Business Information & BI Helper: My heart with Japanese People

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I would prefer to write about Japanese people for good reason; unfortunately, such a big tragedy drove me to write this little blog post. Since the earthquake in Japan occurred couple days, I have been feeling really bad. What I saw was more than devastaIting. I am not sure this is directly related to Japanese people, from human being perspective or as one of Turkish people who really understands what earthquake causes.

Many people know that Turkey is on earthquake line, as our history has many earthquakes. The last big ones were in end of 1999. I suppose around October and November. Although official records did not show certain number, we know that we lost more than 20.000 Turkish people. I will not go to dig our earthquake and its causes. There are many things to discuss about it. The real reason that I am writing is the latest Earthquake we witnessed almost online in Sendai – Japan.

I am from a small town in Turkey called Eregli where one of the biggest Iron and Steel Factory was located. My father used to work there as A class worker. During setup the factory around late 60s, Japanese engineers also worked there and keep going to work with some engineering staff. The first time I heard about Japanese people was from my father’s conversation. He used to always tell that “These Japanese People are very hard worker” . I used to listen him carefully and in fact I used be surprised . Who used to tell this? My father . He is the person whom I never saw while sitting. He worked all his life. Sadly, I can even tell until he dies. It was very important for me that MY FATHER calls some people “hard-worker”. Nobody could have been more hard worker than my father until I hear this.

I am not sure about chronological order but I do remember about one TV series called Shogun . Richard Chamberlain was acting in the series. I believe it was very late 70s or early 80s. I learned several things about Japanese, either correct or from American’s eyes. Of course, there are many movies about World War II, mentioning Japanese Kamikazes. Although Kamikazes used to be shown as bad people, I used to respect them, because they were people who dedicated themselves for their country as dying. My teenager years passed watching with similar movies, TV programs. It is old but one of the near past example was Karate Kit. All all of us loved Mr. Miyagi.

I am not sure exactly but I used to love so much my uncle’s older son. He was like a my real older brother. He was very good player of Turkish instrument called SAZ. He was also very good at Karate. I do remember very well , he had black belt too. It was so much something in Eregli having black belt. I used to request( kind of polite begging) from him to teach me Karate. He used to show me some figures . He also used to ask me that if I would stay with him in his music store , he was going to teach me Karate. I was a kind of good student and did not want to spend my summer time in four-walls, despite I wanted to learn so much. Once, he gave me his ex-karate clothes with yellow belt, god, I remember that feelings. I was the karate man!. Some people challenge me that Karate is not from Japan or blah. not important. We knew that Karate was associated with Japan, even now.

I was in technical university . It was summer term after first year, I went back to my home town and started my internship program (staj). I saw Japanese people by myself that my father used to talk about. They were not only hard worker but respectful people, smiling. Doubtless, I did not have much opportunity to meet them as simple intern student.

I do not want to extend the history It was end of 1999. I decided to go to Canada. Place that I went was Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was second time for me to go out of Turkey for long time . In fact, I used even carry and idea in my mind, not to come back. As a young Turkish person, it was very interesting and valuable experience in Winnipeg almost two years. Not to mention the fact Muzaffer was social person, I had several friends from Brazil, Mexico, El Salvador, Costorica, Japan, China etc. Since latin people are more outgoing and social, I was in all latin people and even got some roommates .They were nice people too (of course not all like the others). There were some classmates from Japan, males and females. Believe me I did have hard time to get in them , to understand them as a friend. Besides, I got a Japanese girlfriend, details are not important. It was one the couple serious and meaningful relationship I had in my life. I shared a apartment with hear for a year. Looking at us from the far, we were totally different. To make it short, It was golden year for me. Of course I am able to write now, but that year helped me to be more mature, more easygoing , patient , caring, better person. It was almost impossible to see for me that how come a human could be such modest, honest, think so simple , friendly.. Whenever I had small argue with her before leaving the apartment, I used to feel so guilty and come back to apartment running, although he did not used to tell anything. At the beginning, while I was thinking that I am the intelligent one(a shame to say), I realized that she was the intelligent one! She was origami teacher and explained me how origami was important for kids, teenagers. How healthy their foods are, meaning of their some cultural things , tea ceremony, How traditional Japanese people’s daily life is, their respect to older people and more… In short, it was like a god gift for me to know Japanese culture. Some people may not believe me but I realized that Japanese culture are very close to Turkish culture. I left Canada and come back to Turkey. She visited me years later, I visited her in Japan late 2006. I saw Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. I wanted to see more country side, small towns but I could not. I experienced one old guy’s respect against me while I was having breakfast after he knows that I am Turkish! Yes, I have some male friends. They are also different people, it is not the same as our buddy approach.(perhaps, I did not have so much time to experience this)

Many people make fun of Japanese people, since they often take picture while travelling. Japanese people are one of the rate cultural tourist community in the world. They do cultural travelling. They go everywhere. You can see old people or young people. Therefore, I do react negatively when people do silly jokes. The last annoying situation happened to me last summer. We were in summer beach and met many people. One American lady talked silly because I had said “ Japanese people are very intelligent and lovely” She was referring my sentence to something stupid. I had many other Japanese friends too , I also saw them when I went to Japan. We talked about life, future, life concerns. I miss them a lot. We have to accept that they are different. Are we all the same ?

I can write many things but I am not able to express myself good. I am sad watching such a tragedy live on TV. I hope that no nation in the world feels this pain at all, but I am sad that this happened to Japan. Their stand up after World II is just respectful, admiring. I pray God for them; for humanity ; for myself; for world. Although degeneration of new generations is valid everywhere like Japan, their strong traditional cultural embracement will save Japan. Japan means peace now, it means friendship, it means smiling. I did meet bad people or call unfriendly people from any country. God knows that I never met and unfriendly Japanese. God bless you Japanese society. It will be really meaningful for me to see you to overcome this hard time. Excuse me this unstructured blog post because I did plan it, I just want to write promptly. My job is business intelligence, but I am envious of their human intelligence, their cultural intelligence, their emotional intelligence, we can anyhow succeed in BI but what about these? Turkish people's heart is with you Japanese people.

Business Information & BI Helper

14 Mart 2011 Pazartesi

My heart with Japanese People

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