fandomhigh | 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 ♥?"

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Working too hard!

If anything, it is very clear that this is coming from a man who very clearly had far too close of a personal brush with karoshi all too recently.

At least, that's how Shunsui feels about it in his own head.

Are there similar concepts in your own cultures? Where does the drive to literally work oneself to death come from, and how can we avoid it?

Yes, Shusnui is hoping for some brilliant ideas from his clever girls, because he is definitely working on making these deenses against karoshi into an argument for why he should not be expected to attend Yamamoto's new manditory meetings.

The really ironic part of all of this is that Shunsui actually had been to meetings that almost resulted in plenty of people actually getting killed because they were technically an army of sorts and dealt with invasions and protecting the Soul Society all the time, but this mandatory stuff was different.

I love it when something you just threw in to make it easier to explain inactivity and eventually feed into some plottiness actually matches up unintentionally for a class!

Astrid Magnussen

"I think," Astrid offered, with a faint smile, "we're in a unique position where if we actually were to work hard, we run the risk of being fired for it..."

Look, having one of your bosses also being your teacher was a little weird to begin with, but you couldn't really complain when that boss was actively teaching you about not working yourself too hard...and that you knew he actually meant it.

The Art of Japanese Culture through Untranslatable Words; Monday, Fourth Period [03/22].

Sign In - AoJCtUW, 03/22.

Listen to the Lecture - AoJCtUW, 03/22.

Discussion - AoJCtUW, 03/22.

Talk to Shunsui - AoJCtUW, 03/22.

OOC - AoJCtUW, 03/22.

Re: Sign In - AoJCtUW, 03/22.

Re: Discussion - AoJCtUW, 03/22.