【英语国际】日本白领：拜托永远别派我出国

The Galapagosization of Japan continues. According to a survey released today, a shocking two-thirds of the country's white-collar workers said they didn't want to work abroad…ever.

The results are downright depressing, given that Japan has recently suffered the ignominy of ceding its position to China as the world's second-largest economy. The younger and more junior the employee, the greater the resistance to the expat life: 70.7% of 'regular employees,' or those who aren't managers, said they didn't want to go abroad, according to a survey of 400 people conducted by the Sanno Institute of Management, a graduate school in Japan.

Common reasons were 'I can't speak English,' or 'The overseas environment may not be safe.' Managing directors - usually older employees in their 40s and 50s - had the least resistance to working overseas, with only 42.9% saying they wouldn't go.

An official at one of Japan's leading banks recently confided that it was impossible to get young employees to study abroad - fully funded by the bank - or even to do an international stint. 'They feel like they'll fall behind their peers if they go overseas. It's so stupid,' grumbled the official, who came from a generation when Japan's best and brightest were dispatched to Harvard, Yale, Penn, Georgetown and Princeton to learn English and gain perspective by living overseas.

Companies like Rakuten and Fast Retailing are mandating that English is spoken at meetings as part of their push to globalize. But their efforts will be meaningless if Japanese refuse to step foot outside their shores.

On a recent flight to Shanghai, the passenger next to me, a Chinese man in his 20s, said he was heading home for a short break from his university in California. He said this in near-perfect English, telling me excitedly about his future plans and asking about The Wall Street Journal. I can't recall the last time that happened on a flight from the U.S. to Tokyo.

Reuters 大部分日本白领并不愿意出国工作。
根据最近公布的一项调查，多达三分之二的日本白领工作者说他们永远不愿到国外工作，这一比例之高令人吃惊。

鉴于日本最近遭受了将其世界第二大经济体的头衔让与中国的耻辱，这样的结果让人感到十分沮丧。员工的年纪越小、级别越低，他们对海外生活的抵触就越大：据日本产能大学(Sanno Institute of Management)对400人进行的一项调查显示，70.7%的“普通员工”，即非管理人员说他们不想出国。

共同的原因为“我不会说英语”或是“海外环境也许不安全。”而通常为四五十岁、年龄更大一些的董事总经理人群则是对海外工作抵触情绪最轻的，只有42.9%的人说他们不会去。

日本一家主要银行的管理者近日抱怨说，让年轻员工到海外学习是无法做到的，即使是由银行全额出资，就连到国外做一段时间的工作也不行。这位管理者抱怨说，他们觉得要是出国的话，自己就会落后于同龄人，这太愚蠢了。曾几何时，日本最优秀、最聪明的人被派往哈佛、耶鲁、宾夕法尼亚大学、乔治敦大学和普林斯顿大学，通过在海外生活的经历来学习英语，扩大视野，这位银行管理者正是那个时代的人。

作为推动国际化的举措之一，乐天市场（Rakuten）和迅销(Fast Retailing)等公司规定会议上要使用英语。但如果日本人拒绝迈出国门，他们的努力将毫无意义。

最近在一架飞往上海的航班上，坐在我身边的是一名二十多岁的中国男子，他说他从加州的一所大学回来，打算回家休个短假。他用一口近乎纯正的英语向我兴奋地讲述今后的打算，还问起了《华尔街日报》。我想不起来上一次在美国飞往东京的航班上发生这样的事是在什么时候。