Long time no post! Today, I want to briefly talk about what I've been up to. I've been studying Japanese instead of English — more precisely, how to teach it. Yes, I'm thinking of changing professions. I've been working as a web engineer for more than 25 years, but I haven't derived any joy from my work in a while. That's because of AI, as you can guess. AI has drastically changed the way we work, and I'm sick of it. Our productivity has increased fivefold, but our workload hasn't decreased. The problem isn't so much AI as it is human greed. We Japanese are traditionally workaholics, and in my field, it's getting crazier and crazier. All of us are scared of being left behind. I'm kind of an analogue person and I have no interest in efficiency. I'm not suited to my profession, for starters. It may sound silly of me to have been in this line of work for so long despite that, but honestly, it doesn't bother me. I know I'm human and humans sometimes do silly things, and to be clear, before AI, I did actually like my profession to some extent.

So now, I'm studying for the Japanese Language Teacher Examination and I'm genuinely enjoying it! I'll write about that in another post, probably after the exam. Teaching Japanese isn't easy, so I don't know if I'll be able to make a living from it or not, but I'm certainly going to do my best.

By the way, this past Monday, my boss offered to send me to India for special training in a new sector for our company that has little to do with the web. I initially accepted it because it was scheduled to take place right after my exam, and I was interested in seeing India. However I reconsidered, because I don't plan to stay with the company for long, so I gave him notice that I'll be quitting in the near future. He got upset and took back the offer, but the next day, he asked me to go on the trip anyway and to think about staying on in some capacity, even if it's just a few hours a week — though nothing's been decided yet. He said I can give him my answer after the trip. I'll see if I can do it as a side job.

I like traveling, especially when the destination isn't my own choice. I like coincidence. We didn't choose to be born, so life is also a coincidence, in my opinion. It's sometimes really tough but worth enjoying.

Without Journaly and all of your feedback and encouragement, I would never have even considered a career change, let alone a trip to India. The training is for Japanese people, so during the trip, we'll be [speaking half in Japanese and half in English | constantly switching between Japanese and English]. Before discovering Journaly, I might have hesitated to accept the offer even if I wanted to go. Thank you all! I'll be back in November.