Lost In Translation

Compromise

Kate Elwood discusses compromise in this installment of Cultural Conundrums. I think the language is a bit elevated for me to have had an opportunity to use the words or to have had a conversation about compromising in Japanese. But the gist of this is that the Japnese have a dislike of a deviation away from what they had already seen as a standard, which is interesting. Anyway, Elwood explains it better than me:

The Japanese equivalent of stubborn, ganko, is also generally considered a negative, rather off-putting word, although Donahue further notes a restaurant called "Ganko Tei," or "Stubborn House" so ganko may have a little more leeway into positive associations than stubborn. Unless the cafe owner has a somewhat off-beat sense of humor, it seems likely that he or she got the nuance of "stubborn" slightly askew, imagining it to signify an affirmative quality like possessing the courage of one's convictions or snubbing the notion of settling for second best.

Getting nuances slightly askew is a situation I know well from personal experience. The coffee shop story prompted me to recall another instance I had noticed of Japanese-English-equivalents-that-aren't-really-equivalent. The words were "compromise" and its theoretical Japanese counterpart, dakyo. I had heard peaceable, amiable, downright easygoing Japanese declare forcefully that they would never compromise on a given issue ("Zettai dakyo shinai!") often enough to make me wonder if they really intended the same thing by dakyo as I meant when I said "compromise."

I asked 20 Americans the first three words that came to mind when they heard "compromise" and did the same regarding dakyo with 20 Japanese people. Almost all of the words that the Americans related to "compromise" were positive or at least neutral. "Agreement" was the most commonly associated word, used by 35 percent. Other words included "discussion," "cooperation," "sharing," "communication," "peace" and so on. The negative words "give up," "unsatisfactory," and "bad" were used by one person each, and "sacrifice," which might be construed by some as downbeat, was used twice.

On the other hand, only one of my Japanese informants gave me a word for dakyo that was positive: benkyo (study). Another person said toki ni wa hitsuyo (sometimes necessary). The most frequently used word was akirame (giving up), used by 70 percent. Other negative words included ishi/ki ga yowai (weak-spirited), shoganai (inevitable), and tekito, a word with a broad range of meanings, but which my informants told me they meant in a negative way, like "halfhearted" or "leaving things half-done."

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However, the low regard for the word dakyo certainly does not indicate that Japanese people are more obdurate and unwilling to find the middle ground than Americans, of course. Seeking agreement is clearly as much a desirable quality to Japanese as perseverance. When I asked some Japanese people to explain what I perceived as a contradiction between their wish for wa (harmony) and their disdain for dakyo, they basically told me that harmony was what was sought within a group, and that once a consensus had been reached, they were unwilling to budge from this accord. It's a subtle distinction, for me at least, but I think I get it.

A famous quote from the British writer G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) goes: "Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf is better than a whole loaf." It appears that the Japanese way of thinking of compromise is right in line with Chesterton's chestnut.

Sunday Market-Chiang Mai

Here are some monks in their saffron robes at the weekly Sunday market, where they shut down the main road trhough town and vendors set up stalls and sell their goods and services. I have heard that most men spend anywhere form a week to a month as a novice monk. I ate some Thai style dumplings and got an hour long reflexology foot massage. I was told by my massuese that my legs were full of muscles. I don't know if it was meant as a compliment or a complaint (I saw her getting a massage from a novice when I left). But its good to see that all those squats, lunges, leg extensions, leg curls, and hours on the cross trainer have amounted to something.

I am obsessed with the fact that bugs are consumed in Asia. Here are some fried treats on display at the Sunday Market.

I have had these grubs?, or something like them, at Chayanpa a restuarant we used to frequent in Shibuya. The staff brought it out as a free service appetizer. They were fried so there wasn't anything squishy inside. They were salted and crunchy-no taste really...just crispy. Here's a close up of some of the other crispy critters: Crickets? View this photo Locust? View this photo

Update: Check out the pictures from Chaing Mai in the photo gallery on the sidebar.

