Jump to content

Recommended Posts

The people who live behind me are not only the ugliest couple in the world, with the smelliest goddamn cesspool, they also both shout AND laugh. You meet one of them in the alley and they give you a big loud laugh. What's so faqing funny? Then they shout "II TENKI DESU NE!" F'chrissakes, I'm only 2 metres away - keep it down!

 

Some of the foreigners I know have picked it up, and being with them is kind of embarrassing. Even if everybody else is being loud and hearty, it still seems unnecessary.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Different cultures have evolved different manners of conceiving and expressing individual emotion.

 

Just as it is commonly said that women are light-years ahead of men when it comes to thinking and feeling about relationships, so are some cultures rife with the means of expressing feelings while others rigidly limited.

 

Look at Italians for example. Not only is it normal to go around expressing deep feelings and opinions about feelings, they also have an entire range of sophisticated as well as vulgar means of expressing them. Watch a couple of Italians at a cafe. Even without hearing them, you can get a good idea of what they are talking about. Hand gestures, facial expressions, body postures, all kinds of things are used to paint the bones of the exchange in colors rich with expressive feeling and individual nuance.

 

Now contrast that with Japanese conversation. There is a limited range of coded signals that works best when both parties collude in failing to even conceive of the possibility of expressing many feelings, let alone considering how they might actually be expressed if required.

 

I used to ride my bike around Yoyogi Park on the weekends. There, you could see groups of Japanese college or drama students practicing plays and scripts.

 

The only kind of acting or expression they knew how to do was (i) normal conversation and (ii) shouting.

 

The only tool available to these amateur thespians was shouting, and it was used to express any kind of strong feeling such as passionate love, excitement, anger, extreme happiness, etc.

 

Professional actors in Japan have a somewhat more extensive range of tools available for expressing emotion, but to me it seemed as though the common person's situation when it came to expressing emotion was like a guitar with only one string.

 

Now that I am back in America, I am disappointed to find that most people here can't authentically display their feelings.

 

Instead, everything has to be put inside of a kind of wry TV-comedy type envelope, or else colored with juvenile slang copied from the hip-hop/skate/California slacker/jr. high school connection. It seems nobody is confident that their emotions or personal views could possibly stand alone without the safe support of these puerile, trash-culture bulwarks.

 

It is very rare to find someone who is able to honestly express what they are feeling without resorting to these crutches.

 

And often, when I do come across someone who has this ability, it turns out they acquired it in some "course" or "group" to which I am now invited--most of us would call these "self-help cults" like The Forum or Scientology or EST or whatever. The person's initially refreshing demeanor quickly becomes a strident, fixed-eye sermon in which I am catchized about integrity, how to have more "personal power" and "what if I told you there is a place you could go where everyone supports you and you can empower yourself to achieve your goals" etc. etc.

 

Another striking feature of the return to American life is the incredible rudeness and arrogant sense of entitlement fairly emanating from most any retail or service employee. Their attitude is like a glaring thousand-watt sign hanging over everything. You are not dealing with a store or service employee, you are paying money for the privilege of re-enacting all of their issues about everything including their job in a kind of symbolic play. All this just to mail a letter or buy a pen.

 

It's almost like you have to begin by apologizing, then flatter these people in a sniveling way just to get their attention. I sure miss the good service and pride in any job that I saw in Japan.

 

It makes me feel like shouting sometimes.

Link to post
Share on other sites
×
×
  • Create New...