I wanted to ask this question, sorry if it's been asked before. What types of jobs are good to get that are related to Japanese. Personally I've been finding my program right now (Focuses on chemistry/biology) to be a pain.

I feel like I'd rather do something with Japanese. I know one type of work would be translating. Which I might consider. But I hear those jobs don't really get paid decent. So is there any other types of jobs?
Just give me possible suggestions.
Reason why I'm asking this question in the first place is that. I'm finding my program at the moment, not enjoyable. Sure i can get good grades but I'm not enjoying it much. But for some reason I'm loving japanese now. So I might just do something with it. I know one of you will say: "First master the language, then we will talk about anything else". This is a given but just in general I want possible suggestions.
皆さん有難う

Translating does pay well, but only if you have expertise in an in-demand field. If you don't know anything about patent law you can't translate patent laws, etc.

General translation and entertainment translation (games, movies, books) don't pay well, but technical translation does. You'd still make more money doing actual technical work though.

教師以外、別に思えません。ta121212さんについて、あまり知らないので、勧めをあげることができません。すみません。

Jarvik7 Wrote:Translating does pay well, but only if you have expertise in an in-demand field. If you don't know anything about patent law you can't translate patent laws, etc.

General translation and entertainment translation (games, movies, books) don't pay well, but technical translation does. You'd still make more money doing actual technical work though.

So first mastering the language, then focusing on certain parts of the language. Such as the technical parts or various others pay well eh. Not bad. I'm started to find that japanese will probably be related to my future career. Only 20 so still plenty of time to do things. A lot of people have told me I learn fast. I'm not the type of person who brags. But it's been 7.3 months. And I can understand a lot of japanese so far. Talk-shows,news(some still have diffculty),games,music(i seriously can't hear what they are saying) and i'm around 70%+ towards all the joyo kanji. The extra plus sign is for non-joyo that i know.

gyuujuice Wrote:教師以外、別に思えません。ta121212さんについて、あまり知らないので、勧めをあげることができません。すみません。

lol. It's nothing special? Still in amateur? Translating into correct english sometimes is weird. I can understand japanese by itself pretty fine. But i remeber someone saying, even professional translating can't translate on the spot. They need time.
(sorry for my grammer, it's getting late over here.)

ta12121 Wrote:A lot of people have told me I learn fast.

ta12121 Wrote:On another note in my English course, i was wondering why I always get 70's and never 80's. Must be those grammar mistakes that I always make.
Only 20 years old, but still. Still make those mistakes.....

20 years and you still don't know English Grammar?
Yes, sir, you are a fast learner, indeed!

lol, just read these two topics right after another, and I couldn't help myself

Jarvik7 Wrote:Translating does pay well, but only if you have expertise in an in-demand field. If you don't know anything about patent law you can't translate patent laws, etc.

General translation and entertainment translation (games, movies, books) don't pay well, but technical translation does. You'd still make more money doing actual technical work though.

Thanks for the reply. I guess once one's mastered the language in general. Then one can move onto specialize on certain topics. Such as science,medical,technical,government/politics,etc

Asriel Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:A lot of people have told me I learn fast.

ta12121 Wrote:On another note in my English course, i was wondering why I always get 70's and never 80's. Must be those grammar mistakes that I always make.
Only 20 years old, but still. Still make those mistakes.....

20 years and you still don't know English Grammar?
Yes, sir, you are a fast learner, indeed!

lol, just read these two topics right after another, and I couldn't help myself

haha you got me their
I mean there're
I mean there
Which ones right?
I seriously don't know....

Just kidding. I'm just lazy
(I mean there)
(I do pretty decently in English courses if you're wondering. But my L1(english) has been getting worse as my L3(japanese) increases.)

I think Jarvik7 is referring more to having some sort of "expertise" instead of "knowing specific vocabulary." Knowing patent law, for example, is a lot more complicated than knowing what the word "patent law" means.

That being said, I think what he's trying to get at is that you should get some sort of marketable skill that employers could use. Just knowing what the words mean isn't necessarily as important as knowing what the words are talking about.

Asriel Wrote:I think Jarvik7 is referring more to having some sort of "expertise" instead of "knowing specific vocabulary." Knowing patent law, for example, is a lot more complicated than knowing what the word "patent law" means.

That being said, I think what he's trying to get at is that you should get some sort of marketable skill that employers could use. Just knowing what the words mean isn't necessarily as important as knowing what the words are talking about.

Specializing is needed then. That's the thing about vocabulary, there's so much out there. But I'm dedicated enough to learn a lot. But I think learning it is one thing. But using it/mastering it is another. This just takes a lot of time.

