I’ll take time tomorrow to talk more about the Japanese night life. Been clubbing for the last three week-ends, I’m starting to know one or two things. But before that, I have a small thing to talk about. Cause this week at school I think I might have get a part of the answer about the Japanese’s comportment. I don’t pretend to understand the Japanese way of living or anything like that, but simply that there are one or two things in the Japanese vision of other people that I find strange.
I’ll explain. And please forgive me if it seems a bit confused in the explication, cause I’m writing it as the same time that I think about it. Well for this side I would say that I might have given more thought to it but not much more, so it’s still gonna be a little bit awkward. Sometime I have the impression that Japanese are just so much that they lose the sight of what it is to live in community. They are not vicious people or rude, quite the opposite in fact, but they seems to, and I chose my words carefully, don’t give a fuck of whatever happen. The simplest example would be for the subway. When you see this wagon over crowded with Japanese in suits but you still need a place so you can go don’t hope for anyone to help you get this place. You have to push hard and really hard so you’re gonna squeeze people together even more so you can squeeze with them. And if you don’t want to do that, well good luck chum, cause you’re gonna miss a lot of wagons here. And it’s same for getting out of this wagon. Keep pushing, always push and when it doesn’t work do it harder. And if you don’t you’re gonna be late for school often. SO you push. Just get out of my way you friggin’ maggots I’m more important than you. Don’t care if you get ejected of the wagon when you didn’t want, not my problem, it is yours now. And I would like to immediately cancel the racism effect. What I’m saying there is that it doesn’t happen cause I’m foreigner. I mean if there’s one thing about being a foreigner in the subway that changes people comportment toward you, it’s the fact that’s easier for foreigner to get in and out of the subway. Basically Japanese don’t want to be near you so they make you more places and easier than for other Japanese. Actually among themselves they really don’t help each other a lot. Like can you see the reserved place for handicapped people, pregnant women and old people at the back of the wagon? Well I wish for you are not handicapped or pregnant or old cause you’ll never be able to get to them. No one will help you. You’ll have to force your way to these reserved seats and you’ll have to fight to get it. Sounds mean? It is and there’s worst believe me in those subways.
Earlier this week, I was in the subway, listening to the death metal Japanese hate so much, and not so far of me was a women and her daughter, maybe 7 or 8 years old. We get to the Kayabachô station. This station is big a lot of people transfer here. The doors open and people start pushing to get out... Ok... Do you understand where I’m going? Do you think that something like that can happen? The little girl get caught in the people, she can’t hold to her mother cause they’re pushing too hard and she find herself outside of the wagon. Of course at this point, the mother try to reach for her children, but then people started to embark on the wagon, once again pushing, so she can’t reach her daughter who is still outside the wagon. And the little girl is not strong enough to make herself a place, people won’t move and the girl can’t sneak her way in cause there’s not enough place between people. She’s still outside the wagon and the doors are ready to close, the mother still can’t reach her daughter. And I had to push the two men in front of me so they would stop the door from closing. And without taking notice of the angry faces at my direction, I had to actually push against people to bring the little girl in the subway so she could be with her mother.
At first I didn’t realise. I mean, for me it’s something natural. I don’t have really good principles in my everyday life, but I have at least one good that tells me that you never, never, ever separate parents from their children for any reason. When I walk in the street you’ll never see me go between a mother and her child. I won’t sit between them too in the bus or the subway. Just never separate a parent and his child. But as the subway was going got more and more frustrated as I realised that no one would have done anything about it in the subway. Those bastards probably would have left the child there while the doors were closing. Ok, I’ll agree that we’re in Tokyo and Tokyo is really not dangerous. You see a lot of children alone in the subway making their way. Being afraid is only about being paranoid. But hell, the girl was pushed out and the mother actually tried to reach her. Why can someone be an asshole enough to just don’t care when you see something like that? It’s really out of my head, I just can’t understand. Stupid assholes. Yeah I can hear people telling me that the more people at one place for a given event and the less the chance of someone actually reacting cause no one want to take responsibility and everyone think there’s someone else more suited to react at the event. But it wasn’t urgent brain surgery it was simply pushing people back so the girl could get in the train. The best guy suited for it is the first who will do it.
