平成二十六年九月十五日 －－ 月曜日
A. No warm-up
B. Test on pages 60 and 61 of Nakama and on the Godzilla-Hello-Kitty-at-Harvard story.
C. Classwork -- read the following and then write about it. Questions are in the homework section below.
Oyakoukou:
Making your parents happy
(photo by imhotep123)
I was talking to my mother on the phone the other day. At
one point she said to me jokingly:
たまには親孝行してちょうだい。
The rough translation of this is "Do something to make me
happy sometimes", but the key phrase here is 親孝行, pronounced oya ko-ko-. Oya means 'parent' - that's
simple enough. The kou-kou part is the difficult one to translate, a word that
doesn't exist in English. In dictionaries it's most often defined as
"filial piety". It means to respect, to obey, to serve, and to make
happy. It's never (or very rarely) used in any other context other than when
referring to parents.
Japanese society is based a lot on having respect for ones elders,
and the most immediate elders are parents of course. So it's natural that a
phrase that specifically means 'respecting your parents and making them happy'
exists.
Making one's parents happy doesn't just mean doing stuff for them.
A child that is happy and successful in his or her own life is often referred
to as doing well in the 親孝行
department, though he or she is expected to treat his/her parents
well at the same time.
The flip side of 親孝行 is 親不孝 (oyafukou)
- disrespecting one's parents, making them unhappy. I recently read this word
being used in a very sad context, on a Japanese blog. The blogger had gone to
the house of a twenty-something year old colleague who had died in an accident,
to pay her respects and light an incense stick (お線香 せんこう）for his spirit at the family
shrine （仏壇 ぶつだん）. She suddenly had an uncontrollable
surge of anger, and muttered out loud, "How could you be so stupid, to die
so young?" She was immediately ashamed of herself, because his parents
were right there. Instead of getting upset at her though, they told her with
tears in their eyes, "Please, scold him well. He shouldn't have passed
before his parents. He is a 親不孝者 (oyafukou-mono, a person who commits
oyafukou), making his parents so
unhappy." Somehow, that story really touched me. I guess for a
loving parent, the ultimate oyafukou a child can commit is to die while
they [the parents] are still alive
"chichi
no on wa yama yori takaku, haha
no toku wa umi yori fukaku"
父の恩は山より高く、母の徳は海より深く
Paraphrased:
What is owed to father is higher than a mountain; mother’s benevolence
(what she has given us) is deeper than the ocean.
恩 おん favour;
favor; obligation; debt of gratitude
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わたし は おんし の せわ で この しごと を ついた。
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I got this job thanks to my (honored) teacher.
Respect for the Aged Day is when people
convey their feelings of continuing gratitude and wishes for good health,
whether grandchildren to their grandparents, children to their parents, or
anyone to the elderly in their neighborhood. This national holiday falls on
the third Monday of September each year, and aims to celebrate the longevity
of, and show respect to, the elderly who have devoted themselves to society
for many years. While there are several theories about its origins, it is
thought to have spread across the country after a Respect for the Aged party
was held in a rural village in
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While these days Respect for the Aged Day
is held on the third Monday of September, until 2002 it had been held on a
different day. Do you know on which date it used to be held?
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You'll find out later.
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On this day, and the days surrounding it,
Respect for the Aged parties are held for the elderly living in the area. The
elderly gather together in public facilities such as community centers to enjoy
entertainment such as choir and dance performances with the participants and
local residents. Souvenirs such as red rice, Japanese sweets, and magnifying
glasses are also sometimes presented. Grandparents are invited to the classes
at their grandchildren's kindergarten or nursery, and elementary school
students write letters of thanks to their grandparents. The day is a good
opportunity for the different generations to strengthen their bonds.
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Each year before Respect for the Aged Day,
the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare finds out the number of people over
100 years of age. Local municipalities also sometimes give gifts or souvenirs
to elderly people who are celebrating milestones that year, such as Sanju (turning 80), or Sotsuju (turning 90). Those
who turn 100 or more receive a visit from the city or town mayor. They are
then congratulated and presented with a congratulatory gift.
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Naturally, households with elderly family
members convey their gratitude on Respect for the Aged day, but families who
live apart get involved as well. Often, this involves not only saying thank
you, but also giving gifts. Meals, flowers, handmade crafts by the
grandchildren, and photos of the grandchildren are high on the list of
popular gifts given on this day.
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When Respect for the Aged Day was moved to
the third Monday in September, in order to appease the opposition of elderly
associations, the Act for the Welfare of the Aged was also amended in 2001,
and September 15th was established as Elderly Day, with the following seven
days established as Elderly Week.
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Now it's time for the answer to our
quiz...
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So on what date was Respect for the Aged
Day held up until 2002? The correct answer is September 15th. The system of
moving some national holidays from their traditional date to a specific
Monday is known as the Happy Monday System. With the five day workweek
becoming more common for civil servants and within medium-sized companies,
the law was amended to form three-day weekends by making some Mondays
holidays. This was done with the goal of increasing workers' leisure time. In
1998, Coming of Age Day and Sports Day were moved to Monday, and in 2001
Marine Day and Respect for the Aged Day were also moved.
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宿題 しゅくだい Homework:
Read the items above and then do the following --
1. Think of four (4) ways that American culture is different from the aspects of Japanese culture described in the reading
2. Write English paragraphs explaining each of these four (4) differences (4 paragraphs)
3. Write a fifth (5th) paragraph about how these aspects of Japanese culture might, or might not, be beneficial to the world at large.
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