Japanese, Americans Trade Voices And Learn

The burble of dozens of conversations in a big room must sound the same in any language.

Because unless you focused your eavesdropping on one or two people Friday morning, it was easy to forget that most of the talkers were speaking Japanese.

But then the Bunka-no-hi observance began. The audience got quiet. And the approximately 200 people at the Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute Commons witnessed a linguistic reversal. Most of the Japanese citizens on the program spoke English. Most of the Americans spoke Japanese.

Bunka-no-hi, celebrated annually in Japan, means Culture Day. But the focus isn’t exclusively on Japanese life. In fact, learning about traditions in other countries is very much a part of it.

“Unless you know about another culture, you cannot know your own,” said Michiko Takaoka, director of the institute’s Japanese Cultural Center.

She said that something as simple as contemplating her own height and weight in terms of feet and pounds instead of in the familiar metric measurements can be eye-opening.

The majority of those at the event were Japanese college girls spending a semester at their school’s Spokane campus.

And at least a few seemed a little bored during a video on an international friendship doll exchange and a brief performance on a traditional Japanese string instrument by one of their classmates.

But then Kyle Kelly walked to the podium. Speaking in Japanese, the North Central High senior gave a short talk on his trip to Japan last summer. But it would be reasonable to guess that he did a fair amount of ad-libbing. Because an in-English text of his remarks offered few clues as to why the young women in the audience were laughing so hard. And Kelly’s smile suggested that this was no simple case of him unintentionally using the wrong words.

Besides, it seems unlikely the students would have laughed at that. Judging from their facial expressions, they seemed to appreciate his efforts to speak their language. And when he was done, they responded with enthusiastic applause.

Next up was a nervous Mukogawa student who gave a little talk, in English, titled “Spokane’s Gifts to Me.” It was a struggle for her.

But at least one American in the audience felt like giving her a standing ovation.

, DataTimes MEMO: Being There is a weekly feature that visits gatherings in the Inland Northwest.