When I was in Canada, I had many chances to appeal Japan. However, I couldn't talk about Japan although I am Japanese. Other countries people often wanted to know details. For example, I asked about "samurai" and "ninja". Of course I know them, but I couldn't explain them including historical problems. Even if I know it, I don't have enough skill and vocabularies to tell it. Sometimes, I asked my opinion, not knowledge, like "What do you think about Ainu?"
I feel Japanese people don't know about Japan. We try to study about other countries because of "internationalization" which is really important polity nowadays. What is "internationalization"? If we just can speak English very well, can we be an international person? I don't think so. Of course, it is important to know other countries and bring them in to our business. However, we might lose our identities as Japanese if we don't see ourselves at all. Japan also has great cultures and technologies which we have to keep in the future. In fact, one of great minority group and their culture, Ainu, is losing now. However, we don't have any education about them in the school at all. Maybe most people don't know what is happening to them at all. I doubt that it is good.
I think we have to learn about Japan more, to keep our cultures and identities and to let other countries people know about Japan more.
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Thanks for this interesting post. Let's talk about this in class. I'm particularly interested the idea that Japanese people should be able to talk about ninja, even though there are no ninja in Japan today. The same may be said about geisha, which are quite famous in other countries but not known in Japan now. I wonder if Ian should be expected to be able to explain bagpipes and kilts. Or if I should be able to explain how to trap beaver or lasso a cow (American things). Should Chinese people be experts on Confucius? Should women from Thailand be able to dance traditional dances? Should people from Korea but able to explain traditional Korean music? Should people from Canada know a lot about the Royal Mounted Police? Should people from England be prepared to teach Shakespeare when they come to Japan?
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