Japanese's way of talking and vague vocabulary

Last week, we talked about 社交辞令　and 曖昧な日本語　which are two unique ways of talking. If we look from these two forms, we will see that Japanese use various way of communication. They will try to read the situation first and then pick the way. That is interesting. These also express Japanese's way of thinking and treating people. They have to be polite as much as they can when they meet strangers, although they are Japanese. Because they don't know about their background much, so they try not to make any mistakes. I think it is a good idea to do if they talk with Japanese people the same as they are. They should be careful when they talk with the foreigners, since the foreigners might not be able to comprehend this culture.
Apart from the thing I said above, Japanese has lot of words which are difficult to understand and use, for example,　結構　which we saw from the Japanese TV program last week in the class. There might be another Japanese ambiguous words that we should talk about. One word I want to know about is 全然. Before I came to Japan, I studied that 全然　mean not at all and will be used only in negative sentence. After I lived here for a while, I learn that it can be used in positive sentence too like 全然大丈夫　which mean it is okay. In my point of view, some words can be practically used in another meaning although their literally meaning does not mean
like that. It quite surprised me ,because Thai language does not have some kind of these words, so I think maybe we can talk about this.

Communication problems

Last week, we talked about a lot of problems which occured from communication especiall, between foreigners and Japanese. I doubt that why Japanese don't want to say "No" although they know that they can not keep their word. Japanese students in the same group as me told me 2 reasons why they don't want to refuse other people?
The first one is that they afraid of ruining the conversation atmosphere. If they say "N0" their friends are probably either sad or disappointed. It reflect that they concern about people's feeling so much that they feel too ashamed to say No.
The last one is that they try to read the situation. They did not know what is going to happen in the future. No matter what they will say, they have to be careful. Even they know that they could not make it, they will say in tone of positive way so as to make other people feel alright about this instead of denying directly.
Apart from this, we still talke about another communication problems with Japanese people for example, how to use honorific expression word(Keigo) and body language. After we discussed about this, I found out that Japanese have complicating various way of communication not only when they talk with foreigners but also when they talk mutually as well.
Actually they try to set the rule of flowing conversation according to many factors like ages, gender and social status. Furthermore, they try to identify and specify people by talking. Everything have been set. On top of it, they always concern about people's feeling so much.
It is good if they do it with Japanese people as them, but sometimes it does not work when it come to the case of foreigners. Maybe Japanese have to adjust their perspective toward communication. Because each person have their own character, thinking and way of response, Japanese's communication rules might not be able to apply to use in every cases.
Anyhow the idea about Japanese communication rule is just only my opinion. I don't know anyone will agree with me or not?? I think communication topic is one of interesting topic that we should talk about. Since communication is not only talking but reflecting way of thinking and culture. Perhaps, we should talk about what can communication tell us?

Group discussion: Gender Issue

We talked about the question number 2 which is "Do you think that men and women are treated fairly (equally) in your country?"
We had 2 Japanese students, one British student and me.
Two Japanese students said that it seems equally in Japan. They think that men are high respectable in term of work, on the contary , women are high in term of family. They consider it as role division which is perfectly balancing.
In England, gender equality depends on case by case. Some case men are higher and some case women are. Toby think it is fair.
In my point of view, it is quite fair in Thailand in the way that they are treated and the way they treat. Thai men and women are equal. Women can be top managers, if they are qualified enough. It doesn't matter whether which gender they are.
Apart from this, we talked about miscellaneous thing for example, general manner. Toby asked Japanese about if woman and man were sitting near the door, when the class end, who will be the first person to walk out of the classroom.
In British's case, men will let the girl go first and keep the door open for them. But in case of Japanese, men will go first without caring about women.
Toby said sometime it was not equal that men have to be gentlemen and let lady first.
However, we can not tell that it is absolutely fair between men and women in each country. Because it depends on many factor like situation, people and their position.
If we judge from the video that we watched last week, we will see double standard between women and men in many ways. For instance, buying secondhand car, finding a job and making an appointment. Men seems to be privilege in almost every case. My question why men have been valued higher than women even though they are in same age, same qualification and same economical status? What is the attitude toward men and women?

