Suggested Reading - Beyond Culture

I read this book ages ago, probably within my first few years arriving in Japan. It recently came up again in a discussion when Joi Ito came to speak at my school.

Beyond Culture

This book is about the factors that influence cross-cultural communication, and is presented in a very engaging way. It was a real page turner. Beyond Culture was especially interesting for me (and I suspect would be for you as well) because many of the examples compare Japanese culture to Western culture. As I recall it wasn’t overly academic, and the examples were relevant even today.

I want to read this again someday… That will go right on my to-do list… Under the 100 other things I want to do!

Hope everyone had a happy holiday season!

- Harvey

How to Make People Angry

This guy has perfected the art of making people (Japanese people anyway) angry.

Anger-inducing lesson titles with timestamps:

[1:00] もらい捨て moraisute Throwing it Away Just After Receiving It

Business cards in Japan are handled with care. They are exchanged with both hands while bowing respectfully. Care is taken to present the business card so it is readable from the recipients perspective. Once the cards have been exchanged, they are placed on the table where the meeting is taking place so they can be referred to as needed. When more than one business card is received they should be ranked in order of superiority on the table as well.

After receiving the business card, this example proceeds to break all the rules.

[1:18] メンチ menchi Give someone a dirty look

The full Japanese expression is メンチを切る menchi wo kiru, and means to give someone the evil eye, or stare someone down. It’s pretty obvious in the video. It’s quite rude.

[1:44] ギャグクラッシュ gyagukurasshu Joke Crush!

When someone has told a joke or is trying to be funny it’s polite to at least chuckle a little even if the joke isn’t terrible funny.

In this example the guy tells him to stop telling jokes because it’s not funny at all. And he cannot believe the terrible atmosphere being created by this guys lame attempts at humor.

[2:14] ルーキークラッシュ ruukiikurashu Rookie Crush!

When a rookie tries to help out by giving a suggestion or speaking his opinion, the older salaryman immediately steps in and cuts him up. He makes it absolutely clear that his opinion is not wanted nor needed. And repeat…

The key phrase is:

お前には聞いてない。しゃしゃり出て来んでいい。
omae ni ha kiitenai. syasyari detekonndeii.

We’re not asking you. You don’t need to stick your nose into our business.
(Fairly literal translation but you get the point. The expression しゃしゃり出る is hilarious to me.)

[3:40] ながら報告 nagara houkoku Giving an Update While Doing Something Else

The salaryman is updating his boss while preoccupied with a comic book. Very rude.

[4:10] ながら写真 nagara shashin Taking a Picture While Doing Something Else

When someone asks you to take their picture for them, and you accept, you should do it correctly! And certainly not while talking on your cell phone.

[4:34] ペンカチカチ pen kachikachi Pen Clicking

Young salaryman is getting told off for being late, and just can’t stop clicking his pen even after he is told not to. Rude.

[5:43] 首前後スライド kubi zengo suraido Front to Back Head Slide

This just looks ridiculous. I guess it’s supposed to look like a robotic and uncaring constant head-nod of affirmation…

[6:03] 足上げ ashi age Putting Your Feet Up

This guy has his feet on the table while he’s being scolded for being late.

[6:23] “で”の理論 “de” no riron The “and?” Doctrine

The young employee points out a mistake in a document, but the older employee just responds… “and?” As if he needs more information. She politely tells him that she needs it fixed… But he only says… “and?” This “and” has a “so what” kind of nuance. It’s quite rude.

The series continues…

- Harvey

Watch Japanese Dramas Online at MySoju

You can watch Japanese dramas online at MySoju.com.

You can also watch Korean and Taiwanese as well if you’re interested!

TV Dramas. The most productive way to slack if you’re a language geek.

- Harvey

JapanShop Closeout on Canon G70 Electronic Dictionary

Quickie!

Just noticed that there is a Canon G70 Electronic Dictionary in the bargain bin over at the JapanShop.

It’s a return item, but it’s good as new, and there is only one. It’s going for $368.00 and the regular price is $410.00 so this is a pretty healthy discount.

CLOSEOUT: This was a return model, barely used and in perfect condition. It comes with our 1 year warranty.

It can be delivered in 3-8 days worldwide and has free shipping in case you’ve got an important language geek special someone you’ve yet to buy a present for!

