. It works for me. So, I left the office a bit early to walk home.

I was tired and lost confidence that day. I'd had a one-on-one meeting with a native English speaker in a higher position and at the meeting I was treated badly. Usually I handle situations nicely or don’t care, but the American guy was pretty aggressive. I tried to persuade him to accept something which I was correct, but he wouldn't listen...

Having people of diverse cultures usually make meetings more productive and effective as the attendees discuss things in a more straight forward manner. I prefer such an open atmosphere to a typical meeting of Japanese people of a "lecture type" where staff can't say a thing without approval from their superiors.

At the meeting, however, I felt like a second citizen, discriminated for not being an native English speaker. I like learning English, so usually enjoy speaking with English speakers, but his way of treating me as a second citizen hurt and angered me. What made matters worse is that I can't talk about this with anyone. I teach English. Who would want to learn from a teacher hurt when indicated that she doesn't speak English as fluently as native speakers do...?

So, I decided to walk, resulting in encountering these clouds which were also taking a walk. Just being together with them cheered me up, filling me with a sense of warmth and calmness...

落ち込むことがありました。1対1のミーティングがあって相手の方が自分より職位が上の米国人。理不尽なことを言われたのですが、うまく言い返せませんでした。嫌だったのは、英語ネイティブでないことを非難されている、もっと言うと二流市民として扱われている気がしたことです。実力不足と言われればそれまでですが｡｡｡ まだ立ち直っていません｡｡｡

というわけでその日少し早めに会社を出て歩いていて見つけたのが、写真の「お散歩雲」です。会社で打たれて、雲で癒されて、また頑張る｡｡｡ 最近の私です！