My wife reads the Japanese version of Newsweek, and sometimes I thumb through it to see how it compares to the U.S. version, or the laughable “International” edition that just happens to have exactly one news story from each region it’s sold in, e.g. India, Singapore, Japan, etc., whether or not there was any important news going on. Although Newsweek is published here in Japanese, the editors know their readers tend to be interested in English and international business, and I once came across an article on how to tackle an American-style job interview. The Japanese are used to treating English as if it were an exact science, with “one” right answer to a given question, e.g. the correct reply to “How are you?” is “Fine, thanks, and you?” These questions, however, would have been linguistic torture for Japanese ESL learners, with open-ended questions (“tell me about yourself”), requests that they accurately evaluate themselves (“what are your strengths or weaknesses?”) and so on. This is the complete opposite of how job interviews are handled in Japan, where people looking for employment are expected to act in an extremely humble way, accurately representing your past work or educational history while dressing down what they’re achieved in the past, and avoiding standing out from other applicants. If you don’t wear this mantle of modesty during a job interview you certainly won’t be hired in Japan.
The Japanese edition of Newsweek knows their readers are interested in English.
