Every year, after watching the previous year's Danthology, I make a playlist with all the songs. The songs I can't stand eventually get deleted - rap that's too raucous, electronica with no words, Gangnam style... But other than that, it makes an awesome playlist. This year I discovered will.i.am's #thatPOWER.
I'm jamming along to the track for like three seconds, until... Wait, I've seen that dance somewhere before... Huh? That street sign is in Japanese. Oh my gosh, yes! What's the name of the crazy- skilled Japanese-guy slow-walking dance group?
Yeah, now I remember. World Order. Pretty sure that is NOT them in the will.i.am vid. Unless it's like their second-string team or something. The vid was filmed in Japan. I have no doubt about that. So why aren't World Order a part of it? Were they like, "You cute, but no. We can't be tarnishing our name with the likes of that not-surgically-precise thing you're doing there."
Either which way. World Order is amazing. I love how they're like, "We will just dance in the middle of Narita International Airport, the biggest airport in Japan, and one of the most trafficked in Asia. Meh, no biggie." And I love that the world tries to copy it. Even if they come nowhere close.
Looks like Japan leads the world in more than just technology.
One more vid for the road. And yeah, Japanese dating is pretty much like that.
When I came back to my tiny town in backabush Japan, I went to the bank. While there, this song came on the tv. (Hmm, do Western banks have tvs? I think all the Japanese banks do...) The song is called Days. It's about all the ups and downs of love (and life) and it made me cry right there in the bank. I was in a translate-y mood last weekend, so I thought I'd make an English version. The NHK (tv station) animated version and the official music video are both below the lyrics.
First- two caveats. There are no plurals in Japanese, so some of the "days" might be plural, but I kept them all singular for the feel of repetition from the original. Second, Japanese hardly uses pronouns. So all the pronouns are my own doing. "He" could as easily have been "she" or "they". The bit at the end that's in quotation marks, I've written like the singers are sending a message to the audience, but it could be the grandfather or grandmother speaking to their other half.
That said, I give you "Days" by Yoshida Yamada.
Grandfather locks eyes with Grandmother, they hardly speak
They’ve passed the time cuddled together, but it hasn’t always been happy
Thick-lens glasses, wrinkly palms,
There are memories you can’t see in photos that make them laugh together
CHORUS 1
The day they met, the day they realised they were in love
The day they got married, the day they almost broke up
The day they first held their child, the day they let him go
Tears overflow
These are happy days
Grandfather never uses Grandmother’s name, even when he calls her
His angry face is his every day face, but he whistles when he’s happy
His favorite knit cap is one she knitted for him
Just like his childhood, he can’t find the words to say thanks
CHORUS 2
The day he made her cry, the day she left home
The day they embraced, the day they slept backing each other
The day he gave her hope, the day she hated him for it
The tears overflow
Frightfully up and down days
Grandfather gets sick, grandmother cries alone
“You have to tell him how you feel. Always. Everyday. Truly.”
CHORUS 1
Just count the tears.
Surely these are happy days.
NHK animated version.
Artist Official Music Video
What makes life happy, is that it's not always happy. Strangely beautiful concept.
I live in Iwate, Japan, one of the three prefectures (the other two are Miyagi and Fukushima) at the centre of the Great Northeast (Tohoku) Earthquake. One of the things I remember most about the days after the quake is that after there stopped being 100 quakes a day and life started settling into a new norm, was the "ganbatte" messages.
Ganbatte is the imperative form of ganbaru. And ganbaru is a really difficult word to explain in English. Sometimes, there are words in one language for concepts that other languages don't have. (Like nekojita in Japanese- cat tongue- meaning that you have difficulty eating or drinking hot foods.) Ganbaru is one of those words. It's often translated into English as "fight," "do your best," and "hang in there." It's often used in situations where English speakers would say good luck, but ganbaru, unlike luck is all about you.
For example, if your friend was playing in a football match, you'd say "Ganbaru" in Japanese or "Good luck" in English before the game. But if his team is down at half time, you can't really say "good luck," it sounds almost like you don't believe he can win. Ganbaru still applies. Maybe that's because ganbaru has an undertone of "no matter what situation you are faced with, keep your head up." Despite a disaster of an unprecedented magnitude, live each day as best you can.
Every time I'm in the West, I notice the differences from Japan. I mean I spend most of my time surrounded by Eastern mentality. And this time, one thing I noticed was the lack of ganbaru spirit. People have problems everywhere in the world -that's a given- and I don't think that you can really say that one person's hardship is greater than another. Different types of hardship hurt different people in different ways. And yet, here in the West, or at least in my little corner of it, people just accept their lot in life.
I've lost a leg so I can't go out. The economy sucks so I got a paycheck so I'm going to spend all my time sobbing about it.
A part of my house got destroyed in this weather system so my life sucks.
I'm not saying that these things aren't terrible problems, because they are. If a guy who's lost his leg goes on to be a paralympic athlete it's impressive, because he triumphed over this huge issue. But it's kind of a norm in Japan. You're kind of expected to ganbaru. Instead of "Poor me" it's more of " So I've lost a leg. How can I deal with this, even use it to my advantage?" So when there's a disaster and people show a certain strength of character and the rest of the world is amazed at how there's no looting, it's kind of a "like DUH!" for Japan.
It's kind of the flipside of Hakuna Matata. Bad things happen. You can't change that. All you can do is play the hand you're dealt. And whether you complain about it or not, the hand is not going to change. I admit Japanese people sometimes "ganbaru" too hard and push themselves past the breaking point. But I also think that Westerners could learn a lot from the ganbaru spirit.
Because all we can ever do is make the best of what we can have.
Where you do fall on the ganbaru scale? Do you push yourselves despite all obstacles? Give up at the first sign of trouble? Somewhere in between?
There are lots of beautiful, amazing things about Japanese culture and society. I love the privilege of being able to share them with you. But I also believe, above all else, in truth. Which is why I don't shy away from the stuff that might not be all unicorns and rainbows.
The meaning of the word "hikikomori" falls somewhere between the English "recluse" and "hermit." Hikikomori are people who don't (or seldom) leave home. As opposed to a recluse, who may just not be sociable, but be perfectly functional in society when they need to be. Or a hermit, who's withdrawn completely and lives in a cabin in the woods.
Why?
I think the reason that hikikomori are so common in Japan is partly due to the society. Everybody knows that Japanese society is a very strict one. There are rules governing everything, from the ways you can use chopsticks to the order in which colleagues should sit in when riding together in a taxi.
The flipside of all of these rules is an extreme aversion to failure. In Japan, it's not uncommon for a leader to take responsibility for any failure by resigning. It's a major part of the reason that I've seen 6 Prime Ministers in my not-quite-5 years here.
