Sakai Junko’s essay 電車の中で若者に注意 got me to thinking about “generation gaps” as “foreign culture”.

In the essay, Ms. Sakai rants about a few episodes where young people should have been admonished for their inconsiderate behavior. In one example, she highlights two young men riding a bullet train watching TV on a cell phone sans headphones. No one steps up to tell them to turn it off, so she has to put on a brave face for the task and asks them as politely as possible to avoid the possibility that they, “get angry back at her.” She phrases it, “Excuse me, but, could you please just slightly turn the volume down, just a bit?” Surprised, they nod and grunt a “yeah” and oblige her by turning the volume down. Except that what she really meant by her comment was that they should turn the phone off completely. This, she argues, is the folly of modern youth - Their lack of consideration.

There were a couple of other examples also, but I’m not going to paraphrase them here as they basically argue the same point. What immediately struck me as amusing was that, while Ms. Sasaki (and most people, for that matter) will argue that they should be admonishing these individuals because they are being inconsiderate, it can be equally perceived that demanding the “offensive action” to cease is itself a selfish act. The phone is annoying her, and therefore she believes it is annoying everyone else around her. She prefers a quiet train. The two men prefer an entertaining train. Who is to say which party has a more valid claim?

The answer is that society, as a whole, determines which party is correct. The majority establish unwritten rules of conduct through common behavior, and these rules are expected to be understood by everyone. In the case of cultures, the “society-in-the-know” are the citizens who reside in any given country. When foreigners first arrive, they may violate these rules unknowingly because their own cultures act on different unwritten rules of conduct.

What we’re seeing occuring in Japan is commonly referred to as a “generation gap”, but I don’t see that as being any different than a “culture gap”. The older generation was raised on different values, and so their culture is different from the culture of modern youth. From the older generation’s perspective, youth are acting terrible. From the new generation, the older generation is unnecessarily strict. We can’t say that either side is “right” or “wrong”; they’re simply different.

Some social commentators lay the blame on “Americanization”, as though it’s a defined agenda of the United States, but I don’t see that as being the case at all. Regardless of what youth are exposed to, the strongest influence on our developing personalities is the parent-figure, for better or worse. Laying the blame on an outside force is to try and create a scapegoat, much like many American parents who blame videogames or music for the violent behavior of their own children. The role of the parent is to create a human that can make sound judgements no matter what they are exposed to, and claiming that outside forces are to blame is essentially the same as saying they as parents could not handle the responsibilities required of them. There are, of course, exceptional circumstances where things like psychological disorders render the process of character development impossible, and it is not at all the fault of the parent that their child ends up doing something terrible. (That’s nature’s fault.)

What is ultimately happening in Japan is that the parents of one generation are acting as a bridge in breeding a new culture through their children, and two differing cultures are colliding head-on in a very confined country.

What’s up with this Engrish I found in the dictionary?

I was checking out a few example uses for かつて, and these grammatically horrid examples popped up:

彼女のかつての友達 = her sometime friend.

What’s a “sometime friend”? I’d have translated it as, “Her on-and-off friend.” At least it’s something you might actually hear being used.

Then there was,

かつての友 = one’s once friend.

“Hey guys! Today’s my once friend’s birthday!” No way. Not going to fly. Why couldn’t they have provided a translation like, “one’s former friend”? Come on Genius Dictionary - Live up to your name!

アメリカ合衆国は民主主義の国のように見えるけど、実はそうではない。

民主主義であるのなら国会は必要ではないであろう。建国者は共和国のアメリカ合衆国を作った。当時、わざわざ民主主義として建国しなかった。その理由はほとんどの国民がうまく制御できないからである。

そのため国会を作りました。建国者が、憲法に義務のある国会議員が国を統制するシステムを決定した。現在のアメリカ合衆国が民主主義のために戦争を起こしているというが、実は我が国でも民主主義とのシステムを使っていないので、それは皮肉ではないか。

国民を１００％統制できているとすれば、それは無政府状態ということではないか。

年輪。全てを支配したいサウロンを抵抗するため、年輪のいっぱいエント（木人間）がホビットを手伝った！

多数決。多数決原理がないと、民主主義は無理。

夜明け。夜明け明けましておめでとう。

要点。議院の議員は自分の声があまりにも好きで、長いスピーチが終了しても、最後に要点に触れなかった！(Probably grammatically dubious)

演ずる。1万円をもらうため、演ずる。

演ずる alternate version featuring 親父ギャグ: 演ずる to make えんず meet.

貴族。寂しい貴族は帰属意識がない。かわいいそう。

途端。彼は失業して、塗炭の苦しみを感じた途端に宝くじがあたった！（よかったね）

かつて。かつてかつおを勝手に食った。

からかう。どうして新しい服を買うって、友達が僕のスタイルをからかうから買う。

雇う。野党が夜盗を雇う。（これは全然正当の宣伝ではないよ！ただの記憶術だ。）

As a foreigner in Japan who currently teaches English, it’s impossible to avoid having an opinion on a policy of mandatory second-language education. Deas from rockinginhakata.com commented on bilingualism (particularly of English and Spanish in the States), but I want to take one step back, towards second-language education in a general scope.

In terms of English education in Japan, I don’t feel it should be mandatory. That may come off as a surprising stance coming from an English teacher, as it effictively undermines my position, but as an individual I am not married to the idea that English is a necessary skill on the international stage, and I’m much more enthralled by education and knowledge in general than any specific area.

A few years ago, a third-year high school student of mine was preparing for entrance into a prestigious university in Tokyo. I asked her if she would continue studying English, to which, without any hesitation, she answered “No.” Her real interest was in Spanish, and that’s what she would be focusing on. “Man,” I thought, “If only you had started studying Spanish from the beginning and saved yourself this whole waste-of-time on English.” Her English education was a waste of time, but necessary for both graduation and university entrance requirements.

This is just one area of Japanese education that needs reform. I may be castigated by opponents of the American educational system who refuse to find anything good in it, but it would benefit the Japanese Board of Education to use the U.S. model for language education as a rough foundation. In the U.S. system, no specific language is required, but two-years of a foreign language is required, be it Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Swedish, Dutch, Russian, or even sign language. The board of education should give students an option, and they should also provide adequate information outlining the utility of individual foreign languages in “The Real World”. They may even go one step further and match-up useful languages based on the students’ intended professions.

Similarly, Japanese language skills for foreigners in Japan should be promoted by (not required) Japanese government bodies. Many foreigners (especially Westerners) have absolutely no drive to learn the language because they either lack long-term goals in the country or they don’t see the use in the effort. That’s fine. They shouldn’t be required to learn the language, but they will need to accept the consequences of not doing so - No potential for career advancement, inconveniences in everyday life, limited social capacity, etc.

The foreigners who do choose to pursue Japanese should be “rewarded” for their efforts as a token of appreciation from the government recognizing that the individual is trying to integrate themselves into society. These “rewards” may come in the form of longer visa grants and slightly relaxed requirements for immigration and permanent residency. There might even be government-sponsored (affordable, convenient) Japanese courses provided, perhaps even through a correspondance course. (I think the JET program has something like this, doesn’t it?) Opponents of the “reward system” will speak disparagingly of the idea (and most often the outcry will be over the difficulty of the language), but what it ultimately comes down to is showing just how much you are willing to invest in society. Again, they’ll have to face the consequences of not learning the language.

The point I’m driving at is that there are advantages to learning second languages, but those advantages don’t apply to everyone, and so requiring any specific language will produce a lot of wasted efforts, time, and money. Sure, you can consider English the “international language”, but what if your future career track will bring you into contact with Spain more often, or other Spanish speaking countries? Or Germany? Or France? How useful is English then? Yes, you can argue that the business transactions in those countries should also be conducted in English, but there is no doubt that speaking the lingua franca gives you a major upper-hand. (Especially when doing business in Japanese!) It is the responsibility of the government to promote languages, and provide resources outlining their utility. It is the responsibility of citizens to make their own choices’ regarding foreign language study, and any skills they choose not to have are the results’ of their own decisions’.

(Image showing a Korean national showing his…erm…disregard for China)

Inspiration from an article posted at Japan Probe

幹事の漢字はなかなかいい感じ

The executive secretary’s kanji are pretty decent.

-or-

The kanji for ‘executive secretary’ are pretty decent.

Update: This one works,

両親の教えは良心を形成する。

———————

よく育つと、両親は良心になるものだ。

Does that work grammatically?

両親が良心になることは、よく育ってから。

両親の心が良心になることだ。

Which one of these works best as a mnemonic device? Is there a better way to arrange the information?

The audacity of hope a foreigner trying to apply for a credit card in Japan, whose hope is ultimately shattered by a rejection letter!

I want to buy a house in Japan; maybe not tomorrow, but someday. In order to buy a house I need credit. It can’t be any credit, though. No sir. It’s got to be Japanese credit. Visa is not just Visa. It’s Japanese Visa. Or Mastercard. Or American Express. Do you see the humor behind a financially-eligible American being rejected for an American Express in Japan?

To get a Japanese credit card, you have to have a Japanese credit history. To get a Japanese credit history, you need a Japanese credit card. This is Catch-22 in all its glory! (To be sent home from the war, you simply have to tell the doctor that you’re crazy. If anyone tells the doctor that they are crazy, they are not crazy and must be sent back into action.)

I don’t rant about Japan very often, because I don’t think there’s much to rant about, and most of the “rants” I hear from others are typically just cases of “whinging”, but come on - What gives with this credit situation?! Throw me a frickin’ bone here!

Here’s a rather ironic example sentence that I came across in the Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar:

私は日本語が話せるどころか、一度も勉強したことがありません。

Translation:
I am far from being able to speak Japanese; I haven’t studied it at all.

That’s a pretty complicated sentence for an absolute beginner with no experience studying the language to be saying in Japanese. It reminded me of that scene in family guy:

Brian: Hola, me llamo es Brian … Nosotros queremos ir con ustedes.. uhhhh …
Mexican guy: Hey, that was pretty good, except when you said “me llamo es Brian,” you don’t need the “es,” just “me llamo Brian.”
Brian: Oh, oh you speak English!
Mexican guy: No, just that first speech and this one explaining it.
Brian: You …. you’re kidding me, right?
Mexican: Qué?

I think the humor in that might actually translate into Japanese! I’ll give it a shot:

たけし: Hello, my name is a Takeshi. We’d like to travel with you … ummm …
アメリカ人：　おぅ、結構上手ですね。だが、”my name is a Takeshi”と言ったが、その”a”が必要ではない。ただ”my name is Takeshi”と言います。
たけし：　あっ、日本語をしゃべれるんですね。
アメリカ人：　いいえ、ただ、さきの文章とこの説明しか言えません。
たけし：　あ…あの…冗談でしょうね。
アメリカ人：　What?

Most of Family Guy would not translate into Japanese.