Someone once wrote (and it very well may have been Carrie Bradshaw) that the worst thing one New Yorker can do to another is make sustained and unprovoked eye contact. Some New Yorkers have clearly taken this to heart, evidenced by the avoidance of eye contact on all forms of public transportation and in general, daily interactions.
Yesterday (Monday), though, we learned quite a good deal about the importance of both humility and sincerity (and eye contact) in the Japanese culture (the phrase これからおせわになります comes to mind). The idea of this kind of a community, the kind in which you put yourself under the care of your neighbors, and vice versa, is for the most part a foreign notion (no pun intended). And it is certainly foreign in a New York City that is often too fast-paced to remember its manners. Just something I've been considering.
昨日（きのう)「これからおせわになります」をならいました (learned)。
「ほんのきもちです」もならいました。
にほんには、みんなさんは やさしい (kind) ですけど
ニューヨーク（にゅうようく）には、みんなさんはまだ やさしくない。
3 comments:
まじで Asad, the Sex in the City comment flawlessly integrated into your dialogue leaves me speechless. As a native New Yorker, I'm going to have to say that it's not quite that we've forgotten manners, but that we've to adopt a new set in public. そうゆうもんなんだよ。
Asad, you are doing quite well in class, and seem to have a good understanding of the fundamentals of Japanese. Certainly there are differences in manner, and sometimes those things are harder to learn than the language.
all right, there's a lot in there i don't know. like the entire japanese bit. and the new york part... my life in new york is confined to starr library, where everybody knows everybody except for now since they brought in more computers and people from other departments have invaded. well... there you go, i'm not very polite and wouldn't fit in in japan. but wow, they are polite in japan. and that is げんけ。or i hope it is, because i can't think of any other japanese word to use.
Post a Comment