A typical Life

This article from the Daily Yomiuri discusses wa or social harmony in Japan. I found the following excerpt to be very interesting:

The researchers found that the Japanese were more than twice as likely as the Americans to opt for the ambiguous response … One of the question topics with the highest rate of ambiguous results among Japanese respondents involved choosing between custom and “my way.” Fifty-two percent of Japanese were undecided or said it depends, compared to 9.5 percent of U.S. respondents.

This concept is still alive today in Japan and is said to stem from the 17 article ‘constitution’ written by Prince Shotoku during the Asuka period (around 600AD). This document is the first constitution written for Japan and is more a set of guidelines that the government officials and their subjects were required to abide by than a true constitution. The first article is translated by SaruDama.com as follows and can be deemed a sort of definition of wa:

Harmony should be valued and quarrels should be avoided. Everyone has his biases, and few men are far-sighted. Therefore some disobey their lords and fathers and keep up feuds with their neighbors. But when the superiors are in harmony with each other and the inferiors are friendly, then affairs are discussed quietly and the right view of matters prevails.

Another article is translated as follows:

To subordinate private interests to the public good–that is the path of a vassal. Now if a man is influenced by private motives, he will be resentful, and if he is influenced by resentment he will fail to act harmoniously with others. If he fails to act harmoniously with others, the public interest will suffer. Resentment interferes with order and is subversive of law.

Preserving the wa, or not making waves, is all important even at the expense of the self. This is why gaijin are often frustrated with the apparent indecisiveness of the Japanese but one shouldn’t assume that the Japanese don’t have an opinion. They are just waiting to make sure that everyone else has the same opinion before they ’stick their neck out’ and risk the wa.

Take a moment to read through the other articles of the 17 article ‘constitution’ at SaruDama.com. It provides a lot of insight into the long history and cultural foundation of Japan.

This weeks quote isn’t a quote at all but a Japanese proverb or Kotowaza. The image you get with the direct translation gave me a kick and I though that you might enjoy it too!

The literal meaning of the Kanji above is “breaking wind, closing buttocks”. Translated it means there is no use shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Click on the Kanji to hear it spoken.

Nihon-no-kotowaza has a great collection on kotowaza or proverbs for any occasion. You never know when one might come in handy.

I recently read an article in the Daily Yomiuri that advocates the ‘good enough’ or ‘just try’ approach to conversational English. This brings a new perspective to my goal of improving my communication skills in Japan. I would be happy to speak ‘good enough’ Japanese but the question then becomes what is ‘good enough’? Here is an excerpt from the article:

… Don’t feel unnecessary pressure when speaking English. Say what comes to your mind and it might work.

It is really regrettable that most Japanese people find themselves unable to converse in basic English, even, in most cases, after studying for six years in middle school and high school.

… renowned scholar Michael Swan said …teachers of foreign languages “are very often extremely perfectionist” and that this attitude tends to be passed on to the students. “Children are not designed to grow up with perfect parents,” he said. What they need are not perfect parents but “good enough parents.” Likewise teachers are needed to produce students with “good enough English.”

In the past I always found that a smile, a few words, pointing and a lot of patience worked but my minimal Japanese language skills do limit my ability to interact socially which can be frustrating. I’ve always been scared to ask questions or say anything other than very basic Japanese phrases because I didn’t think that I could understand the response. This put me in a bit of a learning rut as my vocabulary hasn’t expanded very much and I am still not comfortable with sentence structure and other nuances of the language. With my new found perspective I will try harder and risk not understanding the response - hopefully I will gain confidence and improve my ability to converse while I am at it.

Practice makes perfect or in this case ‘good enough’! Wakarimashita-ka?