#10 Table Manners

1. Have you ever eaten in a restaurant in a foreign country?
Where? What did you eat? Did you make any mistakes?
Yes, I have eaten in some British restaurants.
I ate PIDE, PANINI, sandwiches, and so on.
I don't know if I made mistakes.
I should have learned about the British table manner...

2. Did you learn anything?
In Britain, it was more often that I shoud eat food with knife and fork even sandwiches!! I wanted to have that with my hands. There are many table manners that I do not know. To know about that will make table happy or not.

#8 Weddings

1. Do you think having a massive wedding like Korea or UAE is a good idea? Why?
I think it is good idea, because the bridal coule's family, relatives, friends, acquaintances, neighborhoods and their friend... many people can celebrate them. It would be a very big event and many people remember the wedding.


2 What do you think about eloping? Is it a good idea or romantic? Why?
I do not think it is a good idea or romantic.
If I did that, I would not be happy forever.


3 Have you ever thought about having wedding in a foreign location like Hawaii?Would you do it? Why? Or Why not?
Yes, I have. I have thought about it in Hawaii because I have heard some people did it there and it was good. If I have lots of money and time, I would like to have wedding in a foreign location.


4 What is your ideal wedding?
My ideal wedding is that it would be a good memory in my life and my family, relatives and friends celebrate us dearly.
I would like to have weatern style wedding so far.


5 What would you definitely do, wear or go to on that big day? Why is that important?
I would wear an beautiful wedding dress and thank my parents.
It is important because I want them happy to see grown-up daughter.


6 Have you ever been to a foreigner's wedding? What was your impression?
I have never been there.
So, I want to go to a German wedding. Because there is an unique cooperative activity between bride and groom for the first time.
In Japan, bride & groom cut cake together, but in German it is different from Japan.
There is a cut of cloth, and bride & groom cut it out with scissors like heart-shaped.
Then they go through the heart-shaped hole as he is carrying her in his arms.

#7 Superstitions

1. Do you think it is important to talk about superstitions in CCC class? Why?
I think it is important to do so, because we should know other country's superstitions.

2. Is communication affected by superstitions?
No, I do not think so, because when I have a communication with people, I do not care about superstitions.

3. Do you believe in superstitions? If yes, what superstitions do you believe ? Why do you do, use, or believe in them?
When I was a child, the answer was yes. I believed a superstition, which it thunders, I have to cover my bellybutton. I just feared thunders.

☆Which part surprised you the most?
　　In Denmark, they dangle food on Christmas tree! If I would do that in Japan, I would dangle some momijimanjyu...:)

☆What kind of Danish food do you want to try?
I want to eat the food being hanged on the Christmas tree!!

#6 TIME

1. Please explain a time proverb in your culture.
A time proverb shows that time is important, so we should cherish the time and should not miss good timing.
Examples：
・時は人を待たず
Time does not wait for us.
・時は得難く失いやすし
It is difficult to get time, and easy to lose it.

2.What do the following proverbs mean:
・Time is money.
Time is important, so we must not waste it same way as money.

・A stitch in time saves nine.
The longer you leave a problem, the more difficult to solve it.
=Better safe than sorry./Forewarned is forewarned.

・There's no time like the present.
It is the best chance to do something.
Now is only the time.

・Let's meet at 4, if I'm not there by 5, leave without me at 6, and I will be there at 7.
I don' t know the meaning, but I guess that the proverb means time passes so quickly that we think.

#3 The Language of Clothes

1. Do you judge people according to what they wear? Why?
I think I do because what they wear related to their calacters and feelings.
But it is not good to judge by just what they wear.

2. Do you think Japanese society puts an importance on clothing when judging other people from another country?
I don' t think so.

3. What colors are you wearing now? Do they reflect your mood?
I am wearing black clothes, they don't reflect my mood.

☆FRIENDS☆

1. What are some subjects that you will never discuss with a friend?
I have no idea.

2. Do you have different friends for different parts of your life?
Yes, I do.
If so, how are they different to you?
I have some friends whom I want to talk about my distress, others whom I want to enjoy just talking with them.

#2 Death & Funerals

#1.1 In Japan, most people wrap their lunch box, and so do I.
When I went to Australia, they didn't wrap their lunch box.
This is interesting...
I do wrap because the wrap is used for napkin.

#2.1 I have never been to a forein funeral.
How would I express condolences to my international friends or a host family...
I would say "I'm sorry for your lost".


#2.2. The language of Clothes :
a.Why are Japanese designer label crazy? Why is what you wear so important?
I do not know, but I think that they think unique design is nice.
What you wear shows your character, image and so on, I think.
So, what you wear is important.

b.What does “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” mean to you?
We don' to have to dicide what it is just see its outside.
So..we cannot understant it until we know the inside.

#1 Where do you go when you die?

I think I would go to a world which exsists in the sky aboooove .
We cannot see it from here.
There are no war, and no conflict.
So it is a peaceful world.
My family, friends, neighbor...
everyone go there and meet again.
I hope that what I am saying would be true...

why do Japanese have death memorial services 1 month, 1 year, 3 years, 7 years, etc. after a person's death?
I think these day are for the person to pray.

