The Hub and Swearing
I am feeling a bit slow today. Yesterday Jana and I went to the Tsukuba University Bookstore! I finally bought Hiking in Japan, now I can finally read about the great hiking in Hokkaido.
After we finished at the bookstore we made a stop at Starbucks and then we were on the train to The Hub where we met up with the other ALTs. At the Arakawaoki station we walked passed a group of six to seven high school/college aged guys, they started trying to get our attention by swearing. The f-word was dropped a couple of times, along with sh**, and I think bit**. Jana and I ignored it and continued on our way.
Now this brings up an interesting question, is using American swear words offensive in Japan? In Japan, there are no strong swear words, in fact I think baka (or idiot) is a normal swear word and maybe something like hag, as*, or bit** have a Japanese equivalent. Don’t get me wrong, I think swearing is bad in any language but is it offensive if they have no idea that the words they are saying have no equivalent in Japanese.
Here are to examples of the F-bomb in Japan
One of our ALTs was teaching last week and she had a student who said “Fu** you” to her face. She talked to the teacher and the teacher told the student not to say the word and the student had to apologize to the ALT.
I had a student write the F-bomb on the black board in the back of the classroom. I said nothing to the English teacher, I just walked to the back of the classroom, erased the word and told the student not to do it again.
Now, if these two happened in America I would be mad but here, I think it is best just to pull the homeroom teacher aside and state, “That word is the meanest word to say/write in English and I think the students need to be aware that they shouldn’t say or write it because it is that bad.”
I find that it is better, not to make a big deal out of the swearing because then it gives the words more of an importance and gives them more of a meaning. If I don’t react then the students figure it is a normal word and forget it in a couple of minutes. It is important to let them know if they used this word in the United States they could get into trouble.
Jana and I got to the Hub early and decided to get a head start on drinking. Man, The Hub does make some wonderful drinks. Over the course of the night, I decided to stray away from the drinks that I knew and I tried a couple of the ones that I had never ordered, they were all great. This is the first time we have been out drinking in ages and it was wonderful to chill with everyone after the meeting we had with interTalk, the night before.
The conversation ranged from what we had been up to that day to what our plans are for the next school year. Katie went to Ueno Zoo and gave us her thoughts on it. Andrea is playing the clarinet with her middle school band so we were able to hear about the band stories. Beth, Meg, and Brooke, had hung out in Tokyo for the day so they passed around their cameras so we could look at all of the pictures.
I swear that the bathroom at The Hub is haunted. I walked in, sat down, and the light above the toilet turned off. I got a bit freaked (it was a little dark) so I moved to other stall in the bathroom. As I was using the toilet the hand dryer started going off and I know for a fact that I was the only one in the bathroom. No one else believed me but I swear that it is haunted.
After we finished our fish and chips Kevin, Andrea, Jana, and I went out to Karaoke and sang for an hour. We had two drinks there and sang our hearts out. When we got back we found that Beth, Meg (Beth’s friend), and Brooke had moved tables and were chatting with two gentlemen from the States. I sat down next to Kevin when I realized that he had orded a jumbo Long Island Iced Tea and informed him that he was sharing with me. We finshed that and then decided to split a second one. After we finished at around 11:30 we headed back to Arakawaoki, from there the group split in two, Andrea and I took a taxi back to our apartments, and the rest of the group headed out go dancing.
Once I got back to my apartment, I downed two and half glasses of water and then I headed off to bed. I love going out and having a wonderful time but I really hate feeling slow the morning after.
The Girls at the Hub
Katie and Jana at The Hub
The Suptown Girls
A funny sign at the Hub
The Drinker's Prayer
Today, I have Japanese class and after that Jana is coming over to help me laminate some Karuta cards, and then later in the evening we are going to watch Grey’s Anatomy and Hana Yori Dango 2.