Job Discussion Forums

[calidhuux]

Shiuze, you're right. Your advice reminds me of something that a best friend of mine once told me. You see, her mother is from Argentina and her father is French Canadian. Furthermore, she's now married to an Iraqi Kurd. When asked how she would describe her children's ethnicity, she'd simply reply, "Canadian". The issue at hand is that Canada is still a very young country compared to the rest of the world and that a majority of her citizens, naturalized or not, still find a need to use distinctions to delineate their heritage.

[PAULH]

[PAULH]

[calidhuux]

Paul, you're forgetting that the tories formed a "minority government" after winning the Canadian federal elections earlier this year. In any event, they won't last long. Canadians, in general, would prefer to have kept the liberals in power had the liberal leaders avoided a scandal or two. Regarding your opinion about electoral democracies versus totalitarian states, there is a saying in my mother tongue that can roughly be translated into the following, "Politics always operates by killing one man while feeding the other."

[JimDunlop2]

[PAULH]

Have you never heard of coalitions? the LDP is in power because they are in coalition with two other minority parties to win elections. In New Zealand PM Helen Clark had to cobble together a coalition to form a new government. You also have proportional representation as well as first-past the post wins as well.

Its a fairly imperfect system but what democracy isnt? What party has actually won 50% of the vote when you have up to half a dozen political parties? Japan has someting like six or eight political parties but only three make up the ruling government coalition (LDP, Komeito and one other, I think its the Socialist Party).

You could always have the American system where Gore got more popular votes than Bush but due to gerrymandering and the electoral college Bush won the presidency. Just looking at Labour in the UK you can see that no party has a monopoly on clean government and all parties at one point or another get mired in scandals.

[Tue]

[PAULH]

[calidhuux]

Tue, stop with the petty taunts. To those who wish to publish their responses to this thread, if you're not going to say anything civil or positive don't bother saying anything at all. Antagonism is never diplomatic. Paul, as I reieterated earlier, I'm far more concerned about how much my ethnicity will amplify any potential conflicts I will encounter when I decide to teach ESL in Japan. My faith only governs my lifestyle. As you advised, I may have to be careful about a few dietary details, but beyond that I should be alright.

[Apsara]

I have a Pakistani-born, Canadian-raised friend who spent 3 years here working in eikaiwa, and after a year's break has just arrived back with her (Pakistani-) Canadian husband in tow.

If she ever had major issues with her ethnicity/ religion here she never told me about it, and we discussed most things that were going on her life, so I'm sure I would have heard about that!

She doesn't keep strictly halal I think but doesn't eat pork, and would check the ingredients in everything to make sure pork or pork fat wasn't used- she never really learned any Japanese but was able to remember that kanji. I'm a vegetarian so I have to do the same thing.

There are loads of Indian restaurants here (in Tokyo at least and no doubt other large cities too) which we ate at often- they never serve pork of course and the meat is halal. Staff are usually mostly South Asian. There are also halal shops around and a website which sells Indian/ halal food and will deliver it to your door.

In spite of her near total lack of Japanese my friend made lots of friends among the Japanese and was well liked by her students. She also taught cooking classes as a different way for the students to learn English. She never really made her ethnicity/ religion an issue, and as such, it never was one.

[PAULH]

[calidhuux]

Thanks for your feedback, Aspara. Paul, let's shift the focus away from my faith for a second, since it seems to be distracting the previous commentators a tad bit too much. You have been very helpful in briefing me on the general experiences of ethnic minorities living in Japan. Lastly, let's not jump to any irrational conclusions or imagine how I would react in miscellaneous situations based on the insecure type A class presuppositions of an alleged muslim fundamentalist. All digressions aside, I am confident we can keep this discussion a little less sensational and a little more linear than it has already proven.

PS. I like the last point you mentioned. I'm glad you recongnize me as an individual. Trust me, living in Canada has made me grow thicker skin. I'm hoping to build a little more courage from ESL pioneers such as yourself who have paved the way for us in Japan.

[PAULH]

[calidhuux]

Pragmatics revisited. Isn't brevity the key to good communication? Please forgive my hypocrisy, Paul.