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11 .29Be informed: Join the Global CommunityHave you been hearing about the millions of young people around the world, led by a 16- year- old Swedish student, Greta Thunberg, who have been protesting about the need for adults to seriously address the causes of Climate Change? It has been big news all around the world for nearly a year now but I wonder how much the Japanese media have been covering it and how many young people here in Japan know about it? The main message of this movement is ‘What is the point of studying for a future that is so threatened by a Climate Emergency’? What do you think about this message? Are you worried about your future?
One of the key points I tell my language students is that their goal of mastering English is a very admirable one, but that once you enter the ‘Eigo-world’ you are entering a world where asking and giving opinions about social, political, cultural and environmental topics is common. More importantly, once you have given your opinion, you should be able to respond to the BIG question “WHY?”, as in “why do you have this opinion?” This means that as your English abilities improve, so will the expectations of non-Japanese who you meet for you to know about current issues, to have an opinion about them as well as to give reasons for your opinion.
Without you knowing it, you may have become very passive and comfortable living in the ‘Nihon-go’ world since talking about such topics is considered ‘too serious’ and only taught about sometimes in your classes. Also, the possibility of having an opposite opinion to someone else might break ‘WA’ so the topics are either avoided or when they arise, people may just follow a kind of ‘tatemae’ response instead of sharing their true ‘honne’ feelings.
Once you enter the English world this protective blanket of not knowing or thinking about world issues will be removed and your new embarrassment and frustration will not be so much about how poor your English is, but how poor your knowledge about your own culture or contemporary global events are and that you have to answer “I don’t know” or “I have no opinion” or “I’ve never thought or heard about….”
There is a very simple solution to this and it will also act as a way to improve your English skills. Start informing yourself! To improve your reading skills, start scanning headlines, skimming key points and reading some news stories that interest you on a daily basis for 15-30 minutes. ‘The Japan Times’ is a good source for both Japanese and world news, and often has articles about topics you will never find in the Japanese news as its readership is mainly non-Japanese living here in Japan. Another great source is ‘The Guardian’ or ‘The New York Times’ or even ‘Google News’ which has a selection of that day’s key stories from many different sources. To improve your listening skills, start watching BBC news, or CNN news or listen to some TED talks. Once you start to do this, you will be ‘joining’ your peers around the world who are reading, thinking and talking about these topics and your connection to them will increase every day!
Many students who I have spoken to who did ‘Open up to the World’ tell me that in the beginning they didn’t want to, since they were worried they would find out lots of terrible news about depressing issues and with complicated reasons they were not interested in and that were not connected to their daily lives. But slowly, they started to feel a sense of empowerment in their newly found ‘global awareness’ and became more and more confident in their opinions and ideas and eager to talk about them with friends and non-Japanese students. Not only this, they began to understand the connections between the issues as well as how they affect their lives and to discover what they could do to make a change for a better future, both for themselves, their family and future generations!(Photo credit: Markus Spiske@pexels.com)Chris Summerville -
11 .22Encounter with a Rock StarDuring the recent summer vacation I enjoyed an overseas trip to Europe and my home country of the United Kingdom. I had a marvellous time enjoying the sights, sound and food of Greece, then headed to London for my last week where I hung out with old friends and immersed myself in the incredible sights and culture of Britain’s capital.It had been a fantastic holiday. But on my last evening in London, even I couldn’t believe what happened! That night I met two friends for dinner at a well-known vegetarian restaurant. As we entered the restaurant and took our seats, I was astonished to see, sitting at the next table, the legendary British rock star Jimmy Page! Younger readers of this blog (anyone born after, say, 1970), will probably say, “Jimmy who?” But Page is one of the great rock guitarists of all time. Together with the American blues-rock genius Jimi Hendrix and British blues legend Eric Clapton, he probably forms the ‘holy trinity’ of 1960s rock guitarists. His band Led Zeppelin defined heavy rock and were undoubtedly the biggest band in the world from 1969 to 1975. Their albums sold by the millions and their tours ( they were an incredible live act) broke attendance records set by The Beatles.As soon as I saw him I excitedly said to myself, “Oh my god! JIMMY PAGE!” My friends didn’t recognize him at first, but I did immediately. He was