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This sentence is confusing me a bit, particularly the bold part:

> 国際社会に通用する **人材を作り上げる** ことに繋がるってわけなんだよ！

Jisho.org has the definition of 人材 as:

> capable person; talented person; human resources; personnel

And the definition of 作り上げる as

> to make up; to fabricate; to build up; to complete; to construct

So putting two and two together it seems like we're talking about "building a
talented person" which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Could it be that 人材
can also just mean "talent" or "ability"? Or could it be that "xを作り上げる" can
mean "to make into x"?

Extended context:

> A: 「ゲームをはじめ、日本のサブカルチャーは今や世界に轟いているのだ」
>
> B: 「うむ、それで？」
>
> C: 「だからゲームをやりまくるってのは...」
>
> A: 「国際社会に通用する **人材を作り上げる** ことに繋がるってわけなんだよ！」
>
> B: 「どーいう理屈だ...」
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2016-04-17T17:15:38.783
33628
2016-04-18T07:07:42.630
2016-04-17T23:29:55.907
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question
grammar words
Meaning of 人材を作り上げる
人材 usually means "human resources" because the kanji 材 means "resource" or
"material." While a good 人材 is always a precious thing, I doubt 人材 itself
necessarily means "talented." For example, a boss may say 彼は素晴らしい人材だ referring
to his person and it means something like "He's a capable/talented person".
But 彼は人材だ wouldn't make much sense.

And 作り上げる here is "to develop/foster".

* * *

**EDIT** : I'm sorry, I noticed a monolingual dictionary defines 人材 as "a
talented and/or capable person". [デジタル大辞泉
says](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/114233/meaning/m0u/%E4%BA%BA%E6%9D%90/):

> 才能があり、役に立つ人。有能な人物。人才。「―を求める」「―不足」

On the other hand, ALC (online J-E/E-J dictionary) says 人材 is "human
resource", "manpower", "workforce", etc. They're very different, but I feel
ALC's translations are closer to the modern usage of this word.

I strongly think that 君は人材だ never means "You are a talented/capable person."
It does not make much sense, but it sounds even derogatory to my ears, because
it's like saying "You are a resource." 君は会社の貴重な人材だ is okay as long as someone
higher says this to his employee.

人材 in 人材を作り上げる is "someone who has gained some skill through training, and can
be counted as an independent worker of a company", or simply "a dependable
businessperson". But keep in mind that this is a word mainly used in the
context of company management, from the viewpoint of the managers.

人材派遣会社 means "temporary staffing/employment agency", and people dispatched by
such firms are not necessarily talented specialists. In this case, 人材 just
means _manpower_ , _workforce_.

Finally, your example essentially is a joke. 国際社会に通用する人材を作り上げる/育成する (="to
develop world-class businesspersons") is a kind of phrase said tons of times
by presidents of global companies and universities. But it's not a phrase
young people may say seriously in conversations. Associating games with such a
"sophisticated" phrase is the funny part of his line.
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2016-04-17T18:28:59.140
33629
2016-04-18T07:07:42.630
2016-04-18T07:07:42.630
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answer
"Building a talented person" may not be the most natural English, but it still
makes a lot of sense. What is it that you find hardly-sensical about it, given
that you seem to be okay with "building (a) talent/ability"? Is it because you
think "build" shouldn't be applied to living, sentient beings like humans?

I think the meaning of 人材, in this case, is much akin to that of the word
"talent", as in "talented people collectively".
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-04-18T00:19:38.517
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2016-04-18T00:19:38.517
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answer