So... a new school year has started (I'll get into that at a later time). Today I want to talk about something that I found rather interesting that was brought up in one of my third year middle school classes. The class had finished reading a brief summary of the movie E.T. (which one of the book's characters claims is "the most moving movie"... well it's the comparative/superlative chapter so I guess they needed some kind of example...). Anyway, the book makes a point to mention that E.T. says "I'll be right here," (while pointing at Elliot's head) in the scene where he's leaving Earth; they even have a hand-drawn picture of it. After the class had finished reading, Shingo-sensei asked me where my 'mind' was located; I pointed to my head. Next he asked the class (in Japanese) where they thought their 'mind' was; the students pointed to their hearts.
I had noticed in the past (while watching subtitled anime) that sometimes a character would use the word 心 (kokoro) which I had learned as 'heart' but the subtitle would say 'mind'. With this in mind (haha), I realized that some of the Japanese characters I've learned actually make more sense:
意 feeling, thought: combines kanji for sound (top) and mind (bottom)
忘れる (wasureru) to forget: combines kanji for death and mind
思う (omou) to think: combines the kanji for rice paddy and mind... well I don't know how the rice paddy fits in but it's important that they're using the kanji for heart/mind instead of say 'head'.
So, later that day in the teacher's room I was getting more details from Shingo-sensei and telling him how in America we say that thoughts come from the brain and feelings come from the heart. He said that in Japan thoughts and feelings come from the heart.
me: So, what's the brain used for?
Shingo-sensei: Memories.
me: Ah, that's the same then.
It was kind of weird though, when I first saw the description in the textbook about E.T. pointing to Elliot's head I thought that there must've been some mistake. I hadn't seen the movie in many years but I thought that in an emotional parting a person (or alien) would be more likely to point to the heart (the source of the feelings); like the song 'You'll be in my Heart.' I thought that the textbook might even have purposefully modified their summary just so they would be able to have a footnote about how some people consider the mind to be in the brain (the textbook tends to stretch the truth every now and then- I mean, in the same chapter they called E.T. a "cute, little alien"). But of course when I found a screenshot online, E.T. really was pointing to Elliot's head. Hmmm, I guess I need to watch the movie again.
Speaking of pointing at people- in Japan it's totally fine to do so (well it's not rude anyway). Also, consider this situation: a coworker calls out in your general direction, "Hey, can you help me with this?" and you say, "Who, me?" while pointing to yourself. OK stop and consider - where would you be pointing? In America you'd probably point to your chest when referring to yourself. In Japan you point to your face.
OK, one more story- a few months ago I showed some of my students my middle school yearbook that I brought from Massachusetts. As I passed it around the class and told the students where my picture was I heard some of them say things like, "Wow, everyone looks the same!" or "I can't tell them apart!" - which I found amusing. As I was comparing my yearbook to the Hashi Junior High School yearbook later on I noticed that in my yearbook nearly all the students were smiling (and at the time had certainly been encouraged to smile by the photographer) but in the Japanese yearbook there were no teeth showing and most students (and teachers) looked serious. I've read that in Japan sometimes smiling and laughter are looked down on (especially by older generations) because it makes a person seem somewhat frivolous and maybe even like a slacker. Thus in something like a yearbook where you are representing your school and possibly how you feel about your own education you're encouraged to be serious. Of course if some Japanese teenagers are taking pictures with their friends then everyone will smile. And as a final fun fact: the Japanese word for 'smile' and the one for 'laugh' is actually the same word 笑い (warai).
And now for an amusing photo:
Notice that the company's slogan appears to be: "YOUR CHEEK MIGHT DROP." This is probably based on the expression 'your jaw will drop' though I can't fathom why they changed 'jaw' to 'cheek' and why it now seems like a possibility rather than a certainty. Also notice- the company has been around for a full two years! (Why do they even mention it at this point?)
Hopefully there will be more next week!
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