Knowing Japanese isn't a valuable employment skill in and of itself, it only enhances another marketable skill. If you come to Japan with nothing but Japanese ability then you're just going to be teaching English.

In other words, finish your chemistry degree.

Bilingual accounts and tax compliance specialists are in hot demand now.

ta12121 Wrote:I guess once one's mastered the language in general. Then one can move onto specialize on certain topics. Such as science,medical,technical,government/politics,etc

I am more than sure that government/politics/economic themes are not what can be called special topics. That is very basic level I`d say.

Jarvik7 Wrote:Knowing Japanese isn't a valuable employment skill in and of itself, it only enhances another marketable skill. If you come to Japan with nothing but Japanese ability then you're just going to be teaching English.

In other words, finish your chemistry degree.

Exactly, knowing Japanese and only Japanese just puts you on the same level as an average native high school student, nothing "special" about it.

Learn something valuable and marketable (hard science usually pays well), then a few languages and you're golden.

On another note I've always attributed ta12121 English abilities to his young age but given he is 20, this is somewhat odd. In my country young people (pre high school) tend to write/sound exactly like him but during high school their language becomes more refined and "proper". Does it happen later in Anglo-Saxon schooling system?

thurd Wrote:Does it happen later in Anglo-Saxon schooling system?

Hah, I can't speak for other countries but here in the U.S.A., from my experience, it doesn't happen at all for a lot of people, lol. 3 people I work with: one is is close to 50, and the other two are just around 30, and all three have the speaking/writing capabilities of average high school students at best. My dad has also told me stories of some really embarassing things that his coworkers do not know, and my dad works for a rather respectable company. We also recently found out that that my 19 year old brother (born and raised in the U.S.) thought New Mexico was a country. He also messes up the 12 months of the year (forgets the order). I'm so ashamed.

Also, please disregard anything I might say as I'm not completely sober XD

thurd Wrote:On another note I've always attributed ta12121 English abilities to his young age but given he is 20, this is somewhat odd. In my country young people (pre high school) tend to write/sound exactly like him but during high school their language becomes more refined and "proper". Does it happen later in Anglo-Saxon schooling system?

Well, from my personal experience, I think a lot of people judge their own abilities relative to people directly around them. Decades ago, I attended an American HS that took liberal arts courses like English, geography, and history very seriously. Even though I used to think I was horrible in English, it turned out to be not-so-bad compared to the rest of the world (including some posts on this thread). It's gone the other way, too - I used to think I was good at languages and mathematics, but since my HS-years, I have met many, many others who are clearly superior linguists and mathematicians.

So to answer your question, thurd, I think, in general, what you say about "refinement" is correct (even though I would just call it using proper grammar and spelling). But the variance is HUGE - in some American school districts, English ability reaches sufficient levels around JHS, while in other districts, swaths of students become adults without caring about either correct grammar or spelling. IMHO, by the time you reach HS, your grammar and spelling in English should be perfect or near perfect as a native - you should be focusing on word usage, flow, composition, reading comprehension, literature, etc...

Back to the thread - after living in Tokyo for 6 years, I agree with your (thurd's) sentiment that if you can handle Japanese, you've just reached the JHS/HS level - it's not really a strong plus unless a potential employer expected you to know no Japanese at all.

Well this is an interesting conversation we've gone into.

I, too, thought that ta12121 was much younger than he is. The way he expresses himself always reminded me of my younger brother when he chats with his friends -- quite "train of thought," if you will. Not to say that I'm any better, but I was quite surprised to learn that he is the same age as I am.

At my school, Jr. High was used to cement the rules of grammar and such, and then High School was based on developing composition, research, and critical thinking skills. If you couldn't express your thoughts in a clear enough way, you didn't advance to the next class. Graduates from my school rarely have trouble with college essays, whereas other schools' graduates seem to have difficulty.

Slightly back on topic,
A few months back, through some connections, I got the opportunity to help some Japanese people update their website. Due to some difficulties, it didn't work out, but that's beside the point.
I met up with the older Japanese man (about 50ish?) to eat, drink, and discuss what we would do with the website. Long story short, the night ended with him getting drunk, and telling me that there was "nothing impressive" about me speaking Japanese. As an employer he would "never employ me" because I "have no ambition."

What gave him this idea? The fact that I am majoring in Japanese, and because I am studying abroad in Japan. I'm [effectively] putting my Computer Science degree on a 1 year hold in order to spend time in Japan. My focus is misdirected, apparently...

Asriel Wrote:I met up with the older Japanese man (about 50ish?) to eat, drink, and discuss what we would do with the website. Long story short, the night ended with him getting drunk, and telling me that there was "nothing impressive" about me speaking Japanese. As an employer he would "never employ me" because I "have no ambition."

