Post office
Two things happened today.
1. My student who was planning on going to new York cancelled because of the London bombings. She said "Dangerous!" I said "Different country!" But I can kind of see her point. I guess the fear is that terrorists everywhere are stepping things up. Of course, she feels fine going to Tokyo where her son lives, even though the week before she said Tokyo is next to be attacked. (See blog about "Madrid, London, therefore Tokyo.")
2. In a different class, my student said that she heard that if you mail a letter in the US it might not arrive. Now I can't say that the USPS couldn't be improved but in my whole life I think I've had zero, maybe one letter not arrive. Not counting of course, ones where it was my fault.
It's not so much that people might believe that such a thing is possibe but like I've said in previous posts (eg hospitals) it's both the readiness with which Japanese ASSUME nothing in America could possibly work and also how mishaps in japan are flat out erased from memory. To put things in perspective for you researchers in 2066, for the past few months there have been (more than the usual) number of scandals involving tires falling off Japanese airplanes, trains derailing and crashing into apartment blocks killing dozens, doctors lying on paperwork, Mitsubishi selling vehicles knowing they have life-threatening faults, NHK embezzling money and so on. I'm not exaggerating. Check the papers. Something new every day.
This is not to say that japan is a bad place or that the US is better, simply to say that I'm always bewildered at how the Japanese manage to maintain this image of Japan being a paradise where everything works and the US (a place that builds microchips, hard disks, jets. wins lots of nobel prizes, and so on) and being just barely a notch above third world as far as institutions go.
It's as if your friend Joe every single day had a car accident in front of your house as he picked you up for the work carpool and you were like "Hell no, no way I'm getting in the car with Mrs. Jones down the road. I heard she's nuts. Not like good ol' Joe here. You're fine with Joe at the wheel. Hey didja hear about that car accident the other day? I don't know a single detail but it must have been Mrs. Jones because we all know what a maniac she is. Yup. I guess she did it. "
At the same time Europe, because they make cool handbags, is also like Japan. Ie, everthing works wonderfully. If someone told my student that "Oh, in this country in Europe, if you mail a letter it might not get delivered." chances are she'd have a hard time believeing it. Not to knock Europe, but I doubt the postal services of France, Spain, greece, et al are any more a model of efficiency than thier American counterpart.
I won't even go into problems I've had personally with the Japanese post office. it really doesn't matter anyway.
Oh, I almost forgot. She said that she also heard that many Americans have these special "security boxes" for thier mail because it's simply to dangerous to leave one's mail in a mailbox. Boy I can't tell you how many times I've had people come up and just take my mail right out of my american mailbox. You have to keep an eye on that thing. As soon as the mailman comes I go running outside with a shotgun and a german shepherd and grab it before someone else does.
Anyway I explained to her the concept of PO Boxes. But the sad thing is, there are PO Boxes in Japan. They're exactly like US PO boxes. A small locker inside the Post office and you rent and get a key for. But that's the beauty of people's sterotypes. If you have a PO box in Japan, it's because it's convenient. If you rent a PO box in America it's because it's dangerous.
here's how these conversations usually go:
"yeah we have those things in America. They're called post office boxes. But people usually get them because they're convenient or for thier business or something like that."
"No, dangerous!"
"yeah but you have them in Japan."
"Ah, so. That's right. Mm, very convenient."
"Yeah, well, that's why people get them in America."
"No. Very dangerous. America danger. Japan safety. We can't understand -- why do American people steal mail?"
This is when people tune me out and start addressing each other in Japanese to back themselves up. Even though I understand japanese. They back each other up and go "Right? It's dangerous, right? You saw that TV program too, right? TV said it's dangerous." This is related to what I call the "Respect for Guys on TV" or "Respect for Guys in White Lab Coats" phenomena. If someone fitting that description says something, it enters the collective psyche as a solid fact and takes decades to wear away.
1 Comments:
Hey, brother:
A friend of mine was kind enough to add your blog to LiveJournal Syndication. That means that whenever you update your blog, it'll appear on a collection page of blogs, so's I can sort of keep track of several people at the same time. (It's a poor man's RSS feed collector.)
Anyway, if you know folks who are on LiveJournal, they can add/view your blog by going to:
http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=orthonation
Be careful out there. Gojira sightings are up.
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