I hesitate to write something like this, because I can't be sure who's reading it. But as I doubt I have very many followers, and perhaps even fewer people linking to here from our business website, I think I'll go on and state what I feel must be said.
I was watching TV last night through dinner -- feeling a bit bummed out from failing quite horribly my shot at the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), 1st level, and thinking that I should get started right away at studying (in whatever free time I can manage) for the next one in six months. With only five (sometimes six) channels to flip through, there wasn't anything particularly interesting on at this hour; however, I decided upon a program that had just started which revealed design ideas and plans for upcoming car and other consumer appliance models. 「空想からのデザイン」 (kusou kara no dezain), was the motto, I think -- basically meaning something like "a design of fantasy." It continued to repeat this creed as it cycled through different ideas from cars and whatnot that would highly appeal to today's Japanese youth.
I'll focus on the car bit since I think this is a great example of exactly what kind of practice has put me in such a sour mood. When asked if they ever planned on buying a car, the random young interviewees among the busy crowd said they'd rather not as cars are expensive and there are after all many trains that can take you just about anywhere in Japan. Hence the problem in the eyes of both the show's staff and the car manufacturers: a lack of demand. Now I'm of course looking at this and thinking about the 温暖化 (ondanka), global warming, awareness promotion commercial I'd seen just a few hours earlier on the same day. Isn't this hesitation in the consumer public to buy more CO2 emitters a good thing? Yes, I know, there's an financial crisis on our hands as well, and an economic stimulation is necessary to keep the cash flowing and businesses in business. But is creating and selling more cars the best way to handle this? Worried about the manufacturing employees? I'm sure they are too. But our best way to tackle issues in general isn't to merely tackle them one at a time. Societies are still unreasonably bad at handling their problems in a relational and systemic manner...
Anyway, the creation of demand seems at the heart of this matter -- an unabashed ignorance of what should be done, what should be in demand, and what we know we can make quick and easy money off of. Take a couple of examples of the car model design ideas. There's the 'theater car,' described by one of the designer representatives as basically 'a theater on wheels' and great for making easy friends. (It's probably also effective in impressing girlfriends.) Then there's the camera-attachment car, which features a large but unobtrustive manually controllable camera on the dashboard -- perhaps thought at first useful for videotaping roadtrips but clearly advertised both on the show and by the company for turning inward and videotaping ourselves (or two young teenage girls showing peace fingers, as was the case). The first model is tied to our friendship needs and loneliness, an acknowledged social issue in mainstream Japan. The second turns to what appeals in all of us: our ego, promoting a new and shiny narcissist fashion of driving.
Here at MIE (and many other businesses and even schools) we are constantly pushed to follow a very similar way of business. We have attempted in several avenues to create demand where it isn't readily available -- in this case, for English. English is showcased like a car as a cool and popular thing to have. It is further manipulated to distort real issues into seeming the solution to our own personal or social problems. Don't have friends? Learn English and meet some cool white people. (You can see a black person on an advertisement every now and then as well -- which must mean we're becoming even more "international.") Wishing you had tendered your curiosity of everything and studied harder while you were young? Well, you still can! Come study English, and keep your mind strong and working! And when none of that works, it's easy to point out the rising foreigner population -- ignoring all the Chinese, Filipinos, Brazilians, etc. who have been present here for some time now -- the rising population of Americans (who are deemed anyone who's white...and now maybe black too.) The international/intercommunity commucation problems that World Englishes have the ability to help solve are actually being put on hold for the sake of those trying to make the same quick buck.
And the worst part is, most everyone believes them.
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