So, I started typing this, I didn’t get very far, the teacher sitting across from my desk dropped a bottle of blue pen ink between our desks. He wasn’t able to reach it so I grabbed it for him. Little did I know, it had opened and me grabbing it, completely covered my fingers in blue ink. We spent the next 20 minutes trying to scrub the ink off our hands, all the while he was profusely apologizing for having dyed my fingers blue. My thumb nail is outlines in a beautiful blue now lol. He felt soo bad. I told him not to worry about it because I like blue anyway and this was an accident. Plus, I was thinking about painting my nails after work anyway so now I have an excuse to do so. Hopefully that covers up the blue. Unfortunately, everything is basically blue now, the carpet, the desk, 5 white rags that will never be white again, the chair, his lunch bag, and a few papers. I don’t think it got on any of our clothes because we are wearing black suits so we should be fine there. Anyway, it was just a funny story I figured I could share with you. Now to the actual reason for typing this post. After being in Japan for 6 months, I have been able to debunk quite a few stereotypes Americans hold about Japanese. These listed are all the ones we could come up with on the spot. After being here a while, you start to forget what some of them are. So if you think of any other ones, please comment and tell me so I can add them later to another post. Let me know if you agree or disagree with any of these. 1. Can’t Drive I don’t know why Asian people drive so terribly and slowly in America, because I have yet to hear of a car accident. I read/watch the news frequently, and they don’t mention any accidents. In Arizona, there was an accident every couple of hours it seemed like. Here? Not so much. Actually, I did here of one accident. However, it involved a foreigner hitting another foreigner, or a foreigner causing the accident by stupidity. Conclusion? Everyone sucks at driving. It is not exclusive to Japanese. 2. Really Smart I know that a lot of people expect Asians to be good at math and other subjects, but to be honest, they really are no different than American students. They virtually act the same. The only difference is what the cultures put up with. For example, here, they let students scream and run around in the hallways, even playfully beat one another up. In America, that would never happen. There would be so many detentions issued. Speaking of detentions, that is not a thing here. Many students fail their classes. When I say many, I mean most. In all my classes, there was always one or two people who just always failed and never really did well, in Japan about 50% of the class fails and never does well. They seem to not care about it either. They are still going to graduate, the only thing that matters is if they can pass the entrance exams to their college of choice. So that means, if a student is wanting to go to college for PR or be a lawyer, they would care less about math or science classes because they don’t need them in their future. There is no such thing as required core classes here. All that matters, is that they get into college. Failing high school makes no difference in that decision. Also, they don’t have homework. Students also don’t get tested until junior high. Not sure what school is for then if you don’t get tested on anything. Sometimes high school students have homework, but only if it is their personal choice or they were too lazy to finish their classwork. They mostly consider studying for tests as their form of homework. 3. Only Eat Rice and Fish This statement is just ignorant and I am not sure why it is a stereotype. That would be like saying all Americans only eat French fries and burgers. While Japanese people do have a lot of rice and fish, it is not the only thing they eat. In fact, there are several beef dishes and pastries they eat too. I honestly think that everyone eats pastries from bakeries here because during lunch, each person has some form of pastry along with their meal. Anyway, during the summer they eat a lot of rice because it is really hot out, and they usually just pack it in their bentos and mix it with stuff for lunch. In the winter, they have a lot of soup because soup is hot and outside is cold. I am down for this. It makes sense to me. As a final note, there is a lot of fish here because Japan is surrounded by water. So fish is actually the cheapest “meat.” Americans have a lot of chicken for the same reason, there are a lot of chickens, and they are the cheapest. 4. Japanese are Shy While this one might appear true when you first arrive, they are not actually shy at all. You might not be able to just walk up to someone and make instant friends with them like you can to Americans, but if you approach them, they will go above and beyond to help you. They won’t directly approach you unless they speak English or need something (you as in a foreigner) but I see them talking to other Japanese people with no problems all the time. They get really excited when I talk to them in Japanese. They expect all Americans to be jerks and only use English. It is interesting to see their reaction. In conclusion, I think what we really mean to say is that Japanese people are just more quiet than Americans. They are by no means shy, just more quiet and have a higher respect for others in their non-insulated homes. What stereotypes do you hold about Japan? What stereotypes do you hold about America? We all have them. Let's think about how we can change that.
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I know that Americans are very spoiled in technology and that we are becoming a “lazy society” but there are still some things that could make us even more lazy and it sounds just wonderful. This list if mainly of first world problems, but I found it interesting and hopefully you do to. This is, in no particular order, a list of things that Japan has/does and that America needs.
