From George Ohashi Tuesday, July 11th. "Soon after I started making announcements at the end of the Ayase class today, a lot of people ignored me, stood up, walked around and started chatting with others. Such a behavior is considered very rude in this country (especially in the Budo field) even if not in some other countries. At least I and the translator were offended and disgusted this time. I make announcements on important things at the end of each class (when all the people are still sitting there) because that is the best timing to do so. If you cannot keep listening to me carefully just for half a minute, please don't come to the class. At least keep silent for all the others! Or shouldn't I make any more announcements in the Dojo?"
He's right. If you don't have the decency to listen to what's being said, then you probably shouldn't have come to start with.
I'll be there in October, and I wouldn't dream of being so ignorant Good manners don't cost anything.
Why would people ignore in a blatant manner such as that? I wonder if people are in a rush to go to the gaijin bars to ignore important announcements.
Let's use this as a warning and a lesson for us all in the future. Who did it isn't really important. What's important is who won't be doing it in the future. (The good guys) Pass the word to students: Be polite in the dojo, every dojo. You never know who's watching...
You know sometimes you can actually tell people before the event and they still do it..thats when i think a whack round the head would cut through any language or cultural difficulty.
what was the announcement? Was it news to all involved? was it something that they couldn't find on his website? Is it an important announcement that I should inquire as to what it was, because I failed to make it to Ayase.
My recent trips to Ayase seems to point to people who do not speak English as a native language as some of the biggest offenders. I guess they don't think that they can understand what is being said anyways, so why bother let those of us that want to know what is going on hear anything. :woo:
