Dec

Teaching in Japan: A Cultural Encounter with Language

by Janine Boylan on December 3, 2012

The letter J symbolizing a cultural encounter with language while teaching in Japan (Image courtesy of Thinkstock)

What sound does the letter J make?

This Lesson Brought to U by the Letter J

After over a dozen years of formal “foreign language” instruction, I should be able to communicate in a language besides English with ease. But I can’t.

Sure, I have managed enough language to have ridiculous conversations like trying to explain, in Russian, why some Americans drink green beer on St. Patrick’s Day. And I’ve been able to ask, in Japanese, where to find baking soda in a grocery store. Unfortunately, those may be my greatest language accomplishments.

More typically, my cultural encounters with language seem to involve a lot of very puzzled looks.

The Sound of the Letter J

Fortunately, I do feel pretty comfortable with English. In fact I felt comfortable enough with it that I took a job teaching English in Japan. In my school, I was the only native English speaker. The other teachers had grown up speaking primarily Japanese, but they were quite fluent in English (thank goodness—they could answer all the questions I had about living in Japan).

So I felt confident when one of the other teachers asked me a phonics question: What sound does the letter j make?

I knew that there wasn’t an exact transferrable sound in the Japanese language so I could understand why there was a question about it. But, then again, this was someone teaching English, so why was she asking me this?

She explained that the school supervisor had told the teachers that the letter j makes the sound “joo” (rhymes with shoe), and they should not be teaching that the letter j makes the sound “juh.”

No, I explained, j says “juh.”

By this time, a group of teachers had formed around me. One cocked her head as if to challenge me, “Are you sure?”

In this cultural encounter, my confidence flickered. But, no, I knew the letter j was pronounced “juh.”

The Sound of Respect and Honor

The teacher circle scattered, but the whispers remained like ghosts. For several days, one or another teacher would graciously ask me again about the letter j and how to pronounce it. If the truth is questioned long enough, you begin to doubt it. Was I wrong?

Then, as if by magic, the questions suddenly disappeared. The letter j magically and confidently had the sound “juh.”

I’ll never know exactly what happened to make this change. I assume it was the work of the teachers. And, looking back, now I see that it wasn’t phonics or language that was the issue.

The unspoken issue in this situation was the Japanese value of respect and honor.

Questioning the supervisor’s knowledge might make him lose face, which may be one of the worst infractions in the Japanese culture. The situation needed to be handled tactfully so that the teachers could teach the correct lesson and the supervisor would not be embarrassed. The teachers knew this and must have handled it accordingly.

They also, wisely, did not take the headstrong American girl (me) directly to the supervisor to explain what sound the letter made. Instead, they continued to gently question me until the truth became clear—even though I felt like their motive was to change my mind about it!

At the Heart of Communication

I learned that a critical part of communicating in any language is learning what’s behind the words—the culture, the ideas, the traditions. Memorizing the sounds the letters make and how to form verb tenses is the easiest part of communication.

Although the j linguistic cultural encounter happened in another country in another language, this “Oh, I see” moment often helps me in my daily attempts to communicate. It’s important to consider not only what is being said, but what isn’t being said.

And, by the way, finding baking soda in a Japanese grocery store is a piece of cake.

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Image of the letter J courtesy of Thinkstock

Janine Boylan 2 Comments

Cultural Encounters/Japan/Language & Culture

Oct

Crossing Cultures Over an Artichoke

by Janine Boylan on October 22, 2012

Artichoke, illustrating a food known by some only when crossing cultures

Artichoke in a farmer’s market
© Janine Boylan

Food for Thought: What’s in a Name?

I saw this artichoke today at a local farm stand, and it provided some food for thought on crossing cultures.

I grew up eating artichokes. In fact, they have always been one of my favorite foods. Now I am fortunate to live near acres of artichoke fields. And I have learned that artichokes are delicious served marinated, barbecued, and, of course, deep fried. But my favorite is still simply steamed.

