Home & Away

I have worked for a language school for two years and a half.
Now I feel very AT HOME in my school.
However, when it comes to my another job...emceeing, I have felt so AWAY so far.
Mainly, there are two reasons.

1: I have been struggling to change my wedding emcee style from casual to formal.
I used to work for restaurant wedding occasions, which casual style was preferred. However, now I've been involved with hotel weddings, which formal style was pleased.

I am wondering why Japanese language has too many variations.
For example, even I can simply say, "Taro and Hanako's wedding reception party" in English, Japanese has many cases to describe.
From casual to formal...
① 山田太郎さん、鈴木花子さん　ウエディングパーティ
②山田太郎様、鈴木花子様　結婚ご披露宴
③山田家、鈴木家　結婚ご披露宴

Since Japanese people thought marriage was a matching between two families,"(not just for a young couple, ) some traditional couples still prefer the pattern 3.
"Sama" and "san" are how to address the couple. Restaurant wedding staff think "san" sounds friendly and suits their western style, but hotel staff believe addressing the clients with"san" is not very polite, so they recommend us (emcees) to have a permission of using "san" word from the newly weds.

...Everything goes on just like that, so I've been really careful with choosing the words when I emcee at a hotel.

Even I feel stressed out for that, here is another one makes me feel "away."
Reason 2: Some hotel staff are not very welcomed a new staff, like me.
I think one unpleasant aspect of conventional Japanese people is "hating change."
In America, a few years ago, people were excited about "change" and they repeated "yes, we can!." In Japan, in traditional working places, some people want to say, "no, you can't!"
(I heard now in America, many people want to say "no, you can't!" too...anyway,)

Last week, when I worked in a hotel at a bay area in Tokyo, the floor captain was the typical type of the person. He was not friendly at all, even didn't introduce himself to me, always yelled at staff, frowned all the time...
I know there are advantages of having a strict boss, but his lack of communication caused staff's mistakes sometimes. For example, after the party, he told me to make an announcement. I did, but that was different one from what he wanted to. Why it happened? He muttered unclearly, so I misunderstood!

Now I have worked in different hotels whenever I am a wedding emcee, so, I try to be really careful not only for my client (the newlyweds and guests,) but also the staff (floor staff, and employees of event companies who give us jobs)there.
...Basically, wedding job needs teamwork.
But when can I feel completely HOME and a player in THE team??

Nobody has given me the exact answer, but my co-worker from a language school gave me a clue.
She is a part time teacher like me, and started a second job recently like me.
She said,"I started to do translating job. My friend introduced me to a president of a translator agent, so I started to work there... but it's very hard! The hardest thing is not the translation itself, but... communication! Agent staff often calls me no matter what time it is, requires me to attend a meeting or cut my job all of sudden... They make me crazy. I envy you! I assume a bilingual emcee job is also hard, but at least, YOU'RE DOING WHAT YOU WANT TO DO!!
I've never dreamed of being a translator,! Just there was my friend's connection, so I became...But now I'm wondering why I'm doing the job. I'm just exhausted!"

I'm actually learned a lot from her words.
1) No job is easy.
2) Even we work using English, we need to communicate with Japanese staff in a polite, delicate Japanese style. It is tiring, but once we understand that, people around us start to trust us...finally.
3)To overcome the tiring problem like 2) situation, we need to know individually,　"who I am," "what I want to do" and "why I'm here."

In my case, a wedding is a wedding wherever I have a microphone.
If the newlyweds and guests enjoy the party, nobody can fire me.
I remembered what my mentor said to me again.
"If you have your AXIS in your heart(I mean...understand 3) matters) nobody hurts you.
Whether having an axis or not is regardless of your experience or age. YOU CAN HAVE IT."

"When can I feel HOME in my working places for weddings?"
I haven't still had an answer...
But I just keep trying to go forward, believing, "away" places right now are getting to be near my "home" from my heart, unless I lose my way.