False Friends
Jul. 31st, 2013 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
steepholma) There is a superficial similarity between The Onion's brain-dead teen and the hikikomori of Japan, but is it the same phenomenon, explained in different ways according to the differing cultural schemata of the USA and Japan, or two very different things that happen to flourish in the same teenage hedgerow?
b) The teen in the Onion clip says, "I don't even..." - a phrase I've only ever seen written before, and which I've always understood (correctly?) to mean "This is beyond my powers of expression to describe" rather than "I can't be bothered to finish this sentence". Does it depend on context?
c) In neither case does it have much in common with my favourite Japanese phrase - or rather non-phrase - of today, which is the way of expressing one's dislike of something by saying "[whatever] wa chotto" - i.e. "[whatever]'s a bit..." Here, the unfinished sentence suggests polite reticence and a reluctance to vocalize criticism - something to which I can certainly relate as an English person (and which further convinces me of the deep subterranean affinity between our nations), but heard the wrong way could sound quite snotty and supercilious.
d) And speaking of supercilious, is there any culture where raising one's eyebrow and looking to heaven is seen as a deeply respectful gesture? I find it easy to imagine, but have never heard of one.
b) The teen in the Onion clip says, "I don't even..." - a phrase I've only ever seen written before, and which I've always understood (correctly?) to mean "This is beyond my powers of expression to describe" rather than "I can't be bothered to finish this sentence". Does it depend on context?
c) In neither case does it have much in common with my favourite Japanese phrase - or rather non-phrase - of today, which is the way of expressing one's dislike of something by saying "[whatever] wa chotto" - i.e. "[whatever]'s a bit..." Here, the unfinished sentence suggests polite reticence and a reluctance to vocalize criticism - something to which I can certainly relate as an English person (and which further convinces me of the deep subterranean affinity between our nations), but heard the wrong way could sound quite snotty and supercilious.
d) And speaking of supercilious, is there any culture where raising one's eyebrow and looking to heaven is seen as a deeply respectful gesture? I find it easy to imagine, but have never heard of one.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-07-31 07:13 pm (UTC)When I say "I don't even" (which, when I say it aloud, tends not to stand alone quite so much. Tends more to be "I don't even KNOW" or "I don't even ...GAAAHHH" or "I don't even, you know?" it means more what you suspect, which is "I can't even find the words to describe this, possibly because it is so frustrating and rage inducing or just bizarre."
... Americans in general do not have a reluctance to vocalize criticism. ;) It's only recently that I learned how many Americans are confused by "quite", UK style, intensifier as snottiness. Possibly because if Americans want to say that someone is being a dick we'll say, you know, "dick."
Oh America, never change.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-07-31 07:35 pm (UTC)I think that's a fair summary, but I'm less clear as to whether whether the behaviours the articles are describing, for all the differences in genre and diagnostic categories, objectively differ very much.
Oh America, never change.
I admire it in many ways, but find the resulting stress quite enervating, like thrash metal being played all day long on loudspeakers, Noriega style. Video meliora, proboque, deteriora sequor...