Suicide, Success and Nature Finding Balance

Living in a city where suicide happens on a fairly regular basis, one can't help but think about it. Particularly at those times when it stops the trains and makes you late for work. As such, I thought I'd take a minute to share my thoughts about it.

The funny thing about life is that in order to truly know happiness, we must also have a taste of sadness too. In order to truly enjoy the great highs it has to offer, for one reason or another, we always have to fight our way through the great lows in the process- sometimes with little more than faith to guide us on our way.
Personally, I think it stems from the 'tao' of all things and the dualistic nature of the universe that we live in. Facing sadness on the way to happiness, and failure on the way to success is simply how nature finds it's own sense of balance. It is the overcoming of failure and sadness, afterall, that gives us the strength to maintain and manage success and the happiness that comes from not taking that success for granted. I think all of us have met the rich kid who was born with everything, but remains miserable, or heard about the lottery winners who splurge their money in a year's time, or seen the one-hit-wonders who succeed in no time, but then go out just as quickly.
On the opposite side of the coin however, there are the stories of how Britney Spears failed on Star-Search, Bill Gates hospitalized himself multiple times building Microsoft or how Colonel Sanders proposed his fried chicken recipe to over 100 people before someone finally decided to invest in KFC.
As dissimilar as all of these events may seem, ultimately, they are all manifestations of the same process. - nature finding balance. And I think it is those who know that- and are guided by it- are the ones who really truly get somewhere in life.

The unfortunate thing however, is the potential for success that the hardships of life can give us do not always come to fruition. Oftentimes, we give up along the way, and all those battles that we fought, don't become our training ground- they become our reason for depression. They become our reason to hate life, and among those unfortunate souls who never pull themselves out of it- they become a reason to end it. Either they don't know, or they loose sight of the fact that the hell that they are suffering through- despite how awful it may be- is their greatest asset. They don't know that life, God, the 'Tao” or whatever else you want to call it- has deemed them worthy of a test- the ultimate test, really – the test of pure faith. And they don't know that most of the people who have achieved the greatest levels of success in society, have done so because they fought their way through it. As unknown as they may be, the aforementioned stories of Bill Gates, Colonel Sanders or Britney Spears are not exceptions-they are the rule. In searching for ways that I can succeed myself, I've found that in studying the lives of any person who achieves great success, similar battles (or tests) can be found- the fact that Mary J. Blidge used to be a teenage prostitute or that Michael Jordan missed the highest number of baskets in the history of the NBA, being but a few examples.

Perhaps, at least in the states, that is the media's fault for deifying these people and their success instead of showing them for the real people that they are, who fought the real battles that they did. Perhaps, it is the fault of the society that we live in, where children aren't being raised with the mental (or in many cases, even familial) support structure to handle these battles. Perhaps, as suicide doesn't seem to limit itself to any particular race, creed, or social class, is simply a naturally occurring facet of the human existence itself. Regardless of it's reason however, one thing is certain, the tragedy of it not only lies in the loss of a human life, but in the loss of a potential warrior to inspire the rest of us.

Recommended Readings on Taoism, and nature's balance:
The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff
The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra

Difficulties facing Japanese learners of EFL

Not too long ago, a friend of mine who's doing research on the topic asked me for my thoughts on English teaching in Japan. As it was an open-ended question, and seemed to flow right into the last blog that I'd written, I decided to put it into blog form. Comments welcome!

I've been an English teacher for approximately six years now, roughly five of which was spent in Japan. Thus far, it's been an interesting experience to say the least, and after spending so much time here, I still find myself asking the same question that I've heard posted time and time again by those that come here: Why is it that people in Japan have such a hard time speaking English?

