James Regent

Business Investment Analyst
’09 Georgetown University
Linguistics
Favorite Word: やればできる

I had always been interested in learning languages, and when I got to college there were so many choices other than the typical Spanish or French offered in high school. I was vaguely aware that some of the cartoons I used to watch and the Super Nintendo I used to play as a kid were of Japanese origin, but what initially pulled my interest toward studying Japanese were
the traditional Chinese characters, kanji. They were so radically different from anything I was used to and I had no idea how they worked, so I wanted to understand how to make sense of them. Chinese was also an option when I was deciding which new language to pursue as a sophomore in college, but officially, Japanese fit better into my schedule. (Unofficially, Chinese classes were everyday at 8AM as opposed to Japanese classes which were at 10AM…). Following my first year of study I did a 6 week study abroad program in Tokyo which motivated me more to continue studying and return to Japan, so during my final year of college I applied to the JET Program and got accepted. My initial plan was to come back to the US after a couple years, but with two years of JET experience, I decided to challenge myself to apply to some Japanese companies in Tokyo that were looking to globalize by hiring non-Japanese employees for their HQ office. With a mix of good timing and luck, I got hired by one of the top Japanese trading houses (sogo-shosha) and have been able to start a long-term business-related career in Japan. And to think it all started because I did not want to get up early for Chinese classes everyday…