Another side effect of the strict society is the hikikomori. Hikikomori have usually failed at something. Some did badly in school. Some haven't worked out well with the opposite sex. Recently, I even saw on a drama one girl who ended up being a hikikomori because a guy called her ugly.
Facilitation
The thing is I don't think Westerners can really be recluses of the hikikomori variety. If you don't get up and go to work, you can't support yourself. And your parents or whoever else aren't going to keep leaving food on your bedside table if you refuse to brave the 10-minute walk to the supermarket. Not to mention the school-aged hikikomori. What do you mean, you're 13 and you've decided that going to school is too hard? Let me introduce you to my friend the truant officer.
Re-evaluation
When I first came here, hikikomori were bad ju-ju. Not in that they were bad people or something, but in that, somebody should have been doing something to help them. But I'm kind of re-evaluating that. The truth is that lately, I'm leaning (almost horizontal) towards being a hikikomori. One thing led to another, and being around people is kind of painful.
I'm not like some hikikomori who CAN'T go out or anything. And it's not like there isn't at least one place I still really enjoy going to. But I don't see the point in making myself go out if it's not fun. Spending my weekends and weeknights, curled up under a blanky (snowed earlier this week- Spring, where are you?) and watching J-dramas is fine by me. In fact, as a Japanese student and a writer, watching the ridiculous amount of dramas that I go through (an average of 11 episodes on the days I'm not at work) counts as studying in more ways than one.
I expect I will go back to the real world at some point. I suppose the writer in me doesn't have a choice. Unless I want to write re-hashings of J-dramas or anime, all the material is outside. But for now, I'm not sure that retreat is such a bad thing.
Last week, I talked about the parts of my job that my employers mandate. But I'm kind of hired for more than that. I'm on the JET programme. It's a Japanese government initiative which hires people into 3 job roles. Apart from your job role, the JET programme also asks participants to "promote grassroot internationalisation."
EIKAWA
Eikawa is the place where internationalisation and teaching naturally meet. It's a Japanese word meaning "English conversation" and is generally used to mean any English class, outside of school, which focuses more on the spoken aspects. My town doesn't require me to teach eikawa, nonetheless, my neighbour started one up in my first year, and it's been going strong ever since.
As our eikawa is so informal, it really provides a chance to learn more than English. We - the town's 3 ALTs from 3 countries and the Japanese adult students - get to exchange ideas. We present about our cultures, and show bits of it. Best of all, we get to know one another. For my first 2 years, most of my Japanese friends in town were from eikawa. Our interactions outside the classroom did a lot for my understanding of Japanese culture, and their understanding of mine.
FORMAL ACTIVITIES
There are a million and one formal ways to internationalise. The simplest and easiest is to present on your culture in the classes you're already teaching. At elementary school, I'm pretty free and flexible. So once I get ahead in the text book, I occasionally include a lesson with Bajan culture. I do Halloween and Christmas lessons. I tell the kids about the rest of the world.
And there are formal activities outside the classroom as well. The various international organisations in my prefecture put on various events. So far, I've done a general presentation on Barbadian culture, and a cooking class with Barbadian food. (I also did cooking classes with the eikawa.) And there's a big international fair every year. I've hosted a booth there, basically just telling people where Barbados was, and a few facts, and listening to Bajan music.
YOU SEE ME, THEREFORE I AM
Why would something like internationalisation even be important enough to mention right next to your official job role? To understand, you have to think of the Japanese position. Japan is an archipelago off the coast of Asia. They spent hundreds of years at war with their neighbours. They purposely shut themselves off from the rest of the world at times. And they are the only country with Japanese as their first language.
All of those things combine to equal a simple fact. Japan sees only Japan. Unlike the rest of us, who see and understand the rest of world, Japanese people can (and often do) forget there is a rest of the world. And many of them have no idea what that rest of the world is like.
I am a fountain of information. People can find out that Coca Cola exists outside Japan (yes, I've been asked), that the word "bye-bye" did not originate in Japanese, that black people have different hair from Japanese people.
My mere existence here is a reminder of the world, of the Caribbean, of Black people, of English-speakers. I think I do most of my internationalisation when random people talk to me on the streets of my town, or on the bus, or the train, or even with the new teachers at school. Especially being from Barbados.
There are a couple THOUSAND Japanese people that only know that Barbados exists because of me. Last week, I was at a PTA drinking party (um, that sounds so horrible- Japanese culture does not translate simply), and the lady next to me was the Mom of a Junior High student I'd been teaching since she was 8. She told me her daughter loved English and that she'd come home and told her the English teacher was from Barbados and she actually looked it up!
My being here also translates into people trying with English. My students will often scream "Hello" at me from across parking lots. Some of my spunkier JHS students will think up random comments. "My name is legend. I am dangerous," and "You have Canada face" to a Canadian ALT. Sometimes I run into random students from other schools, towns, etc, and they'll try their hand at having a conversation. And random adults will as well. Sometimes they will say strange things. Very, very strange things. Like the urologist who said, "I penis doctor. Penis turn black, fall off? Call me." (Ah, sweet memories!) All these people try because they see me.
WRAP IT UP
My VISA says "INSTRUCTOR" and my town technically pays me to teach. But there are days when I teach nothing at all. And even when I am teaching, it's not earth-shattering. I've already mentioned that elementary school and kindergarden English aren't really meant to "teach" so much as to make kids receptive to English/foreign languages. And so, I often feel like the more important job is the one that is less measurable, the one that doesn't have a start and end time. The one I do all day long merely by being.
Has anyone seen that meme? You know the one: What society thinks I do, What my mom thinks I do, What my friends think I do, etc? Well, I allude to my job pretty often on here, but it occurs to me, that I don't really talk about what I do. So here goes. This is the first of two parts: today, I'll be talking about the teaching.
JET
I came to Japan on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme -JET. JET is a government-organised programme. It recruits foreigners through Japanese embassies around the world to come here as ALTs, CIRs and SEAs. CIRs are Coordinators for International Relations. They work in International departments of city offices. SEAs are Sports Exchange Advisors. They're accomplished in a Sport and come to Japan as coaches.
My job title is Assistant Language Teacher (ALT).There are a lot of reasons for the word "Assistant" in the title. In Japan, the word "teacher" is a funny thing. "Sensei" is used as a term of respect, and the kanji technically say "ahead of student," but the term has a connotation of having sat an exam. In my country (backbush) area, the word Sensei gets thrown around like it's a ventriloquist's voice. But in some places people get nitpicky. Technically, if you haven't sat the Japanese exam, you're not a "sensei," your a "kyoushi" (instructor). Additionally, I've heard you're technically not allowed to be left alone with a class if you haven't passed your teacher's exam.
