meichannosekai

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

Have you ever heard about the Japanese Expression of 『猫に小判』(Neko ni Koban - Giving an old gold money piece to a cat)? Well, it is an old expression, so perhaps you’ll get a better picture with 『猫に一万円』(Neko ni Ichimanen - Giving ¥10.000 to a cat)*. Can you guess its meaning?

It’s not that hard, for as logic follows, giving ¥10.000 to a cat is useless! In other words, this Japanese expression is used when you want to say that something is useless, like having an expensive complete dictionary or encyclopedia set on your bookshelf just for the look, but you barely touch them at all, so it’s useless.

No offense here though, it’s only human to crave for attention and respect and making mask(s) or doing thing(s) just to gain them from other people. It is completely natural to line up some great looking books on your shelf to gain respect from other people who saw it, no matter you did use/read them or not. When you do gain respect, that’s enough, that’s all you (probably) ever wanted. It is delighting to see that gleam in their eyes when other people are looking at you, isn’t it?

But then again, as far as this expression goes, it comes back to us covering ourselves with things like make up, attitude, speaking manner, etc  or even as subtle as lining up some encyclopedias on our shelves. Social status is very important in this time and age that we would resort to (almost) anything just to survive, especially in (again, no offense here please) western countries like America. True, they might be calling out for humane treatment to each other, for human rights, that people are created equal, blahblahblah. But no one can deny that America, as big as a melting pot it is, it still hosts some human right violations. Especially during school years. Oh, the popular v.s. the unpopular, the cheerleaders and sportsmen v.s. the geeks, all that drama of fitting in. Don’t them ring a bell?

Cold world, huh?

It is funny how we always, always say that we must not judge the book by its cover, how we must look deep inside and see what makes a person whom s/he is now. Yet we’ve been separating ourselves into different social classes all of our lives. And no matter how harsh this may sound, transferring into other social strata is as unthinkable as it is in India. I think we really should pity ourselves to cover up ourselves so just to fit in. If we must obey several social norms, well duh, it is our obligation. BUT! It does not mean we have to follow each and every rule just to be accepted! Each and every man and women was created unique, that’s what make us so lovable. Why change that and become ’same’ just for the sake of fitting in? Why why can’t I free my inner self and just be me; and why can’t you free your inner self and just be you?

_meicHan yori_

* cited from テーム別中級から学ぶ日本語 (Teemubetsu Chuukyuu Kara Manabu Nihongo - Learning Japanese Language for Intermediate Level with Different Theming)

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