Employment prospect of Japanese major

The future of Japanese major: promising.

With the in-depth development of Sino-Japanese economic and trade cooperation, Japanese pop culture has become increasingly popular in China, and Japanese has also become an enduring minority language major in colleges and universities in recent years. However, a large number of Japanese graduates enter the market every year, coupled with the impact of the vigorous development of machine translation and speech recognition technology on the job market, the employment situation of Japanese majors is still grim and not optimistic. Is it because of the changes of the times, or the Japanese education in China University has not cultivated talents that meet the needs of society? Faced with this situation, what can major Japanese departments and Japanese teachers do? Jiu Bao Hui, an associate professor at the School of Oriental Language and Culture, Zhejiang Gongshang University, put forward the following suggestions in the article, which is worth considering.

Due to the improvement of Sino-Japanese relations, at the end of 20 18, teachers and students majoring in Japanese in colleges and universities felt a little gratified. However, the employment situation of Japanese majors is still grim and not optimistic. The reason is that many problems faced by Japanese majors are not caused by the tension between China and Japan, and the improvement of Sino-Japanese relations does not mean that all problems can be solved. As the saying goes, "Be prepared for danger in times of peace", I will briefly talk about the serious problems faced by Japanese majors, and please correct me.

A few years ago, when I was working in a university in China, one of my tasks was to prepare for the opening of Japanese major. At that time, I wanted to learn from the experience and wisdom of my predecessors as much as possible to build a higher quality professional department. For this reason, I took universities in coastal cities of China as the center, investigated the current situation of Japanese major in China, and consulted the opinions and ideas of teachers and students. Through this survey, I found that the situation is even more severe than I expected-the surplus of Japanese professionals, the difficulty of students' employment, and the resulting decrease in students taking the initiative to apply for Japanese majors, students' low desire to learn and so on. Even if you are proficient in Japanese, you will never find a way out. So, is it necessary to study Japanese hard? With the rapid development of machine translation and speech recognition technology, "unless the Japanese level is extremely high, it will be replaced by machines". After students feel this, they are very confused about whether to study hard to improve Japanese or to give up and find another way out.

Some Japanese teachers are actively committed to improving students' desire to learn, so that students can study happily and efficiently. This kind of effort is very important, but many students don't want it. We still have some doubts about future education.

Employment difficulty is an important problem faced by Japanese majors. The "difficulty in finding a job" mentioned here is not the inability to find a job, but the welfare problems such as wages and benefits. Specifically, the salaries of other posts are higher than those of Japanese translators. Japanese translators value Japanese ability, and there is no room for promotion in Japanese translators. Take an inland provincial capital city as an example, the salary of fresh graduates in ordinary positions is about 5,000 yuan, and the Japanese translation position is about 3,500 yuan. Under such conditions, only students who insist on applying for Japanese-related positions or college students will stay. Every year, a large number of Japanese professionals enter the market, but the demand is not much. In this way, even if the salary is only 3500 yuan, there will never be a shortage of people, and there is no need for the company to pay 5000 yuan.

As far as I know, employees of Japanese companies in China also understand that the treatment of Japanese majors is not satisfactory, especially in the manufacturing industry, which needs to consider reducing costs. However, the rising prices in China have made the manufacturing industry miserable. Two years ago, a manufacturing supplier revealed that "it is more cost-effective to produce in Japan now. However, the project is outsourced and it is impossible to transfer only our company's factory. " In fact, some garment manufacturing industries that are easy to transfer have moved their production lines to Southeast Asia and South Asia. However, it is not an easy task for complex manufacturing industries, such as automobiles, which involve material procurement and parts manufacturing, to move overseas. If the outsourcing factory moves its production line to Southeast Asia, the parts it produces will go through customs inspection every time, so it is difficult to determine the delivery date and can't cope with emergencies. Therefore, the production lines of these enterprises first choose to transfer from coastal areas to inland areas. With the improvement of infrastructure such as high-speed rail in China, local governments are also actively attracting investment. In fact, a large number of factories flooded into Hubei, Hunan and other places. Airlines such as low-cost airlines (LCC) have also launched direct flights from these inland cities to Japan, accelerating this transfer. However, it is hard to say whether these factors can stimulate the demand for Japanese talents in enterprises.

So far, it is the consistent practice of Japanese enterprises in China to send employees from Japan to undertake management and leadership work. In addition to high labor costs such as basic salary and allowance, these dispatched employees should also be equipped with translators. In addition, it takes time for expatriates to adapt to unfamiliar environments abroad, and it is impossible to adapt immediately when they take office. Therefore, it is more efficient to train China employees in Japanese headquarters and then send them to work in China. Although Japanese companies no longer need to be responsible for contacting Japanese talents at headquarters, Japanese companies no longer need Japanese translators, which actually means that the demand for Japanese is reduced. Many Japanese companies are already trying to reduce the number of Japanese employees working in China.

