Formal group greeting きりつ ちゅうもく れい ちゃくせき

Part of any culture is the formality of greeting. In Japanese culture the greeting process is seemingly formal and involves an acknowledgement of the other person by bowing. This process establishes a certain acknowledgement of the other person’s rank and standing in the community. The individual must fit within the structure of the group.

At school this formality is insisted on every period of the day when lessons begin with a formal greeting between the teaching staff and the students. A similar greeting also takes place in the staffroom at the start of the day. The teacher calls the students to stand, to pay attention, to bow and then to take their seat.

Adults in company situations do the same. A formal start to any meeting situation. During a business meeting no one calls out for attention, but the process is rather similar. Stand! Attention! Bow! Relax.

Another feature is that meetings in Japan start on time and finish on time. Somehow a few minutes before the end all guests know that a formal goodbye is following. The reason: everyone has to catch a train and the train waits for no one!

おじぎ

Cleaning at school そうじ sōji

Cleaning at school   そうじ　sōji

Cleaning is an important part of life at school. Every day at the end of the classroom lessons all students are involved in the cleaning process. The basic Japanese philosophy is: you make it dirty, you clean up your own mess. 

The boys clean as much as the girls. They may not like it, but there is no chance of avoiding it. The pictures above would make one think that it is fun to clean. Of course not!

The students even clean the toilets. Well… Well, at home someone has to clean the toilet, so someone has to do it at school. Boys as well as girls.

　

Of course, they do have commercial cleaners and every so often they come in to do a commercial clean. However, the basic idea is that children clean their own mess.

This cleaning is a bit unusual, so it maybe an Open Day fundraiser. Normally this cleaning is done by commercial cleaners. There must have been a special plan at work in this school. Still, no harm done teaching children that someone has to do the dirty job!

People clean and the commercial scrubbing machines are just not there.

The best cleaners get a reward.

Of course, you are thinking: “Yeah. Sure. But I’m not going to do it!” Well, the Japanese have even thought of that: そうじとうばん, it is called sōji・tōban, cleaning duty. It is very simple. Divide the group into sections. Each section has a job. Write the names of the students in each section. Put a time limit on it and presto! How do you know that each section is done? Because the next group on duty doesn’t want to do the earlier group’s job twice.

Or a more complicated version:









Teachers help a bit too.

If you learn this method of responsibility from an early age, you learn to look after yourself and the group. If western schools have a problem, it tends to be litter. 

Most students in the west are led to believe (subliminally) that staff are essential in order to clean up after them. Parents are there to clean up after the children and to pay for their life-style. Perhaps that is harsh and actually not really true, but you do get the drift of what we are saying, don’t you?

And when you are really good at it, when you grow up, you may do it for yourself at home and for your boss as well.