By Hank Miller, (Hank is a former resident of Gloucester City who lives in Japan)
Westerners often find it takes Japanese a long time to make decisions.I believe the training for dicision making starts at an early age,when Japanese children are conditioned to be shy.
\”Which do you like,Taro,\”you ask,\”the red candy or the blue one?\”Taro will not respond because children in Japan never have to make decisions.\”Hazukashi disu!\”(\”He\’s so shy!\”)Interjects Taro\’s mother with a smile,clearly praising the boy\’s behavior.
And once will not be enough.She\’ll repeat \”hazukashii\”several times,which means embarrassed.(Just count the\”Hazukashiis\”next time you are around a Japanese mother and her child. I bet hundreds. Then imagine twins!)
It\’s no wonder Japanese kids are so shy-they are constantly told to be.While the child smiles and burries his face behind his mother,we never fine out which Taro likes,the red or the blue.So I suppose it should be no wonder that by the time students get to my creative writing class at the Miller home school it can take an entire 60-minute class just to decide on a topic for an assay.
This is not to say the students are doing nothing in class; they are thinking,trying to decide on what to decide.It goes like this:\”your next assignment is to write a 5oo-word essay.\”The class looks up at me-the students are horrified.I can see the question marks floating over their heads like in cartoo balloons.
\”But I have nothing to write about,\”says one student.\”me neither.\”Me neither,\” \” Me neither,\”they each answer around the table.
\”How about your trip abroad or your part-time job?\”
I suggest.\”That\’s a good idea,\”says one student. Another student plays with her eraser while another looks at her winnie-the Pooh pencil,sighs and says to her friend,\”Pooh-san kawaii ne?\”(isn\’t Winnie the -Pooh cute?\”)
\”What is your topic?\”I ask her.\”Pass!\”She says, as if my English class were a quiz show. II go back to the student who was showing promise with her topic.
She is deliberating.\”Which should I write about, my trip abroad or my part-Job? Do shiyo ka na?\”(Which?)Then suddenly, another student interjects and the question marks above her head change to exclamation points:\”Muzukashii!\”(Difficult!\”).
I can see the word written in bold red letters in the cartoon, accompanied by a lightning bolt. Exasperated, she crosses her arms in front of her on the desk and buries her face. Another student chimes in\”Muri!\”(\”Impossible!\”)While little muffins of steam pulse out of her head in her cartoon balloon
It\’s almost as if I can read their minds, and their horoscopes: Aquarius:
You will have a difficult time making decisions today Pisces: Postpone any decisions today, especially small ones.Libra\”Beware of making decisions today that will affect your entire week.Capricorn: Ignore people who try to push you into making decisions.
I go back to the girl who was making progress.
She has decided to write about her trip abroad and has even written the first paragraph of her essay.
Meanwhile, the girl with the Winnie-the-Pooh pencil is now adhering Disney stickers onto her electronic dictionary.\”Kawaii ne?\”(\”Cute\”) she says to her friend.
I wonder what this girl\’s\”O-baa-chan\”(\”grandmother\”) cart is going to look like when she\’s in her 80s. Suddenly, the chime rings sixty minutes have passed and not one decision has been made!
Well, one has. I turn to the girl who has already written a paragraph, but now she is sitting with a blank sheet of paper in front of her.
\”What happened?\”I ask.\”I\’ve changed my topic, \”she says. This is when I realize that we have fully completed the progress of decision-unmaking.
At times in Japan it pays to be somewhat of a mind reader.
Warm Regards from Kitakyushu City, Japan
Hank F. Miller Jr.