- Harvey

Shaking Like a Poor Man

I have a bad habit of shaking my leg when I’m listening to someone speak about something, or when I get sleepy… or when it’s cold… or… anyway.

I think I do it to try to keep myself from falling asleep…

Anyway, this kind of nervous shaking is called bimbo yusuri 「貧乏揺すり」in Japanese.

Literally, bimbo yusuri means, “poor man shake”.

To be honest I have no idea what it’s called that.

Somebody explain it to me!

- Harvey

iPhone Geisha App

Another iPhone/iPod Touch app that you simply must own. It’s still under development apparently, but it looks… well… useful isn’t the right word… It’s umm….

Well, she dances!

- Harvey

via Gizmodo

Reischauer on the Japanese Language

As I’m in school again I have been doing a lot of reading. Luckily for this blog a lot of that reading is about Japan!

What do you think of this passage?

“Japan’s cultural distinctiveness has perhaps been accentuated by her linguistic separateness. Although the Japanese writing system has been derived from that of China and innumerable Chinese words have been incorporated into Japanese in much the same way that English has borrowed thousands of Latin and Greek words, Japanese basically is as different from Chinese as it is from English. Its structure is strikingly like Korean, but even then it appears to be no more closely related to Korean than English is to the Sanskrit-derived languages of India.”[1]

I especially wanted to point out this part… he continues:

“Possessing a writing system more complex than any other in common use in the modern world and a language with no close relatives, the Japanese probably face a bigger language barrier between themselves and the rest of the world than does any other major national group.”[1]

This is passage is from Japan: The Story of A Nation by the late prominent Japan scholar Edwin Reischauer.

Makes Japanese sound right difficult doesn’t it? The passage is also is meant to show that Japan’s isolation is not simply geographical, but the language is a big factor as well. I know a lot of JapanNewbie readers are not newbies and have studied Japanese… how does it feel to be one of the few people able to break through the barrier the author is speaking of?

Just to put this into perspective, Reischauer was born and raised in Japan. He later went on to Harvard to earn a PhD, and went on to teach Japan Studies there for many years. The Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard bears his name today. He also served as the U.S. Ambassador to Japan from 1961 to 1966. If you’ve ever studied about Japan in an academic setting you have probably read some of his work. Reischauer is relatively old school, but the concepts in his book are all relevant today.

Just last week Joi Ito was at our school giving a talk about the Creative Commons and he mentioned how fascinating Japan is to people who study technology and its effect on society. As an aside, he said that Japan was like Galapagos to those who study technology. Lots of interesting things going on there so it’s a lot of fun to peek in and have a look from time to time. Japanese society is so isolated and unique however, that without considerable effort by the Japanese themselves or foreigners embedded into the Japanese culture it is unlikely that any of the trends ever leave Japan and become international phenomenon. This is exacerbated by the fact that so few leading Japan techies speak English.

Reading and hearing all this makes me think that I should be doing something more profound with my Japanese language abilities… Do any of you Japan-studying readers out there have any big dreams for your Japanese skills? Think big!

- Harvey

[1] Edwin Reischauer, Japan: The Story of A Nation, 8.

Exchange Journals with Native Speakers of your Target Language at lang-8

I just found out about this lang-8 website via Nihonhacks. It’s a service that hooks you up with native speakers of your target language so that you can exchange and correct each other’s journals.

One of the techniques I have used in the past with teachers is to write a journal, give it to the teacher, and the teacher hands it back with comments. This technique is great for language learning because you see what you have written twice, and the “exchange” aspect of it gives you motivation to never quit.

In fact, just the other day I was talking a Japanese friend at my school into trying this with me. She wanted to improve her English, and hey, why not improve my Japanese? We’ll see if we can actually get it going.

I just started trying this lang-8 web-based version, and so far I’m impressed. Whenever I publish a journal in Japanese I immediately get people offering corrections and comments. The system is also set up so it is easy to break up someones journal into sentences, and give color coded corrections as necessary.

One thing though, since all the correctors are just the native-speaker average joe (or should I say, average Taro?) sometimes I get conflicting correction suggestions from different people. It’s alright though, just shows that there is more than one way to say something that will sound correct to a native speaker.

I think I’m going to keep this up.

Someone on Nihonhacks also mentioned Livemocha, a similar site for language exchange. Anyone tried it?

- Harvey