Having spent the day trying to squeeze English words into the non receptive minds of Japanese children I thought I would treat myself to some Yakitori as I meandered along the paved street leading back to my apartment. To the uninitiated Yakitori is basically grilled chicken on a stick, and there happens to be at least five street vendors conveniently stationed along the main street for anyone who fancies a tasty, if sometimes sticky, snack on the way home.
Whenever I approach one of these vendors I'm always apprehensive about speaking Japanese. It's invariably at the end of the day when I stop in for my fix of chicken-on-a-stick and I barely have the ability to string two words together in English let alone another language entirely. Tonight was no exception. As I approached the Yakitori window I noticed the two old ladies nattering away to themselves at the back of the store. Happily plugged in to my iPod I waited for them to finish their conversation then one of the old ladies wandered over. As she approached she mumbled something I didn't catch.
"Sorry?" I said (in Japanese of course).
"I said do you like Yakitori?"
"Oh. Yes, I like Yakitori"
The old ladied turned to her friend. "Did you hear that? He likes Yakitori!" She turned back to me. "So you like Yakitori then!"
"Oh yes" I replied. "I like Yakitori very much"
"English?" she asked, more as a statement than a question.
"Australian" I replied.
"You have a Japanese girlfriend yet?" she asked, as if she knew someone who might be interested. I don't know why it is but it seems foreign boys are not allowed to be single in Japan, especially not as far as the old ladies are concerned. They are always trying to introduce you to someone.
"Umm, yes I have a Japanese girlfriend, thankyou".
"Oh good" she said as she handed me my chicken and that ended our conversation.
It's funny, but back home a conversation like that would never happen, especially not with a foreigner. People are too busy keeping to themselves to bother taking an interest in those around them let alone people on the other side of the counter. At home the staff at the convenience store are more concerned with getting you out and away as quickly as possible so they can go back to whatever it was they were doing before you so rudely disrupted their life. Here, especially with the older generation, it's quite the opposite. I don't know whether it's out of some kind of fascination because you are a stranger (in more than one sense of the word) or because the people are generally more friendly. What I do know is it can be both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing on those days when you feel the pressures of a foreign world pressing in around you, and it's a curse on nights like tonight when you know you're just going to fall all over the language you've been studying so hard to get right.
Tonight was one of those nights when I fell all over my Japanese and stumbled home embarrassed. Later I realized I'd forgotten to get my bike from the station and had to stumble back again, smiling politely to the old Yakitori lady as I passed.
"It was delicious" I murmured when she saw me. She just smiled and went back to her grill. Probably marvelling at just how odd these foreigners are.
2 comments:
LOL. Nice post. True indeed.
It's a friendly prejudice. That's the way it was when I lived in Taiwan, anyway. Sometimes it's nice (you're a minor celebrity just for being a foreigner, get special treatment, etc.), sometimes its irritating. Mostly I got used to it, but then when you go back home you really notice its absence.
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