JUNIOR HIGH
The word Assistant also reflects the format that the job most often takes: team teaching. In my particular junior high school (JHS), team teaching isn't restricted to foreign languages. Maths and Japanese and Science will often be team taught. Outside of foreign languages, team-teaching is basically one teacher standing at the front teaching, and the other teacher acting as support, helping students who need a little extra time, etc. In the case of foreign languages, it generally means that the Japanese Teacher of English/Language (JTE/L) teaches grammar and the ALT is generally responsible for pronunciation, and the occasional game.
In my first 3 years, I worked with two JTEs, one of whom had me do warm up games almost every game, and for the rest of class, I did support, or pronunciation, depending on what the lesson was concentrating on. I usually went to every class he had. The other JTE didn't take me to class as much. She had a really good grasp of English and pronunciation, and she did most of it herself.
They transfer teachers here every year, and last April I was shaken when they switched both of my JTEs at the same time. I almost cried. Seriously. But it turned out to be a blessing. As they were both new to me, and the school, there was no "precedence" for anything, so we wrote a whole new script. This past year, instead of going to all the classes with my main JTE, I go to about half of them. But instead of a 5 minute warm up game, I often have a 20 minute game or the whole session to myself. It's probably a little less time withthe kids, but I'm probably causing a bigger affect with English learning.
ELEMENTARY
Elementary school is a grab bag. At my main school, "the big school," I have never team-taught. Not even when I first came and only knew enough Japanese to ask where the toilet was. (You'd be surprised how well you can communicate without the use of actual language. Mime is a brilliant invention!) The teachers are always in the classroom with me, but I guess they got spoiled by the ALT before me. He did all his classes by himself, too. Even when they started using a "textbook" (there really isn't much text in it), and the guidebook was ENTIRELY in Japanese, I still had to do it on my own. That guidebook is half the reason I'm semi-literate. lol. At tiny school (less than 30 kids, yes, the whole school), the 5/6 joint class teacher sometimes takes the lead, and sometimes she asks me to.
The actual class content, is mostly vocab based around a topic, and games. The objective is not grammatical correctness, but concept and to open the kids' minds to the foreign world and learning English (and/or other foreign languages) in the future. At elementary school I spend a surprising amount of time cutting up paper and card, drawing anime characters, making Bingo sheets... Just today, I wrote(/drew) "Hello" in 9 languages, including 5 which don't use Roman script. Don't ask me when I'll need to write I'll ever need to write Hello in Cyrillic, or Devanagari or Hangul, but having written each about 10 times, I now know how to! ( Need to find a reason to put this is my resume.)
Actually, now that I'm mainly responsible for innovative ways of getting the kids to use English in JHS as well, I spend an inordinate amount of time there drawing scenes for the kids to hide rabbits in, and compiling reports about Valentine's Day around the world.
KINDERGARDEN
"Teaching" kindergarden is some of the most fun I have at work. Essentially, we (all 3 town ALTs together) teach the kids a vocab set, like colours or animals, invent a game for us to play, and essentially just spend the entire time running around. It's FAB! Oh, and in Japan, there's a Hello Song. I don't know where it came from, but it seems to be coast to coast, and all English learners seem to know it. We got bored and remixed that Sound of Music song into The Goodbye Song, actions and all. The kiddles and teachers all think it's like a legit song, not something we half-stole from Rodgers and Hammerstein.
That's all the stuff that I'm scheduled for by the Board of Education of my town - my employers. Come back next week to find out what I actually do. (Of course I do all this stuff, as well. Obvsie Bovsie.)
I posted about race in Barbados last year, but since it's relevant, I thought I would do a quick post on race in the 2 countries I've lived most of my life.
From some of the comments early in the week, and from the comments of Americans on the racially-related articles that triggered my posts, many people forget or don't know that there are places outside Africa where blacks are not a minority.
BARBADOS
From 2000 census
black 93% white 3.2% mixed 2.6% East Indian 1% other 0.2%
I hear horror stories of being black in the US and other countries and I consider myself lucky. I've never had a white Prime Minister. Or a white Member of Parliament. I didn't have a white teacher until university. I had one white friend in school. In my entire life, I've probably had 5 white Barbadian friends. And, as far as I know, Rihanna is the richest Barbadian. And she's black.
Barbados is not perfect, and it's not free from discrimination. But I can't say I've ever experienced any racial discrimination. I never had to worry I didn't get a job because I was black. My teachers couldn't dislike me because I was black. I've never had anyone cross the street because I was black. Or clutch their purse. Or automatically assign any set of traits to me. Not even during my 2 years in the US, since I spent all my time in a US Coast Guard uniform, and that tends to overshadow all other considerations.
JAPAN
Being black here is completely different from being black anywhere else. Once again, I face no discrimination on account of being black. There are a million and one ways that Japan discriminates against foreigners in general. Living in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere though, I sometimes have to deal with Japan's silly discriminatory laws, but I never have to deal with personal discrimination.
Being black makes you the "cool" foreigner. My predecessor was a black guy, but in my town and the surrounding area, I'm often the first black female people have ever met. Everybody wants to talk to me (albeit for one line of conversation before they run away, too shy to continue). Everybody wants to touch my hair. Everybody wants to know where I come from, and if I know Bolt (Usain). I pretty much got adopted into the reggae crew I roll with, just because I'm black.
LIKE A BLACK, BUT NOT
So, while this week's posts have been in response to stories of racism or racial stereotyping in the US, I write from a very different place than I imagine most American bloggers would write from. I'm proud of being black, and the vast and wonderful heritage that includes. Not to mention the wealth of hairstyling options. lol. But my black experience has been very different.
A part of me identifies with the downtrodden black person. I'm black, and I can imagine how it must feel for that to mean inferiority - in the way people treat you, in the services you have access to, in the life you're allowed to lead. And even though I'm in an insanely small majority in Japan, it's a (mostly) beloved majority. In Barbados, I'm a majority. So while I'm not white (well, 1/16, but who's counting?), I also write from the same position as a white person writing on race. I write from the position of priviledge.
I love my country. We are amazing. 166 square miles. I heard once that was the same size as JFK. I never checked if it was true or not, but the fact that I can even wonder says a lot.
And even though we're just a pebble, we've had enough influence on the world that you can feel us. We gave the world a whole slew of singers/songwriters: Shontelle, Hal Linton, Charles D. Lewis, Eddie Grant, and the most famous, Rihanna. We gave you grapefruit. We gave you rum. WE GAVE YOU RUM! (lol)
And that's just what you guys see. We've got a reputation among the tourists as being some of the friendliest people on earth. Sometimes you'll meet a Brit on the beach, and it will be their 20th time in Bim (nickname for Barbados). They've probably spent more time there that I have!
And the life! It's a melting pot of deep, inborn African tendencies, years of British rule, and proximity to the US. Reggae and calypso music. The sing-song rhythms of our dialect. The movements of our dancing. The buses with personalities. (You have to catch one to understand what I mean.) The ever-present undertones of God and sex, sometimes at the same time. The different ideals for women. (Ooo, future Caribbean Context!)
