The following convo took place this morning with one of my co-workers. He was showing me pictures of his trip to a famous shrine.
Co-worker: …and this is a Japanese shrine.
Me: oh, nice!
Co-worker: And here we stopped for lunch at this Japanese noodle house.
Me: Cool. What did you eat?
CW: We had Japanese noodles…you know Japanese noodles?
Me: Ramen? soba? udon?
CW: Ah, you know? We had Soba. And we drink Japanese tea.
Me: Why do you add “Japanese” before everything?
CW: Huh?
Me: You keep saying Japanese this and Japanese that. Why do you do that!? Hell, Why does everybody do that? When You’re talking to other Japanese people do you point out the Japanese-ness of everything?
CW: (laughs) no…actually I never thought about that. That’s a good question.
Me: just wondering…I was thinking, when I was back in NY and I was talking to a friend from somewhere else, did I point out that everything was American. This is American rice and this is American coffee… I’m pretty sure I didn’t. Unless it was key information that they needed to know.
CW: hmmm…
Me: maybe I’ve said this is New York style this or New York style that. Hmmmm…that was my pride, though. Are you saying “Japanese” for pride?
CW: Pride? Hmmm…that’s a good question too.
