Not Cool Japan

[RadioKid]

** Not Lady First.

I do not mean it is "Gentleman first" in Japan. However, I hardly give way for ladies. I might have not enough respect to the Ladies.

[RadioKid]

**遠慮：えんりょ;ENRYO (to refuse politely)

"ENRYO" would be difficult concept for foreigners to understand. Though there are many interpretation for ENRYO, those are just "case by case" interpretation and not explain "ENRYO" exactly.

For example, one might refuse (or decline) some offering when he thinks he is not worth the offering.

Because Japanese people think it is virtue to under-estimate oneself and it is shameful to express oneself as "big", Japan and Japanese people are very bad at negotiating with foreign country and foreign people.

[Wednesday]

My English might not be the greatest but I can speak fluently and clearly. Whenever I met Japaneses I couldn't understand very much. It was nothing like talking to other Asians.

A Chinese friend asked me why Japanese students have such a big problem with learning English although there are more English terms in Japanese than in Chinese.

[davidannis]

jisho.org translates enryo as diffidence; restraint; reserve; discretion; tact; thoughtfulness, which I think is very understandable from an American perspective. It is not so bad that these qualities are highly valued. Sometimes I wish they were more valued here.

I also like that enryo can be used in enryo suru as a verb. e.g. Enryo shinaide - don't hesitate.

[RadioKid]

** Poor English Ability

Yes, we have thick language barrier wall between Japanese and English.

As all of you already recognize, I cannot be proud of my English ability. Don't be surprised when I speak very bad English and also when I miss your words spoken.

And remember that the thickness of the language barrier is the same when measured from both sides.

[RadioKid]

** ENRYO & KENSON (謙遜：けんそん(to express lower estimation of oneself than what other people expect))

ENRYO is "deep consideration" when directly translated. The translated words would be correct for each case. However, ENRYO is one concrete concept for native Japanese.

KENSON also is based on the same concept of ENRYO.

I think these concepts confuse foreign people about Japanese behavior.

Or do foreigners understand these concept very well?

[RadioKid]

** Doraemon

Doraemon is popular Japanese animeation program also being popular in Asia and part of Europe.

However, US has been rejected to broadcast Doraemon in US (and accepted at last).

Among the reasons US rejected Doraemon, the treatment of a female character has been problem from the US point of view.

Shizuka (Sue in US version) often suffer from sexual harassment and has often bath room scene.

This has backgrounds.

1) Bathing scene of major female character is parody of "OGIN" in famous Japanese Drama "MITO-KOMON".



2) It is very common and usual for female children (under around ten years old) to bath with her father. I have heard this is not acceptable for foreign ladies.

For these reason, original Shizuka is turned to another character Sue in US version of Doraemon.

[xyzone]

No society will ever strike a perfect balance.

Never say never. A trans-human society might. Although it is easier to dismiss that imagination as impossible.

When an emergency occurs, like at the Fukushima nuclear plant, this inability to make important decisions quickly paralyzes the entire system, and can cause serious failures.

Let's just not kid ourselves that Fukushima happaned for any other reason than western, individualist greed. At the same time, all the underlings in the US that allowed the banks to gamble and crash the economy, most of them were just passing the buck, like good obedient (corporate) citizens. Neither Fukushima nor the Great Recession could have happened without the negative sides of obedience and individuality, respectively.

[RadioKid]

* YES & NO

Do any of you learned "はい：HAI" corresponds to YES and "いいえ：IIE" to NO?

It is wrong. And most of Japanese have learned it wrongly.

Please be careful when you communicate with Japanese people depending on YES and NO. You should say "No, I did not it" instead of just only "No".

I mean "はい：HAI" in Japanese is used to say "I agree with you" or just "I'm listening to you". And "いいえ：IIE" in Japanese is used to deny what opposite talker says.

Therefore, Japanese will be confused when asked in negative form.

When I worked with an US engineer, he asked me in a morning "Didn't you change the system configuration last night?". As I did not change it, I replied carefully "Y.... No, I did not change it.". He continued "Really?" and I replied "Yes!" meaning "what I told you is REAL". He would be confused whether I did change it or not.

In that case, I wrote "Don't ask in Negative. Don't ask twice." on the white board of the lab.

With good English education, Japanese understand the correct meanings of YES and NO. However, In some degree of English learning step, Japanese still miss-understand about YES and NO.

[RadioKid]

* Mongolian Blue spot

Most of Japanese babies have Mongolian Blue spot as shown below.



Some Japanese parents took their baby to doctor in US and wrongly suspected the violence against the baby because of Mongolian Blue Spot.

Usually, Blue Spot will disappear before 20 years old.