Rocking in Hakata

So, the government of Japan decided to follow the silly US economic policy of granting “stimulus” checks to the people. (I call this silly because I’d rather the US government just let us keep our money to start with, not pretend to be so magnanimous in doling out cash we used to be holding… I didn’t actually pay Japanese taxes last year, so this is free cash for me. Sorry Japanese taxpayers! I promise to spend it here.) If you’re currently a registered foreigner in Japan, you’re probably eligible for the payments - but you should check. The money is being meted out by the local governments, so if you don’t live in Imabari City, this may not be of use to you.

I checked this site and found that the notices and application forms were mailed out on Monday (the 13th of April). Comb through what you thought was junk mail and double check. You’ve got until Tuesday, October 13th to apply for your stimulus money. I’ll do a quick summary first, and the application procedure second. Read more…

Deas Customary Drivel, Politics, Unsolicited Commentary, 日本語

There’s some type of regulation here that says politicians can’t advertise just willy-nilly however they want. That sounds great, but one result of this system is that something like 2 weeks before any election, a ton of political cars wind up driving around blaring their names and campaign slogans. It’s enough to make you want to guzzle antifreeze (which is not something I recommend, even if it is sweet - they make it a scary green for a reason, folks).

I translated the Japanese Wikipedia subsection on these cars below. (Forgive any errors, you Nihongophiles out there! It was a quick job.) It was appropriately located in the article for propaganda cars. Ha ha. Anyway, remember that the above 3 minute 20-odd second long video was culled from more than 10 minutes of senkyo kaa footage that I took over about a 4 hour span. Sheesh!

選挙運動車

公職選挙の選挙運動期間にのみ活動する。ワンボックス車やバスを改造したものが多く、屋根の上や後部に候補者が立ち、駅前などの繁華街に駐車して演説などの選挙運動を行う。公職選挙法の規制を受けるため、活動時間・内容には制限がある。また、走りながら流す内容は、キャッチフレーズ（政策）と候補者名・所属政党名の連呼に留まる。

多くの政党や労働組合、市民団体などでは、規制を受けない通常型の宣伝車も保有する事が多い。当然、流す内容も街頭演説の告知や機関紙の宣伝など多岐に渡る。

- Japanese Wikipedia Article on 「街宣車」 or “Propaganda Cars”

Cars Used in Political Elections

These cars are limited to use during elections for public office. Modified or converted “one-box” cars and buses are common. Candidates stand on the roof or on the rear of these remodeled vehicles and perform political campaign activities, such as making speeches while parked in front of a train station or other business area. In order to conform with the Public Office Elections Law these activities have restrictions on hours and content. The content that these cars may announce via loudspeaker while driving around is also limited to announcing the name of the candidate, the name of the political party with which they are affiliated, and their policies and catchphrases.

Many political parties, labor unions, and citizen’s groups also posses unregulated propaganda vehicles. Naturally, the announcements that their “street oratories,” announcements and bulletins publicize is wide-ranging.

As awful as these cars and the dins they create are, I actually wonder if I’d trade the current slow frog-in-boiling-water American-style 2 year train-wreck model for it. I mean, a 2 week barrage of sun-up to sun-down blaring bull horns, repetitive drive-bys, and legions of waving white-gloved hands is bad…

…but at least it ENDS.

Deas Customary Drivel, Media, Politics, Unsolicited Commentary, Video, 日本語

This is totally unrelated to Japan, but timely. I submitted my absentee ballot today. It’s weird to watch everyone count down to November 4th. It’s not just election day - it’s my birthday, too. And this year is pretty tense. Sigh. If you’re a person willing to be persuaded, go do your homework and make your own mind up. If you’d like to hear my own, personal rationale for my vote for the McCain-Palin ticket, feel free to email me. (deas at rocking in hakata dot com) Don’t bother if you just want to yell at me for being conservative. If you’re lazy, and more prone to watching videos and reading quick, oversimplistic summaries, try this post. It’s no substitute for getting really engaged for yourself, but it might prove useful. That’s all you’ll hear from me on this topic on my blog. In any event, just hold tight - the longest presidential election in history is almost over, and it’s about time.

Deas Customary Drivel, Politics, Unsolicited Commentary

During the speech writing correcting season, I have found that 60% to 70% of the entries I am put in charge of deal with the same topic. And there are two really popular topics that just swap in and out of the majority position. These topics are eco-friendly / anti-global warming stories and pro-peace / anti-war stories. Neither are particularly surprising to me, knowing Japan.

