{"id":1179,"date":"2018-10-29T05:08:11","date_gmt":"2018-10-28T20:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/?p=1179"},"modified":"2018-10-29T18:07:49","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T09:07:49","slug":"about-me-and-this-blog-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/en\/about-me\/about-me-and-this-blog-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"About Me and This Blog (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, I talked about the first half of my story about leaving Japan and living in Canada in <a href=\"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/en\/about-me-english\/about-me-and-this-blog-part-1\/\"><strong><u>About Me and This Blog (Part 1<\/u>)<\/strong><\/a>, so let me continue the second half.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>My life in Japan after Canada was not fun at all.<\/strong><\/span> I got a <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>job at a pharmaceutical company<\/strong><\/span> just to save money. It was an interesting position though. I could get to deal with side effect reports and send them to headquarters in Europe, so I used some English. I <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>kept studying English<\/strong><\/span> while I was in Japan. It&#8217;s <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>extremely difficult to be in English environment in Japan<\/strong><\/span>. So I listened to and read English materials during commute and watched movies or American TV shows at home. I went to a coffee shop to study English. I went to English conversation school. I was scared of forgetting all the English I learned, but making English environment as much as possible helped me maintain my English levels.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>One year later, I was on the way to Canada once again!<\/strong><\/span> Oh I was so happy to go back, but at the same time, I was a little bit nervous because unlike the last time, I had clear goals and tight plans ahead of me.<\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\"  style=\"border-color:#b9dee1;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#d3f8fb;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Go to ESL school to complete a COLLEGE TRANSFER course<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Get in a college<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Earn Diploma in Medical Office Administration (Associate&#8217;s Degree equivalent)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Get a job in Healthcare Setting<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Apply for Immigration<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Live in Canada FOREVER!<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>This was my crazy plans! So, from the top, I did finish 1 just as planned. It was a tough course, but I learned a lot before going to college.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>Something bad happened<\/strong><\/span> before 2. So, my <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>ESL school messed things up<\/strong><\/span>, and <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>I couldn&#8217;t get in the college I wanted to go to!<\/strong><\/span> Instead, I had to go to one in the next city, so that made me move to a shared house closer to the campus. But at least I could get in a college.<\/p>\n<p>I studied so hard in college and <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>got a high honor<\/strong> <\/span>at graduation ceremony. Plus, thanks to the mistake that my ESL school made, I <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>could get an internship at one of the biggest hospitals in Toronto<\/strong><\/span>! There is always a silver lining, right? That was another life changing experience because <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>I got a job at a hospital<\/strong><\/span> where I did my internship. My boss was one of the nicest persons I&#8217;ve ever met.<\/p>\n<p>I started as a <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>receptionist<\/strong><\/span>. I wasn&#8217;t a big fun of sitting at front and greeting patients. I preferred to work at back, so nobody could see me. When I was doing my internship, I was with a lady who was in charge of <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>preparing new patient charts<\/strong><\/span> and learned everything from her. I created my own step-by-step manuals. When I started working there, the lady was about to go on her mat leave, so I took over her position soon enough and became a chart prep EXPERT! I didn&#8217;t have to go through any training because I knew everything from my manuals. I really liked my job. I did that for 3 years or so, then in my 4<sup>th<\/sup> year, the hospital decided to launch a new scheduling system.<\/p>\n<p>One day, I was asked to train somebody, and I showed the manual, which brought our leader&#8217;s attention. She went to our boss and <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>recommended me as a team member of the new system<\/strong><\/span>. Oh that was another awesome experience! I had to work a lot, but it was worth it. I could work very closely with my leader and boss. I still remember those days. I loved it. My main job was to <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>create user manual<\/strong><\/span> which ended up having over 200 pages. After the launch, <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>I was in charge of managing the system<\/strong> <strong>(e.g., creating\/editing providers&#8217; schedules and troubleshooting) and training staff<\/strong><strong>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Around that time, <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>I became finally eligible to apply for immigration.<\/strong><\/span> I used a Japanese layer which was a mistake because I could have done it by myself. Anyway, it was very smooth and <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>I became a Canadian Immigrant!<\/strong> <strong>My dream came true!!!!<\/strong> <\/span>So there are some bumps here and there, but I almost completed my crazy plans.