Thai Food

One of my favorite things about visiting Thailand is eating all the great food at obscenely low prices. I had the opportunity to try several local specialties. On my first night in Chiang Mai, Yamato took me to a local place where he eats about three times a week. In the picture above on the left is Moonamtok (spicy pork salad) and on the right is Tom Saep (spicy pork soup). It was my first time to sample both dishes and they were both great-I'm not a huge pork eater, but both of these were spicy and full of flavor-not to mention incredibly cheap-less than one dollar I think.

The next night I took my friend to the Riverside Restaurant and Bar, a real fun place on the river that has live music on weekends, that I had eaten at on both of my last visits. Here I tried Spicy Northern Sausages which is eaten with raw ginger, onions, and peanuts-an unusual combination, but somehow appropriate.

I also made another discovery-Tom Ka Gai (spicy coconut chicken soup). I usually have Tom Yum Kun (spicy seafood soup), so it was nice to try something different-it was recommended by our server and was great.

Book Club: The Shield of Achilles

January’s book club book was The Shield of Achilles by Philip Bobbit, which was an interesting look at the history and culture of war in western society. We basically discussed Book I: State of War. I didn’t have time to finish it since I was in SE Asia, and I haven’t decided whether or not to tackle Book II: States of Peace. Bobbit has an impressive knowledge of military innovation through strategy and technology. He is equally knowledgeable about constitutional law and its history. He presents an interesting analysis of what he calls “the long war” (1919-1990). I particularly found part III The Historic Consequences of the Long War interesting for his analysis of The Strategic Choices (of the Market State). He comes across as hawkish and it wouldn’t surprise me if he was a supporter of the current administration’s foreign policy with his attitudes toward war and foreign policy.

Chiang Mai

After flying into Bangkok late, I flew out early to Chiang Mai for the TESOL Conference in the morning. Later on I flew back to Bangkok to get a visa to go to Yangon, Burma (Myanmar), where I spent three long days. It was quite an adventure-more on that later.

I’ve been to Chiang Mai twice before, first in 1997-1998, which was my first year in Japan. I went there with my friend Brendan and we did a three-day trek into the hill tribes and spent some time with other friends from the JET Program who were in town at that time. I believe it was three years later that I spent a New Year’s Eve (2001?) there with my friend Michael after we had spent some time in Laos. It hasn’t changed much, but it seems busier, with more traffic and pollution. It is much more manageable to navigate than Bangkok and, since it is up north, much cooler as well. In addition, prices are more reasonable, but then again all of the prices are more reasonable in Thailand. I met up with a Japanese teacher, Yamato, View this photo that I had taught with about 8 years ago when I first came to Japan and taught on the JET Progeam in Koshigaya. He has retired and moved to Chiang Mai. And I had some fun nights out on the town with some new friends, Sil (sp?/from Malaysia) and Lilian (Swiss) View this photo-who both live in Chiang Mai, as well. Lilian (on the right in the photo) has her own blog about Thailand as well.

The elephant above was in front of the Karinthip Village, where I stayed while in town. I spent an afternoon or two down by the pool. View this photo Below is a picture of a temple in town.

Thai TESOL: Chiang Mai

I'll be in SE Asia from today until the 28th. I spend the first part at the 2006 Thai TESOL Conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand. After that I hope to spend a few days in Myanmar before returning to Japan on the 28th. So I'll be on hiatus until then.

In The iPod: January 2006

I already mentioned Death Cab For Cutie’s major label debut Plans on my Top 10 list of 2005, but I actually got it when I returned to Japan in 2006. I am enjoying it, however, I don’t think it’s as strong as their previous release Transatlanticism. But there are several well-crafted songs (like “What Sarah Said” and “Different Names for the Same Thing”) and it seems to get better on repeated listens.

Last year was the year of Ryan Adams, as he released 3 albums, and in the course of completing my collection of his backlog-he has become one of my favorite artists. However, I didn’t have much of his Whiskytown material, just some songs ripped from a friend, so I went out and bought Faithless Street and the maturity of Adams at 19, when he recorded the album is astounding. It is an alt country classic. I discovered several new gems like: “Top Dollar”/ “Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight”/”Revenge”/”Factory Girl.”

