:: Earth girls are easy ::

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Two nights ago my prim and religious Japanese instructor presented the class with a new set of characters to learn, one of them indicating the state of being liked (in Japanese, there's no direct equivalent of the verb "to like", so you wind up saying something along the lines of "[as for myself,] there exists a fondness for reaggaeton"), a character which resembles the symbols for woman and child squeezed together. It is, she noted, a convenient mnemonic device for an all-male class (of 2, that night) to remember: female + child = desired. She then giggled, a tad embarrassed.

A pause followed during which my classmate and I silently debated exactly what she meant by that and whether she was aware that she could be perpetuating the stereotype of the Japanese male psyche being sexually obsessed with squealing young schoolgirls dressed in sailor suits. We then nodded slowly and the lesson continued.

Later, when discussing the personality of a hypothetical character, she mentioned that a colloquial term for someone thoughtful and considerate was "easy". After informing her that "easy" had a quite a different idiomatic American English meaning, the case of Whose Language is More Fixated on Lust, a case I thought settled mere minutes beforehand, became muddled once again.

Posted by morland @ 05:45 PM

:: Comments ::

I had thought you were going to say that the one thing men truly desired was to date a woman that had children. In my experience this is not the typical male fantasy. Your cultural read on her statement seems dead on however. As for being yasashii it is easier said than done; and by that I mean it is easier to label yourself or another as thoughtful and considerate than it is to go through all the trouble of being thoughtful and considerate in actuality...especially in New York. Though, as you have witnessed first hand Morland, the citizens of Japan tend to be a tad more courteous to befuddled tourists than your average New Yorker.

Posted by: Jyon-san on January 26, 2006 06:56 PM

reggaeton, i spit on you.

Posted by: yenny on January 27, 2006 08:09 PM

spernoga-san, you are easy in the american sense of the word, and could easily make your way in this grand city through the frequent exchange of sexual favors for directions and occasional foodstuffs.

Posted by: dr. glasses on January 28, 2006 10:40 AM

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