I'm proud to be Bajan! (Proper denonym is Barbadian.)
But sometimes I wish I was from somewhere else.
Even though we're awesome and we've proven it time and again. Even though we're now on the list of Developed Countries - and possibly the smallest country on that list, mind you. Even though we've got all these things going for us. Sometimes it's hard being from an itty-bitty country.
Imagine if your country was so tiny that you could never be sure that someone would have heard of it. Americans, Canadians, Brits, Australians, you never have to explain what/where your country is. And if you do, you probably write that person off as an idiot. I mean, even in the back-bush of Japan where they know NOTHING about the outside world, they know about these countries.
And when you're an international citizen like I am, it's a pain in the neck. Like British drivers can easily convert to a Japanese license. Barbadians have to take the full driving test. Even though we use most of the same rules, and drive 95% Japan cars. Why? Because why would the Japanese government bother to check the road laws of Barbados for the less than 10 of us who live here? At least we've got Europe on our side now and can travel freely there.
It even has implications as a writer. Where do I submite my work? US? UK? Canada? The UK is most open to international. But my writing gels more with American styles. And when I name-drop, I name-drop US names. The only famous people I know in Britain are in the Royal Family or on soccer fields. (Oh, Prince Edward is in Barbados today. The royals seem to love it there. Especially Prince Harry.) And Canada? That's even worse. Apart from Justin Beiber, who everybody in the US has made sure to disclaim, famous Canadians are often thought to be American. And what happens when I write a Bajan story? One that doesn't go out of it's why to include norms from elsewhere? Who will publish that?
There's an old folk song that starts:
"Beautiful, beautiful Barbados,
Gem of the Caribbean Sea"
I know it's beautiful. I know we rock. I know that there are millions of people in the world who would love to live in the Caribbean, and be able to walk to the beach every evening after work if they felt like. But sometimes, I just wish...
(NB. I made up the word izbipple. It's a synonym for awesome. Feel free to use it. )
Every now and again, I notice the differences in Japanese schools and the schools in Barbados. Quite a few of these differences probably carry over to your education system as well, so I thought I'd share a few of them.
The System
Japan- kids mandatorily start school at 6. Elementary school runs until 12 (6 years). Middle school goes until 15(3 years). High school goes until 18 (3 years).
Barbados- we start school at 5. Primary school runs until 11(6 years), but can be shorter if you're smart. Secondary school runs until 16 or 18, depending on which school you go to.
The student's roles
Japan- Having been here for 3 1/2 years, I realise that we treat our kids like babies in the West. In Japan, the 6th years at elementary school are responsible for lots of things. The kids walk to school in little groups, led by 6th years. And the 6th years lead "souji" teams, as well. (More on souji in a moment.)
At middle school, the kids have even more responsibility. Like when we went on the school trip, each group of students called up the people at the place they were going to on their "free research day", something I feel the teachers would have done back home. Students take the attendance and come write it on the staff room board. (They do this in elementary school, as well.) Sports teams practise on their own, with the coach/teacher in charge passing through sometimes.
I wonder if I'll ever get used to students just walking into the staff room. The procedure is this: knock on the door, say who you're going to, and go. The students can also take keys for the locked rooms from the staff room. If you allowed Western teens access to locked rooms en masse, you'd probably elevate the teen pregnancy rate.
Barbados- The student body is less communal. Because our island is so centralised, we all get to school however we can. Some of us take the bus, some are driven. Very few live within walking distance of their secondary school.
Teens can not just walk into the staff room. I can count the times I went into the staff room at my secondary school. If you need something from a teacher, you go to the door, and someone will ask you who you're waiting for. If there were any sorts of trips, or anything involving the business community, that was organised by the teachers, with the exception of some older students. If anyone ever had any keys to anything, even for a minute, they were one of the "trusted few."
Studies
Japan- One thing I don't think I'll ever get used to is the changing timetable. In middle school the timetable is different every day, every week. Some days are 5 period days, some days are 6. And there's a 10 minute break between classes.
Also, Japanese students (in my town/prefecture) do fewer subjects. Nine, by my count. The same nine are studied from beginning to end of middle school. And, it seems impossible to be kept back a year until at least high school level.
Barbados- We have a weekly timetable that only changes in special circumstances. When one period ends the other begins. The luxury of breaks between classes is a university thing. Depending on the school, there are 7 or 8 periods per day. And students can study as many as 13 subjects. Also subjects change as you advance. Like you might have a class like "Guidance" in your first year. And Technical Drawing will appear as an option around the 3rd year.
Teachers
Japan- Even though the students have greater roles, the teachers also have more responsibility. Like if a student shoplifts, even when not wearing uniform, the store will often call the school. Teachers are not purely academic leaders. At middle school, every teacher is responsible for a club activity or sport. They are also each members of different groups, like the social group that organises the staff outings.
A major difference from the West is that the fact that academics is out of session does not mean that school is out, and therefore teachers are NOT ON VACATION. Club activities run pretty much every day of the year, including Sundays for some clubs.
Teachers are kind of like a 3rd parent. Unlike the West, where a teacher may meet a student's parents at an academic parent-teacher consulation day, the teachers in Japan, especially in the countryside, know the parents by name. At my middle school, they know the parent's jobs, the home situation, other brothers and sisters, even if they're at other schools. At my tiny elementary school, the teachers know all the kids grandparents! Weirdly, I know most of them now, too.
One final element of teaching life is transfers. The Japanese system has this weird way of randomly transferring people. In the teaching system, you can expect to be transferred every 3 to 10 years. You'll be transferred within your prefecture. In my prefecture, that means it's possible to end up working 4 hours away from where you live. This means lots of uprooting or living away from family. Like I said, this one isn't limited to teachers only.
Wa
Wa is the Japanese concept of harmony. There are two things within the school system which, I think, exemplify this concept. Firstly, there's club. In middle school, every student is required to join a club. Clubs can be sports, or things like band. You can only really be a member of one club. They all meet at the same time, an hour or two (or 4) after school. In the West, you can be a Girl Guide (Scout), on the school paper, on the soccer team, etc. In fact, big name colleges look for it.
Then there's souji. Souji means cleaning. In Japan, the students are responsible for cleaning the school. I could see a collective law suit if we tried this at home.
Uniforms
This one last category is one that Barbados has in common with Japan, but I've included it because in most countries, uniforms are reserved private institutions.
So there you have it, some of the bigger differences between school here and school in the West. How did your school life differ from these?
It's the most common form of apology. More polite than "gomen" used with friends and children. Less formal than the complex "moushi wake arimasen."
