The Burden of Praise

    Most Thursday afternoons at the Tokyo American Club Nakamura-sensei shares the secrets of shodo (calligraphy) with six to eight disciples. In orange ink she produces a sample for each student to reproduce in black sumie. Not exactly handwriting practice, shodo is a meditation. Rumor has it that Sensei is nana-go-sai (75ish), despite her dark curly tresses and smooth complexion. Thanks to Mr. Nakamura, a novelist who spent his early career as an executive with JAL (Japan Air), Sensei spent much of her early marriage in Germany. As a result she shops at Marina Rinaldi and favors Ferragamo flats.

   "What do you say when a nihonjin gives you a compliment?" I posed to the gaijin (foreign) classmates as we were grinding sumie on inkstones. "Such as when someone says you speak Japanese well?" (Our francejin, Mme G, out of town this week, was sorely missed.) "I always say Arigatou gozaimasu (thank you very much)!" replied one amerikajin. "Sumimassen, the better answer is mada mada (not yet) or tondemonai desu (don't be silly)," I said, repeating what  I found in a book about colloquial nihongo. Accepting praise is presumptuous in a country that knows that there is always room for improvement.  Every classmate jotted down these two phrases.

    By the end of the class each student replied mada-mada or tondemonai when Nakamura-sensei praised her work. "Tee-hee," holding her hand in front of her face, Nakamura-sensei scolded me and asked that I bring different words to class next time. "If all the students were nihonjin this is exactly how they would react," whispered tomodachi. After the class a quick stop at the TAC Library to check on how many members signed up for our upcoming Meet the Author lecture on Sumo revealed shocking news. Two years ago our visitor Alice and I savored an afternoon at crowded Sumo central in Ryogoku, seated uncomfortably on the tatami mat at Y 10,000 apiece (about $120). Only five people have signed up! With just two weeks until our guest speaker arrives, time to get into high gear to fill  the other 40 seats.