Learning through experiences: Week 14

            My sister, Yolanda, recently arrived back to Japan after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and we had passing conversations about living in Japan and how we were raised differently than most Americans.  In one conversation we had about  Japan is a very different than American, she described the experience of first living in Japan as “you have culture shock and then you have Japan.”  Japan has different ways of doing a lot of things, for example, if a subway is filled with people and two people are standing face to face to one another they wouldn’t acknowledge one another like we would in the States.  This cultural difference is confusing to me, but it makes sense when one considers that they avoid making direct eye contact with one another, because it is considered aggressive, instead they gaze at each other, as to avoid being seen as aggressive.  Another thing that relates to eyes is how in Japan no one wears sunglasses in public, even when the sun is beaming, because it is considered to mean that they are hiding something.  This serves as another example of how an object can create different meanings, because in American sunglasses are thought of as stylish and a means to protect one from the sun.   It was interesting because Ann said that you would see a lot of Japanese people driving with sunglasses on, but when they would be in public they would take them off. 

            In another conversation we talked how in Japan recycling is taken very seriously to the point that buildings are built in a certain direction so that the sun rises behind them.  The purpose of this is because dryers use a lot of energy to dry clothes, so by everyone hanging clothes it reduces the use of energy country wide.  Japan is very focused in creating a very sustainable community and it shows by how they recycle.  A particular day of the week will be designated to recycle certain materials, one day plastic, next paper, another garbage, lastly glass.  The containers would be dropped off and within the hour they are collected.  Because residents didn’t have a container of their own to put on the corner for trash days, the person at home during the hours, usually the woman, would have to take out the trash, something that we in America give a weary eye on.  But in Japan it makes perfect sense, because of the environment that they live in.  When my sisters and their children came to visit on the April 15^th weekend, I told her that my trash is in the freezer and without a look of confusion she instantly understood the logic of it.  Because I recycle I have food scrapes and those food scrapes creates a smell if left out in the open and since they are scraps I only take out the trash once a week, so putting the trash in the freezer is essential so that  my apartment doesn’t smell of rotten eggs and other unpleasantries.  She understood my perceived strangeness because she experienced living in another environment that was strange to the current environment (America).  By experiencing something different she was able to gain a better understanding of individual differences.

            Yolanda has two children, boy (10) and girl (7), when they came back to the States, they looked at the signs and were happy that they could read them, when they were lost Yolanda said maybe I should ask for directions and the girl said, ”That’s gonna take forever,” then Yolanda reminded her that the people here speak English.  Sometimes we, in America take for granted how powerful language is, language can make you feel a part of society at large or can exclude you from participating.  Upon being able to read the signs, Yolanda’s son said, “So this is how people that aren’t from America feel.”  Simple statement, but it shows the understanding and compassion that he was able to learn by being a foreigner to a distant land.  Adult learning is the same as child learning, their experiences are the major factors on what they learn.  Learning weather formal or informal is learning nonetheless, what is learned in one can be used in all settings, weather formal or informal to educate anyone at any given time.  The outcome is the same, but the methodology used is the difference.