Blog Entry 2

1.            “ Although the Japanese may not be conscious of aimai, its use is regarded as a virtue in Japan…” (p.9). In the film, find the scene that you think that aimai is regarded as a virtue and explain why you think so.

The scene where teachers and students are gathered to open the Blue Bird Box for the second time exemplifies aimai as a virtue – when Sonobe asks the teacher in charge if disliking someone is bullying, Sonobe is told to be quiet rather than ask the question.  It seems to me that the teacher in charge would rather that Sonobe had not brought up a question that might cause friction in the quiet setting of reading the notes inside the box.

2.            Considering Aimai, ambiguity is a big part of bullying in Japan and the film.  Describe the scenes of them and explain why you think so.

None of the students seem truly certain about who was the real bully, or if even what they had done was considered bullying.  There was a cloud of ambiguity surrounding the entire affair, with student’s names blocked out from the suicide note to the faculty’s desire to pretend it had never happened.  It seems to me that, rather than address what might still be happening in the classrooms, and telling students what kind of behavior is hurtful and what is harmless, the administration of the school would rather pretend that nothing was wrong for fear of upsetting parents and the normal rhythm of everyday life.  This sounds like the use of “aimai” as a way of avoiding painful subjects.

3.            What are the differences between bullying in Japan and US?  What kinds of American characteristics would cause the kinds of bullying in the US?

There is one part, when the students start arguing amongst themselves, where the “central bully” character (I can’t remember his name) accuses a girl of telling all the other girls in the class to ignore one particular student.  This form of silence bullying is one I have heard of before in other Japanese literature and TV shows I have seen, although I have never seen it in Western classrooms.  Most bullying is physical; students are generally beaten up as a form of bullying in the US, because our culture and media focuses on physical prowess as an acceptable form of authority.

There is, of course, still social bullying in the US.  With the advent of social media, more and more bullying is taking place outside of the classrooms and on the internet instead.  Because of the vast nature of social media, internet bullying (or cyberbullying) is a more international form of bullying that I am sure is experienced not just in Western society.

4.            Considering Uchi to Soto, what kinds of concepts of Uchi to Soto are Noguchi’ bullying caused? What kinds of characteristics make the other students bully?

Noguchi’s bullying was a form of what is called “hazing”, or asking a person to do a set of actions in order to be accepted in the group.  Because he was in their class, Noguchi should have already been part of the “uchi”, one of the group.  But instead (perhaps because he was a transfer student who had only recently moved to the area), the other students decided he was “soto” and did not treat him like one of the group regardless of the things he did for them.

5.            Considering Danjyo Kankei, the textbook mentioned roles of male and female in Japan. What kinds of relationships exist between male and female in the classroom.

It seemed to me that the male students were expected to speak more in the classroom, and that the female students were by nature quieter.  They also seemed to expect to be treated as a separate entity from the male students; in the scene where one teacher finds some of the boys fighting in the classroom, he orders everyone to the counselor’s office.  One of the female students asks if he wants the girls to go as well, suggesting that they expect to be seen as a different group than the ones who were fighting, when, in reality, they are all part of the same class, the same social group.

6.            What did reflection papers differ for students from the first paper and the second paper?

The length of the papers seemed the most important change.  Whereas the first papers were required to be a certain length, the second ones were allowed to be whatever the students felt best encompassed their feelings.  Often, when a demanding limit is set, students (in the US as well as Japan) will write “filler” content, content that is repetitive or unimportant, in order to fill the space they are required to.  Without that limit hanging over them, students were free to express their feelings more naturally. 

Also, it is important that the second papers were not required.  The school forced every student to write an essay the first time, so that students who may not have had much to say or would be embarrassed to say anything felt forced to make something up to fill the assignment and not be embarrassed.  However, when that threat of punishment was taken away, the students who chose to do so were able to write honestly and earnestly on their feelings.

7.            Considering Chinmoku, what affect do you think the stuttering teacher had on the students?

I felt that his stutter really didn’t matter as much as I expected it to.  It introduced the theme of “speaking earnestly”, but I expected it to be more prevalent.  The students never seemed to learn that it was not acceptable to make fun of Murauchi-sensei’s stutter.

8.            MOVIE---Who is the 3rd person that Noguchi wrote in his will?

He wrote “everyone else”.

9.            MOVIE---What is bullying? What did the stuttering teacher, Murauchi-sensei tell to Sonobe?

Murauchi-sensi tells Sonobe that bullying is an act that hurts or harms another person.  If you do something that you know harms another person, you are bullying them, regardless of the act.

10.          What did you think about the film? Have you had similar experiences?  Share anything that you thought about this film.

I really enjoyed this film.  The amount of silence in it was unusual, but I soon found myself enjoying the reflective pauses in the film; it gave me a change to digest what I had just watched.  It wasn’t like anything else I’ve watched, but I would enjoy more films like it.

11.          Reflective inquiry----How do your brain work in regard to watch this movie? What is the most difficult concept for you that it showed in film very well but you truly don't understand? Why is that?

I honestly didn’t understand the references to the Blue Bird (I had to look it up).  I also struggled with the male-female relationships within the classroom, and within the staff of the school.  There was clearly something significant between Murauchi-sensei and the female counselor’s assistant, but I’m not entirely sure what it was.