Also not particularly surprising is that Japan focuses on war stories that foster empathy and paint it as the victim. The most obvious case is in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hiroshima seems to be the focal point around here, though that may just be a geographical bias - more students have actually been to Hiroshima than to Nagasaki. The other stories that are routinely used in the classroom as well as in contests are those where the ground war hit Okinawa. Never mentioned are the military excursions in Southeast Asia, Pearl Harbor, etc. And I suppose I can understand that. But the lopsidedness is pretty sad sometimes.

I’ve read countless stories of children being killed, digging graves for family members, and people asking for water. It makes me choke up on occasion. (I got out of teaching a class earlier because I didn’t feel like I could correctly “enthusiastically” explain the vocabulary earlier without disrespecting the lives lost in the story and making light of a really grave situation. Also, the fact that I’m American can be awkward too.) The good thing is that students here all agree on a basic truth of life: war is awful. We definitely agree on that point.

Deas Customary Drivel, Politics, Unsolicited Commentary

I was asked to be the speaker at an ICIEA (Imabari City International Exchange Association) event this month, and recently decided upon my topic. I’ll be speaking about political correctness in American English. The announcement is up on the official page here: English / 日本語. It should be kind of interesting. The official title of the talk is “Political Correctness in American English: Changing Times and Shifting Diction.” It will cover, or at least deal with the following themes: why words change, meaning what you say (and saying what you mean), politics and politeness, using euphemisms, distancing language, social acceptance, and describing others. Of course, the scope may broaden or shrink as I approach the actual talk, but it’s a good starting point.

Anyway, while I was fooling around on the internet looking for ideas, I came across an interesting term I’d not heard of before. 「言葉狩り」 or ことばがり (kotobagari). It means “word hunting” literally, but refers to diction choices made in Japanese based on politeness and social acceptance guidelines strikingly similar to the American concept of political correctness. I’ve gathered a few cool examples of the euphemism treadmill at work in Japanese from the Wikipedia post on this topic (English / 日本語) that I hope I can use alongside some American English equivalents.

For example, a school janitor in Japan used to be called a kozukai-san (小使いさん “chore person”). Some felt that the word had a derogatory meaning, so it was changed to yōmuin (用務員 “task person”). Now yōmuin is considered demeaning, so there is [sic] shift to use kōmuin (校務員 “school task member”) or kanrisagyōin (管理作業員 “maintenance member”) instead.

This is a situation roughly equivalent to the odd titles we are now giving to jobs in America. For instance, janitors are not janitors. Now they’re called custodians. (Or in joking hyperbole, sanitation technicians.) Secretaries are administrative assistants. You see how the pattern works.

Anyway, this is a bit of a “bleg” (blog-based beg) for some help. If you’re proficient in Japanese and you’re aware of some words that have taken a trip down the euphemism treadmill or other word choices that may be related to “word hunting,” please please please post them in the comments section!

Deas Customary Drivel, Politics, Unsolicited Commentary, 日本語

This was fascinating for me to hear. This clip is Mark Steyn commenting about the nature of dual language countries and his personal confusion over why any country would choose to become such a place. I teach English as a second language in an area of Japan that honestly doesn’t see much value in English. This leads me to sometimes wonder if I’m actually teaching useful language or merely indulging a quasi-fetishistic view of foreign languages. I’m still not really sure one way or the other and I sway from day to day on the topic. Also, as an immigrant here, I’ve learned Japanese to the best of my ability so that I can go about daily life and have adventures and whatnot. I very rarely feel upset when something is not translated into English (which is actually considerably rare in most of urban Japan) - the only recent exception being a survey for foreign people. But that was no big deal, really. For those who aren’t quite sure what Mr. Steyn’s referencing, Senator Obama was taking questions from the crowd in Georgia recently when someone asked about bilingualism in America, implying that they’d like to see the country move in that direction. Here’s Senator Obama’s reply.

I don’t understand when people are going around saying, ‘We need to have English only.’ They want to pass a law ‘We want English only.’ Now I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English. They’ll learn English. You need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about how can your child become bilingual. We should have every child speaking more than one language. It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is merci beaucoup, right?
(YouTube)

Now, I’m really not attempting to get into a political brawl here, so let’s just leave the presidential politics at the door. Instead, I’m curious about your thoughts on bilingualism. Or rather, a country’s purposeful transition to multiple mainstream languages. (In other words, I know most of you, like me, are totally thrilled with learning new languages, and we see the value in that as individuals. But what’s your take for society as a whole?) This question also leads into topics like immigrant assimilation and involved communities versus linguistically segregated ones. So…thoughts?

Deas Customary Drivel, Politics, Unsolicited Commentary