As many of you know, I have spent my career in academia, teaching English to speakers of other languages. A noble profession, but one filled with frustration at times, given the slow progress and lack of achievement on the part of so many students.
Having time now to contemplate these deficiencies and investigate at length the issues of neuroscience and linguistic acquisition, as well as cross-disciplinary studies, I believe that I have come upon a new technique which might revitalize – if not revolutionize – how we teach foreign languages. The potential for spectacular results is enormous.
In the evangelical Christian movement, there is a sub-culture of believers who practice what is called glossolalia, speaking in tongues. In a state of religious fervor, these practitioners spontaneously begin discourse in a language that they have not formally learned. Some say it is the language of the angels while others claim it is an ancient holy language.
The key here, for those of us in the language-teaching field, is that the language they speak has not been formally studied; the speakers suddenly begin using it with native fluency on the spur of the moment! Imagine if you could replicate this process in your language classroom! No more worries about that discouraged student with his head down on the desk, or frets about whether your lesson plan will last 15 minutes or two! Your students will begin speaking fluently in a very short time, maybe as fast as one day!
Of course, I am sure all of you have some questions about this new technique. Let's look at some of your questions.
1. Traditional techniques that we have grown accustomed to might not be effective in teaching this new method (with the possible exception of Total Physical Response), so what can we as teachers do in the classroom to cover for this deficiency in methodology?
2. This is pretty obvious, but we don't want our students to suddenly become fluent in Angelic, so how do we get them to speak English?
3. If the students learn in one day what has typically taken at least 450 hours of intensive instruction to acquire, what will become of our jobs?
Let me address these very real concerns one-by-one.
1. How do we as teachers re-tool ourselves to meet the new challenge of an entirely different way of doing things? I would like to draw my readers' attention back to the 1960s and '70s when the audio-lingual method was in vogue. The key component of that method was repetition and substitution.
The teacher would cue the linguistic point (S-V-O), "Johnny has many girlfriends" and the students would repeat it, "Johnny has many girlfriends!" in unison. Then, branching off from the sentence but still using the same subject-verb-object pattern, the teacher would make a substitution, "... sex with all of them" and the students would instinctively know that this was an object and would substitute it in the object slot, "Johnny has sex with all of them!" Then still another substitution from the teacher, "... STDs in spades", and the students would dutifully respond, "Johnny has STDs in spades!"
You get the picture. Of course, most of the lessons were not as interesting as that one, and students would slip into boredom-induced comas in about 3 minutes, but the keys here are the "instinctive nature" by which they grasped that the substitution should be an object, and the way that teachers around the world made the transition from the pervasive audio-lingual approach to other more modern and no less effective techniques.
Let's face it, the people who are speaking in tongues right now are the same people who believe in creationism, so clearly a high IQ is not a requirement for learning with this technique (see earlier post). The teacher simply needs to create the proper atmosphere in the classroom: perhaps some rattles, incense and chanting might be helpful to raise the students' spiritual fervor to new heights. Perhaps Jazz Chants could be adapted to this new technique. The method is new, but I am confident that my colleagues in the English-teaching world will rise to this challenge as they did back in the '70s when people suddenly realized that the audio-lingual method was stupid.
2. Attractive though it is that our students might suddenly be able to speak ANY foreign tongue – even Angelic – we must not lose sight of our goal which is that they come away from our classrooms, speaking English. Research shows that the language the glossolalia practitioners speak comes from deep within them, so having some access to the students' inner selves is critical. It is my judgment (based on extensive research, not just sitting around making things up) that the ability to speak in tongues involves a transitional stage, that people do not actually break out into fluent Angelic or whatever, but rather start slowly and within a short time, achieve amazing fluency. It is during this transitional phase, that the students' natural tendencies to Angelic need to be supplanted with English forms. Subliminal projections in a powerpoint presentation, for example, or previous-night, dream intervention might be able to preempt the development of Angelic speech patterns and substitute English. Of course, failure among some of your students is inevitable; some will simply end up speaking Angelic. But considering that they spoke no foreign languages before, even this will be a sign of success.
