英語が公用語に!2 English becomes the official language in a Japanese company!2

先日[せんじつ](= the other day)、楽天[らくてん]の社内[しゃない] (= within the company)英語[えいご]公用語[こうようご] (= the official language)のニュースについて[]きました

 
I wrote about Rakuten, a Japanese IT company, whose official corporate language is now English.

これは、やはり大変[たいへん]なことのようです。Jキャストというウェブサイトのこのページによると、2010年から準備[じゅんび]していた(= was prepared)とは言[]え(= however)、英語[えいご]がよくできる人[ひと]とできない人[ひと]がいるそうです。できない人[ひと]は、できるようになるように、英語[えいご]を勉強[べんきょう]する時間[じかん]を特別[とくべつ]に(= especially)もらっているそうです。で、その人[ひと]がするはずの仕事[しごと]は?-英語[えいご]がよくできる人[ひと](つまり、英語[えいご]を勉強[べんきょう]しなくてもいい人[ひと])が代[]わりにしているそうです。当然[とうぜん] (= naturally)、不満[ふまん] (= complaint)がでてきます:「同[おな]じ給料[きゅうりょう] (= salary)をもらっているのに、より多[おお]くの仕事[しごと]をさせられるのは不公平[ふこうへい] (= unfair)だ!」と。尤[もっとも]もな(= reasonable)意見[いけん] (= opinion)です。

でも、このような状況[じょうきょう]がずっと続[つづ]くわけではありません。英語[えいご]の成績[せいせき] (= grades; scores)がよくならなかったら、減給[げんきゅう] (= pay cut)や退職[たいしょく] (= resignation)が待[]っている可能性[かのうせい] (= possibility)が高[たか]いそうです。
 
やはり大変[たいへん]だ。。。
 
It is indeed such a big deal. According to the website of J-Cast, the company still, as you might expert, have two groups: People who are good at English and people who are NOT so good at English. People belong to the latter group have receive special treatment from the company; meaning that they have special time off for their English study. But they are employees and they’ve got to get some work done for the company. So what is happening there in terms of their workload? – the workload is covered by people who are good at English (therefore, do not need special time off for study). As you might guess, those good-at-English people are not happy with the current situation saying that it’s not fair for them to carry extra workload receiving same salary! It sounds a reasonable claim to me.
 
Apparently, this situation won’t last so long. People who receive special treatment for their English study at the moment also receive enormous pressure from the company to improve their English skills. If they would not reach the required level in the near future, they would be likely to receive pay cut or even fired (according to the source J-cast accessed to).
 
What an era we live in now!

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