Last night (Wednesday) my two Japanese teachers came over for dinner. Shimada Sensei (that's the word for 'teacher', and you always use it) is a Believer. She's my teacher for grammar and speaking and I love her. Rina Sensei came with her husband, Masataka. She is a friend of Shimada Sensei so that's how I met her. She's not a Christian yet. There are three groups of characters (alphabets) in Japanese and Rina Sensei helps me with the most difficult of the three, Kanji. I really enjoy studying and hanging out with them. But I was pretty exhausted after they went home :-)
(left to right: Rina, Masataka, Shimada)
Different subject...Today I was reminded of the difference between Eastern and Western cultures. There are certainly many, but one of those is the importance of the process of an action (Eastern) as opposed to the result of an action (Western). I was standing in line at a fast food restaurant today (yep) when I realized that in the States it would've taken half the time to get my food (but at least I know I've not been poisoned by a stanger's germs). I started watching each employee and I chuckled inside when I saw how much attention they paid to each detail of their job, it always amazes me. Another perfect example is a certain coffee shop chain I frequent...frequently. When I worked for SBUX in America a great deal of stress was placed on the speed of delivery. Not so for Japan's SBUX. Here it's all about HOW you get the job done.
Who knows which way is best? I'm just making an observation, although, we could all learn and benefit from each other's ways.
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