1. Japanese ToiletsJapanese toilets are magical. They have heated seats, they play sounds (sometimes music) they are a bidet but upgraded to have many more features, they are a sink, they fill up when you sit, and they have flush control so you can choose how much water to use depending on number one or number two. I also happen to like the squatty toilets. I like them because in the winter, you don’t have to sit down on a cold seat, it actually makes it easier to do your dumping, plus, it is more sanitary. There is no need for seat covers or toilet paper, and no butt sharing germs. I have a thing about butt germs, so having the option to NOT be exposed to it is great. Not everywhere has the special magic toilets, but my home does. The only thing I wish it would stop doing Is the auto turn off in the middle of the night. Sometimes it stays on because one of us went to the bathroom right before going to bed, but there are mornings when you play Russian runlet and hope the toilet seat is warm and not cold. When it is warm, it is super nice though. 2. Remote Controlled EverythingThey have remote controlled lights, AC, fans, basically everything can have a remote. Some more expensive rice cookers even have remotes. I love it for my fan. It is just great to be in another room entirely, and controlling what happens to the fan without getting up. The AC remote is my favorite. You can control the entire unit by a remote. Even set a timer for when it should turn off or on. I don’t use it separately as much during the winter, but in the summer I always kept the remote by my bed so I didn’t have to get up when I wanted to change the temperature or something. Super helpful. Lights have dimmers and timers on them. I don’t use my light remote as much because I only controls the kitchen lights, but you can program it to do all the lights. I am just too lazy to try and figure that out. So for now, I don’t really use the light remote. Bath and showers are even controlled remotely. Although, this remote is not removable so they just install more than one unit. I use that all the time. I can control my bath water in the kitchen. Super cool. 3. Doors Impossible to Lock Without a KeyThere is absolutely no way that you can lock yourself out. If you did, you either broke something, or climbed out a self-locking window or something. There is just no way to lock the door without the key. There is no lock on the other side to turn, you have to use the key to do it. Everything with locks is manual which makes things easier to manage. There has never been a story of locking yourself out of the house. If you try and tell Japanese people a story about locking yourself out of the house, they can’t comprehend it because it is just impossible to do here. I love it! 4. CombinisThese are basically convenience stores but they do so much more. You can pay bills there, you can ship things there and they will hold the packages for you, you can pay for deliveries there, they are tour guides, printing service, online shopping center, basically anything and everything can be done there, except getting any kind of gas. They have gas stations, and they have combinis. In America, they are one in the same, but in Japan they are separate. I have been to my combini by our house so many times, I know the people there by name. I also know who will be working what hours. They basically know what we like and don’t like and don’t even bother asking us repetitive questions anymore, such as, do you want a receipt? I always take receipts by the way. 5. Visual Door BellsThis may not be that lazy, but it can be. Visual door bells are great because you can have a full conversation with the person on the other side, and see them. I have gotten religious people and sales people to go away by telling them I am not opening the door. All this while not having left my living room. There is even a way to see everyone who knocked on your door while you were out, so you can check if you missed a package or someone important while you were away. It is more convenient than lazy, but the fact that I don’t have to answer the door to talk to the person is just as lazy as they get. As a side note, the newer models follow the person after they ring the doorbell so there is no way of hiding from it. So there you have it. Some of the things that I will miss dearly upon return to the US. The only thing I miss back in the US is Universal Wi-Fi. There is no Wi-Fi anywhere except Starbucks. In America it is everywhere. But, I guess Japan makes up for it in the fact that their speeds are super speeds in comparison so I’m ok. Yesterday was my JLPT (Japanese language proficiency test) N3. The highest level is N1 and the lowest level is N5. N5 is basically survival Japanese. You only know enough to ask where the toilet is, yet don’t know enough to understand the directions given to you. N4 is conversational Japanese. It errs more on the basic side and you are only able to talk about topics you know much about or like due to lack of vocabulary. N3 is getting into more abstract conversations and you are able to complain or problem solve in Japanese. N2 is introductory level into to translating official documents for businesses and such. Fluency starts to take shape in this level and the speaker/learner is able to read books without much difficulty (lots of kanji in books). N1 is near native level of competency though everyone I have met who has passed N1 believes their own competency to be at least N3. Yet they are able to interpret (which is nearly impossible to do from English to Japanese as the sentence structure is completely backwards) and they are able to translate for the government. Now that you have a background in understanding the levels, you kind of have an idea of where I am at with Japanese. So here is my recount of yesterday. Or as my husband would call it, Story time with Jeny.
