Feelings and Expressions

1.Are feelings, emotions and facial expressions universal across borders, happy, sad, etc..?
I think most of them are universal across borders, because I was pretty sure how people were feeling when I was in the United States at the age of 16. I think, however, it would be more difficult to see how Japanese thinks or feels, because we don't express our feelings as much as other people do like Americans or others.

2. Try to name as many feelings as possible in Japanese. ( 10 minimum) Then, write the English translation.
嬉しい、楽しい、わくわくする、悲しい、辛い、いらいらする、疲れた、眠たい、どきどきする、緊張する、
そわそわする、怒る、物悲しい、切ない、不安になる、興奮する、絶望する、驚く、寂しい、恋しい、愛しい、ほっとする、羨ましがる、恍惚とする、諦める、面倒くさい、好き、嫌い、
happy, cheerful(happy), be excited, sad, feeling tough, be irritated, tired, sleepy, nervous, be tensed up, restless, angry, melancholy, sad, be worried, be excited, feeling hopeless, surprised, lonely, miss, feel something/ someone dear, relieved, envious, tranced/ attracted, giveing up, like, hate

3. Are there any feelings in Japanese that cannot be translated into English?
yes, i think there are many in Japanese, like above, i couldn't find a proper English word for 切ない. It is not exactly just sad, like 悲しい neither 物悲しい.

Greetings

1. How do you greet members of your family? (mother, father, older brother, younger brother, grandparents, etc.)
I greet members of my family in a casual way, like not "Ohayougozaimasu" but "Ohayo."

2. How do you greet people that are important in society?
If the people that are important in society, I would be very polite: "Ohayougozaimasu," "Konnichiwa" with a bow.

3. Do you greet people from the opposite sex in a different way?
I don't think sex does not matter when i greet people. I try to be polite to everybody if they are strangers to me.

4. Do you hug anyone? If yes, who and when. If no, why not?
Yes I hug my parents, my greandparents, and my close friends as I meet them or say good bye to them. Also, when they are kind and made me happy, i give them a hug.

Answer for the questions from class #4

I try to be polite as if the person is stranger, or older than I. For instance, I would say "Ohayougozaimasu" "Konnichiwa" or "Konbanwa" with a bow and with a smile. On the other hand, I don't think I bow when i greet my friends and family. I greet them in more casual way. I don't even say "Konbanwa" often to them, because it sounds too formal for me, so I use "yahho-" "Hi" "Hey" a lot instead of saying "Ohayougozaimasu" or "Konnichiwa."

If the person is a close friend of mine or in my family, or whomever I feel close enough, I touch him or her as I talk. I cannot imagine touching teachers or people whom I have never met before when I talk because I think it is too friendly. Also, if I were in his or her situation, which means I am talked to by someone who is not familiar with me, I would feel awkward.

Buddhism in our dairy lives

How is my daily life affected by Buddhism?

When we really want to apologize to someone, we don't just say "gomennasai" but also put our hands together. This reminds me of monks as they were given food, to show appreciation to people. I think this putting hands together shows our faithfullness to others.

During Obon, my family members go to my grandparents' house and visit graves to pray for my ancestry's rest in peace. I think this is related to Buddhism because I think the man idea of Obon is religious.

I think taking shoes off is also coming from Buddhism, because people does not wear shoes on as they enter temples. I think it is similar to Islam, as to think temple or minaret is a holy place.

In dairy life, we sometimes talk about what we want to be "if we were born again," and this idea of transmigration i think is coming from Buddhism.

Some of us like to burn incense in our room for enjoying the smell and for relaxing. There are many kinds of incenses sold in stores as candles in earsten countries which has numbers of christian people. I think that we tend to use more incenses than candles because of the Buddhism custom.

Yes, Looks Do Matter

N.Y. Times

YES, LOOKS DO MATTER
By PAM BELLUCK
Published: April 24, 2009


On “Britain’s Got Talent” TV show, the Scottish woman named Susan Boyle became famous because of her song on how looks matter in our society and on how we stereotype people. Some social scientists, studying the science of stereotyping, say that there are reasons we quickly judge people from how they look. Judging people from their looks is same as telling whether an animal is a dog or a cat. Susan Fiske, a professor of psychology at Princeton, said that traditionally, most stereotypes can be divided into two broad factors: whether a person seems to be spiteful or gracious and whether a person seems dangerous. She also says that women are also subdivided into traditionally attractive women, who don’t look superior and have baby-faced features. In addition, attractive people are “credited with being socially skilled,” Professor Fiske said, and they might be, because if a person is beautiful or handsome, people enjoy him or her jokes and want to spend time together so that it is easy to be socially skilled. On the other hand, “Unattractive people may find it much harder to get all these things because people don’t find them out,” she said. She also said that age plays a role in forging stereotypes. In fact, her research has shown that racial and ethnic stereotypes are easier to change over time than gender and age stereotypes.

link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/fashion/26looks.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=yes%20looks%20matter&st=cse


I found this is dealing with cross culture communication because it is about how people stereotype others with a glance. I judge people from how they look often, especially when I am walking down on Hondori street alone. I would think that if a girl is wearing skirt in white and other warm colors, she might be more feminine and sociable than what I am, who prefer wearing pants in black or dark colors. This, stereotyping people, does not have any valid reasons, but when I share this idea with my friends, who are girls, nearly have the same idea as mine. So I found this connects with stereotyping Japanese girls in Japanese society. By reading this article, I found it very interesting that racial and ethnic stereotypes are easier to change over time than gender and age stereotypes. In Japan, there are less people who discriminate Korean people in younger generation than in older generation, which is around our grandparents’ age. In America, Mr. Barack Obama has become the first African-American president. However, we neither have had female president / Prime minister in our histories. This shows the evidence of what this article said.