EVERETT – These days, Stevie Sanchez, a Boeing data analyst, points at a window in her office and says out loud, “mado.”
Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald
The word in Japanese means “window.” Sanchez practices her Japanese privately, but is shy about using it in public.
Yet Sanchez wants workers here from Japan for the new 787 passenger jet project to know she’s learning their language.
Her solution: She walks around the office with the textbook “Japanese for Busy People” and hopes that Japanese workers will notice.
The indirect approach has worked to get attention from those who often communicate in a less direct way than Americans, Sanchez said.
“It opens up the dialogue,” she said.
Sanchez is one of about 10 Boeing workers who are taking an in-house Japanese language class offered by Everett Community College this summer. Some of the students work with Japanese engineers in the 787 project and use the class to help understand their partners’ language and culture.
Boeing launched the project in April 2004 when All Nippon Airways ordered the first 50 787s. Three Japanese heavy industrial companies – Mitsubishi, Kawasaki and Fuji – will be making parts for the new airplane and have sent engineers to the Everett plant in preparation for production.
The six-week language class began in July. It aims to teach students basic skills that they can use immediately in Japan, instructor Masako Nair said.
Last week, nine engineers and a data analyst learned how to shop in Japanese. On an assignment, Sanchez acted as a customer and engineer James Stapelman as a store clerk.
Sanchez asked how much a car cost. The price tag showed 3,900,000 in Japanese yen (about $34,800.)
Stapelman paused. With the instructor’s help, he finally pronounced the number in Japanese.
“Say that again,” Sanchez said.
Stapelman paused again.
“Oh, you don’t like me, do you?” he said.
The two laughed.
Stapelman said he decided to take the class after a business trip in May to Nagoya, Japan, where some of the 787 parts will be manufactured.
There, Stapelman got lost on a train, randomly took several others and ended up taking three hours to get back to his hotel.
“It was more luck than skill,” he said.
Sanchez has a long way to go to be proficient in Japanese, but the class is helping her communicate with Japanese workers. In class, she’s exposed to Japanese sounds, which helps her understand Japanese workers’ English, she said.
Sanchez, 41, visited Japan as a child and said she knows how hard Japanese workers have to work to communicate in English.
“They make the effort. I try to make the effort,” she said.
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
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