Anyway I finally got out of the train by pushing the guys that were in front of me wishing they may sprain an ankle or even fall between the dock and the subway. Not happened, but I guess they know the word tackle now.
And this nice little story is the basics of Japanese. If you scream for help, I doubt anyone will show up. Tokyo is untrustworthy, big, without mercy and unfaithful. And I must admit that I spend the last two weeks, or so, to ask myself what the hell is wrong with the people in this place. And I think I got a part of the answer this week.
Right now, in school, we’re learning the basics for telling things simple like I burrow this or that. I gave this, I received that. It’s kinda stupid and boring. But the actual part of the exercise is simply to make us understand more how you construct a sentence in Japanese and how works the particles of demonstration and possession. I want spend much time explaining it, could be really long. But I have to give you a quick example of something you’ll only get in Japanese. I’ll use me and my brother, Julien, for these sentences:
1-« watashi wa Julien-san ni hamaki o agemasu. »
This sentence means: “I gave cigars to Julien.” “Watashi” means “me”, “hamaki” means “cigar” and “agemasu” is the verb “to give”. I won’t explain “wa, ni and o”. Those are particules. Just google’em or something. Or maybe I’ll explain them in another post.
2-« Julien-san wa watashi ni hamaki o moraimasu. »
This one means: “Julien receive cigar from me.” “Moraimasu” is the verb “to receive.”
3-« watashi wa Olivier-san ni hamaki o kuremasu. »
This one is : “I received cigars from Olivier.” “Kuremasu” also means “to receive.”
So well it was strange in our head to have two words that had the exact same translation. So of course we asked to Araki-sensei. The answer was: “It’s the Japanese way.” WTF?
In fact the explication went a little bit deeper than that. What we learned that day is that Japanese people, when they talk, actually make a separation between their side and your side. They do a separation of what yours and what theirs. And I don’t mean like Japanese vs. the world. But simply my vocabulary will change when talking to someone depending on if I’m talking about you or me. Examples would be: “ha-ha” is the word mother when I talk about my mother, the mother of a friend would be “oka-san”. My father is “chi-chi”; the father of a friend is “oto-san.” My father’s father would be “so-fu” but the grandfather of my friend is “ojii-san.” But it works every time and with everyone. If I talk to my father I’ll call him “oto-san” cause when I talk to him he is actually on a different side now. I do the separation between my father and me. So my father will call his own father “chi-chi” but me I have to call him “ojii-san” now. The Japanese always do this separation. SO when I tell that my friend received something I say “moraimasu.” And if I received something I say “kuremasu.” The way I received is told differently than the way you receive.
While Araki-sensei was explaining, I became a bit sour and bitter. She was talking about the separation and I still think of the little girl in the subway. I’m trying to figure out where it started and where it finishes and when it started and when it finishes. And I keep asking myself, what the fuck is wrong with Japanese? Araki-sensei finishes the answer and asks me if I understood. I say yes, but due to my strange face at the moment she asks if I’m sure I understood. No I don’t understand a bit of what you’re saying. In my head it doesn’t work, it’s stupid and there’s no reason for that. But even if I ask you you’re gonna tell me that it’s the Japanese way. So... Yes I understood. And I’m still wondering what did what to who? I mean does the separation in the language with the person I talk too started really long ago and they just applied it to their language or does they noticed they did separation and actually took time to change the language to reflect the fact that Japanese people seems anxious to be associated to the person they are talking to.
Maybe you’re telling yourselves that I push a little hard on it? Maybe... let’s see how you write Japanese just for fun. The first thing you learn is hiragana, already told that. You need it for everything. Then comes katakana. What is katakana? It is a second written language for the same exact thing that is the hiragana. And what is the use of katakana? To write foreign words. You’ll rarely see genuine Japanese written in katakana. Some time in some newspaper when they want to put an accent on a title, but even then it’s rare. SO katakana is only for foreigners’ vocabulary. And not only that the katakana only works for foreign language but they actually did an aesthetic different for it to make sure you won’t miss it. Hiragana is subtle, all sweet and full of grace. Katakana is made of sharp form, broken line and actually looks like spikes all the times. And I’m sure that the katakana didn’t exist at first. They came up with up cause they saw the necessity of actually having a way to distinguish between their language and foreigner language when they were writing it. I know three different languages right now; I can read a bit of 6. And in any case you never see a different design of letter for foreign words. Not in French, not in English, not in German. Even really hard to translate foreign language like Japanese or Chinese didn’t need a separate form of writing.
