Career Formation for Young People with Multi-lingual and Multi-cultural Backgrounds

From the Perspective of Career Design

Abstract

Human life can be seen as a continual process of self-realization, of moving towards a state in which one feels that one is living a life that is true to oneself. To achieve this goal one must seek to understand oneʼs own identity and design a career on the basis of this self-awareness, plotting a course that will lead to the formation of the mode of life or career that one wishes to achieve. Self-awareness is to be achieved by reviewing the course of oneʼs life from the past to the present, and on into the future, and examining oneʼs evolving relations with the people in oneʼs life, thus seeing oneself as it were in reverse, "oneself as other in the otherʼs eyes" (Washida 1996, pp. 105-25). The title assigned for this paper is "Career Formation for Young People with Multi-lingual and Multi-cultural Backgrounds," but it is doubtful whether this sort of background is truly realized for children with ties to foreign countries. A multi- lingual or multi-cultural background should not merely be seen as a skill for participation in society, one that enhances oneʼs employability; it is also vital to incorporate it into oneʼs self-awareness, which will guide oneʼs path to self-realization. Japanese society thus has a duty to ensure that children with ties to foreign countries will be able to maintain their heritage languages and cultures.