yenta said:
So you're saying when I finish uni and go work in a Japanese company, my Japanese will be absolutely useless, and I will never use it? Sorry but I disagree, if that were true why did they design the fuckin degree I'm doing now...it's not like everyone Japanese person I talk to will speak English, and I highly doubt there will "always be a translator". So unless you have worked in a business dealing with Japanese people/Japan and know what it's like I find it very hard to believe you
You should have read enough of my posts to see that I don't make stupid claims.
If you think that doors will open up for you like they would for another language, you haven't done your research.
My time in Sony (although brief) has shown me that even the lowest of Non-English speaking Japs coming here will either bring over their company translator, bring an English-speaking secretary, or (rarely) hire a native Jap here. My workmates there have always told me to refrain from using any Japanese around them, as all the ones that came over were old-school and hated their precious language being peverted. Read: The old-school businessmen still have the subtle xenophobic characteristics that plague modern Japan.
When my father, once big in the business circle, worked for CSR, he spent a lot of time in Japan, and always noted that it was never necessary to bring along or hire a translator, as the Japanese would always insist on using their own.
My cousin graduated with a BA / LLB in Japanese from Sydney uni. After spending a year over there backpacking and teaching English, he came to the conclusion that for any foreigner, no matter how good their Japanese is, cannot secure any kind of real job over there and have the same kind of equality a Jap would here, nomatter what field. Despite his love for the language and the country, he's now working for a Law Firm. He couldn't get the kind of job that one would assume one could get after fluently speaking a language.
This is backed up by Tony Kehoe (from ebudo.com) the only foreigner I know who has a who actually got a job because 1. he speaks Japanese perfectly (his father got posted there in the army, and Tony was born there) and 2. doesn't use Japanese in his business life.
If you're disagreeing with me, but haven't talked to anyone that's worked over there, there's something wrong. Remember that Japanese is spoken IN ONE COUNTRY. They love their language. They are, implicitly and inwardly, the most patriotic people in the world, which manifests into the
gaijin hate that is very common.