Some people tried to explain to me that the katakana was created because there are a lot of sounds that doesn’t exist in Japanese. Like the “V”. They can’t pronounce it, it doesn’t exist here. SO according to these people, the katakana now permits Japanese to actually read and pronounce those words. But hell it’s not true and can’t be true cause it doesn’t make a single shit of sense. Cause those stupid katakana are actually the same exact sounds as the hiragana. Not less, not more, the same thing exactly. And Japanese had to create new sound in katakana to fit the foreign languages. They could have done it easily in hiragana first and never create katakana. So no they don’t need it except that they want and need to make this separation visible even in written form.
Ok maybe I’m high or completely wasted, maybe I’m getting paranoid and maybe my brain is not working right now. But Japanese people want this separation they work for it and earn it in their lives every day. Everything in Japanese language is made to make it obvious that you are different. Everything is separated in some way. I’m making a separation with the person I talk to by using a different vocabulary. I’m making this separation too in written form. Separation anxiety. It’s like they fear they wouldn’t be able to tell apart from the person in front of them. And all this separation planning in written form and when talking to me just explain a bit of what might have happened in the subway. They don’t react cause they’re not able to emphasize with the others. Look in the mangas and anime. It’s the same as the color of hairs. You see lot of character with strange hair color only because they fantasize it might be real. The same with story with really good friend tearing each other heart apart so just they can continue together. You see a lot of these stories cause they actually never happens cause they can’t make them happen. In my head this separation explains to me why the most common answer to a question is “I don’t know.” Explain why I get this uncomfortable feeling from both old and young people. Explain why Japanese prefer to live more in 3 square meters than actually trying to get more places. They prefer to pill up than to take the opportunity to know their neighbours. They are rejects from the world cause they are living on a island and they make for themselves little personal islands in their everyday life so they don’t have to commute with the other.
And of course I don’t know where to stand with this. My brother too is confused, as well as most of the students at the school that did notice this separation complex too. Like I often say here, they don’t see us like threat, they don’t actually reject us, but we’re not welcome cause in some way our existence threaten their personal islands. Japanese people spend so much time in confusing excuses and ceremony that you wonder when do they really talk to each other. I often wonder what would be the answer of Aika if I asked her real opinion on something. I’m sure I would get a lot of half answers, quick truth and half excuses. And after 2 hours I wouldn’t be able to tell what she is really thinking. SO basically, never be in the same bubble of someone else, always separate. Separation in writing, in speaking. Separation from the people I’m living with, from people I talk too.
OK. I’m gonna stop there I’m getting a bit enraged right now. Like I said I don’t pretend I’m getting the truth. I just try to analyse what I see. I just feel confused by this lack of empathy. I... aaawww… Just forget it. It really hard to explain and actually kill a lot of what people might think highly of Japanese. Like I said they are good people, obviously. You can’t stop noticing it, but there’s something wrong with them nonetheless.
Cya
I’ll explain. And please forgive me if it seems a bit confused in the explication, cause I’m writing it as the same time that I think about it. Well for this side I would say that I might have given more thought to it but not much more, so it’s still gonna be a little bit awkward. Sometime I have the impression that Japanese are just so much that they lose the sight of what it is to live in community. They are not vicious people or rude, quite the opposite in fact, but they seems to, and I chose my words carefully, don’t give a fuck of whatever happen. The simplest example would be for the subway. When you see this wagon over crowded with Japanese in suits but you still need a place so you can go don’t hope for anyone to help you get this place. You have to push hard and really hard so you’re gonna squeeze people together even more so you can squeeze with them. And if you don’t want to do that, well good luck chum, cause you’re gonna miss a lot of wagons here. And it’s same for getting out of this wagon. Keep pushing, always push and when it doesn’t work do it harder. And if you don’t you’re gonna be late for school often. SO you push. Just get out of my way you friggin’ maggots I’m more important than you. Don’t care if you get ejected of the wagon when you didn’t want, not my problem, it is yours now. And I would like to immediately cancel the racism effect. What I’m saying there is that it doesn’t happen cause I’m foreigner. I mean if there’s one thing about being a foreigner in the subway that changes people comportment toward you, it’s the fact that’s easier for foreigner to get in and out of the subway. Basically Japanese don’t want to be near you so they make you more places and easier than for other Japanese. Actually among themselves they really don’t help each other a lot. Like can you see the reserved place for handicapped people, pregnant women and old people at the back of the wagon? Well I wish for you are not handicapped or pregnant or old cause you’ll never be able to get to them. No one will help you. You’ll have to force your way to these reserved seats and you’ll have to fight to get it. Sounds mean? It is and there’s worst believe me in those subways.