I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about The Kaiser Chiefs from Leeds, so I picked up Employment after reading a blurb on them in Metropolis last week comparing them favorably to Franz Ferdinand. I do think they’ve got that 80s influenced sound and upbeat delivery, but they aren’t as polished as Franz Ferdinand. There definitely are some standout tracks like, “I Predict A Riot”/”Everyday I Love You Less And Less”/”Oh My God.” They really wear their Britpop influences on their sleeves, which is fine being a fan of Britpop. I guess I’ll have to check out some of the other bands that they have been thrown together with, like Bloc Party and Futureheads.

Zurui or Life Ain't Fair

In today's The Daily Yomiuri's Cultural Conundrums column, "When the zoo rules"-Kate Elwood takes on the different cultural attitudes about what is fair and not according to Japanese and Americans. She is basically suggesting that the Japanese are more sensitive to others when they do something that might be construed as unfair, and I second her opinion, which she illustrates quite nicely here:

Most of us in time grow up, and realize that the world does not in fact rotate according to our whims and fancies. Assertions of unfairness diminish. Zurui, on the other hand, continues to play a role in daily conversation, although the allegation of zurui-ness becomes, it seems to me, less focused on the speaker's personal inclinations and instead addresses the violation of an unspoken social rule. Of course, the two may often overlap. To give an example, when I asked a Japanese student to describe a classic zurui situation, she mentioned someone going into a refrigerator and eating the last piece of cake without checking to see whether anyone else was planning on consuming it later. When I shared her observation with other Japanese people, everyone smiled at the aptness of the example and agreed that it would indeed be zurui.

In this case, part of the zurui claim may stem from rue at the loss of the chance for a final nibble, but from what I gather, the situation is also zurui in and of itself even if no one else had any designs on the dessert. It is zurui because it violates the largely implicit social norm of "Don't finish off something without checking if it's OK first."

This is a polite thing to do in the United States as well, but generally it is less likely to provoke contentions of unfairness if left unperformed. The onus could be seen to be equally on the other person to stake a claim to the dessert in advance.

The leftover cake situation reminded me of an episode from the third season of the popular long-running NBC TV show Friends. In it, the character Chandler twice leaves his seat temporarily and has it taken by someone else. Each time it occurs, it infringes on his sense of propriety, since he had, as he argues, remained in the "chair area."

But the chair snatchers, Joey and Prof. Whitman, appear to genuinely feel they had not been pulling a fast one by taking the seat after Chandler got up. To them, Chandler's declaration is ludicrous and rather pathetic. The audience probably sympathizes with Chandler's sense of outrage but at the same time laughs at the whining schnook. You leave the seat, you run the risk of being unseated, end of story. Nothing zurui about that to many Americans, although I have a feeling more Japanese viewers might side with the displaced Chandler.

There can only be the concept of a zoo if there is a non-zoo. And the non-zoo aspect of society, comprising various small social niceties, thrives in Japan. I remember once going with a friend to an okonomiyaki restaurant in Shinjuku. It was in one of those tall narrow buildings that have a different business on each floor--drugstore, rental DVD shop, tax accounting firm, dentist, okonomiyaki and so on. To get to each floor there was a teensy-weensy elevator at the back of the first floor. Right after my friend and I got on, two quite rough-looking young men suddenly got on as well, appearing to be bound for the same restaurant.

I wasn't scared exactly, but it was a cozy fit with people I did not feel particularly comfortable with. Notwithstanding the tense atmosphere, we soon reached the right floor and to my surprise, one of the men held the button to keep the door open and gestured for us to get off first. That kind of ingrained consideration is a wonderful thing about Japan, and it's perhaps why Japanese people are likely to be more affronted when it's lacking and draw attention to it with the Z-word.

Book Notes: Freakonomics

I recently finished reading the fascinating and engaging Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, a diversion, while in the midst of trying to get through this months mammoth reading club book, The Shield of Achilles (a doorstop weighing in at 827 pages). I’d say this book is on par with those by Malcolm Gladwell in the way they challenge you to view the world in a different way. The authors state that: “Morality…represents the way people would like to work-whereas economics represents how it actually works.” And I think this has been one of the reasons I have always been uneasy with commerce-it isn’t moral. Corporations don’t care about people-they care about profit margins for the shareholders. So throughout this book they try to uncover the truth and attack conventional wisdom:

It was John Kenneth Galbraith, the hyper literate economic sage who coined the phrase “conventional wisdom.” He did not consider it a compliment. “We associate truth with convenience,” he wrote, “with what most closely accords with self-interest and personal well-being or promises best to avoid awkward effort or unwelcome dislocation of life. We also find highly acceptable what contributes most to self-esteem.” Economic and social behavior, Galbraith continued, “are complex and to comprehend their character is mentally tiring. Therefore we adhere, as though to a raft, to those ideas which represent our understanding.”

