Photo:
Live

Conversations with Japan’s Elders

These and many other conversations reminded me why I wanted to learn the Japanese language in the first place

By 4 min read 2

It’s no secret that Japanese people tend to avoid talking freely about their opinions. It should however be noted that they do in fact have them, and the older of the population have the gift of experience from a different generation and can give us a lot of insight as to where Japan is now as compared to where it was several decades ago.

During one of my various opportunities to work at my part-time agriculture job, there were many things I heard during my break times that surprised me that I heard from the older people in our group (all ages 55 and older). First let’s talk about the conversations we had about the Japanese language.

One conversation I had in this topic was with a veteran of the agriculture trade, a man in his 60’s that is one of the many people in charge of the department. As we went back and forth getting pallets for laying out more pumpkins, he decided to chat me up about my main job, which is an assistant language teacher at a local eikaiwa (English conversation school).

I told him about our policy to speak with the kids as much as possible in English, to which he replied that they pick up things like grammar a lot easier than adults (at which point he mentioned that he himself will never have any hope to learn English.) This led to a conversation about the grammatical order of Japanese as compared to English.

Photo:

“When speaking Japanese, you almost always have to wait until the very end of someone’s sentence before you know exactly what they’re talking about,” he said. Very true, I thought to myself. I’ve known for quite a while that Japanese is subject, object and verb and English is subject, verb and then object.

However, it was something I’d scarcely thought about that this dynamic drastically changes the flow of the conversation. “But for English,” he continued, “you learn what the other person is saying much sooner and have a couple extra seconds to think of a reply.”

“That part of Japanese isn’t so good, I think,” he said. “I think English is better in that it gets to the point more quickly.”

“I guess that’s true,” I said. “I suppose it fits right along with western ideals in getting straight to the point, doesn’t it? I think Japanese also has culture embedded in it in that way as well.”

“I think so too,” he said.

Many of us younger people in our 20’s and 30’s often think of people in their 60’s as past their prime and no longer in the know, so it is good to see that stereotype dashed to the rocks because of people like him. It is also interesting to see that he sees English, at least in terms of grammatical practicality, as a better language.

The other conversation I had with him was actually about a more societal problem, one that I was only vaguely familiar with up until my conversation with him.

“You know that Japan’s elderly population is rising at an incredible rate, right?” he asked me. “Yes, of course,” I replied. “Japan’s young people are less interested than ever in marriage and having kids so the birth rate is low as well, and Japan’s senior citizens live very long,” I confirmed.

“And that has a direct effect on social security. Think of it like an upside down triangle, with Japan’s young working people on the bottom point and the large aging, retired population on the top. How will there be enough money to pay them? This is a huge weight on the shoulders of our country’s young people, and it’s already starting to take effect on the economy.”

While I didn’t ask him myself, I wondered if he was saying this because he himself must continue working even into his old age. After all, he looks well into his 60’s and he is still doing a fairly labor intensive job working in agriculture. There is also the possibility that he loves this job and he isn’t doing it for the money, but even if he does I doubt that’s all there is to it.

These and many other conversations reminded me why I wanted to learn the Japanese language in the first place. Being interested in Japan wasn’t enough, so I wanted to learn the language so the country would open up to me and I could communicate with its people. Being able to speak with smart, experienced people reminded me that it was so worth it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA - Privacy Policy - Terms of Service

  • Kyle Von Lanken says:

    I suppose it’s all a matter of perspective, Nos. As in your example, 私は日本語をする事が好きです, what if 好きです was cut off? Sure you can make assumptions, but we don’t know if the speaker likes or dislikes it. Of course, this is a very common phrase in Japanese among foreigners so I think it’s pretty easy to tell what the person wants to say given that context. But let’s look at it this way:

    “I like studying ______”

    For this one we don’t know what the person likes studying.

    日本語を勉強する事が ____”

    For this one we don’t know whether or not they like studying Japanese.

    Of course, there are more complicated examples to be had which are harder to guess the end of the sentence, but I think it also all depends on what the speaker is looking for. I feel like Japanese is more to the point than English in some ways and English is more to the point than Japanese in others, so that is where I disagreed with the old guy I was talking to as it simply isn’t that simple.

    Furthermore, Japanese’s way of communication focuses a lot on previous knowledge between two speaks (which is what makes it a passive language) and often times requires fewer words, though this can confuse others who are not privy to the conversation. English on the other hand, uses more words and is an explicit language, allowing almost anyone of the same tongue to follow along with the conversation as to what’s going on.

    Long story short, no sense in comparing apples and oranges I guess.

  • Mikey says:

    ha ha “chat me up” means something different in Australia! Its like a pick-up line I guess

    Great post man

Related

Explore

A Timeless Cultural Experience in Iwamizawa

Who knew that working with pumpkins could be so invigorating?

By 3 min read

Culture

This Week in Tokyo September 21 – 27, 2015

Every Monday we post our picks of upcoming events in Tokyo. If you would like your event listed here, contact the editor of GaijinPot.

By 1 min read

Learn

The Not So Simple Sensei

Although both terms mean ‘teacher’, the differences can be clearly seen by looking at the kanji that make up the word 先生.

By 3 min read 5