It's common to say "社会人になってから"(sha-kai jin ni natte kara) in Japanese, which roughly translates into "entering the working world" although the more literal meaning would probably be "becoming a (productive) member of society." "Productive" being commonly used in the English phrase, and probably is implied in the Japanese one.
I don't know of many English-speaking people who talk about when they became a productive member of society, though. It's more "when I graduated from college" or "when I started working." In the IT world in Japan, it doesn't seem uncommon to graduate from 2-year technical schools and go right to work. Lots of people seem to go to 4-year colleges, but still.
2 comments:
hmmm, an interesting subject...
when i see the japanese phrase, i get a vivid image which has nothing to do with being productive in the society. it's just a young japanese (in my case, a guy) standing stiff in a new suit and an awkward face.
I guess that's what most Japanese people experience when they start working. Black suit, of course :D Perhaps I'm taking the Japanese phrase too literally. It's interesting with kanji because the etymology (as such) of the characters that comprise a word hit me immediately, along with the meaning of the word itself. In contrast, the etymology of an English word is often much more subtle to me.
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