Nihongo, and Technical types and jobs
Nihongo Discussion Group
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Date: Fri, 01 Jul 1994 15:07:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: DHUN...@midd.middlebury.edu
Subject: Nihongo, and Technical types and jobs
Message-id: <94070115...@midd.middlebury.edu>
I guess it was my note a couple of weeks ago that started folks talking about
the usefulness of learning Japanese if you're a technical type in America.
(My note had been about the fact that I'm a government engineering manager
who's essentially taking an extended educational leave to go learn Japanese).
First, my quick background: I was Manager of System Engineering for the Inter-
national Space Station Program at NASA for 5 years. As such. I was responsible
for integrating the efforts of
14 nations--including the U.S. and Japan--in
building the Space Station.
Also, I think I'm the only technical type to have received a Japan Society
Leadership Fellowship, where I did my Fellowship in Keidanren, in Tokyo (in the
Science and Technology Department).
I've got to say that, working day in and day out with large aerospace companies
in the U.S. (and the other countries) for years, that, unfortunately, it's true
--for the moment--that competency in Japanese doesn't necessarily carry much
in my world, right now. However, that's only because most of the Japanese
in many technical fields read and write Japanese, and many, when the job really
demands it (i.e., interfacing a lot with the barbarians) go on to learn to
speakit.
In other words, it's easy for American companies, and managers, to be short-
sighted and lazy, because: A) they still don't take Japan seriously; B) from
their experience, there was always some Japanese on the other side who could
speak English, if needed; and C) the attitude, "If we need someOne individual
with that skill, we'll wait till then to find him. (Never "her", by the way, in
my experience).
I'd like to contrast those attitudes with what the European Community/EU is
doing. The EU, has a pan-European program, every six months sends about 75
young executives, or potential executives, to Japan for 18 months---solely
for language training. I've been to one of their graduation parties--
a big, semi-formal affair in Tokyo---where I not only meant current "graduates"
of the program, but those from the past 13 years as well. Every single one of
them said the same thing: this is one program that the EC really runs well,
where it's positioning Europe well with respect to Japan, and Asia; and they
should do even more with it. And, by the way, most of the young executive
types seemed to have technical backgrounds; not a whole lot of business and law
degrees were in there. (Unlike what the U.S. would do if it did get such a
program going if it had the foresight to do it!)
In fact, I came back from my time in Japan to NASA Headquarters in Washington;
took a plan up to senior management to try to establish a small-scale model
of such a program within NASA. (I then hoped to use that as a model for the
rest of the Federal government). The result was a "why the hell would we want
to do That look on people's faces. It didn't even reach the point of talking
about money!
The bad part is, when I've seen real examples of when someone was needed with
Japanese language ability, each time--twice in NASA, and twice in industry---
there were no fully qualified candidates to be found!! The result was that,
for each position, a candidate who was UNQUALIFIED technically had to be
selected. (In NASA's last case, we sent a guy with a geology degree, who had
worked in procurement, to be our sole representative to the Japanese Space
Agency's Space Station development office-----because he learned some
spoken,notwritten, Japanese, as a Mormon missionary 10 years ago.
I guess my points are the following:
1. American government and corporate leaders still have an ingrained cultural
bias that prevents them from seeing clearly as to what's needed in the future
in terms of personnel, education, etc. The wide practice of English in most
technical fields around the world ends up being a good excuse to not have to
correct the situation---for now.
2. Someone who has a technical specialty or experience, And is functional in
Japanese, needs to make sure that they are known in all the right circles, so
that when the dummies do scramble for a qualified person, they know you're
available; i.e., avoid the geology degree in the space engineering department
syndrome, but only if they know you exist.
3. If and when the Entities at Be realize the Error of Their Ways, their is
going to be a huge demand--and almost no supply of qualified candidates---for
at least a while. (We all know that an English speaker does not learn Japanese
in a month). In other words, like for all opportunities, it pays to be
ready.
4. You've got to keep worthwhile in your field, no matter what you do. The
other gentleman who wrote a note was actually echoing a Keidanren manager who,
after I told him I was going to take time off and learn Japanese, thought it
was the silliest thing he had ever heard! The more normal thing, he thought,
would be to get an extra technical degree of some sort. And, in terms of
opportunities tommorrow, at 8:00 am, they me be right. However, America needs
folks like us---even if America doesn't know it yet!
5. There is another possibility----that America may not ever wake up; and will
continue a down hill slide in many---maybe, eventually, most?---fields---as a
result. If this happens, each person who can work in another important
language-
result. If this happens, each person who can work in another important
language---particularly Asian--will have even more of an opportunity than those
stuck
at home. I hate to think of that possibility, but life has taught me that
anything----ANYTHING---can be screwed up, including the U.S. If we let it
happen.
I probably did't add anything to the discussion--and I used a lot of words in
doing
so! Apologies!
Dave Huntsman
DHUN...@MIDDLEBURY.EDU
kki...@cruzio.com
Dave,
I agree with you one-hundred percent. We, as a country, need to learn
other languages, especially Asian languages. I am a teacher who is learning
Japanese so that in a couple of years, hopefully, I will know enough Japnese
to be able to get my credential to teach it at a high school. Right now, if a person has a
teaching degree and they pass the test, they are or would be qualified to
teach Japanese, or whatever other languages they take the test for. Up until
last year, however, the only tests that the State of California had for
languages were Spanish, French and Germain. That is rather short sighted I'd
say. Right now, our local high school only offers Spanish and French, but
the one French teacher only teaches three classes, from what I understand. We
need to teach more languages in our school, and we need to do a better job of
teaching languages. My son has had two years of high school Spanish, and he
can't really say anything in the language. As far as I am concerned, his time
spent in language class has been a complete waste of time. As much as I see
the need for teaching/learning languages, there is no point in taking classes
if the students aren't going to learn anything. Right now, in order to be
accepted to a university, a student must have two years of a foreign language,
but there are no proficiency tests--all students have to do is put in their
time. What I would like to see happen is that there be state or national
standard tests for languages, and if a student can learn enough of a language
to pass the test, he or she would receive two years of credit whether or not
the person has taken two years of a language or not. (If the person has
learned a language at home, or where ever, they could get credit for having
done so.) Also, having such tests, or standards would put some pressure on
the teachers to actually TEACH something.