The spirit of perseverance is something essential to Japanese culture, I hear the encouraging form of this word "ganbatte" everyday. I am not too good at ganbaru, I do what I must but often without the zeal that this word implies. Right now I am writing a paper for my Japanese Language and Diversity class, all I have to do is fill 4-5 pages with my thoughts about what I have read since the last paper. I find it hard to see any way to give structure or form to what I have going on in my head regarding these materials. There doesn't really seem to be anything exceptionally interesting or exciting swirling around in my head- I have drawn one conclusion and that is that the Japanese are excellent at adopting outside material and making it into something uniquely their own, and are especially good at adapting for survival. Since the 1990's there has been legislation in place in Japan to help move the language away from it's stereotypical indirect vagueness and in the direction of Western style logic and direct concrete arguments. So children are being taught to focus on expressing themselves and make strong logical points for essays both in English and Japanese. The implication of the article was that perhaps the structure of Japanese language might ultimately be changed by this program.
Today I took a field trip to a call center in Akita, it was very shiny and new and the employees didn't give off the vibe that they basically hated being there. I was quite surprised.
I think that's it for me, maybe something better will happen this weekend.
2 comments:
Thanks for this, Anna. Persevere is exactly what must be done right now, and work on the enthusiasm as we go along.
My computer can't read the Kanji you're posting, alas.
Your take on the Japanese ability to absorb (assimilate?), perfect and adapt was interesting. How does the attitude towards gaijin figure into this?
I love all that you have seen for me. I AM LIVING THROUGH YOUR EYES.
Post a Comment