For a Westerner, it's shocking. Japanese people are always apologising. And when you live in this culture, you're expected to apologise in the same way as well. If you have an accident on your personal time in your personal car, you're expected to apologise to your boss. When you leave work, you apologise to the people you've left behind. Almost any time you walk up to a colleague, your conversation starts with a "sumimasen."
Sometimes, this causes some cultural problems. People are resistant to apologise, especially when it's not their fault. Even more so, when they are not sure there's a fault to be had. Once, I had to apologise for getting to school at 7.32, for a 7.55 departure for a trip!
It's taken me almost 4 years to realise that sumimasen is not about blame. When I first started watching anime, 4 months into my stint in Japan, I only understood a little Japanese. But even with my little, I'd listen to the Japanese, and read the English subtitles, and laugh. That's not what he said! After a while, I remembered the intricacies of subtitling (around 72 spaces and 4-6 seconds per subtitle). I also spent time trying to explain words like "gaman" and "ganbatte" (posts for another time) to friends and family. As opposed to French and Spanish and Italian, where English speakers had the same experiences or often were familiar with them (ex siesta), Japan operated under a completely different set of rules. It is often impossible to translate in a strict "this Japanese word means this English word" sense.
Sumimasen sometimes means "Excuse me," calling someone's attention. But even when it's the apologetic sumimasen, it doesn't always mean you've done something wrong. It may mean that you've done something that puts yourself ahead of your colleagues (bad in Japan's harmonic society). It may mean that something you did inconvenienced someone else, whether or not it's your fault. It may even mean thank you, in the sense of, "oh, you shouldn't have." I later found out that the reason I had to apologise for being "late" for the trip was that there's an unwritten rule, that you get to these things 1/2 hour early, and when I wasn't there, it caused other teachers to worry. (Sadly, this kind of thing happens a lot, because I have no idea of the unwritten cultural rules.)
I hope that gives a little insight into Japanese language and society. If it doesn't, then there's only one thing left to say.
A Jamaican friend and I got to talking about corporal punishment, ie, spanking, lashing or, as we say in Barbados, licks. In the Caribbean, we're firm believers in "Spare the rod, spoil the child."
The Old School
There's an African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child." In my parents' time, Barbados, Jamaica, and probably some of the other Caribbean islands also lived like this. You had to be careful that no adult that knew you, saw you do wrong. Say you were supposed to be walking home, and what you're actually doing is climbing the mahogany tree in the gully in your school uniform. Then Maisie from by the shop sees you. Licks.
It's moving away from that now. I never had it like that growing up, but there are parts of Barbados where it still happens. I think there are 2 main reasons it's disappearing. First, there's the concept of "you can't do x-y-z to my child." I kind of hate this concept, because half the time it's just teaching the children to be rebellious (that parent who tells her child not to write the teachers' lines, etc.). The second reason is that "village life" is disappearing. Once upon a time, you'd know everyone within a 1/2 hour walking distance. Now, that happens less and less.
School
I speak under correction, since I left Barbados 4 years ago, and I'm going on my childhood, at least for the primary school system. In primary school, all teachers can administer corporal punishment. I'm not sure what the rule is, but all the regular teachers in my primary school only did lashes in the palm with a ruler. The headmistress had a strap (leather belt), but you had to do something pretty deviant for that to come out. I remember that when someone got the strap, it was an event. We'd all be gathered outside listening to count the lashes.
In secondary school, the rules are stricter. I think you have to be a senior teacher to administer corporal punishment. At my secondary school, only the head and deputy head ever did. At 2 of the 3 schools I taught at, I can think of cases where senior teachers did as well.
There is one instance where I don't support corporal punishment. There were, when I was growing up, teachers in primary school who would lash for academics. That was a great motivator for those who could do better. But for those who were academically challenged, it was just an eternal sentence. There was one teacher (at another school, where my best friend went to lessons) that was legendary for it, but I think it's pretty much died out now.
Parents
Most parents in Barbados and Jamaica still believe in lashes. This section is probably going to sound like some sort of human rights violation to those of you who grew up in non-physical-punishment countries. But here goes nothing.
A few parents will settle for a smack of the hand, but as a child grows older, that becomes less effective. There are 3 types of parents that continue on the corporal punishment route: any belt, any thing, special belt.
The any belt parent, I think, is self explanatory.
The anything parent is a special breed. This parent or grandparent, usually female, will use anything that comes to hand. They'll lash a child with a newspaper, a bedroom slipper, a curtain... If it's small, has a blunt edge and is found in a house, it's fair game.
Then there's the special belt parent. This special belt may have a name, and it's own special place in the house. Special belt parents seem to take joy in sending the child to get the belt. It's the worst psychological dilemma. You already know the lashes are coming, and now you have to be the instrument of your own un-doing.
Another thing that I'm not sure happens outside the Caribbean/Black families is per-word lashing. As a parent quarrels about whatever you've done, they punctuate each word with a lash. You-lash-think-lash-you's-lash-a-lash-big-lash-woman? Lash-coming-lash-home-lash-all-lash-hours?
As for "abuse". There's a line. It's just a lot further than where a lot of other developed nations think it is. Rest assured though, if your mother is routinely disciplining you, you don't even want to make the joke about calling police. That will not end well.
I realise that all of this sounds terrifying, like Caribbean women are all running around with chair legs, ready to knock their child unconscious, but that's not the case. I don't know how to explain it better except to say that our systems are just different. Honestly, I prefered the lashes to the "deprivation" tactics that I got later on - grounding, allowance restictions and the like.
Where did your parents and your society stand on corporal punishment? (I suspect the West Indies may be the last stronghold in the West.)
Disclaimer: Someone somewhere will read this and get up in arms, and want to argue with me. I'd just like to say these are not my views, just the situation as is in Barbados and some of the other Caribbean islands.
This is my second time living outside Barbados. When I was in Connecticut, I was in the military, so clearly, "no homosexuals" there. So this is my first time living in a community (the foreigner community, not the Japanese one) where being homosexual is often considered a right. It's not considered one in Barbados.
Barbados is a Christian nation. Sure, we've supposedly got 120 denominations of different religions represented on the island. And we're the home of the oldest synagogue in the Western Hemisphere, but we are still very Christian. There isn't really any seperation of Church and State. They've recently started having multi-denominational celebrations, but chances are if there's any sort of blessing of national significance it will be done by an Anglican or Catholic priest.
We're also an island that's 95% Black, ie, our ancestors were slaves. Christianity was beat into us over hundreds of years. Literally. At the same time a lot of the often more liberal African culture was killed. As a result, we uphold the Christian ideal - one man + one woman = family. Or at least, we uphold it on the surface.
