Posts Tagged: chopsticks

Family — 6 Comments
14
Feb 09

Chopsticks and Smiles

Here’s a rare picture of Rikuto smiling for the camera, and he has every right to be happy – he’s only 18 months old, but can eat his dinner with chopsticks!

He also said his first English word yesterday… I was hoping for “daddy” or at least “google” (in the hope of striking it rich as the “Google baby”), but no. Rikuto’s first English word was “crash!” – the result of me pushing him around on his Thomas the Tank Engine car and screaming “Crash!” every time we hit something.

Incidentally, his first Japanese word was wan wan (doggy-woggy?) and he’s added korrya! (what the heck!) to his vocabulary, too. I suspect he got that one from his mum!

Japan — 19 Comments
17
Apr 08

The Same Old Questions

No matter how long you are in Japan, you will always be asked the same questions:

  • Where are you from?
  • Do you like Japanese food?
  • Can you use chopsticks?

The more adventurous Japanese will ask you questions about your home country:

  • Is summer as hot as in Japan?
  • Do you have cherry blossoms?
  • Do you speak English in England?

All these questions were recently asked of me by the dental assistant, just before I had my teeth drilled.

I can’t take it anymore!

I understand that because I’m a foreigner, people are interested in where I’m from and what I think of Japan. I am always courteous and answer politely, with a few well-practiced jokes included, but what I really want to say is…

Oh god! Here we go again! Leave me alone already! I don’t care where I’m from, so why do you? Of course I like Japanese food, what do you think I’ve been eating for the last decade? Can I use chopsticks? Yes, and I can spell my own name, too! Hot in summer? Al Gore says it is. Cherry blossoms? Now you’re getting desperate for conversation! English in England? Well, duh!

Now, I don’t mean to be rude, but it just never ends. I could be here when I’m 70 and still be asked the same things. At this stage of my life, I am really put off by these kinds of questions, despite the good intentions of the person asking.

What I’d like people to talk to me about

Normal things. Ask me if I watched that new drama, Hokaben, on Wednesday night. Talk to me about sport, politics, my favorite shopping mall… ask me about my family here and what it’s like being a dad. Ask me about my plans for Golden Week. Let’s chat about the new paper recycling rules, or what they are building by the golf course. Anything but chopsticks, natto, or a country I remember very little about.

Any of you feeling the same way?

Japan — No Comments
26
Oct 06

Would you pass the chopsticks exam?

In today’s Mainichi News, there was an article about a high school in Nagasaki that will start checking if applicants can use chopsticks properly. The ‘chopsticks test’ will be part of their entrance exams next year.

Officials of Sasebo Women’s High School said that they wound like to see if applicants have acquired the minimum levels of eating manners by checking their use of chopsticks.

The “chopstick inspections,” which include picking up slippery beans, will influence the screening process to a certain degree, officials at the school said.

What a laugh! Imagine not getting accepted because of poor manners at the dinner table! Perhaps there should be ‘knife and fork’ tests in our schools back home. Hmm…somehow I don’t think they’d get public support.

The article reminded me of when I was made to take part in a peanut eating contest at a Toyota Motor Corp party during my homestay. There were games laid on for the employees’ children and I guess they thought it would be funny to pit a foreigner against them. The Japanese generally assume that foreigners can’t use chopsticks so imagine their surprise as I skillfully picked up the peanuts and gobbled them down. The kids were falling behind so the mums stepped in and got me to pose for photos (peanut to mouth) while the kids caught up.

I still finished second and was rewarded with a koro koro, best described as a poor man’s vaccuum cleaner – a sticky tube on a stick.