Hello again from Japan, the land of strawberry and butter sandwiches…
One thing that’s often a shock to outgoing, cheerful Westerners is the Japanese tendency of modesty. Try praising a Japanese person by telling them how good their English is, and they’ll disagree with you, telling you “No, my English isn’t good at all.” If you compliment most American women on how pretty they look, they’ll probably reply with a warm “thank you,” but taking note of how pretty a Japanese women looks can be a confusing experience, as they shake their head and firmly disagree with you. In Japanese society, the concept of “kenson” (translated as humility or modesty) is an important quality for people to have in a land that’s got so many more people per square kilometer (325 vs. just 26 in the USA). There are many stereotypes and silly notions about Japanese modesty, many which were inserted into American popular culture by novelists like James Clavell, but basically, the concept of “kenson” just means that people not be boastful but instead try to play down their own skills or abilities in a polite way. There are many phrases in Japanese that illustrate the tendency to show humility. For example, when you give someone a gift, you usually say “Here’s something that’s not interesting” (tsumaranai mono desu kedo…) or if you bake someone a cake, you say, “I’m not sure if it tastes good or not…” (Oishii ka dou ka wakaranai kedo).
Modesty is never more important than during a job interview, when you’ll basically be asked various questions by the interviewer and must show your good character by how humble you are. It’s very different than in the U.S., where interviewees must enunciate their skills in concrete ways in order to stand out from the pack. We did some interviewing last week, talking with several potential Japanese staff members, and it was a very interesting thing to partake in. One girl in particular boasted about how good her English was (it wasn’t), and basically violated the idea of “humility” as a good thing to be. It wasn’t hard deciding which girl we weren’t going to hire…
I get a lot of questions from people who want to teach ESL (that’s English as a Second Language in teacher-speak) in Japan. While there are tens of thousands of teachers teaching English in Japan at a variety of schools, the long Japanese recession has done a lot of damage to the “eikaiwa” (English conversation) industry, bringing salaries and general teaching conditions down. Teaching English is still a great way to get to see and live in Japan, and it’s also a super way to meet some very nice Japanese people (including girls) who are interested in learning English — but anyone interested in teaching in Japan (or in other countries in Asia) should know that teaching ESL isn’t the stuff that satisfying careers are made of, for most people. Anyone who wants to teach in Japan, either on the JET program, or at one of the three major English conversation school chains, or at smaller private schools, would need a bachelor’s degree from a four-year college (any subject will do, no one cares what you majored in here), an open mind about things like squid pizza (you think I’m joking, don’t you?), and the desire to do right by your Japanese hosts — e.g., learn a little humility. With the long string of Good Times in the U.S., most language teachers here come from Canada and Australia, so there’s probably some demand for Americans to teach. Also, although female language teachers are always in demand, it seems that there are almost none here, so maybe there are some opportunities available (husband and wife teams can also find jobs together, too).
Five years ago this month, we started J-List. At first it was just Kaori and me as things slowly picked up and started to grow. Now Kaori-chan, J-List employee #1, is getting married to her fiancee, who she’s dated since high school. Japanese take weddings seriously, and Kaori’s been planning her wedding for months (she reserved the church over a year ago, to be sure she could have the wedding on one of the lucky days according to the Chinese calendar). The J-List team will be there in force to congratulate Kaori, and we’ll bring our cameras. Oh, that reminds me, I’ve got to write a speech! As Kaori’s boss, I have to give a speech to 150+ people, and in Japanese, too!
Well, that’s all for now — until our next regular update, we’ll see you on the web!
