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秋に狩るのは紅葉か働き口か?
暖かい日差しに心和む秋。東京では一年のうちでもっとも気持ちの良い季節の一つなのだが、大学3年生にとっては、就職活動の始まりを意味する季節だ。卒業まで1年以上もあるというこのタイミングで、企業はなぜ採用活動を始めるのか、筆者は不思議でならない。
Autumn hunting
Autumn is one of the prettiest times of year in Tokyo, with leaves changing their colors and the summer humidity already a memory. The afternoon sunshine feels warm and welcome to almost everyone — everyone except third-year college students. They rarely notice the autumn beauty because they are in the middle of one of the most difficult undertakings of their lives — job hunting.
My third-year students spend their days rushing around the city to attend company seminars, preliminary exams and job fairs. They fill in forms, talk with counselors at the university career center, pore over "hunting" websites and exchange tips with trusted friends. They have removed their extra piercings, dyed their hair back to black, and put on the standard-issue black and white interview outfits. At the age of 21 or 22, neither the clothes nor the worry on their faces ever seem to fit them right.
The worst thing is, with all the pressure from parents, classmates and the university success rate statisticians, their college studies get lost in the shuffle. Traditionally, companies hold their job-hunting activities at exactly the same time as universities hold classes. Students are caught between the rock of school and the hard place of work.
Why companies want to interview a person who has not yet gained experience and not yet completed any course of study remains a mystery to me. But why companies want to preempt the natural course of university education nationwide is even more of a mystery.
When I see my students pinched between studying and job-hunting, I fantasize of being able to interrupt companies in the same way. I would love to drop into a big company and say, "Hey, you company employees, you have an interview about the symbolic structure of Ernest Hemingway's novels at 3 p.m. tomorrow! And don't be late! Wear a T-shirt and jeans! And put some streaks in your hair, can you?" Turnabout is fair play.
I am always impressed at the toughness of my students when job hunting starts. Of course, they were trained to be tough during the entrance exam hell just a few years earlier. But still, it takes over their lives and they take it seriously. It becomes the greeting and farewell each time I see them, "How is it going?" I ask, and everyone knows what "it" refers to.
In class, students cringe if I utter the word shakaijin, a term with no easy equivalent in English, though "member of society" comes close. Just in their early 20s, students seem to already take on the weight of the world, worrying and fretting about what society will be like, and what it will do to them.
Of course, students are already actually in society. Where else could school be? It's just too bad they don't get to finish one thing before they have to start the next.
- prettiest
- 最も心地よい
- humidity
- 蒸し暑く不快な状態
- are in the middle of 〜
- 〜の真っ最中だ
- undertakings
- 事業
- rushing around 〜
- 〜を駆けずり回って
- preliminary exams
- 予備試験
- pore over 〜
- 〜を詳細に調べる
- "hunting" websites
- 採用情報のウェブサイト
- tips
- 役立つ情報
- standard-issue
- 標準的な
- outfits
- 服装
- fit 〜 right
- 〜に似合う
- statisticians
- 統計家
- in the shuffle
- ばたばたしているうちに
- Traditionally
- 昔から
- are caught between the rock of school and the hard place of work
- 学校と仕事との板挟みになる
- interview
- 〜を面接する
- (has) completed
- 〜を修了した
- preempt
- 〜に先んじる
- nationwide
- 全国的に
- pinched between 〜 and 〜
- 〜と〜の間に挟まれている
- fantasize of 〜
- 〜を空想する
- drop into 〜
- 〜に立ち寄る
- symbolic structure
- 象徴的な書き方
- streaks
- メッシュ
- Turnabout is fair play
- それでおあいこだ
- toughness
- 粘り強さ
- entrance exam hell
- 受験地獄
- takes over their lives
- 彼らの人生に大きな影響を及ぼす
- farewell
- さよなら
- How is it going?
- どう?
- cringe
- すくむ
- equivalent
- 対応する言葉
- comes close
- 近い
- take on the weight of 〜
- 〜の重みを背負う
- fretting about 〜
- 〜について思い悩む