On the other hand, we are somehow accepting. Most people wouldn't be cool with a couple of guys walking down the street "pulling tongue", but if they did it in the privacy of their homes, the feeling would be something like, "Well, as long as he don't come to me with that." It's still a country that being gay can make a scandal when the news breaks. And being gay still defines gay people. They're gay first and anything else after. People still very much stereotype gays. "Look at he! So girly. I know he was like that, ever since." And it's still a pity when someone "turns" gay. "She's such a pretty girl. What a pity."
But, I must also point out that while we don't actively acknowledge people's right to be gay, we don't denounce it in the ways that many of our neighbours do. There are a few slurs that we use, but we're not all screaming "bun out a chi-chi" (burn all gay people) like the Jamaicans. In fact, among the other islands of Caricom, Barbados is known as a gay man's paradise. Things that people would get beat up for in the other islands, Bajans will just roll their eyes, mutter under their breath and move on.
It goes without saying that gays don't get any special rights under Barbados law. In fact, the act of "buggery" - man on man sex - is illegal in the law books. Although, England's ultimatum to the entire commonwealth (no financial aid unless you legalise- which pisses me off because how are you going to just pee on a country's autonomy like that?) may change that soon.
So there's the situation as it stands with regards to homosexuality in Barbados and the Caribbean.
Talking about the differences between the US and the rest of the world got me to thinking about own little neck of the woods. The Caribbean.
What exactly is the Caribbean?
If you're not from the Caribbean, I'm sure you have a relatively defined answer. One that probably involves lots of islands and sparkling blue sea and maybe a coconut tree or two. But for Caribbean people the answer is a lot more complicated than that.
Islands in the Caribbean
Not all of the Caribbean is islands, and not all of it is in the Caribbean Sea. (Yay for misnomers!) For example, the Caribbean coasts of Colombia and Venezuela consider themselves a part of the Caribbean. And Barbados, my island, is not actually in the Caribbean Sea. The island chain seperates the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. That island way out to the right (east) that looks like it's too cool for school? That would be Barbados, entirely surrounded Atlantic Ocean. Of course this gives us the random distinction of being the first "major" port after you sail west from Africa. Doesn't matter now, but it mattered a heck of a lot in slave days.
The most interesting has got to be Guyana, which is neither an island or in the Caribbean Sea. I think it only identifies with us because it's the only English-speaking country in South America. That brings us to another important factor...
Language
There really aren't words to describe how language seperates the Caribbean. The only other place where so many "major world laguages" are spoken by different countries is Europe, and while Europe may have it's seperatist moments, they are nothing compared to the Caribbean. They are islands which flat out DISAPPEAR from maps. San Andres is a Colombian island southeast of Jamaica. It doesn't exist on this map. I'll give Jack his jacket and admit that San Andres is only 26 km square, but St Barts is only 21 km sq and is pictured. (Caveat: St. Barts is also not an English speaking island, but Dutch. I'm guessing it's pictured because it's actually in the chain.)
Additionally, it's a pain in the butt to get to islands which speak a different language. Barbados is a hub. I can fly direct to any of the English-speaking islands, but heaven forbid I want to get to get to Martinique- it's a puddle-jumping nightmare. Let's not even get started on those Colombian islands. Barbados - Venezuela/Miami - Bogota - San Andres/Providencia/Santa Cantalina. Even if we knew they existed, there's no way in hell we were going.
This language barrier apparently also works in reverse. When I was in Colombia, I always had to show people where Barbados was on a map. Then they'd be shocked and exclaim, "It's so close!" Seems Colombian maps don't picture some of the islands either.
Mother country
This also ties in with language. If a person in mainland France says they're going ot the Caribbean, they mean Martinique, Guadeloupe, or Saint Martin. If a Dutch person says it, they mean Sint Maarten, Saba, St Barts, St Eustacius, or the ABC islands.
Caricom
Caricom stands for "CARibbean COMmunity". It started back in 1973, which wasn't that long after the founding nations gained independence. It (along with CSME- Caribbean Single Market and Economy) work mostly like the European Union. The major theory behind it, is that we are itty-bitty teeny-weeny yellow polkadot islands, and we're not going to get very far on our own. I don't know how sucessful we are at acheiving the goals of Caricom. There is a lot of time spent grumbling over who's in charge and which territory is getting the short end of the stick.Anyhow...
Most of the time when I say Caribbean, I mean the member states of Caricom.
Antigua and Barbuda
Bahamas [Sometimes not. Bahamas acts more American than Caribbean most days.]
Barbados
Belize [Sometimes not. Being in Central America, there isn't that much actual interaction with Belizeans.]
Dominica
Grenada Guyana
Haiti
Jamaica
Montseratt [Sometimes not. Still a British colony] Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Suriname
Trinidad and Tobago
Apart from Caricom, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Martinique, and Sint Maarten/Saint Martin are often included when I talk about the Caribbean.
And now a random video from "TODAY" where they visit Barbados. He only makes one mistake (the bit about carnival - Crop Over IS our carnival). The hotel he's at is the highest-end hotel you can stay at. As in Tiger Woods got married there - trust me you can not afford it. (If you can, feel free to donate to a starving writer - me!) But the hospitality is lengendary everywhere.
The March 11th Tohoku earthquake was of such a magnitude that they've resurrected a word which seemingly hasn't been used since the Kanto earthquake of 1923. Daishinsai (大震災) means 'big shaking disaster'. I think it's the perfect word. The disaster was not the shaking itself. I remember only a few reports of structures which collapsed from the quake itself. The bigger issue in the short run was the accompanying tsunami, and in the long run the radiation from the Fukushima plant.
One far-reaching side effect of the Fukushima plant being offline is setsuden. Setsuden (節電) is energy conservation. With the Fukushima plant down and another plant damaged (I'm not sure if it's back online yet) the energy production of East Japan has taken a serious hit. And West Japan uses a different frequency of electricity so we can't share without converting it.
The entire of East Japan has been on setsuden since March to avoid spontaneous blackouts. Sometimes it's like the whole world's gone dim. Most government offices have taken out half their lights. Some elevators and escalators are turned off. Stores don't leave their signs on overnight.
But I kind of wonder how long you can keep it up. I mean it doesn't take that much to not use lights. But one has to wonder if the powers-that-be are just going to dig a giant graveyard for all the escalators and elevators. There doesn't seem to be that much effort to find a short term solution.
And winter is coming. This country uses a lot more fuels in winter than electricity, but the average kerosene heater still uses electricity. How will the grid hold up when we're all trying to stay warm at the same time?
On the flip side, it makes me wonder. East Japan is getting by on some fraction of the energy it used before. Which makes me think of all the things that we really didn't need to be wasting electricity on in the first place. Like the flashing lights in the drink machines. They used to flash all day, presumably as a marketing technique to draw your eye to the machine. Since setsuden, most of the machines only light up when someone is purchasing something.
I hope the end of setsuden comes soon. I hate worrying constantly about which will be the day it's too much and the power goes off. In all likelihood it will be a day when it -20C in my house. But I hope that when we return to "normal", that we won't stop the energy conservation methods we've picked up along the way.