3. Efficiencies in production always result in a loss of jobs and using this new, ground-breaking technique will certainly result in efficiencies. When you are cranking out fluent English-speakers in a day or two, it seems that it wouldn't be long before you ran out of students. I believe, however, that the use of this technique will not result in a continuing ability to use English fluently. There will be inevitable slipping back into Angelic or even loss of fervor to speak like this at all. This is where the teacher's role will become even more critical. Workshops in reinvigorating fervor, for example, or remediation of Angelic-creep into the students' English will be the focus of our work, providing a new and exciting challenge everyday.
As I see it, this is a win-win opportunity. Students come away with real language skills and teachers gain the opportunity to branch out into new and different challenges that will provide a break from the humdrum of today's lessons and methods.
If I am awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, I will definitely accept; I can use the money.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
The Bugs of Summer
I really don't believe that Japan is buggier than other places on the planet. After all, I heard from a resident of Minnesota that the mosquito is their state bird. Nevertheless, there are a lot of pesky, buzzing things in the air in summer and keeping them at bay is a full-time occupation. The Kincho Company (Motto: Live with nature the better way; spray it) offers a delightful spread of options for dealing with mosquitoes. There are the mosquito incense coils to "kill them", a wearable vapor-emitting device to keep them away for "240 hours", a selection of bug repellent sprays, a wearable canister which can hold a burning mosquito coil, an electric heater for "vapor mats", and electric vapor-heaters for bottled liquid (good for 60 days!). All this for only mosquito protection.
There are two products which I would like to discuss today. The first is the blue electric zapper. Everyone has seen one, standing on a pole in someone's yard, emitting a small snapping sound when an insect – obviously overcome with religious fervor – "sees the light" a little too closely. My question has to do with the theory behind them. You see, they ATTRACT bugs. Isn't that what we DON'T want to happen?
Scenario
1. I hang a blue-light bug zapper in my yard.
2. It attracts bugs from miles around.
3. A lot of the bugs stop off for a snack before they go on their crusade into the light.
4. I do a lot of scratching.
Clearly this is not a good plan. We need to get someone else to buy these things and hang them as far from us as possible.
Next. Cockroaches. A lot of companies (including Kincho mentioned above) make little boxes that catch cockroaches. In the US they are called "Cockroach Hotel" -- "the roaches check in, but they don't check out". Clever.
In Japan they are called Gokiburi Hoi Hoi, which I loosely translate as "Cockroaches! C'mon C'mon!"
But... do they work? Let me relate a story about cockroaches.
When I was in college, being poor I lived in a basement apartment, a "refinished" living space in the hot- water-heater, central heating-unit space of the old house above me. It was cheap.
I shared that space with other creatures who also could not afford the rents of the better rooms above, rats and cockroaches in particular.
The roaches were always out in my kitchen, foraging for treats. When I saw them, I would smack them with Time Magazine or spray them with one of those chemical weapons that has the skull and crossbones on it. I also used the roach hotel traps and would occasionally find one or two stuck in the little box in the morning when I woke up – very satisfying!
Smacking them worked; it would usually do them in on the spot, but it made a mess of my magazines. The spray seemed less immediately successful. I remember seeing one come out from under my fridge and look up at me as if to say, "You still here?"
I sprayed it so much it looked like a tuft of whipped cream running around on the floor, but it simply shrugged off the spray and ran into the wall that divided my living area from the heating units for the apartments above.
Aha!
The roaches live in the wall! (I imagined a small tribe of a couple of dozen insects warming themselves cozily in there.)
I bought several cans of DEATH TO EVERY LIVING THING THAT ISN'T HUMAN spray and carved small holes with my Swiss Army Knife in the wall that separated my living space from the heater area. I then unleashed a whole can of the aerosol weapon into the holes in the wall and waited.
The waiting took only a few seconds.
A sea... a tsunami... a vast flow of cockroaches of all sizes and shapes poured out of the wall into my living room.
Naturally...
I freaked.
I got my trusty Zippo lighter, flicked it on and sprayed the Death Spray over the flame, creating a flame thrower to incinerate the roaches as they flowed in their thousands out of the wall. Males, females, babies... I confess... I killed them indiscriminately. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. I lost count. They overran my ability to kill them, so vast were the hordes.
I moved out.
But I learned a lesson. The lesson was that the cockroach hotels are just for show. The cockroaches send their sick and lame to get caught in them, so that we humans will feel ok about having thousands of roaches around.
"OK, Gramps! You have been spending too much time loafing around, and we are tired of your flatulence. You have been chosen by our Executive Committee to go get yourself stuck in that stupid roach hotel thing the humans have put out."
