“Shitamachi Museum…?” She grabs a map and starts showing me how to
get there, then realizes what I asked. I’d
even phrased my English sentence in a Japanese manner to make it easier for
her. She asks her co-worker who shows
her a listing of nearby attractions and their hours of business.
“Ueno Royal Museum is open today.” She
says pointing at it on her map.
“What about Shitamachi Museum?”
“Shitamachi Museum…?”
“Yes, this one.” I point at Shitamachi
Museum on her map. She consults again
with her co-worker, who shows her the same list as before.
“I’m sorry. Shitamachi Museum is not open today.”
“Thank you.”
This is one of those cultural
differences that irks me. Japanese people
are so unwilling to give a negative response that they will answer a question
you did not ask, just so they can give a positive one. Had she said that Shitamachi was closed, then
offered the option of Ueno Royal, that would’ve been fine, but to act as if I’d
asked about Ueno Royal all along is irritating.
No Westerner will think less of her if what they ask for is not
available. However, they will be annoyed
if she ignores their original request and offers what they did not ask
for.
To make clear just how ridiculous her
first response was, Shitamachi Museum is dedicated to traditional culture of
Edo period’s working classes such as craftspeople, fishermen, sailors,
merchants and rickshaw drives. It
contains replicas of their shops and living quarters. There are very specific exhibits I’m
interested in viewing. The Ueno Royal
Museum displays modern art----something I can see anywhere in the world. The two museums are very different,
therefore, not interchangeable
This is a quintessential example of what
happens when you separate language from culture. This woman had learned a Western language,
but not its culture, so she responded to a simple question in a very Japanese
way. The first time I ran into this
dissonance was in Korea during a staff meeting.
Our manager had announced several changes to our work duties. One teacher asked a clarifying question, another
asked if the changes were allowed according to our employment contracts, and third
asked about the reasoning behind the changes.
The man hit the roof! He threatened
to fire anyone who had a problem with the changes. We were flabbergasted by his reaction. My colleagues, who admittedly could be jerks
sometimes, had done nothing wrong. What
they did was perfectly normal and reasonable in the West.
Here was a Korean who knew nothing about
Western work culture, conducting a staff meeting in English with a bunch of New
Zealanders, Americans, South Africans and Canadians. They asked questions, and he got all angry
thinking they were being disrespectful and insubordinate. To us that might seem laughable, but in Korean
work culture, administrators are kings, so anything they say, employees do
unquestioningly. He had expected us to
behave like typical Korean employees, which we were not. That is why language
must always be taught alongside with culture (especially for those who will be
dealing with foreigners regularly). It’s almost as important as correct
pronunciation and grammar.
If this sort of scenario only occurred
once in a while, it would be easy to overlook, but it happens all the time
(even with my co-workers), so it grates the nerves. “No” is not a dirty
word. If you give a negative answer, I
promise not to burst into inconsolable sobs or throw myself on the floor in a
toddler-style tantrum. Just give me a
simple answer and we can go from there.
2019
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