1.Death and Funerals:
a. Do you have any international friends or a host family? If so, how would you express your condolences to them if a family member died? If not, then how would you express condolences to an American host family if their Grandmother died?
If I had to express my condolences to a Japanese friend, I would ask another Japanese person what the best thing to do is. I would want to know about the correct things to say.
b. Have you ever been to a foreign funeral?
I have been to one Japanese funeral in the past. When I was studying abroad in Nagoya, one of my professors passed away. Her death was very unexpected. One day she did not come in to work and we found out a few days later that she had passed away. All of the international students were informed about the funeral but none of us actually had any idea what to wear or what to expect. All of us dressed the best we could with the clothes we had and went to the funeral. At the funeral, all of the men were wearing black suits and the women were wearing black clothing. This service was a Catholic service held in Japanese. I am not familiar with Catholicism and because it was held in Japanese, I really did not know what was being said. I just followed along with what the others were doing. I stood up when they stood up and I sat down when they did. It would have been helpful if we had known specifically what to wear and what to do during the service.
2. The language of Clothes (preparation for next weeks topic):
a.Why are Japanese designer label crazy? Why is what you wear so important?
I think that designer label goods are in Japanese culture. I think that it is the norm to see models in magazines and on television wearing and using brand name goods. I think it is also because people try to keep up with the latest trends and styles. I think it is also important to dress appropriately depending on the norm in Japan. It is a type of conformity.
b.What does “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” mean to you?
To me, this phrase means that you should not make a judgement or form an opinion about something that you do not know much about. What you see on the outside of something or someone may not reflect what is on the inside.
3 comments:
I can imagine that attending a funeral at a foreign contry is not easy..
I think you made a good point on giving your opinion about designer lavel goods. I didn't think of the influence of magazines. A numer of people try to keep up with trend here Japan, so people may want to wear/have same clothes or bags as models. That's because models usually show us the trend of today.
I think it is good to ask person what should we do in funeral, and we need to know about the correct thing to say there. However, I think we need to say something that we really think for the dead person.
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