So grampa roach shuffles out and sacrifices himself for the horde, getting himself stuck in the trap which we then put out gleefully on burnable trash day. The swarm, however, continues its work for world domination in our walls unscathed. And in our hearts, we know they're right.
There are two products which I would like to discuss today. The first is the blue electric zapper. Everyone has seen one, standing on a pole in someone's yard, emitting a small snapping sound when an insect – obviously overcome with religious fervor – "sees the light" a little too closely. My question has to do with the theory behind them. You see, they ATTRACT bugs. Isn't that what we DON'T want to happen?
Scenario
1. I hang a blue-light bug zapper in my yard.
2. It attracts bugs from miles around.
3. A lot of the bugs stop off for a snack before they go on their crusade into the light.
4. I do a lot of scratching.
Clearly this is not a good plan. We need to get someone else to buy these things and hang them as far from us as possible.
Next. Cockroaches. A lot of companies (including Kincho mentioned above) make little boxes that catch cockroaches. In the US they are called "Cockroach Hotel" -- "the roaches check in, but they don't check out". Clever.
In Japan they are called Gokiburi Hoi Hoi, which I loosely translate as "Cockroaches! C'mon C'mon!"
But... do they work? Let me relate a story about cockroaches.
When I was in college, being poor I lived in a basement apartment, a "refinished" living space in the hot- water-heater, central heating-unit space of the old house above me. It was cheap.
I shared that space with other creatures who also could not afford the rents of the better rooms above, rats and cockroaches in particular.
The roaches were always out in my kitchen, foraging for treats. When I saw them, I would smack them with Time Magazine or spray them with one of those chemical weapons that has the skull and crossbones on it. I also used the roach hotel traps and would occasionally find one or two stuck in the little box in the morning when I woke up – very satisfying!
Smacking them worked; it would usually do them in on the spot, but it made a mess of my magazines. The spray seemed less immediately successful. I remember seeing one come out from under my fridge and look up at me as if to say, "You still here?"
I sprayed it so much it looked like a tuft of whipped cream running around on the floor, but it simply shrugged off the spray and ran into the wall that divided my living area from the heating units for the apartments above.
Aha!
The roaches live in the wall! (I imagined a small tribe of a couple of dozen insects warming themselves cozily in there.)
I bought several cans of DEATH TO EVERY LIVING THING THAT ISN'T HUMAN spray and carved small holes with my Swiss Army Knife in the wall that separated my living space from the heater area. I then unleashed a whole can of the aerosol weapon into the holes in the wall and waited.
The waiting took only a few seconds.
A sea... a tsunami... a vast flow of cockroaches of all sizes and shapes poured out of the wall into my living room.
Naturally...
I freaked.
I got my trusty Zippo lighter, flicked it on and sprayed the Death Spray over the flame, creating a flame thrower to incinerate the roaches as they flowed in their thousands out of the wall. Males, females, babies... I confess... I killed them indiscriminately. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. I lost count. They overran my ability to kill them, so vast were the hordes.
I moved out.
But I learned a lesson. The lesson was that the cockroach hotels are just for show. The cockroaches send their sick and lame to get caught in them, so that we humans will feel ok about having thousands of roaches around.
"OK, Gramps! You have been spending too much time loafing around, and we are tired of your flatulence. You have been chosen by our Executive Committee to go get yourself stuck in that stupid roach hotel thing the humans have put out."
So grampa roach shuffles out and sacrifices himself for the horde, getting himself stuck in the trap which we then put out gleefully on burnable trash day. The swarm, however, continues its work for world domination in our walls unscathed. And in our hearts, we know they're right.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Interim Post
Good evening.
I have some other work to do, starting tomorrow and ending on Monday, that will consume a lot of my time and may prevent me from posting here. If you are one of those who is just biting your nails in anticipation of what I might write for Monday's episode, please bear with me.
Many thanks!
I have some other work to do, starting tomorrow and ending on Monday, that will consume a lot of my time and may prevent me from posting here. If you are one of those who is just biting your nails in anticipation of what I might write for Monday's episode, please bear with me.
Many thanks!
Monday, September 13, 2010
The Senior Deficit
Comments from an alert reader and a link to the Creation Museum (Motto: Prepare to Believe) tempt me into another rant, but breaking developments on the missing seniors in Japan (National Motto: We live longer than you do; neener neener neener!) require my attention there.