I've come to deduct that, like any complex question, the answer itself may not be particularly difficult, but involves looking at it from more than one angle. I think there's a myriad of factors that come into play in facilitating the difficulties that Japanese people face in communicating in English, but in particular, culture, lack of easy opportunities for practice and the Eikaiwa system itself all constitute major reasons. I'll describe each in detail as follows:

As aforementioned, the first major factor that creates difficulty in Japanese people's ability to communicate in English is culture. As anyone who has ever been there will tell you, (in particular in Tokyo), Japanese people are notoriously shy and cautious around people that they don't know. Being able to both think in, and produce speech in a foreign language requires a great deal of mental effort, and as a function of that, as with excellence in anything, mental relaxation is the key to quick and accurate responses. In Japan, everyone is required to study English for 6 years in Junior High School, and in general, most everyone seems to maintain a working base of grammar, and are capable of conveying and understanding meaning through reading and writing. One of the biggest problems blocking their ability to actually produce speech is simply their nervousness. Anyone who's ever given a speech can tell you how much more difficult it is to produce when you are shy (even if you know the material), and for the average Japanese person on the street, talking to foreigners represents a particular challenge that they rarely feel they are prepared for; even if just in casual conversation. This is particularly the case when talking to western foreigners. Although economically, Japan is relatively egalitarian, socially most people are either oriented towards looking up or looking down at people who are different from them; not simply seeing them as being in the same position on the social ladder. Given the economic, military, and political strength of the west, many Japanese see Western foreigners as holding a stronger relative position in the scheme of things, and may view their lack of shyness (and oftentimes humility) as an indication of their 'superior position'.


At the same time however, it is equally likely that a great deal of this shyness simply stems from lack of exposure and the uncertainty that comes with dealing with someone who looks, walks, talks, and acts completely different from you. This brings us to our next factor; lack of opportunity to speak. As aforementioned, mental relaxation is a key attribute to effective and quick thinking, both of which are necessary for language production.

Unfortunately however, the only way to develop it is through enough repetition and practice that one's mind can learn what factors to take into account in making decisions, and what factors not to concern itself with, thereby allowing it to relax and hone it's processes. In the case of Japanese language learners this offers a particular challenge in terms of the fact that for the average person, there are very few opportunities to get this repetition at home. This is further complicated by the fact that those foreigners living in Japan- in an attempt to make things 'easier' for them- will oftentimes speak to them in broken English themselves, thereby depriving them of the only interactive model they have available as what natural English is supposed to sound like. Although traveling abroad in search of opportunities to speak naturally may be a viable option for some, they may still be hindered by the aforementioned nervousness they feel around Western foreigners, and many will settle into groups of other traveling Japanese so as to avoid the need to communicate individually at all.

This may not particularly be the case when traveling to other areas in Asia (where Japan holds the strongest relative position), but at the same time, in the speaking opportunities presented by communicating with others who learned English as a foreign language, key elements such as accurate grammar and pronunciation may or may not be present, even if the person whom they are communicating with is capable of a greater level of articulation in English.


This, of course, leads Japanse students of EFL to their last available resource, the 'Eikaiwa', or English conversation school. Having worked extensively at a myriad of Eikaiwa in Tokyo, I can attest to the fact that they can truly give Japanese students the simple practice of speech that they very much need to improve. Unfortunately however, oftentimes, the function of the demand being higher than the supply necessitates they may also be staffed by people with little to no education in the field of English teaching (or even in education in general), and the models of learning that they put forth may or may not be entirely accurate. (Take, for example how may Eikaiwa texts have face-to-face dialogs that start with the word 'Hello'. In English, hello is a telephone word and is rarely, if ever used when native speakers greet each other).

Another problem facing English learners at Eikaiwas is the fact that, as much as staff and management may care about their students, the fact remains that business is business. As such, and as a function of the fact they have to remain competitive with other schools, oftentimes a students' constant buying of new materials is of more relevance than that business than whether or not they are actually learning and progressing at a pace that is suitable for them. As any Eikaiwa teacher will tell you, students may be advanced to a higher class before they are even competent with the text, grammar or functions that they are given, leaving it to teachers to find the delicate balance of keeping things moving for the capable students while still slowing things down enough so as not to leave the low ability students behind.