Earlier this week, I was in the subway, listening to the death metal Japanese hate so much, and not so far of me was a women and her daughter, maybe 7 or 8 years old. We get to the Kayabachô station. This station is big a lot of people transfer here. The doors open and people start pushing to get out... Ok... Do you understand where I’m going? Do you think that something like that can happen? The little girl get caught in the people, she can’t hold to her mother cause they’re pushing too hard and she find herself outside of the wagon. Of course at this point, the mother try to reach for her children, but then people started to embark on the wagon, once again pushing, so she can’t reach her daughter who is still outside the wagon. And the little girl is not strong enough to make herself a place, people won’t move and the girl can’t sneak her way in cause there’s not enough place between people. She’s still outside the wagon and the doors are ready to close, the mother still can’t reach her daughter. And I had to push the two men in front of me so they would stop the door from closing. And without taking notice of the angry faces at my direction, I had to actually push against people to bring the little girl in the subway so she could be with her mother.
At first I didn’t realise. I mean, for me it’s something natural. I don’t have really good principles in my everyday life, but I have at least one good that tells me that you never, never, ever separate parents from their children for any reason. When I walk in the street you’ll never see me go between a mother and her child. I won’t sit between them too in the bus or the subway. Just never separate a parent and his child. But as the subway was going got more and more frustrated as I realised that no one would have done anything about it in the subway. Those bastards probably would have left the child there while the doors were closing. Ok, I’ll agree that we’re in Tokyo and Tokyo is really not dangerous. You see a lot of children alone in the subway making their way. Being afraid is only about being paranoid. But hell, the girl was pushed out and the mother actually tried to reach her. Why can someone be an asshole enough to just don’t care when you see something like that? It’s really out of my head, I just can’t understand. Stupid assholes. Yeah I can hear people telling me that the more people at one place for a given event and the less the chance of someone actually reacting cause no one want to take responsibility and everyone think there’s someone else more suited to react at the event. But it wasn’t urgent brain surgery it was simply pushing people back so the girl could get in the train. The best guy suited for it is the first who will do it.
Anyway I finally got out of the train by pushing the guys that were in front of me wishing they may sprain an ankle or even fall between the dock and the subway. Not happened, but I guess they know the word tackle now.
And this nice little story is the basics of Japanese. If you scream for help, I doubt anyone will show up. Tokyo is untrustworthy, big, without mercy and unfaithful. And I must admit that I spend the last two weeks, or so, to ask myself what the hell is wrong with the people in this place. And I think I got a part of the answer this week.
Right now, in school, we’re learning the basics for telling things simple like I burrow this or that. I gave this, I received that. It’s kinda stupid and boring. But the actual part of the exercise is simply to make us understand more how you construct a sentence in Japanese and how works the particles of demonstration and possession. I want spend much time explaining it, could be really long. But I have to give you a quick example of something you’ll only get in Japanese. I’ll use me and my brother, Julien, for these sentences:
1-« watashi wa Julien-san ni hamaki o agemasu. »
This sentence means: “I gave cigars to Julien.” “Watashi” means “me”, “hamaki” means “cigar” and “agemasu” is the verb “to give”. I won’t explain “wa, ni and o”. Those are particules. Just google’em or something. Or maybe I’ll explain them in another post.
2-« Julien-san wa watashi ni hamaki o moraimasu. »
This one means: “Julien receive cigar from me.” “Moraimasu” is the verb “to receive.”
3-« watashi wa Olivier-san ni hamaki o kuremasu. »
This one is : “I received cigars from Olivier.” “Kuremasu” also means “to receive.”