The news is not encouraging. The Japanese government had previously listed around 45,000 Japanese citizens as being over 100 years old, but the recent push to discover missing seniors has revealed that over 200,000 centenarians have gone missing. Some would be over 150 years old.
Scenario
Scene opens in town office where public pensions are administered.
Watanabe Aho (Director of Records): OK, it's time for our annual review of pension recipients. Let's see... we have 123 people on record here as being over 100 years old! Amazing.
Tanaka Manuke (Assistant Record Keeper) Yes, it truly is amazing. Did you know that once again Japan leads the world in longevity amongst developed nations, according to international reports?
Watanabe: Yes! It fills me with pride. Say...(looking at a chart)... what about this person? His name is Kourei Toshiyori. He was born in 1873! That means that this December, he will be 137 years old!
Tanaka: Yes, he is the only person on our lists who is still receiving military retirement benefits from the Russo-Japanese War. He was in the Imperial Navy, you know.
Watanabe: That is so amazing. And look at this one! Ojii Shinisou. Our records show that he was born in 1890.
Tanaka: (checking the computer) Yes, I visited his family only last month to wish him a happy 120th birthday, but – wouldn't you know it – he was napping and couldn't receive any guests.
Watanabe: (chuckling) Yeah, well seniors that old deserve their naps! My data shows that he was around during the occupation of Korea in 1910! It says here that he was on Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo's staff during the Pearl Harbor attack! Imagine all that he has seen and done in his long life!
Tanaka: Yes, it is truly astounding.
Watanabe: He has been receiving his government pension now for 55 years. It is the least our society can do for someone who has given so much to our country over these many years.
Tanaka: Truly. Look at this one! Oh my god! I knew that women lived longer than men in general, but this one is remarkable. Her name is Koukourei Miira. She was born in – get this – 1855! She is 155 years old this year!
Watanabe: Yes, I went to her house last – let me see – last January to give her our special award for longevity. She is the oldest person in our district you know! Unfortunately, her family said she was napping and could not be disturbed, but they accepted the award on her behalf.
Tanaka: (looking at the computer again) Awww... that is so sweet. Did you know that she was a witness to the Meiji Restoration! Remarkable.
Watanabe: (putting the files back into their cabinets) OK, it looks like all these people check out. Let's look at the 90-year-olds now, OK?
Tanaka: Good idea, we can't be too careful with the public's money, can we.
The news is not encouraging. The Japanese government had previously listed around 45,000 Japanese citizens as being over 100 years old, but the recent push to discover missing seniors has revealed that over 200,000 centenarians have gone missing. Some would be over 150 years old.
Scenario
Scene opens in town office where public pensions are administered.
Watanabe Aho (Director of Records): OK, it's time for our annual review of pension recipients. Let's see... we have 123 people on record here as being over 100 years old! Amazing.
Tanaka Manuke (Assistant Record Keeper) Yes, it truly is amazing. Did you know that once again Japan leads the world in longevity amongst developed nations, according to international reports?
Watanabe: Yes! It fills me with pride. Say...(looking at a chart)... what about this person? His name is Kourei Toshiyori. He was born in 1873! That means that this December, he will be 137 years old!
Tanaka: Yes, he is the only person on our lists who is still receiving military retirement benefits from the Russo-Japanese War. He was in the Imperial Navy, you know.
Watanabe: That is so amazing. And look at this one! Ojii Shinisou. Our records show that he was born in 1890.
Tanaka: (checking the computer) Yes, I visited his family only last month to wish him a happy 120th birthday, but – wouldn't you know it – he was napping and couldn't receive any guests.
Watanabe: (chuckling) Yeah, well seniors that old deserve their naps! My data shows that he was around during the occupation of Korea in 1910! It says here that he was on Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo's staff during the Pearl Harbor attack! Imagine all that he has seen and done in his long life!
Tanaka: Yes, it is truly astounding.
Watanabe: He has been receiving his government pension now for 55 years. It is the least our society can do for someone who has given so much to our country over these many years.
Tanaka: Truly. Look at this one! Oh my god! I knew that women lived longer than men in general, but this one is remarkable. Her name is Koukourei Miira. She was born in – get this – 1855! She is 155 years old this year!