The Japanese, School Education, and Creativity

The differences between the American system of school education and that of Japan fascinate me. Not only because of the differences in how they are structured, also because of the differences in 'intellectual output' they produce as a result. As a foreigner living here in Japan, we have all heard Japanese people mention that they struggle with efforts of creative thinking. I think we have all heard the stories of how the new CEO of Sony (and a few other prominent Japanese companies) have in recent years, become foreigners, and how this was due to a lack of confidence in the current administration to successfully lead these companies in 'new directions'. Although, as with any social issue, I'm sure this 'lack of creativity', comes about as a function of a multitude of different factors, I personally believe that it stems mostly from the educational system that's in place, and it's emphasis on multiple choice answers. This is NOT to say that in the west we don't use our fair share of multiple choice too, (in particular for any and all forms of standardized testing), but only that there are also allowances for creative thinking and expression, and this is what I think is missing from the Japanese system.
Oftentimes in life, we are faced with multiple choices, but that doesn't however mean that those choices are the only ones available. When faced with a selection of A, B, and C, it is only the creative thinker who can imagine the D, E, or in some cases, even F. Is it these people who generally go on to do great things, and it is in this arena that we, as westerners shine. (One example of this being Einstein, who instead of choosing between multiple theories on the behavior of light, simply said that the whole system of observation was wrong to begin with).
As an English teacher, I also think that this particular issue is in part why Japanese students tend to have a harder time producing in English than many of their other Asian counterparts. Conversation, being the fluid and dynamic process that it is, requires a certain ability to think on one's feet, and improvise. The idea of 'going with the flow' may not particularly come naturally when one is raised in an environment of constant 'multiple choice solutions'.
To be sure however, as aforementioned there are other factors that come into play. Given the fact that the Japanese word for 'different' is also generally used to be 'wrong', and the fact that society revolves around rules of thumb such as “The nail that sticks out is the one that gets hammered into the wall”, one can assume that any situation requiring free and autonomous thought wouldn't be a comfortable one. Particularly when they are dealing with a foreigner- someone else who's thinking is a complete and total unknown. The subsequent shyness that would result can be, (and as many other English teachers will tell you, is) debilitating. On another note, the lack of the latter cultural element-shyness- may explain why Korean students seem to do a little bit better with creative production than their Japanese counterparts. (Particularly given the fact that the school systems are set up in a virtually identical matter).
At the same time however, despite all these factors, all one ever needs to see is a Japanese variety show, improv comedy act, or break dancing competition to know that they're fully capable of being every bit as creative as we individualistic-minded westerners are. Perhaps their creativity simply stems from group efforts, or perhaps, it could be that they're simply not creative around us.

East vs. West - Saving Money

A long time ago, a friend of mine once told me a joke that I’ve since taken to heart. She asked me, “How is money just like food, water, air, and sex? To that, as is natural for my personality, I came up with a long, drawn-out, and historically-illustrative thesis, to which she replied, “…uh…yeah all that too…but besides that, it only means something to you when you’re not gettin’ any.”. That was the better answer I thought. And that is the punch-line I use when I tell people this joke myself. (My answer wasn’t very funny and it takes too long to regurgitate).

The funny thing is though, right now, we as a Americans are getting a lot of it, (actually, more than anyone else on Earth), but it still means more to us than ever. Why? Because we don’t know how to save it. One of the biggest differences that one notices between Western (in particular American) financial habits and those of Easterners, is that for the most part, people in the East are really really good at saving money. Although I would imagine that there are also some cultural factors that help to facilitate that difference, (such as an emphasis on putting the family first instead of one’s own individual wants and desires), insomuch as I know, the biggest reason for that is due to the different set ups of the government. The Japanese economy and the particular style of Capitalism they developed, (which, in the past few decades has come to be the model for a multitude of other Asian countries) seems to have been set up such that it would be financed by the savings of it’s citizens. As a function of that, things were laid out in such a way, (such as needing cash up front to move or buy homes, or a lack of general social ’safety nets’) to instill in those citizens that in order to survive they needed to learn to save.

