So the teacher's set us off lose to Asakusa. I went there about a year and a half ago and loved the place. It was sunny and a cool winter day and the streets were still kind of crowded even during midday. Lots of tourists, of course, coming from Korea, China, Australia...just to name a *few*.This time though, I was there for class and not just touring. Our objective was to practice our "polite" Japanese speech style (here I mean distal with polite verbals) by interviewing at least 3 Japanese people while of course enjoy the scenery, street shops, and temples. We met at a huuuuuge Shinto gates marked by an equally massive latern with "kaminari-mon" written on it (literally lightening gate).
It was lightly drizzling and around 10:30 when we set out. Despite the rain, I'm guessing because it was a Friday, the street-shop lined walk way to the temple was still incredibly crowded. Me and Kendall Rice, my partner for the outing walked the street warming up our Japanese and enjoying a bit of people watching and peeking into shops.
When we hit the end of the road we were under another large gate where people were resting, chatting, putting on make-up, reading newspapers, flipping through guide books, or just sheltering themselves from the rain. After a few nervous laughs we approached our first group of about 6 people--Chinese. I'll spare you from any culturally insensitive jokes, but to be fair the teacher's vouch that they also run across the same problem from time to time. Apparently one group pulled off an interview of a Korean man & woman, a couple, in Japanese. Our next two attempts were met kindly at first but when it came time to avoid using the 2nd person "you" in Japanese [which is considered rude even if you don't know or forget someone's name or even if you have been friends for a long time], after asking for a name the response was a quick (literal translation) "That's already good enough..." or in a 2nd case, "Okay I'm going now." I think for the most part since not all adults have had the experience of conversing with Gaijin they may have simply been intimidated by Rice & I standing at 6ft and speaking fairly poor Japanese (in my opinion). Most of the Japanese elderly woman we came across that day were standing at what I'd estimate to be about 4'8" to 5', so it was inevitable sometimes to cause someone to be a bit nervous. In the end we succeeded in interviewing a group of middle school girls and two female university students.
The name thing:
In comparison with American's, the Japanese put a tremendous amount of value in names, so I think they are sensitive to giving it out to strangers. My personal belief is that the value of a name is why the Japanese see the 2nd person "you" both in its informal "Kimi" from as well as its formal and respectful "Anata." Furthermore in Anime you'll find words like "omae" literally, honorable in front of me, or "Temae" literally, facing me, or "kisama" (just you) all translated as various English expletives.
In the states, and most "western" countries, a baby's name is chosen before birth--at least usually. The Japanese however, will wait until even more than a week after the baby has been born before giving it a name. At this point they want to give a name that is reflected in some trait of the baby or some hope or wish the mother has for the child. As if the pronunciation of the babies name wasn't enough, they then run through various Kanji and verify all possible meanings that the name may be interpreted as. Still not done... the chosen Kanji most then be aesthetically pleasing to read and write. Finally, there are fortuitous or lucky stroke counts, and there are unlucky stroke counts. When all is said and done the name still have to match cultural expectations for a male or female name. This is way often generations have popular name trends--someone figures out a good combo and it permeates from one person to another. The current generation is full of names like: Eriko, Yumiko, Yuriko, Emiko, etc. Popular joke goes that if you forget a girl's name just mumble two syllables and a "ko" and you're usually in the clear....
Rain aside, I had a lot of fun & it was nice to get out and talk to a variety of Japanese children & adults, male & female, young & old. Sure as hell beats drilling honorific verbals in a classroom.
