Welcome to the March 2024 edition of my newsletter. I remain focused on my younger son’s impending graduation. Both my sons graduated in 2020 (my older son from college and my younger son from high school) so they had no graduation then. My older son’s high school graduation was impacted by an emergency room visit to the hospital for my mother. This one will be a family affair to remember (we hope).
POLITENESS VS. STATUS
On the topic of family, I’d like to bring up my father-in-law (FIL). He’s in his early 80s and one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. He was a high-level executive with Minolta and spent six years running a plant outside Toronto, followed by six years in northern New Jersey. My wife did half of her growing up in North America. (She did a foreign exchange program to experience a year of college in Japan.)
After moving to Canada, one of the first things my FIL had to learn was how to ask someone to sit down when they were in his office. It wasn’t that he didn’t know English. It was more of a status issue and what he was translating in his head from his experience in Japan. Part of speaking Japanese is that suffixes (and some prefixes) can change depending on the status of the both speaker and the listener in a situation. A person of lower status speaks neutral or more flowery to someone of higher status. A person of higher status speaks neutral or bluntly to someone of lower status.
When someone would come into my FIL’s office, he would ask them to sit down. However, because he had the highest status in the plant, he would translate in his head what he would say to a subordinate in Japan. He would tell them to “Sit down.” It would come across in the Command form in English. For his subordinates in Japan, this was expected. In North America, though, employees got offended, thought they were in trouble, or would just be taken aback by the directness of it.
Because of this, my father-in-law had to learn variations like “Please sit down” and “Will/Won’t you please sit down?” Once he did this, people adjusted instead of thinking they were in trouble.
This isn’t the only thing he had to learn when working with employees in the US and Canada, but it is the best example for showing the cultural divide he had to cross. Some things have changed in Japanese businesses. (My FIL retired nearly 30 years ago, so this may be less of an issue.) However, at his going away party before he returned to Japan, my FIL was serenaded with original lyrics on an Irish ballad, so I like to think he got it right.
BOOK NEWS
I expect to finally have the new edits on my latest WIP completed within the next few days. I’m at the point where I’m confirming things like whether or not they were using honey for antiseptic in the 16th century, etc. The working title is The Samurai’s Soul. I know it’s taken me forever.
FREE BOOKS
I’m participating in a giveaway for free Christian books to download. Please click here or on the picture below to download.
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SOCIAL MEDIA
As always, please check out my latest Japanese history posts on social media. I’m doing a series on the history behind Shogun. Click here for Instagram. Click here to reach my YouTube channel. Some recent YouTube videos are below.
The History Behind Shogun: The Inspiration For Lady Toda Mariko
The History Behind Shogun: Did Spain and Portugal Divide The World Between Themselves
Did You Notice This Point in Shogun Episode 3
The History Behind Shogun: Did Adams Almost Not Reach Japan
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Please send emails to walt@waltmussell.com.