Watanabe: Yes, I went to her house last – let me see – last January to give her our special award for longevity. She is the oldest person in our district you know! Unfortunately, her family said she was napping and could not be disturbed, but they accepted the award on her behalf.
Tanaka: (looking at the computer again) Awww... that is so sweet. Did you know that she was a witness to the Meiji Restoration! Remarkable.
Watanabe: (putting the files back into their cabinets) OK, it looks like all these people check out. Let's look at the 90-year-olds now, OK?
Tanaka: Good idea, we can't be too careful with the public's money, can we.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Creationist Cretins
I am taking a break from writing humor about Japan to say something about the nuthouse developments in the United States. The religious fervor that is sweeping a certain segment of our nation is starting to get on my nerves. High on the list of irritants are those who believe in Creationism. For those of you who may not yet have heard of this movement, it is a Christian fundamentalist attitude that takes the Bible literally and believes (please, no laughing yet, ok?) that the Earth was created about 5000 years ago and that the process of evolution has not happened.
Key to this "theory" is the adjunct belief that the whole world was inundated in a flood (as said in the Bible) and that all the living things that breathe were saved on Noah's Ark.
According to the Bible, noah's ark was 300 cubits long (450 feet, or 135 meters);
its width was 50 cubits (75 feet, or 22.5 meters), and it had three stories with a height of 30 cubits (45 feet, or 13.5 meters). Noah and his family along with all the animals were on his Ark about 377 days – something more than a year.
Consider:
Giant Anteaters eat 30,000 termites and ants a day. Noah had to have 2 of them, so 60,000 termites and ants a day needed to be provided. Do the math yourself – 8,527,740,000 termites and ants on a wooden ship to provide food for only two anteaters. Normal ant colonies have around 50,000 ants, a large colony of army ants (which you would not want on a boat) have about 700,000, but do not stay in one place. One of the largest ant colonies ever discovered was found in Japan. It contained only "306 million worker ants and one million queen ants living in 45,000 nests interconnected by underground passages over an area of 2.7 km²". Ants do not live in pairs. Ants do not swim. There are about 10,000 different species of ants. Two of each ant and termite species would also have needed to be protected from the seas and from the anteaters.
How about bats? There are around 5000 different species of bat, many of which eat one third of their body weight every night in insect prey. I am unaware that any bat species is pelagic. The bats need to hunt the insects, most of which would have to be flying around for them to be caught.
There are also about 5000 species of frogs who do not do well on the open seas, especially seas that covered the whole planet, including presumably Mt. Ararat at 5,137 m/16,854 ft. (We will be generous here and suggest that Mt. Everest and other much higher mountains did not exist at the time.)
Literal readers of the Bible claim that "Bible scholars have calculated that approximately 45,000 animals might have fit on the ark". Oh really?
Consider:
The Oasis of the Seas, a very large cruise ship, has a length of 360 m or 1,181 ft, more than double the length of the Ark. Its beam is 47 m (154 ft), again more than double the Ark's width. It's height is 72 m (236 ft) above the waterline, more than 5 times as high as the Ark. It's capacity for short one- and two-week cruises is around 5,000 passengers and 2,000 crew, or a total of 7,000 people. Granted, people traveling on a cruise require a lot of services and special food, etc. but does it seem likely that a much smaller vessel could support 45,000 animals and their food for over a year? If you believe that, you have a major short circuit in your brain somewhere.
You get the picture here? People who take this beautiful surviving story from our prehistoric days (it's in the Koran too) as gospel truth have taken serious leave of their senses and intellect. This movement is anti-science pure and simple. I thought we got over that 500 years ago.
Apologies for the rant.
Key to this "theory" is the adjunct belief that the whole world was inundated in a flood (as said in the Bible) and that all the living things that breathe were saved on Noah's Ark.
According to the Bible, noah's ark was 300 cubits long (450 feet, or 135 meters);
its width was 50 cubits (75 feet, or 22.5 meters), and it had three stories with a height of 30 cubits (45 feet, or 13.5 meters). Noah and his family along with all the animals were on his Ark about 377 days – something more than a year.
