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In Need of Repatriation Advice?
kir asks: "I've been living in Japan for the last 10 years -- 6 in the USAF, 4 in 'freedom'. My wife and I recently decided to move to the U.S. (back for me, not for her). I am wondering what advice the vocal Slashdot minority might give me. I'm most interested in tips on finding a job from here and gauging a proposed salary based on a location of which I know nothing. I'd also find helpful tips on preparing for culture shock (both my mild case and my wife's possibly severe one). Thanks!"
Can't find it on-line, but just this week there was a news story about a Canadian who spent 18 months in Japan teaching English. It's a pretty commonplace thing really.
Upon his return he landed a job as a baggage handler at one of our airports. At least he thought he had until he was refused security clearance.
His sole mistake was living somewhere where the Canadian Security agencies felt that they couldn't verify his movements and activities while out of the country.
If you're considering government work you just might want to look into this ahead of time.
Three Squirrels
They're with other users. Your job is to say something dumb like "mod parent up". Then some other non-moderator is supposed to reply to you to tell you how you are wasting everyone's time by playing moderator. Then real moderators mod your post down and it's children.
If you try posting as a real user, you might someday get real mod points.
This whole message and it's ilk are a huge experiment in futility. I'm sure you know all this. I do. Pretty much everyone reading this does. We all do it anyway beause it sucks less than work.
Have any stories about the Japanese legal system? I'm curious. Thanks.
-molo
Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
Conditions in the U.S. are worse than you are saying. The bottom and middle parts of the U.S. government often function well, but the top part of the government is thoroughly corrupted by conflict of interest.
U.S. citizens often live in a mental fantasy land in which they view themselves as the best, and cannot hear anything else. Politicians manipulate this. Look at most of the replies to your comment. Most involve some illogical trick to avoid examining the problems. Many U.S. citizens believe that they are so superior that it is entirely okay that their government's foreign policy depends on killing people to solve problems, rather than actually solving the problems.
The U.S. government has fought 24 wars since World War II. The system of violence works by creating fear so rich people can profit.
The U.S. government is being sold to anyone who has the money. Huge amounts of money are being borrowed and transferred to the pockets of those in power. The U.S. government is now far more in debt than ever before: Debt Clock. If you are a U.S. citizen, you are expected to pay. Those who want corruption in the U.S. government want the government to borrow. The corrupters find ways to transfer the money to their pockets.
The origin of the present problems was in the 40s and 50s, when U.S. government leaders made two decisions. It is likely that those in power then did not understand that their decisions would eventually corrupt the entire government. At the time, the decisions seemed logical.
First, the government decided that it could act in other countries in secret. Second, the U.S. government decided it could act in secret to protect U.S. businesses in other countries.
What probably no one realized then was how much that would come to be a corrupting influence on the government. Probably no one realized then how much additional profit big multinational businesses could make by arranging, in secret, for U.S. taxpayers to pay for the security arrangements needed by U.S. multinational businesses.
Soon huge businesses were arguing that the U.S. government should subvert democratically elected leaders, as the government did in Iran in 1953. Soon U.S. businesses would arrange unfair contracts with corrupt leaders, and when there was a protest, call for U.S. government intervention in the name of patriotism.
That's partly how we got to the present situation, where two men, whose family and business associates and friends have extensive investments in global oil businesses, are president and vice-president of the entire U.S. government, even though there is conflict of interest in such an arrangement.
I work with 3 Japanese programmers and two Indian programmers (the reason I mention the Indian programmers is because they also have the same comments).
By far, the biggest comment all of my co-workers have about the culture change, is that Americans are "uncomfortably" informal. My Japanese couterparts mentioned that it took them several years to adjust to the way Americans speak to eachother. You may also find that some Americans are somewhat uncomfortable with "over-politeness" (or our perception of it, anyway).
Finally, both Indian programmers mentioned that their Indian born and raised wives still have a very difficult time building meaningful friendships with American women. I don't know that I can speak as to why, specifically. But I can only imagine that the role of women in the United States must be very different than most other countries.
You will most likely experience a greater deal of culture shock than your wife.
Reason? She expects America to be a strange and foreign place.
You will expect it to be the same as it was when you last left it. If you haven't visited in 10 years, it's going to hit you a lot harder than it will your wife.