Meanwhile, Japanese companies have recently started sending Japanese employees who can speak Chinese to work in China. In a famous Japanese retail company, Japanese employees not only give instructions to China employees directly in Chinese, but also go directly to the cashier to guide customers and assist the cashier when the cashier is busy. Japanese companies are trying to achieve localization through these efforts.

In addition, the salary of Japanese translators in Shanghai and Shenzhen can occasionally reach more than 7,000 yuan, but in these cities, 7,000 yuan is also a low level. Some people went to Shanghai and Shenzhen to be translators, but their lives were unsustainable. After two or three years, they will return to their hometown for development. Although the wages in mainland cities are only about 4500 yuan, they can live well, have the opportunity to buy a house, and there is still a lot of room for improvement in wages. Although the salary of some positions in China is low, the turnover rate is also low, and there is never a shortage of applicants. On the other hand, compared with Japanese, prices and income levels in different regions of China are quite different, and real estate is an important source of capital accumulation, so it is difficult to judge the quality of life of others by wages, and it is impossible to simply compare them. But even so, the salary of private enterprises below 4000 yuan is still grim.

So, what can we do as Japanese teachers in view of the difficult employment situation? Dalian is a case worth learning from. 2 or 3 years ago, I made a survey and found that Dalian is the only exception. The employment situation of Japanese majors is still very good, especially the Japanese talents in the outsourcing industry are very active. There are many telephone customer service companies in Dalian, which mainly undertake the customer service work of manufacturers. The salary of employees is nearly twice as high as the average monthly income of China people. These customer service staff use Japanese every day, so their Japanese level can also be improved. Although data entry is a common form in outsourcing business, if you do telephone customer service, employees need to talk directly with the customers of the enterprise, which requires not only language ability and knowledge reserve, but also higher requirements for communication skills and etiquette, so the work is relatively difficult. From the management point of view, instead of hiring Japanese employees in Japan, it is better to hire China employees with high salaries in Dalian, and the quality of life of these employees can be better than that of working in Japan.

In addition, Japan's labor force is gradually decreasing, and the maintenance of the pension system is a major issue. The foreign labor force, mainly from China, is becoming an important pillar of Japanese society. The Japanese House of Representatives passed the amendment to the Entry-Exit Administration Law in June165438+1October last year to accelerate the attraction of foreign labor. Before studying Japanese as an undergraduate in China, all students chose to study in Japan and then go to work in Japan after graduation. In the future, more and more students may go to work in Japan directly after graduation in China.

With the drastic changes of the times, it seems that Japanese education in China University has been unable to cultivate talents that meet the needs of society. Business Japanese conversation, business writing and other teaching materials still stay in the scene of accompanying expatriates and general managers on business trips, but this is no longer the talent needed by enterprises. Not only that, but also the ways and contents of online learning are quite rich. In this era when students can learn independently, it is undoubtedly urgent for teachers to change their responsibilities according to new needs.

At present, Japanese education is still facing a very important problem. Enterprises need fresh graduates or interdisciplinary talents with strong working ability, while university teachers often have no working experience in enterprises, and their knowledge structure is single but not extensive enough. Universities attach importance to scientific research, and teachers should impart their own professional knowledge, which is the original intention of curriculum setting, and the appointment of teachers is also based on academic qualifications and research results. As a result, the recruitment conditions (ability and experience) of university teachers are inconsistent with the actual business content (teaching), and it is difficult for teachers to take care of both scientific research and teaching. To make matters worse, in recent years, the employment conditions of foreign teachers have been improved year by year, the examinations have become increasingly strict, and it has become more and more difficult to find jobs. So far, composition and conversation classes taught by foreign teachers are being taught by China in more and more schools.

In this case, can we consider cooperating with enterprises and inviting front-line staff to give lectures on interpretation, translation and business etiquette? It is imperative to brainstorm and promote reform. Although it is not easy to implement, if we carefully examine the current situation of Japanese majors, we will realize that we must have the courage to cross the rubicon to put forward countermeasures and solve problems.

Universities and university teachers should also actively strive for opportunities for students to go to Japan for internships and study abroad during their school days. As mentioned above, the working population in Japan is decreasing, while the number of Japanese with high Japanese level and familiarity with complex jobs is increasing. Students can gain experience that they can't get in class through internship, which is also the unique charm of Japanese.