Why I don't speak Japanese

[imomus]

From mid-July until the beginning of October I'll be in Japan. It's shameful that, although I pass for some sort of 'expert' on, or ambassador for, Japanese culture, and although I consider the country in some way my adopted heartland or home from home, I still don't have any real command of the Japanese language. Sure, it's become second nature for me to shout 'itai!' if I drop something heavy on my foot, or 'kawai' if I see something cute, or 'hidoi!' if I'm annoyed. But these are just phrases I've parroted from the Japanese people I've lived with over the years. I've never made any systematic attempt to learn verbs and declensions and adjectives, or take lessons.

Being me -- someone who's always put a lot of work into justifying my laziness -- I've adopted some rather self-conscious postures on this. For instance, I've quoted Paul Bowles on the joys of remaining a foreigner. Bowles was preoccupied with the theme of 'the expatriate coming up against the incommensurable otherness of the host culture' (in the words of Douglas Shields Dix, who adds 'usually disastrously'). Bowles claimed never to have learned Arabic despite living in Tangier for decades -- in fact he spoke more than he admitted, conversing with his friend Mohamed M'rabet in a mixture of Arabic, French and English.

'Remaining a foreigner' and 'preserving the incommensurable otherness of the host culture' obviously relate to my love of ostranenie -- they are estrangement devices, verfremdungseffekt. The counter-argument, of course, is that understanding might well be a route into a whole new level of strangeness, and that not-understanding one culture is pretty much the same as not-understanding another, and finally rather boring.

This is where my second argument might kick in. It goes something like this. 'Where the housewife is lazy, the cat is industrious'. When the left brain is blocked, stumped or impaired, the right brain takes over. To the non-Japanese speaker, Japan becomes a succession of scents, textures, sounds, colours, lights, experiences, tastes, shapes, emotions. And in fact this is very much the way I experience Japan: as a rush of nonsensical impressions, a delicious regression into the primitive and the sensual, the lower cortex, the right brain, the pre-lingual, and pseudo-babyhood. In Japan I'm a homunculus, a cute and happy sensual monster in need of a mother, preferably with gigantic breasts filled with Calpis milk. Add a bit of jetlag and some de-contextualisation and you get the best psychedelic drug experience there is, a sort of bio-cultural high.

Despite these arguments about 'respect for the otherness of the other' and 'creative disorientation' and the joys of being a 'cute monster', I probably will speak passable Japanese one day. Especially if I can find a language learning system like the Flash cards used by Meguro Language Center.. Some of their course materials are free for download on their website. They're kind of trippy in themselves.

Comments

The Japanese view of Western popular/rock music

[(Anonymous)]

Momus, I was planning on getting your email address from ILM and sending you an email, but the site is down. And I have been unable to find your email address elsewhere. So I hope it's okay if I ask you some things that are related to this topic. I'm studying Japanese here in Japan this summer and need research on Japanese vs. Western music.

Japanese jazzers have always been a good example of how Japanese viewed American music. Because jazz was a distinctly black American creation, Japanese were hyperconscious of how their version of jazz compared to American jazz. Most Japanese, no matter how good of a jazz musician they were, viewed black jazz as more "authentic." Only blacks could play "real" jazz. Some argued that Japanese had the ability to play jazz well, but lacked the capacity to improvise at the same level. Others argued that Japanese didn't have the physical ability as their bodies are smaller and less powerful.

Some Japanese played straight jazz in the American way, but others tried to make music that was more "Japanese" by using traditional Japanese instruments like Koto. Of course the purists saw this as gimmickry.

So, Momus, I'm wondering what the younger, pop/rock generation thinks of Western music. Are Western musicians seen as more authentic? Is it "cool" for teens and young adults to like Western music? And if it is, are they attracted to it because it's foreign? Can bands get away with ripping off Western bands because nobody will know any better (the Polysics spring to mind)? Or does the younger generation have the Nihonjinron mentality, where the Japanese way is the best. I walked up to a Japanese alterna student who was wearing a Losalios (Japanese jazz-rock band) shirt to say that I liked that band. I talked about the bassist, Tokie, in broken Japanese ("Losalios ga tsukides"). The student looked me up and down, probably thinking, "who is this guy?" Will he never wear the shirt again because I'm an American and Losalios was HIS band.

Does the Japanese music fan/musician understand English lyrics? I wonder if my adoration of Akiko Yano, Miharu Koshi, and Masami Tsuchiya/Ippu-Do would be less strong if I knew everything they sang.

I don't know if anybody will read this because the topic is old. Momus, I would be very greatful if you could share your thoughts/experiences. Please comment here or email me at psouth@uiuc.edu. Anybody else can of course respond as well.

Patrick South