Saturday, August 15, 2009

a mess of thoughts

Summer fireworks are wonderful.

A Restful Country Life

Not so much, today. I drove a little over two hours to the nearest "big city" to meet a potential Japanese teacher and go to Mass for the Feast of the Assumption, which meant I got up at 6am. Ugh. I have not been a morning person for several weeks now, although I had a brief and fun run of it in the spring and early summer, when the sun was rising early but the air was still tolerably cool and dry.

Japanese Language Proficiency

The meeting with U-sensei was pleasant, but something that's been nagging me became clearer: what will I do with Japanese after this? It may be a result of where I live and its distance from most everything, or the fact that they usually teach true beginners or intermediate level, but U-sensei and the other teachers were all saying, 'Ah, your Japanese is great already; what else do you need to study?' At work I often get the opposite vibe: 'This is unintelligible and you'll never acquire natural Japanese.' Anyway, though, I showed U-sensei some of the documents I work with and chatted about work and wanting to use Japanese in a non-English-teaching job in the future.

Then the nagging thought came back-- even if I had perfect Japanese, what kind of work can I expect to find in Japan without a degree in business or computer science or finance or engineering? Furthermore, as in the US, the papers say Japanese college grads are having a terrible time finding work.

I want to learn more languages, and see some more countries, but not at the expense of forgetting Japanese. I've already forgotten most of two years of college Mandarin. Yet if I'm ultimately unable to use Japanese in a profitable career, perhaps it's best to move ahead quickly with other things.

The Global Economy

Quite a number of college grads are in a similar, floundering situation, I believe. Part of the reason is the economy, sure. Another part is academic inflation. A college degree means (or meant) a higher salary, so more people go to college, more colleges spring up, academic fields diversify, school administration staff burgeons, and pretty soon you have an expensive degree factory instead of an institution of higher learning. Kids are encouraged to study whatever they like, because it doesn't matter what kind of degree they get in the long run. In the meantime, degree-holders have become a dime a dozen.

Especially now that the job market has become so competitive, many idealistic B.A.s find themselves at a loss to explain their skills to potential employers.

Why wasn't marketing on that list of general education requirements?

The Future

The next generation of students will eventually be forewarned to go after practical, marketable skills, and the variety of dreamy-creamy majors will decrease while fields like medicine, engineering, law, and business see growth and higher competition for admittance. These students will also have to learn to compete for jobs with overseas peers.

I'm hopeful that this will have a jolting effect on K-12 education, and that US kids will be challenged to go far beyond the current expectations of standardized tests.

As for my generation, though, I think a lot of us will have to either get smart or get lost. We aren't on the same cut-and-dried job-hunting field as our predecessors, and we need to learn how to deal with that.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

"Get up and eat"

In the Gospel today, we heard that

"Elijah went a day's journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. He prayed for death, saying: "This is enough, O Lord! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers." He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree, but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat. Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water. After he ate and drank, he lay down again, but the angel of the Lord came back a second time, touched him, and ordered, "Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!" He got up, ate, and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb."

So here is Elijah, running from death at the decree of Jezebel, Ahab, the false prophets & co., and he's determined he can go no further. It's almost comical: he eats and drinks only to shut his eyes again and see if the Lord will take him up this time around. Then the Lord's angel comes and basically tells him to stop lolling around, he's got a journey to make and more work to do. It's a good warning; you might think you're finished, but God may very well have not finished with you, so don't throw in the towel prematurely.

It seems to me that a lot of readings recently depict people who believe they are at the end of their strength, and ask God for death. Moses, for example-

"Where can I get meat to give to all this people? For they are crying to me, 'Give us meat for our food.' I cannot carry all this people by myself, for they are too heavy for me. If this is the way you will deal with me, then please do me the favor of killing me at once, so that I need no longer face this distress."

And the newly-freed-from-Egypt Israelites grumbled, saying "Would that we had died at the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!"

Yet before all of them there still stretched a long road, and the Lord fed, strengthened, and spurred them on to their tasks.

In today's sermon, Fr. Jorge said that God is always sending us out to the desert to do battle with the devil, with temptation, with our own weaknesses. It would be comfortable for us, no doubt, to sit at the kitchen table (with a nice book, perhaps) and think nice thoughts instead, but there is no victory without a fight. We can not really see ourselves, and all our beliefs and ideas remain untested, until we are in the desert- adversity- faced with hardships and hard decisions.


Meanwhile, I'm re-reading G.K. Chesterton's short book on St. Francis of Assisi, in which he makes several insights into the remarkable saint's life and actions. We have so many strong, courageous, vivacious, joyful role models to look to!

Monday, August 3, 2009

job hunt in 2010?


I have been in inaka-cho for just over one year now, and I think it was time well spent. Because of all the difficulties, I learned some things about myself and, I think, deepened my faith and perseverance. I have another year on contract, but I am starting to wonder about what I'll be doing next year at this time. Should I stay a third year? Or shall I move on?

And if I decide to move on, how shall I proceed? Whether I stay in Japan or go back to the US, I would like a job that would allow me to build some professional skills and learn something new. However, depending on the economy I may not have much choice. In that case, if it looks like I face only the unskilled labor market, it might be just as well to get a working holiday visa for Australia or New Zealand and find the same kind of work there.

There's also grad school, an MBA, law school, art school, traveling, or (*mumbling*) eikaiwa. Lots to think about!