[YuriTokoro]

Hi.
I have rewrited my short composition.
What do you think?


What “Freeter” Is

If you write the Japanese word フリーター in English, that would be “freeter” (both singular and plural), and that means a person or people who work(s) part-time.
Once one of my English teachers asked me what “freeter” was.
I wasn’t able to explain that then because it’s really complicated.
Let me try it here.
Freeter is a shortened version of “freearbeiter”.
As you can tell, “free” is from the English word “free” or “freelance”, and “arbeit” is from the German word “arbeiten”(work).
Then, the last part “er” is the English way to make nouns from verbs. For example, play and player.
Arbeiten is pronounced arubaito in Japan, which means part time job(s). The origin is that medical students used to say they “arbeiten” when they cut corpses to study human bodies. They meant it was hard work. My father who is a surgeon used to say that cutting corpse heads in two is tiring activity. Japanese medical students studied German because early Japanese medical information was from Germany. This word has spreaded and been changed to mean 'part time work'.
Anyway, “arbeiter” means “part time worker” now.
You know, there is a problem. Does “a free part time worker” work without salary? Unfortunately, no.
In this context, “free” means “without permanent position” or “freelancing” here.
Many young people can’t get permanent positions recently and they become freeter. You might think “free” can implies fun, but these people have instability. They can earn little.
This is a big problem in Japan. I guess your country might be so, too.

Thank you.


Special thanks to Columbine and Koir!