September 2020 theme- Advertisements

This month, we focused on the theme of advertisements. It was interesting to talk about the differences between Japanese advertisements and Western advertisements. Japanese commercials can range from very weird to very wholesome. For those who are unfamiliar to the word wholesome, here is the definition given by urban dictionary.

“An embodiment of the following: self-less, considerate, sweet, compassionate, thoughtful, generous, genuine, doesn't talk trash about other people,

"Did you know that Pat keeps an excel spreadsheet of all the money he borrowed from his parents so he doesn't burden them?" Said Chelsea.
"Whoa, really? That's so wholesome!" Exclaimed Tran.

For the weird commercials, the viewer is left watching something that he/she has no idea what is going on until they reveal it at the end. Native speakers often say “what did I just watch?” upon watching something so weird. This method is very indirect. Western commercials on the other hand, tend to get straight to the point and are very direct about what they are advertising.

Please check these out.

What is fast food anyways?

This month, we had an interesting topic discussion with our adult students about fast food. It was very interesting how what is considered to be fast food in Japan, would never be considered as fast food in western countries. Our image of fast food mainly consists of hamburger and french fries or anything that is cheap and fast to it. Usually we would feel guilty about eating out at McDonald’s but we don’t have the same feeling towards Japanese fast food chains like Yoshinoya. The reason behind this is that all Japanese food overseas is very expensive so even a bowl of Gyudon (beef bowl) is priced at 1000yen and up!

Here is an interesting article about all of the fast food restaurant chains found in Japan.

What are your thoughts on what fast food is?