Job Switch Comedy
Ad Text in Japanese:
転職は慎重に。
tensyoku ha shincyou ni
Literal Translation:
(Do) Career Change with discretion.
Harvey Translation:
Be sure to change jobs carefully.
Grammar & Vocab points:
Not much here. However, 「転職」(tensyoku) is a word you should be sure to remember, especially if you plan to work in Japan as it is used quite often. It means to change jobs. Specifically changing companies, or changing careers all together.
The word to change jobs within the same company, say from IT to Sales, is 転勤 (tenkin).
The word 「慎重」 (shincyou) is used he for “careful” or “caution”. It is often used with the particle 「に」 after it as it is here, and the 「に」 is usually followed by a verb.
Remember the Docomo advertisement a few days ago that also had the missing verb? Here it is again. In this case… The verb that likely comes after the 「に」but has been abbreviated is 「しましょう」 for “Let’s change jobs carefully”. Or maybe 「して」 for “please change jobs carefully”. Or even 「すること」for “Be sure to change jobs carefully”.
The fact is, because it has been abbreviated, we cannot know precisely what the verb form intended that has been removed was, but we know enough to get the meaning across just as well.
Explanation:
This advertisement is for a company in Japan which helps people find a job with a new company that fits their skills. Basically a headhunter, or recruiting company, but not necessarily at the executive level. They have a website you can register yourself on to help with the job hunt.
In Japan quitting your job and finding another one is still a fairly big deal, as people do not switch jobs as often as we do in the United States. I’m not sure how this compares to the rest of the world.
So, this company is just saying, if you’re gonna change jobs… Change jobs cautiously so you don’t screw up… And change jobs with us!
The two in this advertisement are the extremely famous Japanese comedy duo, 爆笑問題 [jp] BAKUSHO MONDAI [en].
You can watch the EN Japan TV Commercials featuring Bakusho Mondai here as well.
Posted: December 24th, 2006 under CM, Train Ad.
Comments: 2
Comments
Comment from Tadashi
Time: December 26, 2006, 8:46 am
Why don’t you use Hepburn romanization? Chou is much easier to read than cyou.
The same goes for sya/sha. I’ve never had any problems to type japanese this way either.
Comment from harvey
Time: December 26, 2006, 9:53 am
Someone mentioned the roomaji thing to me over at Japannewbie a while ago as well.
I never officially learned roomaji, as my teacher got us to Hiragana and Katakana as quickly as possible.
As you know, when doing Japanese input, you can do しゃ with ’sya’ or ’sha’.
Asking a random Japanese person, they replied they would usually do ’shashin’ instead of ’syashin’ for 写真。
I think I got hooked on SYA and CYA, because if you look at it… しゃ is made up of SHI and YA. Not… SHI and HA… So it feels more natural for me to use SYA rather than SHA to make しゃ。 Maybe I am thinking in Hiragana.
I’ll keep this in mind and consider making a conscious switch possibly the next time I prepare some posts…
I was also debating if I should skip the roomaji all together and go straight to hiragana on this site… As the Japanese level is pretty high and I think most readers could handle it…
Maybe it’s poll time!
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