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ベルギーで新しいアサインメントと生活を始めて、早8ヶ月になります。 私も妻も娘も、日本人は一人という職場またはクラス環境で、以前にもまして多様性と向き合う毎日です。 赴任前も、グローバルプロジェクトに携わり、多様性を尊重し、活用してきた自負はあったのですが、やはり母国を離れて生活してみると、文化や習慣、価値観、歴史観の違いというものが、より鮮明に現れ、他者の意見に敬意と理解をもって接し、自分の意見を率直かつ説得力を持って述べることの大切さを、より強く感じます。 育休に続き、新しい挑戦として、最近、娘の学校のParent's Association Committeeに立候補しました。 日本人はもちろん私だけで、他の候補者は会社役員、EU官僚、NPOのリーダーなどそうそうたる面子でしたが、100人近い様々な親、先生の前でプレゼンをし、見事トップ当選を果たしました。
It has been 8 months since my wife, my daughter, and I moved to Belgium for our overseas assignments. Each of us is in the organization or class where there is only one Japanese, and everyday is a full of diversity experiences. While I thought that I was exploiting diversity quite well in the global projects before, living & working outside home country is certainly different. We have found more and more differences in culture, habits, values, and understanding of history. In order to integrate these differences into better ideas and executions, it is very important for us to fully understand other's points of view with respect and to share our opinions in candid and credible manners. As a new challenge after the child care leave by father, I recently stood for General Member of the Parent's Association Committee at my daughter's school. I made a presentation in English in front of ca. 100 of diverse parents and teachers, and got elected with the highest votes in the tough competition including candidates from company executives, EU officials, and NPO leaders.
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