So well it was strange in our head to have two words that had the exact same translation. So of course we asked to Araki-sensei. The answer was: “It’s the Japanese way.” WTF?
In fact the explication went a little bit deeper than that. What we learned that day is that Japanese people, when they talk, actually make a separation between their side and your side. They do a separation of what yours and what theirs. And I don’t mean like Japanese vs. the world. But simply my vocabulary will change when talking to someone depending on if I’m talking about you or me. Examples would be: “ha-ha” is the word mother when I talk about my mother, the mother of a friend would be “oka-san”. My father is “chi-chi”; the father of a friend is “oto-san.” My father’s father would be “so-fu” but the grandfather of my friend is “ojii-san.” But it works every time and with everyone. If I talk to my father I’ll call him “oto-san” cause when I talk to him he is actually on a different side now. I do the separation between my father and me. So my father will call his own father “chi-chi” but me I have to call him “ojii-san” now. The Japanese always do this separation. SO when I tell that my friend received something I say “moraimasu.” And if I received something I say “kuremasu.” The way I received is told differently than the way you receive.
While Araki-sensei was explaining, I became a bit sour and bitter. She was talking about the separation and I still think of the little girl in the subway. I’m trying to figure out where it started and where it finishes and when it started and when it finishes. And I keep asking myself, what the fuck is wrong with Japanese? Araki-sensei finishes the answer and asks me if I understood. I say yes, but due to my strange face at the moment she asks if I’m sure I understood. No I don’t understand a bit of what you’re saying. In my head it doesn’t work, it’s stupid and there’s no reason for that. But even if I ask you you’re gonna tell me that it’s the Japanese way. So... Yes I understood. And I’m still wondering what did what to who? I mean does the separation in the language with the person I talk too started really long ago and they just applied it to their language or does they noticed they did separation and actually took time to change the language to reflect the fact that Japanese people seems anxious to be associated to the person they are talking to.
Maybe you’re telling yourselves that I push a little hard on it? Maybe... let’s see how you write Japanese just for fun. The first thing you learn is hiragana, already told that. You need it for everything. Then comes katakana. What is katakana? It is a second written language for the same exact thing that is the hiragana. And what is the use of katakana? To write foreign words. You’ll rarely see genuine Japanese written in katakana. Some time in some newspaper when they want to put an accent on a title, but even then it’s rare. SO katakana is only for foreigners’ vocabulary. And not only that the katakana only works for foreign language but they actually did an aesthetic different for it to make sure you won’t miss it. Hiragana is subtle, all sweet and full of grace. Katakana is made of sharp form, broken line and actually looks like spikes all the times. And I’m sure that the katakana didn’t exist at first. They came up with up cause they saw the necessity of actually having a way to distinguish between their language and foreigner language when they were writing it. I know three different languages right now; I can read a bit of 6. And in any case you never see a different design of letter for foreign words. Not in French, not in English, not in German. Even really hard to translate foreign language like Japanese or Chinese didn’t need a separate form of writing.
Some people tried to explain to me that the katakana was created because there are a lot of sounds that doesn’t exist in Japanese. Like the “V”. They can’t pronounce it, it doesn’t exist here. SO according to these people, the katakana now permits Japanese to actually read and pronounce those words. But hell it’s not true and can’t be true cause it doesn’t make a single shit of sense. Cause those stupid katakana are actually the same exact sounds as the hiragana. Not less, not more, the same thing exactly. And Japanese had to create new sound in katakana to fit the foreign languages. They could have done it easily in hiragana first and never create katakana. So no they don’t need it except that they want and need to make this separation visible even in written form.
