Foreign image of Japan
I sometimes like to talk to Japanese high school students about tourism and interesting sightseeing spots in Tokyo and outside of Tokyo. It seems somewhat close to their lives, and relevant, because it gives them a chance to talk about their city and their country in English, and it gives me a chance to teach words like “sightseeing,” “tourist,” “foreign tourist,” “travel,” “travel abroad,” “take a trip,” “school trip,” and “field trip.” I think this is useful vocabulary. Being useful makes it valuable. How valuable is mute.
But, it’s often a difficult lesson, because the fact is that I know more about Japan than they do - more history, more geography, more about current events, etc. I’m far more aware of sightseeing spots than they are. They don’t really know much about their own city or country. Some of them, sure, but most of them, not much at all. And, even among those who do know a sufficient amount about Japan to suggest sightseeing spots, they still might not have the language, or the confidence to speak up and answer my query in class.
It makes me consider the life-span of information. There are some things that I know, that I’ve learned either at school or on my own, that I think are so big, so influential, so important, that it’s impossible that most people don’t know them. How could anyone not know the years of the First and Second World Wars, for example? Or, how could anyone not know who the Beatles or Michael Jackson were? How could anyone mistake the most popular current movie with the greatest film of all time? To me, these things are inconceivable. But it turns out that most people - even adults - don’t know most things, even things that I consider ‘common knowledge.’ It seems that information has a life-span of about ten years. The current crop of high school students doesn’t know anything about Harry Potter, for example, because those books and films pre-date their lives. They never heard of Barak Obama. They don’t know who the Prime Minister of Japan is. They can’t tell me Emperor Naruhito’s name (the current Emperor), or where he lives.
This isn’t a thing with Japanese teenagers. Canadian and American high schoolers are just as vacuous.
Foreigners’ image of Japan
As a strategy to prompt my students, I tell/suggest to them the Foreigners’ Image of Japan. Basically, I’m feeding them with information that they can parrot back to me. This is really when I learn how little they know about their own country. With few exceptions, foreigners’ image of Japan comes entirely from television and movies, and features things like:
* Mt. Fuji * hot springs
* ninja * Pikachu
* sumo * sushi
* cherry blossoms * Godzilla
* geisha * bullet trains
* rock gardens * Shinjuku
* earthquakes * Akihabara
* the Great Buddha * Asakusa
* Hiroshima