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sake_shinigami2021-03-22 04:01 am
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The Art of Japanese Culture through Untranslatable Words; Monday, Fourth Period [03/22].
Well, this week, the classroom was back to its normal set-up with the discussion circle in the middle and the offerings of tea and cocoa, and the teacher was back as well, though he was looking as though he was perhaps even more in need of a nap than even last week, where such napping had left him completely forgetting he even had a class. Still, he gave the students a smile and had another word for them to discover written on a small board.
"Konnichiwa, ducklings ♥," he greeted them in the usual playful tones, though the vaneer was not as smooth as usual. "Apologies for last week, it seemed I couldn't be bothered to bring myself in, but hopefully you were able to enjoy the free time, and let's just say ♥," he threw in a wink, "we were merely ahead of the game in preparing ourselves to deflect precisely the thing that this week's word relates to, and this week's word is karoshi:
karoshi
過労死
(death from overworking)
"Now," said Shunsui, his voice now quite a bit more grave, "this is actually a more recent word in the Japanese vocabulary, coined in the 1970s in response to the country's increasingly extreme emphasis on work and the intense culture therein that caused a staggering amount of suicides, heart failures, strokes, and other stress-related deaths. How the same culture that was able to produce ideas such as shinrinyoku, komorebi, and yugen could also produce something such as karoshi is deeply indicative of a grave imbalance.
"So that is what we'll be talking about today. Are there similar concepts and ideals in your own cultures that might drive a person to karoshi? How can one perhaps counter such oppresive effects, and does it not show the perils inevitable in working too hard, especially when they slip into your life and taint every aspect of it with like some black disease?"
...god, Shunsui, you were forced to go to one meeting this weekend. Dramatic much?
But he did have a smile for the girls. "Let's discuss, shall we ♥?"
"Konnichiwa, ducklings ♥," he greeted them in the usual playful tones, though the vaneer was not as smooth as usual. "Apologies for last week, it seemed I couldn't be bothered to bring myself in, but hopefully you were able to enjoy the free time, and let's just say ♥," he threw in a wink, "we were merely ahead of the game in preparing ourselves to deflect precisely the thing that this week's word relates to, and this week's word is karoshi:
過労死
(death from overworking)
"Now," said Shunsui, his voice now quite a bit more grave, "this is actually a more recent word in the Japanese vocabulary, coined in the 1970s in response to the country's increasingly extreme emphasis on work and the intense culture therein that caused a staggering amount of suicides, heart failures, strokes, and other stress-related deaths. How the same culture that was able to produce ideas such as shinrinyoku, komorebi, and yugen could also produce something such as karoshi is deeply indicative of a grave imbalance.
"So that is what we'll be talking about today. Are there similar concepts and ideals in your own cultures that might drive a person to karoshi? How can one perhaps counter such oppresive effects, and does it not show the perils inevitable in working too hard, especially when they slip into your life and taint every aspect of it with like some black disease?"
...god, Shunsui, you were forced to go to one meeting this weekend. Dramatic much?
But he did have a smile for the girls. "Let's discuss, shall we ♥?"