Going Native

“There is a thing about being so close to something that one does not see it anymore. Anthropologists normally refer to it as going native. You have gone native when you no longer see the obvious things anymore, when the things that an outsider notices stares you in the face but you are no longer able to see them. This is usually because you have developed a blind spot for them, and they have become normal, almost natural.”

I lapse in and out of going native. I don’t know what triggers my brain to notice or not when a mini van with a decal that says “FABULOUS” literally covering the front windshield speeds by, the lone operator a tiny Japanese woman wearing a mask. Language on the other hand is such a cool insight into culture, and Japanese is something I have yet to lapse in and out of. While looking up words in the dictionary I often come across interesting Japanese words. There are words for things we take whole sentences to make.

橇行                        きょうこう     (poet) traveling by sleigh

脱がせ屋              ぬがせや            persons who convince female celebrities to pose nude for photoshoots

殺陣師                   たてし                 man who teaches actors or actresses how to use swords

夜雨                        やう                       night rain

コクる                                                   to confess (one's love); to propose (marriage); to ask out (on a date)


パラサイトシングル                    single person who earns enough to live alone but prefers to live rent-free with his or her parents (wasei: parasite single)