dressed in his familiar rock star style of black leather jacket and jeans, with his characteristic grey hair pulled back into a bun.It was amazing to be sitting only one meter from a rock legend, but we decided to ‘play it cool’, pretending not to notice him. This turned out to be a good idea because he was enjoying a family dinner with his daughter. The last thing we would have wanted would be to interrupt a private occasion. What surprised me was that he was sitting right in the middle of the dining room with all the other customers, they hadn’t given him a more isolated and private position in the room. And the most surreal thing was that I could continually hear Jimmy’s voice - familiar from tv and radio interviews - in my ear for the whole 2 hours as he talked about recording studios and whatnot with his daughter.After we left the restaurant, I was glad we hadn’t approached Mr. Page and potentially spoiled his evening. Anyway, what would I have said? “Hi Jimmy, I love your music” ? It sounds banal and is the kind of thing he’s heard a million times before. Anyway, some people say you should never meet your heroes! You’ll only be disappointed, they can never satisfy your impossible expectations of them.So, yeah, part of me would have loved to discuss my favorite blues artists with a rock legend. And it would have been great to impress my friends by saying, “I met Jimmy Page!” But we did the right thing. We respected a celebrity enough to leave him alone. For his fans, the legend, the essence of Jimmy Page lies in his remarkable music, not in his private life. And I can marvel at that music and enjoy it in my own privacy as often as I want for the rest of my days.Photo Credit: Clem Odojeghuo at Pexels.comDale Ward
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11 .18A Brief History of the HandshakeOne of the most visible cultural differences between Japan and my country (the U.K.) is how people greet each other when they first meet. Even though I have lived in Japan for a long time, my first instinct when meeting someone is to put out my hand, ready to shake. But when and where did the handshake greeting begin? I did a bit of research to find out….Of course, the handshake is pretty familiar all over the world nowadays, even if many countries don’t actually use it as a greeting, but where did handshaking start? Apparently, the origin can be traced back to Greece around 2,500 years ago. In ancient Greece (and many other countries) it was quite common to carry a weapon. People would touch their right hands together as a sign of peace. Of course, if you touch hands then you are showing that you’re not holding a weapon (unless you’re left-handed like me!)The touching of hands seems to have changed into an aggressive arm-grab during the era of the Roman Empire. You would grab the other person’s forearm (not hand) and shake the other person’s arm to be sure that they weren’t hiding any secret weapons up their sleeve. After shaking hands (arms!) and becoming friends, it was common (as it was and is in many cultures) to then share a drink (usually alcohol) to celebrate the new friendship. This is where the ‘cheers!’ gesture comes from. People would hit their cups together very strongly so that the liquid in each cup would mix together. If one person was trying to poison the other person, the poison would end up mixing in both cups, so mixing the liquid from both cups showed that nobody was trying to poison anyone. Finally, the new friends could trust each other.Handshaking is not just for greetings. It is also used to make a promise to another person. Making a promise with words is fine, but if you also use a handshake then it makes the promise more meaningful and powerful. The other effect of the handshake is to try to show that both people are equally respected. Both arms are level and at the same height, which is a symbol of both people being equal as humans. This is rather different from bowing, where one person is showing that they do not feel equal to the other person (for example, you bow more deeply if you are bowing to a boss).But is the handshake becoming less popular? Apparently, yes. A recent survey in the USA shows that 49% percent of Americans sometimes choose the fist bump over a handshake greeting. I have seen this myself often among athletes such as Premier League footballers before matches. Maybe the handshake will eventually die out and be replaced by the fist bump? It’s certainly a healthier option than the traditional handshake, which, when you think about it, is an easy way for bacteria to spread from one person to another.Maybe I’ll start using the fist bump in future!(Photo Credit: Cytonn Photophy@Pexels.Com)Simon Ball
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11 .15Explore the Finnish LifestyeHave you ever been to Finland?
What images do you come up with when you hear the name of this country?
Santa Claus? Aurora? Sauna? Moomin?
I visited Finland to learn about their lifestyle and education during this summer vacation. After returning my trip, I believe that Finland is a great travel destination and I want to go there again. However, many of you have not thought about traveling to Finland before. Therefore, I am very happy to share some information about Finland and I hope you will become interested in this country! Here are 3 things you should know before traveling to Finland.