Consider:
Giant Anteaters eat 30,000 termites and ants a day. Noah had to have 2 of them, so 60,000 termites and ants a day needed to be provided. Do the math yourself – 8,527,740,000 termites and ants on a wooden ship to provide food for only two anteaters. Normal ant colonies have around 50,000 ants, a large colony of army ants (which you would not want on a boat) have about 700,000, but do not stay in one place. One of the largest ant colonies ever discovered was found in Japan. It contained only "306 million worker ants and one million queen ants living in 45,000 nests interconnected by underground passages over an area of 2.7 km²". Ants do not live in pairs. Ants do not swim. There are about 10,000 different species of ants. Two of each ant and termite species would also have needed to be protected from the seas and from the anteaters.
How about bats? There are around 5000 different species of bat, many of which eat one third of their body weight every night in insect prey. I am unaware that any bat species is pelagic. The bats need to hunt the insects, most of which would have to be flying around for them to be caught.
There are also about 5000 species of frogs who do not do well on the open seas, especially seas that covered the whole planet, including presumably Mt. Ararat at 5,137 m/16,854 ft. (We will be generous here and suggest that Mt. Everest and other much higher mountains did not exist at the time.)
Literal readers of the Bible claim that "Bible scholars have calculated that approximately 45,000 animals might have fit on the ark". Oh really?
Consider:
The Oasis of the Seas, a very large cruise ship, has a length of 360 m or 1,181 ft, more than double the length of the Ark. Its beam is 47 m (154 ft), again more than double the Ark's width. It's height is 72 m (236 ft) above the waterline, more than 5 times as high as the Ark. It's capacity for short one- and two-week cruises is around 5,000 passengers and 2,000 crew, or a total of 7,000 people. Granted, people traveling on a cruise require a lot of services and special food, etc. but does it seem likely that a much smaller vessel could support 45,000 animals and their food for over a year? If you believe that, you have a major short circuit in your brain somewhere.
You get the picture here? People who take this beautiful surviving story from our prehistoric days (it's in the Koran too) as gospel truth have taken serious leave of their senses and intellect. This movement is anti-science pure and simple. I thought we got over that 500 years ago.
Apologies for the rant.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Interim Post
While I make humor about Japan, it needs to be said that there are a lot of good things going for this nation too. Let me cite one small example that happened not more than 15 minutes ago.
I went to the gas station to tank up my car; it's called a Montero in the US, Pajero (no laughing you Spanish speakers!) in Japan. The Mitsubishi has running boards below the doors to provide a step-up for people to get into the rather high-off-the-ground seats.
As the gas station attendant -- young guy of about 20 or so -- was wiping all the windows (most gas stations in Japan are still "full serve"), he found a 500 yen coin (about USD$5.50) on the passenger-side running board. I had no idea it was there; it must have been dropped by my son when he was getting into the car. I did not see the attendant find anything; in fact, I was not even watching him as he went about his business. I am not sure I could even see him all that well in the rear-view side mirrors.
The attendant brought the coin around to my side of the car and asked, "Did you drop this?" Having never left the driver's seat, I naturally said, "No." And he said, "Well, I found it on the running board on the other side. Maybe someone else dropped it." And he handed it to me.
In the US where petty pilfering in supermarkets and department stores is rampant (in 3 months of living in Seattle, I personally discovered no fewer than 5 examples of it -- opened packages, missing contents!), this sort of honesty would be almost unthinkable.
In Japan, we take it for granted.
Next post from Seattle.
Cheers!
I went to the gas station to tank up my car; it's called a Montero in the US, Pajero (no laughing you Spanish speakers!) in Japan. The Mitsubishi has running boards below the doors to provide a step-up for people to get into the rather high-off-the-ground seats.
As the gas station attendant -- young guy of about 20 or so -- was wiping all the windows (most gas stations in Japan are still "full serve"), he found a 500 yen coin (about USD$5.50) on the passenger-side running board. I had no idea it was there; it must have been dropped by my son when he was getting into the car. I did not see the attendant find anything; in fact, I was not even watching him as he went about his business. I am not sure I could even see him all that well in the rear-view side mirrors.
The attendant brought the coin around to my side of the car and asked, "Did you drop this?" Having never left the driver's seat, I naturally said, "No." And he said, "Well, I found it on the running board on the other side. Maybe someone else dropped it." And he handed it to me.
In the US where petty pilfering in supermarkets and department stores is rampant (in 3 months of living in Seattle, I personally discovered no fewer than 5 examples of it -- opened packages, missing contents!), this sort of honesty would be almost unthinkable.
In Japan, we take it for granted.
Next post from Seattle.
Cheers!
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