I spent four years stationed in Germany in the mid-Eighties and loved it so much I didn't bother coming home. When I did finally return I spent a week walking around in a daze. It seemed as if I had been frozen in time and America had raced forward at her usual breakneck pace. The only thing that hadn't changed were all my high school friends still living at home with their parents. . . I suffered from some serious cognitive dissonance that week.
Thankfully, I was between assignments and two weeks later I was in England, where I stayed for another three years before returning to the U.S. again.
Prepare yourself now. Instead of looking forward to seeing everything as it was when you left it, tell yourself how excited you'll be to see all the changes since you left. This is what I did on every return visit and it helped a lot.
As far as work goes, take a look at America's Job Bank.
It's got some good resources for veterans, especially if you have a high-demand skill and it can give you a good gauge of where the jobs are at and how much they're paying.
I spent eleven years overseas and loved every minute of it, but despite her faults, America is still the country with the most freedom and most opportunity for everyone.
Good luck and welcome home!
JimUSAF 1980-2004
"I worked hard for it. I deserve it. And I have it," Campbell said. "It's all mine."
Well, at least regarding the criminal system its notorious for being VERY biased against supects, as in a 99% conviction rate.
Smoking is an expensive, slow, and unreliable method of suicide.
> How has the US become an unpleasant place to live?
Ask anyone who actually attends a political protest. No, not just someone who stands around and chats about how awful the government is, I mean holding a sign and shouting. You're tagged, cataloged, tracked, infiltrated, threatened with being "disappeared", etc.
How about the inevitable rebound on our skyrocketing debt. This isn't the 1980's yunno -- mass capital flight to the euro is a real possibility.
How about the fact that it took one president one year to utterly wipe out decades of goodwill and alliances. I travel, and I'm ashamed to say I'm american.
Three words: Faith Based Initiatives
How much time have you spent in Japan? (Vacations don't count.) ...
Unless your answer is "more than six years" your advice is not exactly useful; not to say anything about the fact that we have no clue as to why he wants to get out of there.
I for one, would NEVER want to bring up a kid in Japan, with their fucked up educational system. ESPECIALLY NOT a kid that the Japanese consider "half". I spent fourteen years in Japan, ten of which were working in "education," so, I have a little bit of a clue as to what is what. I am by NO means expert
"Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead." A. Huxley
Nothing, but immigrating (legally, anway..) to other countries isn't as simple as walking across the boarder. It's a long drawn out process. And is it just me, or do most countries tend to look at Americans coming to live in thier country the same way Americans look at Mexicans moving into the US.
In spite of being the whitest state in the nation, we're a rather tolerant state. From direct knowledge, the Burlington area has large and diverse immigrant communities, including Bosnian, Indian, Viet Namese, Sudanese, etc. Many are refugees who have settled here. The real estate prices are high, but in many respects the state is "backward" compared to the rest of the country, and I like that. (Think last state in the Union to get a Wal Mart, only state capital to not have a McDonalds.)
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Great advice!
Luckily, I've already done this. In fact, we got her re-entry permit as well (so she can stay out of the U.S. for two years - vice one - and keep her immigrant status). Getting one's spouse's "green card" is a pain in the rear, but can be made easier if you play their game. The folks at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo were very helpful... when I played along.
3cx.org - A truly bad website.
If the USA were to become more like other countries,
then choice would be more limited. It is really nice
that the USA is different from the European norm.
It's not just that you should get out of the USA if
you don't like it. Europeans are welcome to come
to the USA if they prefer the US life. Here they
can buy lots of guns, choose their healthcare or
decide to take chances to save money, say that
Darl McBride is a crook (if true) without a
UK-style libel lawsuit, etc.
If people like you ever succeed, there will be
less choice in the world. Every country becomes
a clone of every other, with no place to escape.
you don't see school boards or education departments in Europe or Japan watering down science curriculums to please some obnoxious pig-ignorant religious fanatics, which happens all the damn time in the US.
Aside from the monkey trial from the 30's(?) and the sticker on the alabama books, I have heard nothing about any religious groups doing anything to science. Much less the dumming down part. Please provide references for this.
Oh yes, in response to your sig: Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for a life time.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars