One comment you often hear from foreigners after living in Japan for a while, is that Japanese people like to compliment them on their chopstick skills.
'Wow, you can use chopsticks!'
'You use chopsticks very well!'
'O-hashi jouzu desu ne!'
Some of my friends who have lived in Japan longer than me are quite fed up with this by now. They say it always makes them want to say, 'wow, you can use a knife and fork, well done!'
Of course, the chopsticks compliment is just a friendly thing to say, and not meant in a patronising way. It's just that so many people react in exactly the same way. Do they think that foreigners can't use chopsticks? Or that using chopsticks is really difficult to master? Because you can say 'I've lived in Japan for four years', then five minutes later, people will still express surprise at your ability to use chopsticks. I tell you, I'd express much, much more surprise if someone had lived in Japan for four years without learning to use chopsticks.
In my case, I fumble even using a knife and fork. Though I eat with chopsticks almost every day, I rarely even receive this common compliment. When I do, I always feel rather proud, ha ha ha. The thing is, though, learning to use chopsticks is not very hard. Even for an uncoordinated person like me, it took me a couple of days to get functional, perhaps a few weeks to get good at picking up small or slippery things. Most of my Australian friends, who've never lived in Asia, can use chopsticks.
The thing that amuses me is when, I have been talking to people only in Japanese for some time, and *then* they see me use chopsticks and exclaim 'wow, you can eat with chopsticks!' As a hint, the former skill takes much more effort to develop than the latter!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hehehe - the pain of being a foreigner in Japan.
ReplyDeleteI can fully appreciate the feeling that is felt (and I only visit occasionally). I think however we look at this the wrong way... of course for us, people are always saying it - the other way of looking at it is by asking how often would each of these people say this to a foreigner? How often do they talk to foreigners full stop? In some cases, the answer is they talk to foreigners often, but I bet for a lot of Japanese they rarely speak to foreigners - and in this case, it's just a pretty innocent thing to say.
Of course - that doesn't help the people that have to hear these sorts of things ALL of the time. It is not, however, the worst thing someone could say to you... and I think you've got the right way of looking at it.
Oh - and for the record, I was hopeless at learning chopsticks, so I figure your learning in a few days was well done. Also - not all Japanese know how to use chopsticks "properly"... so we should never feel too bad.