Look at my babies, writing in English. I didn't help any of them. I didn't even know they were doing this. (You'd think someone would have told me, seeing as I'm in this country to assist with ENGLISH, but oh well. Happens more often that you'd think.)
The 2nd years wrote about their dreams. I love this one. Although this kid never takes charge of anything and I really can't see him even trying for town council, but here's to hoping!
We don't teach cursive at school, but all the best English students use it. This kid is next year's Student Body President. They start the student body year in the middle of the school year, so that when high school entrance exams roll around, final year students can concentrate on them.
I love when my kiddies go off the beaten path. Especially here where the beaten path is so important.
Made. of. Win.
Another top student. I think they learn the cursive at cram school.
This girl learned the cursive from her mother. She did a speech about becoming a cancer researcher. You have no idea how depressing it is to listen to the story of how her grandfather dying of cancer changed her life for weeks, and weeks, and weeks.
The 3rd years wrote poems. I forget the name of this form. Japanese has a zillion different types of poem.
I have one kid who is absolutely addiction to the football/soccer player, Messi (Messhi in Japanese). It's random because noone pays any attention to soccer here, other than cheering Zac Japan and Nadeshiko Japan (boys and girls nat. teams) at World Cup time.
If you're every in Japan in summer. 40 degrees Celcius, or about 100F, with 80-90% humidity, then you get this. I'm almost glad to spend half the year frozen. Almost.
I love the dreamers.
Yum! Made me hungry.
This is the best poem in the English language by a Japanese person in the history of the world. And I really believe it coming from this kid, too. lol.
Every year, schools from kindergarden to universities in Japan have a school festival. At kindergarden and primary school it's called "Gakushuu Happyokai"- Presentation of Learning. From Junior High up it's "Bunkasai" - culture festival.
The festivals differ at each level. But one of the basic tenets is "look at what we can do".
Last weekend was the bunkasai at my junior high, and here are some of the talents of my kiddles. I was amazed by the amount of English running wild.
The Bunkasai poster - a collage of Post-It size pieces. The slogan on the yellow sign says, " Gateway, let's advance to a new future."
Some colour by numbers that I did with the Special Ed.
The 2nd years' crafts.
The 2nd years had to do a PR poster. This one is about saving the environment.
I LOVE this! Starting below the exclamation point it says, "Makeruna Nihon!" It means "Don't Surrender, Japan." Almost cried at this one.
One of my best English students' in the 2nd year.
She also won the District area dental poster competition. The slogan is 80 years - 20 teeth. (Older Japanese people have really bad teeth, so there are education campaigns from Kindergarden up.)
Another entrant who drew with an English slogan.
This is another of the PR posters. This one for club activities.
And another.
This is a PR poster for literacy/libraries.
And this one is for the band.
This is for setsuden. It says "Setsude shiyou, Mirai no tame ni." Let's conserve energy, for the sake of the future. Since the March 11 earthquake, my part of Japan is on "Setsuden" - energy conservation measures.
Don't my babies rock?
(PS, is it just me or can the average Japanese draw/paint way better than the average Westerner? )
I mentioned last week that one of my stories is featured in the WRITE FOR TOHOKU Kindle e-book. (Go buy it and help the Japan recovery effort.) That stroy is about an experience which reminded me about the similarities in humanity despite how different individual cultures.
As a teacher in/ resident of Japan I get to see a lot of the differences between the teens here, the teens in America (I lived there for a couple of years and all), and the teens in Japan. According to culture shock theory, when you first go to a new country, you notice all the differences, but after a while, you start to see similarities.
FRIENDS
One defining factor of teenager-hood is how close teens are to their friends. The most important person in a little child's life is probably their mother or another member of the family. Adults are often closest to their significant others. But teens are almost always closest to friends their own age- especially school friends. I see this all the time in my schools. Maybe, it's even more true in Japan than in the West. In Japan, you're a part of your "group". As an adult, that's your company. But as a teen, that's your school.
WHEN YOUR BEST ISN'T ENOUGH
After the All_Japan High School Female Hockey Finals. As, you might guess, this team didn't win.
Teenagerhood is full of all these times and things where you have to push yourself to the limit. In my island, we sit an exam at 11 (ish) to decide what secondary school we'll go to, which in turn kind of decides the rest of our lives. In Japan, my kiddies have an exam at 15 for high school. It's not so bad out here in the bush, but it's probably super competitive in places like Tokyo and Osaka. All over the world, teenagers must puch themselves with great grades/sports/extra-curriculars to get into college.
But sometimes you lose. Princeton can't take a million applicants. All the teams can't win the championship. Sometimes you get really close and then you fail.
And the sort of heart-wrenching disappointment that comes with that is universal.
TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL
Two of my favourite students have dropped out of school. Not my school- I only teach up to middle school. But they went on to high school and only lasted a year. High school isn't mandatory here, but most people tend to go in the country areas. Anyhow, these two kids turned up at the festival today. They've both got their hair died this bright brown, almost orange colour. One of them has an earring and wears his hair host-style- you know the super-styled Japanese man-hair.
I remember some of the people who didn't continue onto 6th form (16-18 yrs old) at home doning this exact same thing. Like I'm not doing school, but I'm cooler than thou.
HERE, BUT NOT
The idea for this post came to me at a dance festival at one of my elementary schools. The teachers, parents and I are all dancing. All the elementary students are playing the drums for the dance. And pretty much every student who's passed through the school in the last 6 years, and is now in Junior high or High School is on the sidelines.
The JHS/SHS students don't come over and dance. They don't watch. They sit in their own corner and chit-chat.
And that reminded me of something I've seen teens do all over the world. Put in the effort of getting dresed and leaving home, only to completely ignore an event when they get there. Seriously, if they wanted to chill, thye could chill anywhere. I have no explanation for this, and I'm pretty sure I did it as a teen too.
So there you have it, just a few of the things I've seen in the two hemispheres, and therefore assume to be fairly universal among teens. What's a defining act of teenager-ism in your mind?
I'm always flying the multicultural flag. Having grown up in Barbados and lived in the US and Japan, and being Black, multiculturalism is one of few things I consider myself an expert in (at least compared to those who've never studied cultures officially).
Today I'd like to talk about Black hair.
Last year, I was lucky enough to interview Linda Villarosa. In her book, PASSING FOR BLACK, she said something I will never forget. I don't remember the exact quote, because I'm not good with exact, but here's the gist. If two black women start talking, it's only a matter of time before the topic goes to hair.
Two-strand twist, pic from 2009.
You might be tempted to think that's some sort of vanity. Maybe there's some vanity in there, but the flat truth is that black hair requires a heckuva lot of care.
