Recap (aka Letter #1, 2012)

Greetings, and salutations,

whatever that means.

As always, it's been a long time since my last post, and obviously much has happened since then. That being the case, there are a few things which I would like to mention, or at least attempt to, in somewhat reverse-chronological order.

Back when I was still active here I used to have this thing where I numbered each post (or letter) in the title, as above. Obviously it's been ages since I did that, and frankly I'm too lazy to open my previous posts and do a headcount of which letter this is. Therefore I've decided to restart the numbering based on what year it is. As you can see this is my first letter of 2012, hence the above title. As before, not all posts will be explicitly given a number designation, but I will try and keep track of these things.

I may or may not have mentioned this, but I'm currently attending college (university, whatever you wish to call it. There isn't much distinction in my mind), majoring in Japanese language and culture. Last December, I took the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) along with my girlfriend and one of my best friends.

For those of you who are wondering, The JLPT is basically Japan's TOEFL test. Under the current system, it is divided into 5 different levels, N1-N5, with N5 being the lowest, and N1 the highest. We took the N3 test this time, which, aside from being a formal way of saying you might survive day-to-day life in Japan, is a requisite (am I using that word correctly?) for graduation. Fortunately I passed. Not with flying colors, but I passed. What that means to me as a job-seeker is that if I apply for work in Japan or at a Japanese-owned company, chances are I could get somewhere between entry- and lower mid-level positions, IF I'm deemed good enough. Something like that. I'm just drawing my own conclusions here, so people with more experience on the matter may wish to bash my skull in.

On the subject of Japan, our university has this exchange program (though as far as I know, it's not an 'exchange' per se as we don't really receive students) with a language institute in Japan. The headmaster (I think he was) was kind enough to come here to Indonesia and explain the program for those of us who were interested, which definitely included yours truly. The problem of course being financial in nature. As of this writing I'm still in negotiations with my mother and am keeping my fingers crossed.

I have the preview for this blog open in the next tab, and frankly I wish to do something about the design. However I've never been particularly good in either technology or aesthetics, so I'm not sure how to make that happen. Suggestions, anyone?

I suppose that's it for now; if I go any further I might as well start writing an autobiography. Don't forget to check my friend's blog (for those of you who missed the link it's http://jellyjyun04.blogspot.com/ ). It's in (somewhat broken) Japanese, which really has me thinking about doing a Japanese post as well, for practice.

Hope to see you again soon!

Sincerely,

- Zet Valentine

P.S

Experimenting with font sizes, tell me how it is in the Blahbox or comments section please.

Culture Shock (aka Face Value)

One of my teachers (professors, lecturers, whatever) recently mentioned in class some cultural differences between the Japanese (and most Asian countries) and the West. One that particularly caught my interest was the way westerners are quite straightforward, while most Asians work their way around criticism.

Afterwards, a friend of mine mentioned her discomfort at how another friend of ours liked to hug, poke, and do other things that would get her (the other friend) killed if she (still the other friend) did it to me. I told her that if she doesn't like it, then just say it. Her response: "gak enak", as in she didn't want to offend her. Which led me to ask, "WHY?"
Because she didn't want to offend her. Because she didn't want to offend her. Because she was still considering her (again, the other friend's) feelings.

Right. So it's okay for HER to poke, hug, tickle, and otherwise ANNOY THE HELL OUT OF you, but you don't want to tell her because you're afraid you'll hurt HER feelings? Suit yourself.

In any case, I told her (and yet another friend who was there listening) that if they had something they held against me, they had better tell it to my face rather than talk about it behind my back. That was, after all, what we were doing, albeit unwittingly. What kind of friendship would last if bast on such a lie, anyway?

But seriously now, our people seem to be obsessed with so-called "formalities"; if you do something to offend someone, they could hold it against you forever. Truth be told, I really don't understand that line of thought. Personally, I prefer the "I may not like you, but that doesn't mean I can't work with you" policy. Personal relationships should be personal, professional relationships should be professional, and neither should affect the other.

Not to say that I'm devoid of sentiment. Of course I'll be offended at first if you tell it to my face. But I can get over it and really appreciate the fact that you came forward about it, rather than to keep it a secret.

I'm guessing that some, if not most of you go with the so-called "Asian" line of thought. I'll be perfectly clear that I'm not telling anyone to do things my way, nor am I claiming my way to be the right way. I'm just merely expressing my opinion. If you don't like it, it's perfectly fine; we just simply need to agree to disagree, because sometimes it's really impossible to ask others to see things your way. That's why it's important for me to try to at least understand where you're coming from, and respect where you stand, rather than make you do things my way.

Think about it.

Considerately,
-Zet