Sitting Down for Dinner – A Conversation between 1 Israeli and 5 Japanese

It was just a few days ago that I’ve discovered that quite a few Japanese are residing in my hostel. I don’t know where they have been up until now, but it gave me the opportunity of brushing up my Japanese. Now, for the record, I DON’T know Japanese… One would think that 3 years of studying some obscure language in an obscure BA degree would grant me some Japanese conversational capabilities, but I can assure you that that same One would be dead WRONG. Me trying to speak Japanese is like an elephant trying to do a flip-flop - it’s just too painful to watch.
Thankfully, the Japanese are very patient. They were amazed by my two words vocabulary, and perhaps it was the trigger for them to invite me to sit down and eat with them a casual dinner. Of course, I was happy to oblige, since, after all, it was food. But I also wanted to converse with them about some modern cultural characteristics of Asian culture that I found somewhat intriguing. For example – while I was trying to calm myself down after eating some spicy stuff they gave me, I questioned them about the differences in Korean public display of affection to the Japanese one: I’ve noticed that in Korea, many of the couples are holding hands in public places, sometimes hugging, and even kissing in Bars and such. Now from what I’ve learned, it is not the same in Japan, and the friendly Japanese confirmed my assumptions. They explained that the difference is probably in the public shame factor… the Japanese rely on public reputation more than the Korean, and therefore they try not to shame themselves by displaying in public private emotions and affections.
Another question I asked was about the `V` gesture they do in every, and I mean, EVERY picture they take: I asked them if they know its origin, and when did it started. They didn’t really know, but they told me it represents the symbol of peace. Actually, I checked it out on Wikipedia, and the origin of the V gesture in pictures might be a 1972 Japanese commercial.
Many more questions were asked, and many answers were given. But I was not only the questioner, but the questionee as well. They had known virtually nothing of Israel, which is not surprising. If any of you had thought that everyone knows where Israel is because of the news and wars and such, is totally mistaken. They don’t care. But anyway, they asked me of my native language, and what did I do in the Army... actually, that’s about it. The only meaningful thing I’ve taught them about Israel is the quality of the Schnitzel... darn, I miss those Schnitzels.