So when my friend and her husband came to visit from Australia, I had to cook artichokes. I thought of it as a bit of a cultural encounter.

I prepared the thistle flowers: pulling off the small, tough outermost leaves, trimming the top and stem, and then pruning each remaining pointed leaf just below its needle-sharp barb.

My friend and her husband both cautiously watched the progress as we all speculated how early people determined that these things were edible!

After the artichokes finished steaming in a giant pot, I pulled them out with tongs and placed one on each of their plates.

Unsure how to even begin to eat it, my friend watched me for clues. I talked her through carefully peeling a steaming leaf and scraping off the tender end. She hesitantly tried it and was pleasantly surprised by the taste.

She devoured the leaves until she had to pause for the thinner prickly purple leaves. I coached her through this phase of the artichoke.

And then I showed her how to carve off the odd thick fuzz to reveal the prize: the heart. She loved it all and wondered how she could get artichokes where she lived.

Her husband had been watching this process with raised eyebrows.

His artichoke sat untouched on his plate, and I found our why. His food for thought about this cultural encounter: “As a rule, I don’t eat anything with choke in its name.”

Oh, I see.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

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Crossing Cultures/Language & Culture

Oct

The Awe Inspiring “Aha Moment” Defined

by Sheron Long on October 1, 2012

Awe inspiring cartoon about having an aha moment

Mathematically, Aha Moments Happen Daily

If I follow the numbers above, it sounds like everyone can learn something new everyday. That’s awe inspiring!

Hey, I’m over 30 and, like the girl in the cartoon, didn’t know about the “diet Coke and mentos thing.” I tried a quick experiment, and it all erupted into an aha moment for me.

Then I found out that not everyone knows what an “aha moment” is. Really? At least, it wasn’t in the dictionary until last August.

Is “Oh, I See Moment” a Synonym?

The concept of the “aha moment” has been around, well, probably forever and in English language usage since 1939. At least, that’s the date assigned to the phrase in August 2012 when Merriam-Webster added it to its dictionary and defined it as “a moment of sudden realization, inspiration, insight, recognition, or comprehension.”

Now that Merriam-Webster has had its aha moment about “aha moment” and listed the phrase in its pages, we want to see OIC moment (short for “Oh, I see” moment) added as a synonym.

The term came into existence in 2012 with the start of our company. Like “aha moment,” OIC moment is a realization, but on a broader spectrum, from the practical to the epiphany.

The Full Range of OIC Moments

In my view, an OIC moment can be as everyday as the one in the cartoon above. Or, it can be a significant, eye-opening, awe inspiring experience like the one recounted by will.i.am, front man for The Black Eyed Peas, in a statement in Oprah Winfrey’s magazine O.

Here will.i.am tells how traveling across cultures to countries outside the USA helped him see America with new eyes and decide how to show the world what Americans are like.

How OIC Moments Inspire

Now will.i.am’s new song “Reach for the Stars” has traveled even farther than the famed musician. Transmitted from Mars through the speakers on Curiosity’s rover, the song not only has enjoyed an inter-galactic debut, but surely has become the number 1 song on Mars. Take a listen and see the lyrics:

If the video does not display, watch it here.

The song was purposely recorded with an orchestra to show human collaboration and to present a timeless sound that translates into different cultures.

I love how the lyrics make you question if even the sky is a limit. And I can imagine this song inspiring a long reach for the stars. That’s what will.i.am intended when he said,

“Today is about inspiring young people to lead a life without limits placed on their potential and to pursue collaboration between humanity and technology. . . .”

It is will.i.am’s kind of inspiration that leads to OIC moments or aha moments, whatever you want to call them.

And now that Merriam-Webster has weighed in with official recognition, we can give them their due. After all, here’s the defining characteristic of an OIC moment—when it hits you, your life is never quite the same again. Now something that powerful is awe inspiring.