Black or White

Japan is a land of contradictions. On the one hand, it is made up of very subtly shaded gray areas, but on the other hand there is black and white with no gradation whatsoever. Honne versus tatemae, uchi versus soto, Nihon versus gaikoku, etc. This black and white "us vs. everyone else" ideology can lead to some pretty shocking attitudes from the last people you'd expect to hear broadcasting wholesale ignorance or outright racism. Here are three episodes from only the past week.

On Tuesday I was at a certain elementary school. As ALTs who go to elementary schools have probably noticed, it's "let's studying multiplication" time for the ES second grade students all across Japan. Second graders across the country recite their multiplication tables, forwards and backwards, for teachers so that the teachers will sign off on their little progress card. Well, on Tuesday one of the little boys had just recited for the vice principal (he didn't get a signature, though; he was using his fingers to count while reciting) and the fourth grade teacher came up to me and asked in a very loud voice "do you have multiplication in foreign countries??" I was shocked! An educator, a young woman (late 20s, early 30s) who is responsible for education youth, apparently thought that only Japan studied multiplication! After giving her a bit of a look and replying that yes, of course we have multiplication in other countries, she then proclaimed "oh, but only Japan studies with multiplication tables, of course." I have to admit, it was a little enjoyable to sketch the multiplication tables that I learned with which didn't go to 9, like Japanese tables, but all the way up to 12. She then made a huge, theatrical deal about how amazing it is that other countries study just like Japan, and that was the end of that. Or so I thought!

The next day I was at a completely different school halfway across the island from the Tuesday school. It was the lunch break, and I had my iPod out because I was writing a parody of Andrew Lloyd Weber's "Heaven on Their Minds" from Jesus Christ Superstar and I needed to listen to the lyrics to get the meter right. Well, a teacher came up to me, did a double take, and then innocently asked me "oh, you also have iPods in America?" Also? Also? The iPod was invented in America, Apple is an American company, Steve Jobs is American, this is a huge industry, and you think that it originated in Japan? I have to admit, my jaw dropped. This is a woman who has lived abroad. She's in her early 30s. She was a member of my English Conversation class for awhile. I was stunned to hear that from her of all people.

Thursday was the last episode. This didn't happen in a school; it happened in my coworker's adult eikaiwa class. The class had just finished reading a selection about how important time-saving is in the US. Half of the selection talked about how supermarkets began so that people could do all of their shopping in one place without having to go to the butcher, baker, and candlestick maker separately. The second half talked about fast food, where you can order, receive, and eat your meal in 20 minutes or less. After finishing reading, a young woman raised her hand and asked "Can Americans cook?" I nearly threw something. This woman is a pharmacist at the local hospital, she speaks English, she is educated and has been to college, and yet her reaction to an article in a textbook that mentions fast food for one paragraph is to posit that the entire population of the USA can't cook. As if Japanese people can't cook because the instant cup noodle was invented here. Luckily I wasn't the only one flabbergasted as a number of the other class members immediately jumped in to say that yes, of course Americans can cook, and that the article was probably talking about people on their lunch breaks which only last 45 minutes or less at most companies.

All three of these people are young, connected, and educated. Two of them are responsible for educating impressionable young children. Yet from these three people have come some of the most ignorant and even racist statements I have ever heard. I would never even consider asking a Russian, Arabian, or German person if they have multiplication. I might not know every brand, but I know that Volkswagon and Toshiba aren't American. One thing I've thought of is whether or not there's a Japanese equivalent to the well-known English expression "think before you speak." I would really like to think that my coworkers are not as unaware as they sometimes come off. It would be so much more palatable to believe that they weren't taught that basic concept of thinking before you speak because your first thought is probably really dumb. In any case, it makes me miss the US where at least racism is viewed as negative and ignorance is something to attempt to eradicate.