Reading & Digesting
Are They Typical?闯南走北
Cathy N. Davidson
1 Unlike my American students, students at Kansai Women’s University rarely attended my office hours. Ten one day a local newspaper reporter唐家共乐园 interviewed me for a column about gaijins’ impression of the typical Japane woman.
2 Before moving to Japan, I could answer without hesitation. I had the same preconceptions that most Westerners have about Japane women— submissive, flirtatious and accommodating. After teaching in Japan for veral months, I was unable to characterize the Japane women I’d met. I was impresd, in general, by their strength and independence, but I didn’t know how to describe “the typical Japane woman.”
3 “Is there one?” I finally asked helplessly.
4 I told the reporter that I now knew what was not typical (I’d en only two geisha), but I had no clue what a typical Japane woman was.
5 “I guess I’ll have to spend the rest of my year trying to find her!” I joked.
6 I don’t know how this joke translated but according to the article, I was described as a “feminist” who had come to Japan partly to learn more about Japane women. Suddenly students began showing up during my office hours, as if my words in the newspaper were an invitation for them to come to discuss personal matters with me or ask my advice without compromising their own lives. Apparently, I had said publicly that I was interested in learning more about Japane women so students came to share their opinions.
7 “I am the typical Japane woman,” my neighbor, Mrs. Okano, insists a few mornings after reading the newspaper.
8 “I’m rious,” my neighbor says, “if you want to know anything about typical Japane women, you can ask me.”
9 “Why do you consider yourlf ‘typical’?” I ask her.
10 “Becau I am,” she laughs. “There’s nothing unusual about me at all!”
11 “I think it’s unusual,” I say admiringly, “for somebody to admit they’re
typical. Most people think they are pretty special.”
台湾建筑12 “Oh, maybe in America,” she laughs. “But in Japan, every woman
thinks they’re typical.”
13 As we laugh, the mailwoman approaches and Mrs. Okano excus
herlf to meet her.
14 She reminds the mailwoman that from now on her mail should be
delivered to her new address.
15 “You’re moving today?” I ask, surprid at how disappointed I feel.
16 “Gomennasai, gomennasai,” she apologizes, realizing that I was
unaware. Probably everyone el at Maison Showa has known for weeks.
17 I tell her I’m sorry to hear that she is moving, but that I hope she will
鸿运当头的意思enjoy her new apartment.
18 “It’s a hou,” she says, unable to conceal her pride.
名人颁奖词
19 She is expecting the movers soon but insists on inviting me to give
me a copy of a map she has neatly drawn, marking the way to her new 行政主管hou.
20 “Now you can come and visit me,” she beams, handing it to me. “I also gave my husband a map this morning so he can find it tonight after work.” She says this casually.
21 “I don’t understand. You mean, he doesn’t remember the way?”
22 “He’s never been there.”
23 “I don’t understand,” I repeat, this time in Japane. “He’s never been系统开发工程师
there?”
24 Now she’s confud, and repeats again, in her best English.
25 “Excu me, plea,” I say, upping my politeness level in Japane. “I don’t understand, how he could have bought a hou without eing it?”
26 “He didn’t buy the hou, I did.”
27 “And he never saw it before you bought it?”
28 “Of cour not. That’s woman’s work. I told you I’m a typical Japane woman. Isn’t this how women do it in America?”
29 Mrs. Okano is shocked when I tell her that few American married如何在家洗羽绒服 women make major financial decisions without consulting their husbands. There might be some, but I don’t know any
30 “Really?” She shockingly responds.
31 “Never.”
32 “What about a car?” she asks me.
33 I shake my head no.
34 “Appliances — refrigerator, television?”
35 “Not usually.”
36 “Furniture?”
37 “Probably not. Most American husbands would be mad to come
home and discover their wife had just bought a new couch or dining room
t without consulting them.”
38 “I thought all American women work, earn their own money?” She
strangely replies.
39 “It’s true that many American women work outside the home,” I reply,
