No more questions please...

Having met over three hundred plus new people over the course of one month, I must say I am tired of questions. I know that people are only trying to be kind and initiate conversation but it gets old.
“Do you have Sports Day in America?”
“Do you students and teachers clean their schools in America?”
“In America do people like bugs?”
“In America do students eat school lunch?”
“In America do people eat rice?”

This brings me to the bigger problem. Stereotypes, generalizations…One of my jobs living in Japan, I feel, is to reduce the amount of these statements that are made. “You Americans, you do this…” It is also to correct the misinformation Japanese people have received via American TV and movies. ‘Are all Americans really like that??” I think not.

But America is big…when I am asked a question like the ones above the inquirer is waiting for a one sentence quick answer. Life is not so simple. There are too many different school systems in too many different states to make one simple yes/no answer. Furthermore, America is an amalgamation of many, many types of people from many backgrounds. When I receive food questions, there is no stereotype to be made. I feel unqualified to answer just what American food is.

Last week as I was feeling very frustrated and trying to justify why I was getting the same questions over and over from Japanese people, I realized/reconfirmed two things. 1) Remember, they are just being polite. They want to speak with me and are trying to form a connection. They don’t really care what my answer is. 2) Most importantly, I am using the phrase ‘Japanese people’. Why do ‘Japanese people’ do this? My experience of Japanese people has been very limited. In the same way that I feel America is large and unexplainable, Japan has many variations. When I write a friend at home, it is ‘in Japan, blah blah blah”. You forget that your piece of Japan is so small and that while trying to combat the stereotypes made about you, you have to watch the ones you are making. In my farewell speech to my high school, I spoke about how anywhere in the world people are just people. We have to connect our similarities rather than make ‘us’ ‘them’ categories.

Finally, for someone having to explain their country for the first time (well for three years I have been ‘introducing’ myself WAY too much), the questions can be frustrating. Most of the Japanese people I encounter have never been in this position of having to make statements like, “In Japan…” Only when you step out of your country can you get a better picture of what you feel it is like. When you live in another place, you are given a wonderful opportunity to learn what you really believe about your country (I am still working on this one…).

My solution to this seemingly endless banter has been a deep breath, a smile, some pretty flowers. And a too long ‘what did I learn today’ rant on this blog…