Class #14 Politics and Reflections

If I were working for the UN, I would like to work at UNIC, UN information center as a translater. So, I'd like to translate articles about what Japanese people think about the UN into English, and show them to the other country.

Working with different cultures

I don't know what kind of work I will best in.

Then I'll introduce one aspect of different buisiness culutures between Japan and Germany.

In Japan, basically, worker in company start to work from 9:00 to 17:00.

On the otherhand, in Germany, the buisiness culture is flexible, for it is usual that they are late more than 1 hour! And also, some people go home around 15:00 in some cases.

Unbileavable !!!

I think Japanese is too serious...

#12

Feelings

1.Are feelings, emotions and facial expressions universal across borders, happy, sad, etc..?
I think these expressions universal.
happy---smile.
sad---cry, look at the ground
angry---frowning face

2. Try to name as many feelings as possible in Japanese.
うれしい　　　 delightful
たのしい　　 joyful
くやしい frustrated
こわい afraid
なさけない miserable
しんどい hard feelings
しあわせ happy
ここちよい comfortable
めんどくさい bothered
たいへんだ oh, no!
どうしよう oh my god
おどろく suprised
あんしんする relief
うらやましい enviable
ざいあくかん guilty feeling
こうふん heat
なやむ worry
きんちょう nervous
まよう dither


3. Are there any feelings in Japanese that cannot be translated into English?
きょうしゅく
おかげさま
おそれいる
うちひしがれる（？）

I think there are more feelings in Japanese like above and vice versa.
In that case, we might have different mentalities.

Greeting

1. How do you greet members of your family?
-I just say "ohayou". I don't bow to my family!

2. How do you greet people that are important in society?
-I say "ohayougozaimasu" with bowing and smile.

3. Do you greet people from the opposite sex in a different way?
-No. I do the same way.

4. Do you hug anyone? If yes, who and when. If no, why not?
-Yes. When I meet forigners' friends, I do that.
But in Japan, I don't because it depends on cultures.

World Religions --How to Great--

1.Is it different for different people?
--Yes.
EX) "Ohayou." to family and friends. I sometimes wave my hand.
"Ohayougozaimasu." to teachers and acquaintances.

2. Why?
--It is natural.


3. Do you touch people when you talk to them?
--No, I rarely do that.

Why?
--I do not know.
They don' t do that to me, too.

Buddhist Activities

1.Buddhist cuisine
This is the dish which is not used meat and seafood.
It comes from Buddhist policy that warns against butchery.

2.Ikebana
Ikebana is a part of Japanese culuture which express sensitivity.
It comes from flowers offered before the tablet of the deceased.

3.The word of "Esyaku"
The Buddhist meaning is to clear up Buddhist scriptures.
The Japanese one is to make a bow.

4.The word of "Kakugo"
The Buddihist meaning is to disabuse and become enlightened.
The Japanese one is to give up and make a dicision.

5.Obon festival
This is a Buddhist festival to recognize ancestral spirits.
Also, this is an event to have feeling of thankfulness for repaying an obrigation.

CCC pribrems

In the Performing Arts program at the Japan Society, we present an artist or company from Japan at the rate of roughly one program per month for the fall-to-spring season. These performances range from traditional theater to electronic music, and part of our task is to identify our audiences, get them into our theater, and then encourage them to expand their interests so that they'll come back for something different
Among the many disciplines of performing arts, contemporary music and dance are easiest to present because they are more readily grasped in a cross-cultural setting. Japanese theater is perhaps the most difficult because so much of it depends on language
In the last four years, the Japan Society has presented five traditional noh and kyogen programs. These art forms have been preserved as they were 600 years ago, which means linguistically they are as obscure to contemporary Japanese people as they are to non-Japanese people. So, the accompanying translation is kept very simple (like Western operas, we use a synopsis in the playbill and minimal subtitling) because the poetic texts, which are delivered very slowly and often with much repetition, need only to be communicated broadly. With so much to be absorbed beyond the plot — the movements, the music, the song — we leave it to the audiences to find their way.
It's a different story with contemporary theater. The issue of translation is always a tenuous balance of providing as much line-by-line information as possible without distracting too much from what is happening on stage picture. What's more, delivering that translation is no easy task: theater is live and often fast-paced and one performance can differ from the next.
Beyond the obvious language barriers, there is also the question of perception. In the case of noh and kyogen, its standing as a "high art" makes it rather easy to fill seats. Not so with modern theater. I think this lies in the largely Eurocentric education system in the United States. You could assume a liberal arts major to have studied Ionesco, Brecht and Beckett (or at least to have heard of them), but probably not any Kara Juro or Yukio Mishima.
In my view, contemporary theater has the greatest potential to connect audiences and communities around the globe. Modern dramatists have used theater to respond immediately to their environments and to current world events. Take for example the series of plays about 9/11 that have taken the stage since the Twin Towers fell. Or Japanese playwright/director Yoji Sakate who referenced the 1999 Tokaimura nuclear power plant accident in a play that premiered a month later. It's this immediacy that makes contemporary theater so important and so compelling.
Shukan ST: Dec. 14 2007

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/shukan-st/english_news/essay/2007/ey20071214/ey20071214main.htm?print=noframe
(2009,4,26)