Japan: Innovative Ways to Lack Creativity

Yesterday, during a meeting with some of my supervisors from Interac, one of the head teachers talked about the Japanese tendency to avoid answering personal questions. He recalled one of his old schools from a few years ago and how he would ask his fellow teachers about their activities during the weekend. As the days went by he began to notice a trend; almost every answer was “I played tennis.” Even with six feet of snow freshly lying on the ground outside his colleagues fervently insisted that their off time was dominated by the outdoor racket sport. He came to a conclusion, which was later confirmed by his fellow Japanese friends: “I played tennis” is really just code for “mind your own business.”

Ironically, the very next day at my Junior high school, the topic of discussion for my first grade students was “What do you do after school.” To no ones surprise I was confronted with an overwhelming number of responses involving the sport tennis. After about the tenth time hearing the words “I play tennis,” I became frustrated, “If Japanese play tennis so often, why aren’t they winning Wimbledon every year?” My JTE calmly explained in Japanese what I had said and the students chuckled. “Okay,” I continued, “From now on no one is allowed to say they play tennis after school. Please think of a different answer.” There were some worried looks throughout the classroom at the prospect of having to do more than simply repeat the standard answer, but to my relief, the next student I approached was more than happy to comply with my request. “What do you do after school?” I asked. With a smile and in his broken English, he answered, “I play table tennis.”