Denglish and Japanglish for Job Seekers

In Japan, today is a public holiday called Labour Thanksgiving Day ( #勤労感謝の日 ).

Historically speaking, it has its origins in 新嘗祭 (Niiname-sai), an ancient Shinto ritual practiced by the Emperor as a way of praying for a good harvest. You could say it is the Japanese version of a harvest festival.
 
It was only turned into a Thanksgiving celebration related to work after World War II through secularization efforts by GHQ (a US occupying force in post-war Japan),
 
The word “ #Labour ” was added as a kind of afterthought to give a bit more flair to the word “Thanksgiving”, which was seen as being slightly vague.
 
But let me focus here on the word “work” in my main working languages: #English , #German and #Japanese .
 
Welcome to the intriguing world of false friends!
 
Japanese/German
#アルバイト (A-ru-beito) / #Arbeit
In Japanese, “Arubeito“ only refers to side jobs typically practiced by students.
You would call this a “Nebenjob” in German.
 
English/German
job/Job
 
At least previously, the word “Job” in German used to refer to temporary and often substandard employment.
 
It is my feeling that “Job” has become more like a synonym for proper employment, ever since the coinage of the #Jobcenter , a labour exchange run by the German government.
 
Jobcenter is actually a #Denglisch word, to be exact. It is known as the Job Center in the US and Jobcentre in the UK.
 
But the #Japanglish term is even worse in this case. Japan’s employment agency is called “Hello Work”. This sounds somewhat childish to my ear.
 
But old habits die hard. Probably due to people’s uneasiness with such #Anglo -Saxonisms, you can still hear obsolete terms for employment agencies favoured by older generations (in Japan) or in colloquial conversation (in Germany).
 
Japanese/German
職安（公共職業安定所）/ Arbeitsamt
 
Work, job, Arbeit, 仕事, 職業-, no matter what you call it, it’s something we should cherish and celebrate in these turbulent times!
 
#translation #空似言葉 #falsefriends #Japanesecultural #faux -ami