Giri is an important value and social custom in Japan. In short, it is the duty one has to fulfill various social obligations. These include the giving of gifts, returning favors, attending functions such as weddings and funerals, the sending of New Years cards and avoiding actions that would cause harm to any one’s livelihood or reputation.
While these acts or obligations are common to Western relationships, the act or practice of giri is very different. When practicing giri one will not take into account one’s own suffering when serving or helping another. To use the workplace as an example, Japanese will serve their superiors with a self sacrificing devotion. Employees will even tolerate abuse and humiliation to fulfill their giri to their superiors or employers. The purpose of this devotion being support and respect for human relationships.
Possible meanings:
- Obligation, moral obligation
- Duty
- Self-sacrificing devotion
Special note:
Giri has a far more pervasive influence on the Japanese world view and culture than its English equivalent. Many foreigners dealing with the Japanese are first impressed by exquisite manners and sense of duty or commitment. However, over time most foreigners come to find these acts of giri to be hypocritical and superficial.
In the Western mindset Giri would be something similar to doing the right thing or repaying kindness. One custom or practice Japanese often find frustrating is gift giving. When Japanese receive gifts Japanese they know they must pay back the kindness and give something in return. This means that for many Japanese receiving gifts is something they wish they could avoid as they know will have to go to the trouble of buying something in return to do giri.
Should You Practice Giri?
You should be definitely aware of and practice giri if you are living in Japan. Practicing giri will help you build strong relationships and help you in the long run. You can actually build up giri with friends and associates by doing unsolicited favors. A sort of an unspoken, but very structured “I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine.”
If you are wanting to learn Japanese then most likely you are considering buying an audio course to help you with your studies. With quite a few courses online, working out which product will best suit your learning needs will take some investigation. I have decided to review several of the most popular and commercial Japanese language products to help you make the right choice.
I believe there are many factors in a learning program that are essential in order to help students learn how to speak Japanese fluently, but there are two that I think are most important. One is that real colloquial Japanese is taught as it is spoken by Japanese in Japan. Not the formal language you’ll find in text books. Another factor is recognizing the importance of situation and culture, and the influence they have on the Japanese language.
We looked at Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone and Rocket Japanese. Which is the best one? Rocket Japanese
Let me tell you what we looked for in each product.
- Value for money
- Ease of use
- Realistic conversation examples
- Japanese cultural references
- Enjoyment factor
At this stage we are only recommending Rocket Japanese. I believe it to be the best product online to learn basic to intermediate Japanese The core of the product is the 14 and a half hours of audio lessons. The lessons cover all the fundamentals of basic Japanese – from introducing yourself to getting around on public transportation, and ordering food in a restaurants. They take a friendly radio style approach with their teaching method. At times I do feel the lessons go on a bit and sometimes the dialogue seems too scripted. However, over all the audio lesson are very good and teach Japanese you would actually use.
Each audio lesson comes with grammar and cultural notes in a down-loadable PDF format. The reference material also contains instructions and explanations on written Japanese. Even if you don’t want to buy any products I recommend you at least subscribe to their Email course. It is great value – you get lots of sample lessons. Sign up ASAP.
Pimsleur
Pimsleur claims that you can learn a language in 10 days. I know that a lot can be learned in ten days with multimedia products and cutting edge learning methods, but learning Japanese in 10 days with the Pimsleur method doesn’t seem possible. I think Pimsleur is somewhat dated and is in need of upgrade and update. In order to speak Japanese I believe you need a certain amount of cultural understanding of Japan. This is something missing with Pimsleur. Pimsleur claims that their CDs have been scientifically sequenced to rapidly lock language material into your brain after just one listening and that you can absorb Japanese effortlessly without any reading, writing or computer use. Sounds too good to be true. Learning Japanese requires effort – it takes more than ten days.
Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone is the most expensive language program out there. I would probably make some good money promoting their products. They have 3 levels they individually sell starting from around $260. Buying all three levels at once is the best option, but you will have to fork out $550 dollars. The product comes in a CD-ROM format, with audio CDs. This means it is software heavy. This can be good for some things such as learning vocabulary and Hiragana and Katakana. However, in general I don’t believe learning a language through software is the way to go. You end up stuck in front of a computer learning just the basics. Rosetta Stone don’t provide any samples of their audio lessons on their site. You have to sign up to get a demo. There are promotion movies at their site. However, as I watched them they gave me the impression that I would get sick of using the software after about half an hour.
So if you are looking for a Japanese language pack to help you speak Japanese in a short amount of time we recommend Rocket Japanese.
Passing the JLPT is all about preparation – the right preparation. Whether you are months, weeks or even days away, the way you prepare for the test will determine how well you pass it, or how badly you fail it.
The best preparation you can do is to take the test . You need some combat experience.
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