Up-do roll. Saturday, for a charity dinner. My hair is semi-locked right now. It's still at the point where I could decide I don't want locks and easily undo them. But it's far enough along that I leave it to it's own devices it will lock.
One thing that was shocking as a kid, and amuses me even know is when I see a White person wash their hair and just go. You could so not do that with Black hair.
Corn-rows/Cane-rows are plaits which lay flat along your skull. I've got corn-rows up front and the back is regular 3-strand plaits in this 2009 December pic. And we found that taxidermied squirrel in our office. No, I don't know why. Also, I'm a one antlered reindeer. I laughed at my neighbour because his Santa pants had a hole. My antler promptly fell off in response. Kharma.
If you wash Black hair, you pretty much have to condition it. You also have to grease/oil it, or it will dry right out and if you touch it, it will sound like a gravel driveway with a truck driving over it. I made the unfortunate mistake of assuming I could buy grease in Perth, Australia. Unfortunately, it seems all the Black people live on the East coast. 2 weeks of crunchy hair. Not fun.
At The Peak, overlooking Kowloon, Hong Kong. Two-strand twists pulled back in a bun.
Also when you wash Black hair, you can't just leave it. You have to blow it out or plait it, or something. Or it will become a giant mass of steel wool. No Black person would ever do this to themselves on purpose.
There are lots of ways to start locks. Basically if you convince Black hair to stay put long enough, it becomes locks on it's own. It can take 4-12 months before it will stay on it's own. I locked my hair, by corkscrewing it. When I undo it, it's curly for a couple of days.
I think it's because of this amount of effort and the fact that Black hair is always ready to break or drop out at a moment's notice, that prompts Black women to talk about hair styles and hair care every time they meet.
Corkscrews. You just twirl and twirl the hair until it stays. Oh yeah, Black hair does that. Stays. If you plait White/Asian hair, you probably have to put something on the end. You don't with Black hair. (NB, Many Caribbean Blacks are mixed, and not all mixed hair will stay.)
Living in Japan, hair care has moved more to the forefront of my mind. I'm not much for looks and fashion, so as long as my hair isn't falling out I'm happy. Last year, a group of Caribbean people got together here for a Jamaican event, and there was a room pretty much dedicated to plaiting and talking about hair.
Geek-achu, I call you! Boredom and a camera are a bad combo. Three strand plaits. 2008.
My hair is natural, and has been for about 15 years, but many black people process their hair. They use a chemical, affectionally known as straightener, that makes the hair straight. It also looks much longer, because natural black hair has a lot of kinks. And naturally black hair curls on it's own, getting shorter/longer with the weather and if you wash it.
Wavy "locks". A few days after undoing corkscrews, they look like this. Late last year.
Since I mentioned natural hair, I will pause here to show you the difference. When Alicia Keys first started out she had natural hair. Her "mixed" has a much higher proportion of white (I have white great-grand peoples) so her hair behaves a lot more like white hair. Also, check out this link if you're interested. It shows several different Alicia Keys styles, natural and processed.
Here you can see the natural curls and kinks of her hair.
These days, she sports a straightened look, and introduces curls artificially.
While we're on the topic of straightener, I should also touch on weaves, and their predecessors, braids. Many Black females, will change their hair/extend their hair length with artificial pieces or hair that's been cut from others. Braids are done by looping a length of the hair to be introduced around the client's hair and just braiding it in. Weaves come in rows of hair. You start with your hair plait flat against your skull, and then you sew or glue in the weave. Also there are pieces you can just clip/pin in.
Black hair takes a lot of time to do. Even if you want to go for a simple ponytail, unprocessed Black hair will not go happily. It requires (years of) brushing. Brush, and brush, and ... isn't it done yet? For corn-rows and twists, you're probably looking at an hour and up. For braids, somewhere around 5 hours- with weaves somewhere in between. But it can last quite a while. If you tie it down to sleep in corn-rows can last from a week and up. Braids and weaves usually around a month. When you take out braids or a weave, they can be washed and reused. Which reminds me, you CANNOT wash Black hair every day. It will break and drop out. I think most Black females wash their hair once a week or every two weeks.
Rocking the fro. November, 2008. This look requires a lot of combing with a big-tooth comb. If you leave it out like this too long, it becomes knotty and the last thing a Black woman needs is knotty hair.
I think hair is the nuisance of every Black girl's life. First, it takes so long to do. Can you imagine as 4 year old having to sit still for an hour? Even the day-long styles take a lot longer than ponytails: 5-10 minutes or so.
Secondly, because it's long, you can be guaranteed the child will "root" (wiggle), which will result in a quick smack in the top of their head from whoever's plaiting. Oh, and this so happens to adults, as well. Also if a Black female is braiding your hair, don't reach up to touch it. The comb is a dangerous weapon!
Thirdly, it's painful. Black curls like being curly and tangly. Combs are trying to convince them not to be. Combing a Black child's hair will involve a lot of crying and quarreling. Combing a Black adult's hair will involve a lot of grimacing.
Curly fro. Plait or corn-row hair for a day or so and then undo it. Black History Month Poetry Reading. Tokyo, 2010.
Remember RUSH HOUR, when Chris Tucker was all like, "Never touch a Black man's radio!"? Well, it's the same with a Black female's hair. You don't touch it unless she tells you it's okay. Black females go through a lot for their hair. There are even some styles so elaborate, that the wearers sleep in chairs to keep them perfect. It doesn't matter who you are: her boyfriend, her step-mother, her "loved like a play-cousin" friend, you just don't touch a Black woman's hair. I, personally, am totally not picky about it, but I'm just trying to help you all keep your hands.
Corn-rows at the front and twists in back. In India, after 2 weeks of building houses for Dalits. 2009.
Finally, if you want to learn more about Black Hair and if you're considering writing a Black female character, no matter how peripheral, you NEED to watch GOOD HAIR. It's a documentary by Chris Rock about the Black woman's fascination with "good" hair, and all the things they do to acheive it.
Brushed, and brushed, and brushed, and pulled into one. 2009. Also I'm something of a legend here for odd expressions in photos. And I don't even try to make these faces. I'm a natural!
Of course, I'm also happy to be a resource if you have questions about Black hair or you want to write a Black character. Also feel free to ask Black friends. I think most people prefer you to tactfully ask a question, than to keep assuming something silly.
This post was mostly about Black natural hair- what I think is the most versatile hair type on Earth. This is just because it's what's on my head, and I know it best. Maybe in the future, I'll do a post on other Black hair styles. Let me know if you'd be interested. All of my hairstyles on this page are done solely with the use of oil, brush, hairclips, and occasionally a comb.
I am from the beautiful island of Barbados, but I currently live and work on the islands of Japan. I am a lover of languages; a creative writer in my native language, English, and a speaker to various degrees of fluency of 4 others.