Random photoｓ from Okinawa

My Golden weeken in Okinawa

On golden weekend, I came down to visit Okinawa.
I stayed 5 nights, and I really enjoyed travelling there.
I went to many interesting places for example Shuri Castle, Tamaudun, Nagasuku Castle and Okinawa world.
Apart from relaxing, I feel like I learned a lot about Okinawa history and Okinawa's circumstance.
I also found a lot differences between Japan's main island and Okinawa.
The firts point is Okinawa people's house.
Almost of Okinawa's house's roof will be placed with シーサー,the small dragon which is the symbol of Okinawa. It is probably because they have been influenced by China which have long relationship with Ryukyu Kingdom(Okinawa's ancient kingdow) long time ago.
The second point is there is no seven-eleven there.
I didn't realize it until I wanted to draw my money out from my Japanese book account.
I always get used to getting cash from seven-eleven, but my friends told me that there is no seven-eleven here. They have 3 main convenient stores which are CoCo, Family mart and Lawson. If I want to get my money out, I have to go to Famili mart, I think it was so inconvenient for me.
The third point is there is no train in Okinawa. The major transportation is bus.
Although Okinawa has monorail which is linked from Naha airport, it has only one line though.
It connect to only main place. If you want to travel in Okinawa, you have to take either bus or rental car. I think rental car is better because some sightseeing place can not be reached by bus.
I found a lot of Japanese tourists who rent a car for travelling in Okinawa.
The last point is there are buttload of children there.
As we know that Japan have a serious low birth rate problem, it doesn't matter in Okinawa.
I saw a lot of big families there. For example, when I went to the department store, I found some family that have 5 children. I was so surprised, because it rarely to find such a big family like that in the mainland.
From my point of view, I found mega differences in Okinawa from mainland. Although Japan government tried to equalize and develop Okinawa the same as other area in Japan. There are still a lot of dissimilarities. Although it is not a big deal, but it might be able to be a big problem in the future. That is the thing we should keep watching it..

Seminar trip

I found that Minamata is an interesting place. And it is not too difficult to get there. I want to learn more about Minamata's issue. Because water pollution problem occured almost entire part of the world. Even both goverment and activist tried to find resolution, the problems are still remained. Maybe it is time to think what should we emphasize most between economic growth or people and nature's security???

Herbivore Men: Social Problem in Japan or Japanese men Changing

Even I looked up internet about Herbivore men, I still can not tell that where does this idea come from? This word has been widely used among Japanese teenagers a couple years ago. Although I don't know where is this from, it doesn't matter anymore. One thing I know from reading some articles about herbivore men are two main stream attitudes toward this.
Middle aged Japanese men and Japanese conservatives against Japanese herbivore men, because they think that herbivore men groups are subverting Japanese manliness's idea. In their point of view, Japanese men suppose to be aggressive, proactive and independent. They also blame that Japanese herbivore men are weak and less responsible just caring about their own desire. Some of the oppose site said that Japanese herbivore men cause low birth rate problem in Japan. Amoung unmarried Japanese men, 50% of them are herbivore men. They also are not interested in girls so much as Japanese men in the past.
Apart from leading to low birth rate problems, they condemned that Japanese herbivore men made Japan have low economic growth as well, because they don't care much about getting money and having luxurious life style but wanting simple life. Opposite side consider Japanese herbivore men as a social problem in Japan.
While there are a lot of complaints about Japanese herbivore men, they themself think that it is just a changing in Japanese society. They just want to have their own private life not depended on society. They don't want to go out drinking with boss but want to spend their time on their hobby. They don't want to stay in the square that Japanese society expect them to be as a harsh, proactive and aggressive man. They think that money is not everything in their life,but live with their way is happiness.
We can not tell that which side are absolutely right or wrong. What do you think?
Japanese herbivore men are only changing in Japanese men or social problem in Japan????