So conventional wisdom in Galbraith’s view must be simple, convenient, comfortable, and comforting=though not necessarily true. It would be silly to argue that conventional wisdom is never true. But noticing where the conventional wisdom may be false-noticing perhaps, contrails of sloppy or self-interested thinking-is a nice place to start.

Furthermore, I am sure some of their findings will upset some people. For example, “Where have All the Criminals Gone?” he contributes the reduction in crime, not to what conventional suggests (innovative policing strategies, increased reliance on prisons, changes in crack and other drug markets, aging of the population, tougher gun control laws, strong economy, increased number of police, increased use of capital punishment, concealed-weapons laws, gun buybacks, and others), but rather to the legalization of abortion: “Legalized abortion led to less unwantedness; unwantedness leads to high crime; legalized abortion, therefore, led to less crime.”

In the chapter “What makes a perfect parent?” they state that parenting doesn’t really have that much effect on how the children turn out. Thus “obsessive parenting” is all for naught. $200 safety car seats don’t have as much effect on the safety of a child as it does if they sit in the back seat preventing them from becoming projectiles in a car accident. More pools kill children than handguns. He goes onto to list factors that have some correlation with high test scores and most them have to do with who the parents are, whom they married, what kind of life they lead. Therefore, they state that is you are smart, hardworking, well educated, well paid, and married to someone equally fortunate, then your children are likely to succeed-so save that tuition money for the overpriced private school education.

The other chapters are equally fascinating: “What Do School Teachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common?”/”How Is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents?”/”Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live with Their Moms?”/”Perfect Parenting, Part II; or Would a Roshanda by Any Other Name Smell as Sweet?” Certainly, one of the most provocative books I’ve ever come across. Here’s a link to their website as well, I think they regularly write articles for The New York Times Magazine.

Hikikomori in the News

There's an intersting article in The New York Times Magazine this week on the recent spate of young shut in males who suffer from what is known as "hikikomori":

South Korea and Taiwan have reported a scattering of hikikomori, and isolated cases may have always existed in Japan. But only in the last decade and only in Japan has hikikomori become a social phenomenon. Like anorexia, which has been largely limited to Western cultures, hikikomori is a culturebound syndrome that thrives in one particular country during a particular moment in its history.

As the problem has become more widespread in Japan, an industry has sprung up around it. There are support groups for parents, psychologists who specialize in it (including one who counsels shut-ins via the Internet) and several halfway programs like New Start, offering dorms and job training. For all the attention, though, hikikomori remains confounding. The Japanese public has blamed everything from smothering mothers to absent, overworked fathers, from school bullying to the lackluster economy, from academic pressure to video games. "I sometimes wonder whether or not I understand this issue," confessed Shinako Tsuchiya, a member of Parliament, one afternoon in her Tokyo office. She has led a study group on hikikomori, but most of her colleagues aren't interested, and the government has yet to allocate funds. "They don't understand how serious it is."

That may be in part because the scope of the problem is frustratingly elusive. A leading psychiatrist claims that one million Japanese are hikikomori, which, if true, translates into roughly 1 percent of the population. Even other experts' more conservative estimates, ranging between 100,000 and 320,000 sufferers, are alarming, given how dire the consequences may be. As a hikikomori ages, the odds that he'll re-enter the world decline. Indeed, some experts predict that most hikikomori who are withdrawn for a year or more may never fully recover. That means that even if they emerge from their rooms, they either won't get a full-time job or won't be involved in a long-term relationship. And some will never leave home. In many cases, their parents are now approaching retirement, and once they die, the fate of the shut-ins - whose social and work skills, if they ever existed, will have atrophied - is an open question.

Click here to read the whole article.