Mary Schmich has an interesting article in the Tribune today about the use (or non-use!) of the word "love" in Japanese. Apparently the Japanese don't use the verb for "love," even though they do have one.
quote:
"There is a verb for love in Japanese," said Ted Foss, the associate director of the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago. "But you wouldn't get a card that says, 'I love you." It might say, 'I like you very much' or 'You're all that I need.'"
Better than "I love you," said DePaul professor Yuki Miyamoto, would be "I want to die with you." Better yet to show love through action.
"I love you" is a "cheesy" thing to say, apparently. Ironically if you say "I love you," it means you're not close enough. Interesting!
I don't know why, but that aspect of the Asian sensibility cracks me up. I guess because that sort of minimalism, the "more is less" idea, is so opposite to our "cheesy" American culture, where more-- tho perhaps not believed-- is expected, and is always "more".
A couple of decades ago I worked on a project with an Asian client (Taiwan ROC). Tho we communicated in the then shockingly informal medium of "TWX" (similar to email), we had to be most careful about what we said. Reporting that something had gone wrong was particularly dicey. It was always better to say less, and not to 'characterize'. In other words, calling a spade a spade was the worst possible idea. Making anyone look bad was guaranteed to make everyone look bad.
I don't know whether not declaring one's love is the height of respect or the depth of self-protection!
Posts: 776 | Location: As they say at 101.5FM: Not New York... Not Philadelphia... PROUD TO BE NEW JERSEY!
Originally posted by bethree5: I don't know why, but that aspect of the Asian sensibility cracks me up. I guess because that sort of minimalism, the "more is less" idea, is so opposite to our "cheesy" American culture, where more-- tho perhaps not believed-- is expected, and is always "more".
A couple of decades ago I worked on a project with an Asian client (Taiwan ROC). Tho we communicated in the then shockingly informal medium of "TWX" (similar to email), we had to be most careful about what we said. It was very dicey when you had to report that something went wrong. It was always better to say less, and particularly not to seek to 'characterize'. In other words, calling a spade a spade was the worst possible idea. Making anyone look bad was guaranteed to make everyone look bad.
I don't know whether not declaring one's love is the height of respect or the depth of self-protection!
Posts: 776 | Location: As they say at 101.5FM: Not New York... Not Philadelphia... PROUD TO BE NEW JERSEY!