<\/p>\n<p>And here comes a huge bump! I had been <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>dating an American guy<\/strong><\/span> for about 2 years back then. We had a long-distance relationship, but we didn&#8217;t want to be doing it anymore. After multiple long conversations, we <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>decided to go through fiance visa process<\/strong><\/span>. This is a very romantic way of being engaged. No, quite the opposite. When you apply for fiance visa, you <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>need to get married within 3 months after entering the states<\/strong><\/span>. I was very happy in Canada, but I wanted to be with him more so decided to quit my job and <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>give up on my Canadian immigrant status and move to the states<\/strong><\/span>. There was lots of crying before I left Canada.<\/p>\n<p>So, I had to update my plans.<\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\"  style=\"border-color:#b9dee1;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#d3f8fb;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Get Medical Assistant Certificate in the states<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Get a job in a medical field in the states<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Be happy with my new husband<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>I could achieve 1 pretty quick. When my husband and I started to talk about me moving to the states, I knew that I would need some kind of education in the states, so I <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>decided to take an American Medical Office Assistant course online<\/strong><\/span>. I completed the course just in time to come to the states, so I started the national exam preparation as soon as I came to the states and <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>passed the exam<\/strong><\/span> in a couple of months.<\/p>\n<p>I have been achieving 3 ever since I met my husband, so this is an easy one.<\/p>\n<p>The 2 took for a while. We used to live in Brooklyn, NY, but we moved to Virginia Beach, VA, in May 2017. I couldn\u2019t find a job in New York or to be more accurate, I wasn&#8217;t looking for one that seriously. That&#8217;s mostly because of my <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>green card process<\/strong><\/span>. It was not that bad, but it took about 10 months to finally receive my green card. So while I was waiting, I <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>focused on my career as online English teacher<\/strong><\/span>. Once we moved to Virginia Beach, I started to look for a job in medical field, but it was harder than I imagined. So I <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>d<\/strong><strong>ecided to take another certificate, Certified Professional Coder, which is a national certificate in Medical Coding<\/strong><\/span>. I studied for 8 hours every day after tutoring and <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>passed the exam in September 2017, with 96% passing score<\/strong><\/span>!<\/p>\n<p>After that, I became more serious about job hunting. It didn&#8217;t take that long to apply for a couple of jobs daily, so I was kind of bored every day. I wanted to do something else! Then something hit me. I should <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>create my own blog<\/strong><\/span>! I did some research how to create a blog and started writing a blog in October 2017. <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>In November, I finally got a job offer!<\/strong><\/span> What a timing!? It&#8217;s a <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>reception position<\/strong><\/span>, which I really wanted to avoid, but that&#8217;s all I got, and I needed experience working in medical field in the states anyway, so I decided to accept it. Finally I achieved 3 new plans that I made when I moved to the states in January 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Here are my new plans:<\/p>\n<div class=\"su-note\"  style=\"border-color:#b9dee1;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\"><div class=\"su-note-inner su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"background-color:#d3f8fb;border-color:#ffffff;color:#333333;border-radius:12px;-moz-border-radius:12px;-webkit-border-radius:12px;\">\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Study medical translation more seriously<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Change the job (leave reception position!)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Create blog in English version<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>My dream job is to become a medical translator and work from home.<\/strong> <strong>I want to keep my online teaching job and blog too.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>This is going to be a long-term plan, but I&#8217;m going to try anyway. I have been achieving my goals over the past years and that&#8217;s how I keep my motivation up.<\/p>\n<p>As you can see from my mini (!?) bio, <span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>I couldn&#8217;t speak English at all in 2007.<\/strong><\/span> Now, I&#8217;m writing a blog in English. I&#8217;m married to American. I work in medical field in the states. <span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\"><strong>I believe anything is possible as long as you keep trying. I really want everybody to feel the same way and get small something from my blog.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I am going to introduce cultural differences between North America (the U.S. and Canada) and Japan as well as language differences. I hope you enjoy my blog!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, I talked about the first half of my story about leaving Japan and living in Canada in About Me and This Blog (Part 1), so let me continue the se&#8230; <a href=\"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/en\/about-me\/about-me-and-this-blog-part-2\/\" class=\"readmore\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8220;About Me and This Blog (Part 2)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"1179","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Canada_and_USA_Flag.png","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9h0T5-j1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1179"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1266,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179\/revisions\/1266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/luvenglish101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}