( I have passed the patent bar, so now what?)

[Karen Sandness]

Esteemed Colleagues,

Times are indeed tough.

My specialties (fine and performing arts, tourism, transportation and urban planning, and others) are probably less vulnerable to AI than others, since AI tends to make a mess of anything that isn’t cut and dried.

I was anticipating a windfall from the Tokyo Olympics, but we all know what happened there.

I actually had three ongoing jobs when the lockdowns and border closings started, but after 18 months, they had all run their course.

My only dependable work was long-distance coaching of a group of mostly older people who do J>E translation as a hobby. (They’re all in Japan, and I “inherited” the job from Nora Stevens Heath.) I met them in person for the first time in Osaka in 2018 and will meet them again in Tokyo this summer. It’s steady work but not very lucrative.

 

The combination of Social Security and a small inheritance, which will not last forever, has kept me alive, but now U.S.-based LSPs have gone silent, although two Japan-based clients have come back to life.

It is work from them (and the weakest yen in years) that will allow me to go to IJET next month. I don’t know the particulars of how our English-speaking colleagues in Japan are faring, but they have an advantage in being able to cultivate direct clients and work in-house. I could kick myself across the Pacific for  not taking the university English instructor’s job that a Japanese friend recommended me for in 1993, but the timing was wrong.

I’ve worked for a number of Japanese LSPs, one of them since 1997, but my most dependable contact at that company left just before the pandemic, and when I tried to reestablish contact with coordinators at that and other LSPs (saying, in effect, “I’m still alive and still interested in working with you”) most of the e-mails came back as “delivery failed.” I imagine that these companies either downsized or lost employees who decided to stay home. 

Aside from attending IJET, I plan to visit LSPs I used to work for, bring them presents, have friendly chats to prove that I can speak Japanese, etc.

Joe Jones, your idea of moving to Japan sounds wonderful, but my impression is that it is nearly impossible for a person old enough to collect Social Security to gain residence in Japan, even by buying property. 

(Japan is missing out on an opportunity here. Several Latin American and Southeast Asian countries actually court North American retirees and remote workers. I could imagine a PR campaign: “Buy property in Japan and live in a country that has First World healthcare and drinkable tap water.”)

Anyway, I’m at another phase that makes it inconvenient to move to Japan, even if it were feasible to realize my pipe dream of getting a Culture Visa to update and expand my book on historical linguistics and dialectology.

You see, I’m in the process of moving. The affordable, family-owned building in an unusually convenient and pleasant neighborhood, where I have lived for many years, was sold after the family member who served as caretaker died. An out-of-state investment firm bought the building, and since then, the rent has gone up and the level of service has gone way down, to the extent that I feel as if I am being subjected to 地上げ. When the lease renewal offer came through in April with a 20% rent increase, I knew I had to get out.

Still, I feel lucky for two reasons: 1) I was able to find a new place just a few blocks from my current location, and 2) I had already bought plane tickets, paid conference fees, and made reservations for the trip to Japan when I received notice of the rent increase.

Having signed a year’s lease in the new place, I  couldn’t relocate anyway, but I’m hoping that the upcoming (partly tax deductible) trip improves my prospects.

Involuntarily semi-retiredly  yours, 

Karen Sandness

On Sun, May 21, 2023 at 07:00 <hon...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

hon...@googlegroups.com

Google Groups

Topic digest
[snip] 

Joe Jones <j...@djjon.es>: May 21 03:18AM -0700 Trying to start a new career in your 50s or 60s is a fool's errand IMO.   If you are close to legal retirement age, why not move to a small town in Japan, get a nearly-free house, and live off of your U.S. Social Security payments? Then, whatever sundry translation or MT editing (or English tutoring) revenue you bring in is just icing on the cake. If you need a visa, get any contract job that qualifies for a Highly Skilled Professional visa and then convert to permanent residency as soon as you are eligible (for many people this is after just 1 year, but it depends on how many points you can rack up under the point system).   If you really want to stay in the US and keep working a day job, talk to everyone you know and see if you can get slotted into some kind of senior consultant or business development type of role.   But for god's sake, don't go entry level as though you're just coming out of college. Even if you find a job you'll be reporting to some shit-stain middle manager in their late 30s who thinks you're a dinosaur, and you will be miserable. Doubly so if you have been self-employed for decades and are not used to being in a corporate environment.   On Sunday, May 21, 2023 at 9:47:40 AM UTC+9 Warren Smith wrote:

Back to top

You received this digest because you're subscribed to updates for this group. You can change your settings on the group membership page. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it send an email to honyaku+u...@googlegroups.com.