In the States however, given our particular position in the world, this is a policy that we’ve very much been raised without. As a function of the fact that 1) everyone else is still using the US dollar as the international standard for currency, and 2) we, as contemporary citizens have had the advantage of being in the richest place on Earth for as long as we, our parents, (and more than likely, our grandparents) have ever been alive, we’ve become accustomed to idea that having debt is natural and unavoidable, when in actuality, it’s neither. At least it isn’t for so many Japanese who wonder why it is that so many foreigners who come here can’t seem to get themselves together financially. I should know; I was certainly one of them. In that respect, having learned how to save money on my own out here, I wish that more Americans could step outside of the system that we live in to see this, and the myriad of other advantages of doing things differently. Particularly since knowledge gained is certainly something that can always be brought home (I know my financial survival skills certainly will be).

And given the fact that even our government can't seem to balance it’s own books lately, I think that in the future, it won’t just be an advantage, but a necessity.

Good reads how to save money:
The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley
The Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason

Who I am...and why I go by 'Chuck'

Good afternoon to all readers. My name is Charles, but most of my friends call me Chuck. For myself, that name generally conjures up images of large guys with mullets in varsity jackets and high tops, driving around in old school camaros taking people’s lunch money, but I generally always go by it anyway.

Why, you ask? Certainly not because I have a mullet, or have ever owned a varsity jacket or Camaro. (Although I did have a few sick pairs of high tops back in the day). I use it because it’s just plain easier to say than ‘Charles’. If you don’t believe me, put a bunch of saltines in your mouth and see which one you can roll off the tongue easier. This is particularly the case in Asia, where folks struggle with their ‘r’s and ‘l’s. Asking people to pronounce a name that has both an ‘r’ and ‘l’ back to back is just a brutal process for both their tongues, and my ears, so I’d much rather just save them the trouble.

Who (or what) I am is a traveler, and for the past 7 years, I haven’t just lived in Asia- I’ve visited virtually every corner of the globe. Traveling as a student, teacher, and volunteer, I’ve been as far north as the Artic Circle about Norway, and as far south as Ushuaia, at the southern tip of South America. I’ve done treks in rain forests, have stayed in buddhist temples in Thailand, and have even worked as an assistant on a Safari in Kenya. Why? Because believe it or not, I wanted to learn how to fight. I started off my travels as an olympic-style tae kwon do player who came to Asia for training. While training in Korea however, I discovered that the more time I spent outside of my comfort zone, the quicker and more adaptable my mind became- something that I thought would be invaluable in the ring. In addition to that, I also saw parallels in what I was trying to learn to do in the ring, and what I actually was doing while traveling- that is, constantly adapting to a continuous, fluid, and at times unpredictable situation. And the better I got at it, the calmer I became- both in and out of the ring. So it was that I developed my addiction.

At present, I live in Tokyo, Japan, and am an actor, model and business owner. As I mentioned before, I’ve been out here for 7 years now, and plan to stay for another 3 whist I build my company’s business and pursue a career in Asian Action Cinema. In part, I am writing this blog simply to explore my own mind- to masturbate philosophically if you will- as I live here and experience life as it is out here. At the same time however, I want to write it to share with you, my family, friends, and hopefully readers, the things that I’ve learned. I hope that you all can enjoy it, find elements of it insightful -or in the least, worth arguing over- and entertaining. In the least, I hope that you can grow from reading it, in much the same way that I grow by trying to articulate my thoughts to you. Thank you for taking the time to read these entries as I hope you will, and I look forward to any comments (even the critical ones) you may have of anything I have to say.

Chuck Johnson