Ok maybe I’m high or completely wasted, maybe I’m getting paranoid and maybe my brain is not working right now. But Japanese people want this separation they work for it and earn it in their lives every day. Everything in Japanese language is made to make it obvious that you are different. Everything is separated in some way. I’m making a separation with the person I talk to by using a different vocabulary. I’m making this separation too in written form. Separation anxiety. It’s like they fear they wouldn’t be able to tell apart from the person in front of them. And all this separation planning in written form and when talking to me just explain a bit of what might have happened in the subway. They don’t react cause they’re not able to emphasize with the others. Look in the mangas and anime. It’s the same as the color of hairs. You see lot of character with strange hair color only because they fantasize it might be real. The same with story with really good friend tearing each other heart apart so just they can continue together. You see a lot of these stories cause they actually never happens cause they can’t make them happen. In my head this separation explains to me why the most common answer to a question is “I don’t know.” Explain why I get this uncomfortable feeling from both old and young people. Explain why Japanese prefer to live more in 3 square meters than actually trying to get more places. They prefer to pill up than to take the opportunity to know their neighbours. They are rejects from the world cause they are living on a island and they make for themselves little personal islands in their everyday life so they don’t have to commute with the other.
And of course I don’t know where to stand with this. My brother too is confused, as well as most of the students at the school that did notice this separation complex too. Like I often say here, they don’t see us like threat, they don’t actually reject us, but we’re not welcome cause in some way our existence threaten their personal islands. Japanese people spend so much time in confusing excuses and ceremony that you wonder when do they really talk to each other. I often wonder what would be the answer of Aika if I asked her real opinion on something. I’m sure I would get a lot of half answers, quick truth and half excuses. And after 2 hours I wouldn’t be able to tell what she is really thinking. SO basically, never be in the same bubble of someone else, always separate. Separation in writing, in speaking. Separation from the people I’m living with, from people I talk too.
OK. I’m gonna stop there I’m getting a bit enraged right now. Like I said I don’t pretend I’m getting the truth. I just try to analyse what I see. I just feel confused by this lack of empathy. I... aaawww… Just forget it. It really hard to explain and actually kill a lot of what people might think highly of Japanese. Like I said they are good people, obviously. You can’t stop noticing it, but there’s something wrong with them nonetheless.
Cya
2 comments:
Lol... I am so glad you have this blog right now. The warning about pushing on the subway is valuable to someone like me. I often sneak past people rather than push them because I'm too soft. -_-" Must remember to push.
I think I get what you mean about the islands thing. I know how to turn into an island if I want to. ^_^ And its not necessarily a bad thing to ignore neighbors... but that because my family is too formal. We don't outright tell people to leave when they come over and stay too long. We tell them to have a cup to tea (before they go). It's a hint. But they can choose to ignore it and just take advantage of our hospitality. So for that reason, I avoid some people.
However, this separation anxiety would also explain what I heard about how a significant percentage of Japanese people who are married have not consummated. It's a very 'me' thing. Like I must look out for myself first and foremost. 'Everyone else can go do whatever so long as they don't bother me' kinda thing. I wonder, are the Japanese islands all the time, or just on the subway? You said Aika was an island too, but is it the same with her mother as well?
The thing you did about joining the mother and child was good. I agree that separating them is like the worst thing ever. My parents freak out whenever I call them 5 minutes later than I'm supposed to and I'm 18 now. Maybe thats another extreme, but I understand their point of view. They were raised in a different and harsher environment, they can't help it. I'm weird cause I have been exposed to lots of different environments so I have a really weird mixed up way of thinking. Similarly, the environment the Japanese were raised in must have turned them into islands. I guess it would, if you get separated from your parents when you're small. You'll probably learn to not care about anyone else but you. And anyone else who you let get close to you. But I really wonder how they form relationships with each other if they're all isolated. I keep thinking of the Japanese students at my uni, but they're different because they live here. They're still in their own group, but they talk to each other easily, they don't isolate themselves from each other at all. Maybe its because they're a minority here or whatever. I notice this with the other ethnic and religious groups too but I digress now...
Oh right. I haven't posted a comment on the previous post, but I really like how you do the Japanese lessons thing. I have a long way to go, but I think your blog is a very useful source of Japanese education and it'd be great if you continue with it. :D
Oh, and can you also post about clubs in Japan? Me and my friend plan to going club-hopping when we go to Japan one day!! YAY!!! ^^
Sorry for the delayed answer, I've been really complicated latetly, but I still read the blog whenever I get the chance.
Anyway, I guess you are experimenting first hand why is it that asian cultures are thought of as so cold by the western culture. As I understand, chinesse are no different.
You still did the right thing, so you should be proud of yourself because of that. The rest, just let it be, do what you can, but don't try and do more than that.
Good luck!!
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