Some Cultural Notes
(In no particular order)
*During an elementary school visit, I inquired about the small children outside who were bobbling around on their bicycles and trying to weave in and out of the obstacle course flags. It turns out that third grade in elementary school is quite a milestone as it is when kids can get their long awaited bike-riding license. For weeks, they practice riding around the dirt fields at school until test day when the safety commission comes in to check each child's ability to stay aboard and properly navigate their bike. Then, the child is given a card certifying that he or she can cruise around on their own (but they can't actually start riding to school until junior high school). Can you imagine if there were safety commissions in the U.S. that had the liberty to verify that 10 year olds could properly ride a bike? Priorities are just a bit different here and it's quite nice.
*Tomorrow marks the start of the two day sports festival for the seven junior high schools in my area. There will be no classes and it is a huge deal since there aren't regular competitions between schools. Students only join one "club" for their three years in junior high and they practice it about 340 days a year for the twice-a-year opportunity to play the other teams in the area in hopes that their team will advance to games around the prefecture. This afternoon we had the "Pep Assembly." There was no clapping, no cheering, no "ra ra sis boom ba!" Each team stood up, bowed, and sat down. Let's hope that the enthusiasm picks up a bit overnight.
*My Japanese teacher recently explained modern-day arranged marriages (omi-a-i) to me. Apparently, 20% of current marriages begin with some variation of an arranged marriage. If you decide you are ready for marriage, you can fill out an omiai packet with your photo, interests, education, etc. and submit it to a mediator. Once they find you a match and you both approve of the other person's packet, the organization or mutual friend brings you together at a fancy hotel or restaurant and usually stays for at least the first part of the date to provide conversational topics (the family might also be involved in the introduction). If the meeting is a success, the couple will continue to see each other for an average of one to six months (!!!) until they decide on marriage. After a very formal engagement banquet, the wedding usually takes place just one to three months after that. Marriages between couples that don't meet in this fashion are, on average, also much faster than what we are used to in the U.S. In some ways, this seems like a very strange way to meet someone but it actually makes sense in rural Japan where there isn't exactly a social scene. Friends almost always go out in single-sex pacts and there is virtually no mingling with other groups of people. So unless you meet someone at school or at work, you might have very little contact with the opposite sex. Also, love doesn't have the same precedence as it does in the U.S. and it is often times considered to be unimportant for a successful marriage. Ironically, divorce rates are much lower in Japan.
*Last week, I had my third book club meeting. The group is comprised of 16 women and two men; they are advanced English speakers and mostly retired. We are reading The Secret Life of Bees which was actually a very difficult choice because it has some Southern slang and imagery which requires some context. I also didn't realize how much background information we would need to cover. American history in the 1960s was mostly a mystery to the group and for the most part, they had heard of Martin Luther King but knew little about the Civil Rights Movement and so we started with a discussion about the Civil War and slavery. In one of last week's chapters, one of the main characters was put in the African American wing of a hospital that was segregated by race. One woman in the group brought up the question of which side she would have been put in. After little pondering, the rest of the group concluded that they would all have been placed in the African-American wing. It was among many interesting conversations that have taken place.
*During an elementary school visit, I inquired about the small children outside who were bobbling around on their bicycles and trying to weave in and out of the obstacle course flags. It turns out that third grade in elementary school is quite a milestone as it is when kids can get their long awaited bike-riding license. For weeks, they practice riding around the dirt fields at school until test day when the safety commission comes in to check each child's ability to stay aboard and properly navigate their bike. Then, the child is given a card certifying that he or she can cruise around on their own (but they can't actually start riding to school until junior high school). Can you imagine if there were safety commissions in the U.S. that had the liberty to verify that 10 year olds could properly ride a bike? Priorities are just a bit different here and it's quite nice.
*Tomorrow marks the start of the two day sports festival for the seven junior high schools in my area. There will be no classes and it is a huge deal since there aren't regular competitions between schools. Students only join one "club" for their three years in junior high and they practice it about 340 days a year for the twice-a-year opportunity to play the other teams in the area in hopes that their team will advance to games around the prefecture. This afternoon we had the "Pep Assembly." There was no clapping, no cheering, no "ra ra sis boom ba!" Each team stood up, bowed, and sat down. Let's hope that the enthusiasm picks up a bit overnight.
*My Japanese teacher recently explained modern-day arranged marriages (omi-a-i) to me. Apparently, 20% of current marriages begin with some variation of an arranged marriage. If you decide you are ready for marriage, you can fill out an omiai packet with your photo, interests, education, etc. and submit it to a mediator. Once they find you a match and you both approve of the other person's packet, the organization or mutual friend brings you together at a fancy hotel or restaurant and usually stays for at least the first part of the date to provide conversational topics (the family might also be involved in the introduction). If the meeting is a success, the couple will continue to see each other for an average of one to six months (!!!) until they decide on marriage. After a very formal engagement banquet, the wedding usually takes place just one to three months after that. Marriages between couples that don't meet in this fashion are, on average, also much faster than what we are used to in the U.S. In some ways, this seems like a very strange way to meet someone but it actually makes sense in rural Japan where there isn't exactly a social scene. Friends almost always go out in single-sex pacts and there is virtually no mingling with other groups of people. So unless you meet someone at school or at work, you might have very little contact with the opposite sex. Also, love doesn't have the same precedence as it does in the U.S. and it is often times considered to be unimportant for a successful marriage. Ironically, divorce rates are much lower in Japan.
*Last week, I had my third book club meeting. The group is comprised of 16 women and two men; they are advanced English speakers and mostly retired. We are reading The Secret Life of Bees which was actually a very difficult choice because it has some Southern slang and imagery which requires some context. I also didn't realize how much background information we would need to cover. American history in the 1960s was mostly a mystery to the group and for the most part, they had heard of Martin Luther King but knew little about the Civil Rights Movement and so we started with a discussion about the Civil War and slavery. In one of last week's chapters, one of the main characters was put in the African American wing of a hospital that was segregated by race. One woman in the group brought up the question of which side she would have been put in. After little pondering, the rest of the group concluded that they would all have been placed in the African-American wing. It was among many interesting conversations that have taken place.
posted by Alexa at 12:47 AM
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