From: tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Foreign Ogres (was Mr. Baseball
Date: 7 Oct 92 13:05:35 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Oct7.130535.11967
Organization: clearer than blir

In article <7320@bigbird.hri.com.hri.com> blamb@hri.com (Bill Lambert) writes:
>
>=> >=> >I wrote:
>=> >The phone booth incident happened in a rural area, and it's reasonable to
>=> >assume that I was the first foreigner that girl had ever seen in person.
>=> >So.... what can be used to explain 8 year-olds who run screaming into
>=> >phone booths?
>
>In article <1992Oct5.154126.886@u.washington.edu>,
>tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu writes:
>=> 
>=> I believe that in Japanese culture (opinion alert!) there is a strong
>=> tendancy to avoid situations for which there is no "script". Japanese
>=> seem to like having rules to guide them through almost any situation.
>=> In anthropological terms, Japanese culture is highly codified. Much of
>=> Japanese life is therefore very predictable, and that's the way
>=> Japanese seem to like it. From what one says, to how one dresses, to
>=> how one holds there hands, etc. I think for some Japanese, throwing a
>=> 'gaijin' into the mix is just too much to handle and they freak out
>=> because they can't operate on autopilot like they usually do.
>
>A bit over simplified and over generalized for me.... but OK, I know
>what you're saying. The implication though, is that it is fear that
>drives such a "gaijin con". It is fear sometimes, but mostly it is
>fear of not acting properly, or fear to offend, and this is a little
>different than that of your implications (actually, I'm trying to
>explain better the background of what I think you mean), but
>causing the same outward effect.

I wasn't trying to imply that Japanese were necessarily afraid of
physical harm per se. The fear of offending, of not acting properly,
and of not knowing what to do is exactly what I was talking about.

Another example of very similar behavior in Japanese is when on tv
some reporter tries to do-man-in-the-street interviews and some of the
people he or she attempts to interview literally run away, backs to
the camera. (This is mostly shown on comedy shows and such but I think
it can happen even in serious shows because how does the running
person know what you were going to do before you did it. All he or she
saw was the camera and microphone and freaked out and ran. The serious
shows just probably edit these people out because there's no reason to
show them.) This example is much better in supporting my contention
that Americans wouldn't be as likely to display this kind of "fear".
It would really be odd in the US if in a man-on-the-streat segment
people just began running.

>I agree with Tad to a certain point, in that Japanese do have their
>conventions and expectations in the social arena, and are fearful
>to be with G's who don't have or know those conventions. But it is
>usually more fear of offending or looking stupid than fear of bodily
>harm.

See above. I wasn't talking about bodily harm at any point.


>There's often an element of inferiority complex afoot. This
>is also tied in with the tight Japanese social conventions, because
>many Japanese feel uninformed about what's expected by foreigners....
>assuming that foreigners have similar conventions and restrictions
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>that they don't know about!
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

How true! Japanese are always asking me how to say (in English) some
"scripted" Japanese line that's always said in a very strict context.
Or how to act in some "scripted" social event. When I tell them that
I'd play it by ear (or that very few weddings include a huge rubber
cake, dry ice fog and lighting of a heart-shaped candelabra) they look
at me increduously.

Also I'd be interested in a discussion of what Japanese equivalents of
terms such as "improvise", "play it by ear", and "make it up as (we)
go" imply. I have a feeling that the connatations would be quite
different in Japanese because Japanese people, in general, definitely
don't like doing this.

-- Tad Perry   Internet:    tvp@gibdo.engr.washington.edu
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