My test was scheduled to be at 1230 but the doors opened at 12. Since this is Japan, that basically means to be there by 12. So I left my house around 1100 to catch the 1113 train and be on my way to the bus stop in Takasaki. I hadn’t had any breakfast so I stopped by the conbini along the way to purchase something to eat for breakfast as well as for lunch, as I was going to be there for the entire day. I also bought a little candy for myself for after the test. The bus stop was actually easy to find because there were people there directing where we needed to go. I was not expecting that. After our 20 minute bus ride, and arrival, I quickly realized that out of the hundreds of gaijin testing that day, I was the only one who was American. I felt like a gaijin among the gaijin. I was so freaking nervous for this test, that I had to force myself to eat my waffle I bought. I felt like I was going to vomit, but still I forced that over sugared waffle down. The first section of the test was surprisingly easy. Afterwards, I did realize the mistakes I made on some of the questions by hearing other people talk about them, but there was nothing I could then! My bubble answer sheet had already been collected. I just hope that I go enough answers correct to be able to at least pass that first section. It felt oddly easy. At times, I would look up just to see if other people were in the same ballpark as me in their answers, and this one guy had none of the same answers. Either he was very off, or I was. To determine this, I peaked at his answer for one that I was very sure of and he got it very very wrong. I looked at another person, and they got that same answer also wrong. Either that word is really hard for them, or I was thinking that it meant something else. But after looking it up afterwards, I was totally right. So I guess they were wrong? After the first section I started studying grammar for the next section. My worst section. I downloaded an app that is basically an online flashcard so I can study anywhere and not have a pile of useless flashcards that I have to hand write myself, when there is a plethora of flashcards already made to choose from. They even have a JLPT folder. The app is called Study Blue. I highly recommend it for studying a foreign language. I digress. I ate half of my sandwich and got back to the test. The first part was pretty easy, the second part, was awful, the third was not bad, but then all the other sections after that were all the same format. I have no idea why they bothered to call it a separate section complete with sample questions and directions. It was all the same. It was basically, read this, and answer the comprehension questions. All of the other 3 sections were just like that. No difference. I finished that test really fast, but that was on purpose. I quickly answer questions then mark them on my answer sheet, so that when I finish answering everything, I will use my left over time to brew over each question I marked. Otherwise, I would be wasting my time and quite possibly not finish, which is what sadly happened to the guy in front of me as well as one of my friends. I looked up to the guy in front of me and saw that he still had an entire section of uncolored in bubbles and there were only 5 minutes left. I wanted to tell him to just start coloring bubbles! Any answer is better than no answer. That section was supposed to have lasted 70 minutes, but it totally felt like 40. I don’t know where the other 30 minutes went, but we didn’t use them to take the test, that much is for certain. We had another break, and I used it to eat the rest of my lunch and talk to my friends in English. The next section was listening so there was nothing you can really prepare for. If you didn’t get the vocab or grammar before, then there is no hope for you at that point. It was also at this point, that I surprised myself with my candy I had completely forgotten I purchased for myself. It was a pleasant surprise that I used to eat just about all of them. Brain sugar. I stood just right outside my testing room eating my candy when the Japanese monitors were telling us to get back into our rooms because we had 10 minutes left. He really insisted that I sit down now because taking 10 steps was just going to take at least 60 seconds for each step. A little ridiculous. I stood there until my candy was gone. The next section I was totally awake for, then after the stupid break of 1 minute piano music, I just couldn’t get my brain to focus right. I completely screwed up the 3 section of the listening part because up until that point, we had been turning the page after the example questions, for some reason, there was no page turning. We needed to use that page to take notes. It took me all of 3 questions to figure this out. There were only 3 questions for that section too. So totally failed that part. The 4th part was a bit of a redemption for me because it was pretty easy for the most part. Then the last section came. Consisting of 5 questions. I had been testing for 4 hours, and my brain just decided it had had enough of Japanese and shut off, right around question 3. I started thinking, “Hmm, what should I do with JD after this?”…….”WAIT! What was the question?!” They don’t replay things for you either. I tried to make my brain focus by telling myself to focus, then I heard them say, “number 5.” “Wait! What happened to question 4?” I looked at other people’s test and they had a bubble filled in for 4, I had totally missed it! I didn’t even hear it! In my shock for missing number 4 I missed number 5. DANG IT!!!!! I frantically started looking at what other people were answering, the guy in front of me apparently gave up as there were no bubbles filled in, the guy next to me had very different answers than I did, but the guy on the other side of me, had about the same answers, so I copied his 3, 4, 5, and 6 for good measure. 7, 8, and, 9 were incomprehensible to be, as my mind had shut itself down. It basically was, “well, those people sound like they had a nice conversation. I haven’t filled a number 3 in a while, I choose 3.” Or, “You know, 1 sounds like something I have heard before. I’ll choose that one.” I totally failed this test. After 4 and a half hours of torture, my mind literally hurt. I came home, and my eye was throbbing because my head hurt so bad. Which literally happens to second language users. Your brain will actually hurt and shut off because it cannot stand straining itself anymore. When that happens, there is nothing you can do to stop it. You can try all you want, but even easy phrases that you have always known, will just leave you. Your mind is forcing the break. Good luck language learners! May your brain strength never fail you! |
AuthorJeny B Archives
August 2021
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