By Elena Encarnacion

In class, we like to learn about the culture as much as the language. We often turn to A Geek in Japan by Héctor García for cultural comparisons. A section that I really enjoyed reading about is called “Man-Woman Relations in Japan.”

I was not surprised when reading the part that talked about the past and the different family roles that men and women had. However, I was a little surprised when reading about “omiai” marriages. An omiai marriage is an arranged marriage. Although people are no longer forced to marry others, people’s parents often get involved when a person is looking for someone to marry. I found this quite strange since in the States, parents don’t normally set their children up with the purpose of marriage. Parents normally have less involvement in who their in-laws are.

I was also surprised by the “Men-Women Separation” part. Apparently, Japanese people tend to separate by gender in the workplace. For example, the women will go out for lunch together, and the men will go out for lunch together separately. This was interesting to me because it’s not something that I’ve heard of here in the U.S. People just tend to spend time with whoever they want, despite gender.

Reading about the Man-Woman Relations in Japan was really enlightening. I hope to continue learning about the interesting ways that our cultures differ.