Old generation I guess. Usually such people don`t really get to position to employ others. Sounds like middle-level salaryman (maximum 部長) in a corporation.

Yeah, I'm not really sure what the deal was.

Oh, and I guess I made a mistake in my original post -- he wasn't really "employing" me for anything.
It was a side project for a friend of someone that my dad works with, so there was no official "business" to it.
He just decided to stop talking about the website, get drunk, and talk about how I'm such a bad student :/

Government work. Agencies, such as the FBI, are always looking for people with language skills. Even if you don't qualify high enough to be a linguist, but still achieve a ranking showing that you are at least competent in the language, you will have a leg up on your competition both when applying and once you are inside the bureau.

Once you get your foot in the door, even with a completely non language related entry level position, you can then start working towards getting an overseas embassy post.

Embassy posts are basically freaking dream jobs. Fully paid apartment in Roppongi within walking distance of your office, paid utilities, minimum starting pay of $34,000 per year (aka $2,000 per month after taxes and health insurance) plus a NON TAXED "post differential" pay that currently is around 800-$1,000 per MONTH. So in short you'll have about $3,000 per month of pure play money.

Just to let you know how lacking the bureau is in terms of Japanese there are only 15-20 Japanese qualified agents in the ENTIRE bureau and none of the current FBI embassy support (aka non-agent) staff in Tokyo has ANY Japanese language ability. This is directly from the head agent of the Tokyo FBI office, and I mean directly as in I just talked to him on the phone a few days ago because I'm currently seeking one of these positions lol.

Dear ta12121:
Based on the information in your post, I get the feeling I'm your mother's age (sigh, perhaps of many on this forum). I'm also a teacher, so those two traits lead me to recommend that you stick out the chemistry/biology plan. I know it's a pain and the classes perhaps dead-boring, but the world needs scientists who can speak multiple languages. If the course work isn't exciting, the possibilities of international scientific research are: gene therapy, alternative fuels, wildlife preservation--just to name a few. You couldn't go wrong with Chinese either, and the Hanzi option on Reviewing the Kanji seems to be a great tool. Best wishes.

In general, languages fit well with economy, if you have a degree in economics and know a language fluently, especially Chinese but also Japanese and whatever, finding work shouldn't be hard.

Thanks for the comments. So basically I should stick with my chemistry courses at the moment. I'm planning on specializing in chemistry more then biology. Biology is just required for my program. So much memorizing. I prefer chemistry because i can actually understand the problems pretty well.

So focus on getting something with chemistry. Probably pharmaceutical chemistry, then if I have japanese under my belt it will lead to more jobs. I will learn Chinese afterwords. Probably manadarin but japanese comes first.

KFradale Wrote:Dear ta12121:
Based on the information in your post, I get the feeling I'm your mother's age (sigh, perhaps of many on this forum). I'm also a teacher, so those two traits lead me to recommend that you stick out the chemistry/biology plan. I know it's a pain and the classes perhaps dead-boring, but the world needs scientists who can speak multiple languages. If the course work isn't exciting, the possibilities of international scientific research are: gene therapy, alternative fuels, wildlife preservation--just to name a few. You couldn't go wrong with Chinese either, and the Hanzi option on Reviewing the Kanji seems to be a great tool. Best wishes.

Thanks for the comment. This makes prefect sense. I haven't 100% decided on what I want to specialize in. A lot of people have told me, go for chemist. They get paid good. Plus having multiple languages under you're belt will add to the pay.

activeaero Wrote:Government work. Agencies, such as the FBI, are always looking for people with language skills. Even if you don't qualify high enough to be a linguist, but still achieve a ranking showing that you are at least competent in the language, you will have a leg up on your competition both when applying and once you are inside the bureau.

Once you get your foot in the door, even with a completely non language related entry level position, you can then start working towards getting an overseas embassy post.

Embassy posts are basically freaking dream jobs. Fully paid apartment in Roppongi within walking distance of your office, paid utilities, minimum starting pay of $34,000 per year (aka $2,000 per month after taxes and health insurance) plus a NON TAXED "post differential" pay that currently is around 800-$1,000 per MONTH. So in short you'll have about $3,000 per month of pure play money.

Just to let you know how lacking the bureau is in terms of Japanese there are only 15-20 Japanese qualified agents in the ENTIRE bureau and none of the current FBI embassy support (aka non-agent) staff in Tokyo has ANY Japanese language ability. This is directly from the head agent of the Tokyo FBI office, and I mean directly as in I just talked to him on the phone a few days ago because I'm currently seeking one of these positions lol.

Damn, I might work in the US instead of canada then. I have family over there, so I can easily stay with them. But only problem is working there, probably have to get something in order to work there.