1) Nature
As you arrive in Finland, all you can see is lush, green nature! Nature is very important for Finnish people and they never live far away from parks and forests. To experience their lifestyle, I took a hike in the national park. I had a great time in the quiet forest with beautiful calm lakes. I also picked berries and ate them there, as well as met and talked with people who told me how essential being in nature is to “recharge your battery.” When you travel to Finland, don’t forget to put “recharging your batteries in forest” on your itinerary! The breath-taking view of nature will surely be a part of your travel memories.
2) High tax & Public services
In Finland, you have to be careful when you go shopping. Basically, pretty much everything is expensive in Finland! In order to finance the expensive welfare state model, the Finnish government needs to highly tax most things. The tax is called “VAT (Value Added Tax)” and even tourists must pay this extra 24%. Although this extremely high tax can be a burden when you plan a trip, Finnish people’s life and welfare are supported by this tax system. As proof of this, fees related to all education and welfare are free. Also, there are a great amount of public facilities that people visit and use for free. “Oodi”, a new central library established in 2018, is one of the best facilities in Finland. It provides a wide range of service to visitors for free, including musical instruments, computer games, special sawing machines, and even 3D printers! It is an internationally famous new sightseeing spot, so you should definitely visit there!
3) Language & Education
The Finnish education system is one of the best in the world. And, of course, it is free! Whoever wants to study hard can go to university regardless of their family background and financial condition. Not all high school graduates go to university. About half of them go to university to study and the other half go to Polytechnic, where they can take hands-on training and acquire specific skills for jobs. In Finland, people are regarded as significant national resources, so the government has tried to improve their educational system and support the education/career goals of individuals.
In addition, the official languages are Finnish and Swedish. Also, Finnish people speak English very well. I did not hear any strong accents in their English. So, if you speak English, you can communicate freely!
There are a lot more things I want to share with you, such as food, Moomin, design, etc. However, I will not share everything with you, since I recommend you to go and explore more by yourself.
Let’s take a trip to Finland!
Kiitos paljon!Kikuchi Nagisa -
11 .04Playing at DiversityWith the Rugby World Cup finishing this year and the Japanese team making it close to the finals, I think there is still much to celebrate even though they didn’t win the championship. The fact they made it there is an achievement for East Asia in how usually the only other teams from the Pacific would be a part of Oceania. I fully expect even more future generations of Japanese people, men, and women, to take an interest in playing the sport. At the same time, I couldn’t help but notice the diverse backgrounds represented in the team. While some of this could have been just to help the team, I hope in the long-term the slogan of “One Team” becomes a saying used to describe Japan by improving the present and ensuring future well-being.At present, most would not look at Japan and think of a diverse country. Even though there is an international community present, they do not exist here naturally. In recent years, they are largely here by choice, and many have made Japan their home. When that is presented on television and other media, though, it is usually presented in a sense of “foreignness.” Maybe background and lifestyle choices are given attention, and perhaps focus is given to difficulties experienced in Japan. Still, it is mostly in the context of being outside the culture, not a part of it. Even children born of biracial families with one Japanese parent will be casually referred to as “half” in society, but you cannot be both half and whole, not one and less than one. These ideas are counter to being “one” made popular with the rugby team and would be good to make a part of daily practice in Japan now.This acceptance would also make sense for Japan in the future. With the well-known population problem facing the country in the coming years, solutions will have to come from outside Japan to help. Television and other media may focus on foreigners as a source of labor, but history, both recent and distant, is full of problems when labeling of people from other countries to only cheap labor. Instead of viewing foreigners as a set of hands to get dirty, this idea of being a part of “one team” should also be encouraged. The future of Japan will not look like it does now, and that is okay.People you see to your left and right on a train in the future may have hair that is grayer, but it also may be blonder, browner, and redder. That does not need to be taken as a threat to Japanese culture because, like members of the international community today, they will probably be here by choice. There is something about Japan that makes them want to stay, and that means Japan lives in them. Japan may look differently, but Japanese culture carries on in a diverse people. Japan will still be one.Jesse Patterson