Ji_suss Wrote:My second observation is that it was much less important for Japanese people to be different and have interests and opinions. It was okay to be boring and drone-like. Self-actualization in the Western sense seemed to be achieved in a different manner in Japan. Our Western idea of a fully-rounded person (like you seem to be) and the Japanese idea of a fully-rounded person (if they have such an idea) seem to be very different. I'd like to hear your observations on this, since you live in Japan now.
Yes, I agree. It's okay to be boring and drone-like here and me? As a Westerner, I see that as a major problem, and at the very least, it is a major barrier for me personally, to live and work here for any long-term period of time.
Like for instance, the recent American political election. Talk to anyone from any country about it and you're likely to hear a lot of interesting, varied opinions. Talk to an American and you'll probably get drawn into a long conversation-- the merits of which notwithstanding. Here? Well, the Japanese like Obama because he has a "set phrase" they latched on to in pop-culture ("Yes, we can.") and because his name can be construed from the Japanese set of syllables and is also the name of a town in Ehime. In my little part of the world I know more about the Japanese political situation than most Japanese people do. Kids care about Aso Taro because he reads manga and sucks at pronouncing kanji. But ask people about the differences between Taro and Koizumi or Fukuda and you're going to draw a blank. There's nothing there to talk about.
Another example I have readily on hand is a girl at school the other day is like "Man, Taro-kun has a cute face. Look at that cute face of his." And I said: "You think he's cute? You should go on a date with him." She responded with: "Date him? No, you don't understand what girls mean when they say cute." To girls here, whether something is cute or not is determined by committee or pop-culture and then disseminated throughout the throngs of women, young and old alike. When people say something is "cute" or "kusai" or "delicious," it's not about what they think-- instead it's just the echoing of groupthink and saying the right thing at the right time. There's no thinking on the part of the individual involved.
It's the same reason people have so much trouble with pronouns here. If I say "you," it's clear that I'm talking to the second person. It's the most intimate way (in English) of referring to another individual, but in Japanese, saying "anata" to my girlfriend confuses her, because to her, "anata" is me. My words are not my words-- they're our words. Japanese people lack a concrete sense of discrete, individual perspective.
In a sense, it's great, because as a learner of the language, it's easy to figure out the specific sorts of things people say about this or that and just echo them to sound fluent and intelligent. When people ask me about my girlfriend and they say, "Are you two getting along?" I say, "Well, it's been hard recently. She's busy so I'm only seeing her once a week or so." They respond with, "Wow, you're very open about your personal relationship." What they expected and wanted to here was something more mundane, like, "Oh, it's fun. Yeah." In English I want to tell the shop-owner that their ramen is spicy in that special way it tickles the back of my nose and the flavor of the curry is sweet, like the curry I used to eat back in the States at this one restaurant I like so much but what they want to hear is, "Oishii!"
Everything from cameras to English to the types of food I eat or the books I read is simplified, chopped up, spit out and then further lacerated into an easily digestible paste. "Your camera takes good pictures!" "Oh you didn't eat your broccoli? You must not eat any vegetables at all." "Do you like [all] meat?" "You do X? So all Americans must do X. I see." "Oh you're not Japanese. That means you're a "foreigner." My Japanese professor used to talk about "shades of gray," rather than black and white (not in reference to Japanese, specifically).
Japan, more than any country I've ever been to, is the land of black and white.
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Anyways...
