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Individuation/old age in China/Japan | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Rikyu-san Diglot Senior Member Denmark Joined 5530 days ago 213 posts - 413 votes  Speaks: Danish*, English Studies: German, French | Message 1 of 2 04 February 2010 at 11:34pm | IP Logged |
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I have heard that the Chinese or the Japanese have a different view of their elder population, perhaps now only traditionally if modern societal changes have eroded it to some extent (I don't know if that is the case).
They - either the Chinese or the Japanese, or both - do not consider one's character to be fully formed before old age has been reached - not until the seventies. Only when this age is reached can other people see who one really is and what one has done with one's life, including one's character development and understanding of oneself and the degree of mastery one has reached in one's chosen fields of expertise. I had the opportunity to speak with a retired psychologist at a general assembly in of the the societies of the DPA last November. She was 75, with a deep humaneness, humility, sparkling eyes and razor-sharp wits. She spoke about supervision of psychologists from the 1970's and onwards and shared some of the insights she had got along the way. Afterwards, inspired by this positive view of aging, I talked to her about her speech and acknowedged her in a respectful way for what she had learned and the importance for us as "young" (I am in my forties!) people to know people like her. And she said something rather telling. "It is a bit sad that I had to retire," she said, "because I feel that it is only now that I begin to understand what supervision is all about." Remember - this was said by one of our foremost experts and thought-leaders in the field! I have shared this line of thought - that is, this positive view of aging and the importance of realizing that one does not really master a field before one reaches old age - with other people, and most respond in a very positive way to it. It makes sense to them in an intuitive way. And it is a source of relief to many. It also makes it possible to orient oneself and find out where one really is. Without this vertical aspect (that is, growing to higher levels of functioning/expertise as opposed to just "more of the same" and thus more horizontal development) it is hard, perhaps impossible to find out where one really is. With this vertical perspective, one begins to see oneself and other people in a completely different light. My questions to you are as follows: - do you have any online sources where I can learn more about this way of looking at the elderly, their character development, maturity, individuation and so on as it relates to China and/or Japan? - if you have already adopted this view in your own life, how has it affected you? What can you share from your perspective where you are today? And if you haven't adopted this perspective, what positive impact could it have on your own language learning and individuation/character development? As a final thought, consider this: in Denmark, they have invented a new category among children called "tweens" - you may have this or similar expressions in your own language. It is a category of children that are neither kids nor teenagers, and thus are "in betweens" or simply "tweens". Notice that this group is defined by a) what they are not (they are not small kids, nor teenagers) and b) defined solely in relationship to other children slightly younger or slightly older than themselves. They are not definded in relationship to elderly people at the ripe age of 75. Fully blooming, wise, knowledgeable... Imagine small children, tweens and teenagers would be brought up with this positive view of aging. China and/or Japan may be abandoning this way of thinking. I don't know. However, in this thread I would like to focus on sources of inspiration, places where I can learn more about it, and how we could adopt it, adapt and expand it in a language learning context. I think asking questions like this is very useful. Your thoughts on this? Edited by Rikyu-san on 04 February 2010 at 11:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| indiana83 Groupie United States ipracticecanto.wordp Joined 5492 days ago 92 posts - 121 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Cantonese, Italian | Message 2 of 2 06 February 2010 at 1:18am | IP Logged |
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You can try learning more about the phrase "十年樹木，百年樹人". Probably you've already heard this phrase though.
The phrase above is: 10 years to grow a tree, 100 years to "grow" a person. In this sense the "grow" for a person means to cultivate or to educate. It's also similar to a "When in Rome..."-style idiom, in the sense that you can just say the first half before the comma, and everyone will know you are really referring to the second half. The basic meaning is that it takes a whole lifetime to truly learn something. As an off-topic, I always thought "tweens" was a play on word between "teen" and "twenty", not "in between". Interesting that the dictionary shows both definitions. Edited by indiana83 on 06 February 2010 at 1:50am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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