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Fujimi High School (5) |
The pointed discussion of what sort of work one wants to do, one's aspirations, and one's views on work continues. The Fujimi High students are thinking about what they want to do after graduation, and making solid inquiries into what universities and departments would be best suited for that. Anno seems to feel that things are different from the way they used to be in this regard. In this installment, we try to find out what could be making them act this way.
Takahashi: I've long wanted to become an attorney, but it takes such a long time. Assuming I'm 28 when I pass the bar exam, it'd be another two years or so before I had a solid practice, putting me in my thirties, easily.
Shibasaki: I'd have no problem with that at all. I read a book on Sokuten Bukou (translator's note: the Japanese rendering of the name of an ancient Chinese empress, from about 1000 years ago), in which it said that she had eight kids between the ages of 30 and 42, and then had three young male lovers when she was 80. I think life really begins for women when they reach 30. I'm looking forward to how terrific I'll be when I get to that age.
All: (laughter)
Takahashi: I have my hopes too. It's just that I won't be rich and independent before then.
Shibasaki: So what's wrong with that?
Takahashi: I'd be dependent on someone for support until then, right? I wouldn't be able to work very much because I'd have to do all this studying. And I doubt I'd be able to keep up my studies all that long, either. And lately I've been thinking about doing some kind of international work too.
Anno: International work?
Takahashi: International public service, or something. But to do that I'd have to go to graduate school, and even then the salaries for that kind of work are unbelievably low. On top of which, it's a two-year contract, with little future, and there's no telling what would happen if my contract didn't get renewed.
Shibasaki: If you could do that kind of work, you could always find something else. You may not think so, but if you hung in there, I expect you'd find something.
"I Think About the Income I Can Expect"
Takahashi: I'd like to do something that has value to me, but it would have no value as work if I didn't get paid for it.
Shibasaki: We're all thinking about that.
Takahashi: For that reason, I couldn't do international public service.
Anno: If you start talking about low salaries, well...
Takahashi: I'd have to go to graduate school and then on a foreign exchange program, and that all takes money. There'd be no point in getting my parents to shell out for all of that, only to get a job that didn't pay all that well.
Q. You're putting a lot of effort into your searches for universities and future careers, haven't you.
Takahashi: You bet we are.
Mutoo: We're keeping informed.
Takahashi: We share information, about what universities and what departments are good for various fields.
"Investigations Start in Junior Year"
Q. Machida and Hirata are Juniors. Do you engage in this too?
Machida: The teachers are on our cases to make a decision.
Takahashi: You said it. Most of my friends know which school they want to get into, and talk about departments a lot. You know, what departments would be good for which occupations.
Mutoo: I started researching in my junior year too.
Takahashi: Friends become a really good source of info.
Machida: Compared with Seniors, Juniors still don't know what they're actually capable of, so their aspirations are higher.
Mutoo: Seniors don't know any better (laughs).
Takahashi: We all dream big dreams.
Machida: We all have such big dreams that we're embarrassed to talk about them.
Mutoo: I can talk about mine.
Machida: All our dreams are completely divorced from our academic standings. That's why we can't bring ourselves to talk about them.
Mutoo: They are for a fact.
Q. Lately, there've been a lot of people who've decided what they want to do with their lives, and who have a particular college in mind.
All: I can't believe that.
Mutoo: What do they think they're taking entrance exams and going to college for in the first place?
Takahashi: Some people force an objective on themselves. I did that too, a long time ago. I couldn't study without a goal, so I'd make one up and convince myself that it was what I wanted to do, so I could study.
Mutoo: Now it's for real.
Anno: A boy in one of the public high schools I've visited said he was going to get into college and then figure out what he wanted to do once he got there.
Mutoo: Oh man!
Takahashi: That's not the way it works.
Mutoo: I think college is a place to study. There's no way I'd let that slide.
Anno: You wouldn't excuse someone saying that college is a place to figure out what you want to do?
Mutoo: Well, I figure that's probably OK.
Anno: Does that mean that you can't figure out things to that extent in high school?
Takahashi: Well, college has all sorts of fields of study, and if you just drift, you're guaranteed to have regrets when you go to work or find what it is you really want to do. You need to figure things out to some extent beforehand.
Mutoo: You need to organize your thinking.
Shibasaki: They say that one's thinking can change quite a bit, though.
(From the Sept. 11, 1998 edition of Mainichi Intermediate-School News)
