The Cast and Crew (People in Japan)

The People in Japan – Foreign and Domestic

"The Cast and Crew"

*For more posts similar to this one, see The People in Japan

As an English teacher in Japan, you run across a massive variety of personalities on a daily basis. I like to compare Japan to a movie set. When you roam around the Japanese streets, you will see plenty of recurring characters, lead and supporting actors, stars, character actors, cliche and stereotypical thespians, and of course a bunch of extras (foreigners). 

Dave Spector - a "star"

The extras are of course, foreigners who live in Japan! Only a few extremely select "extras" ever actually make it above this role. A foreigner actually becoming a "superstar" (e.g. Dave Spector)........ is an oddity. Foreign stars necessarily speak fluent Japanese (although not always....see Bob Sapp in action) - and these people are deeply ingrained in Japanese society.

The fellow foreigners that you meet , whom you would most likely not associate with in your home country, come from just about everywhere around the globe (one of the many things that I always enjoyed about living in Japan). This is not necessarily true of other ex-pats that live and work in the land of the rising sun. True ex-pats tend to hang around in an insulated and sheltered bubble, and they rarely mingle with "the extras."

Of course, the main cast is nearly 99% Japanese. The other one percent of the credited actors come from mostly Korea and China. The crew members that you have the most interaction with on a daily basis are (as you might expect) mostly co-workers (teachers) and students. After that...........there's the entire country of cast members to get to know in your free time, which (depending on your schedule) can end up being disappointingly few. 

Cultural Differences

More about the main cast of characters: Aside from a surprisingly massive volume of major cultural differences, the people that you meet in Japan are interested in relatively the same things as anyone anywhere else in the world. Today’s connected world allows people to share interests internationally and people generally share similar interests around the globe. However, there are some very unique individuals that English teachers have to deal with in Japan. 

I'll slowly introduce the full cast and crew throughout this blog, so stay tuned.

Just to give you an idea though, from the eyes of an English teacher in Japan there are only three general groups of people that make up the cast and crew (I had to generalize and categorize, but...in Japan.....well....it's pretty easy to do):

• FELLOW FOREIGNERS ("the extras")
• JAPANESE ENGLISH STUDENTS
• JAPANESE NON-ENGLISH STUDENTS (if there is such a thing)

And that is IT.....please follow this blog so you can familiarize yourself with the entire cast and crew. That's all for now.... much, much , much more to follow.

Do you have a question about Japan or a topic that you are interested in that you haven't found on this blog? If so, please tell me about it in a comment. I will get a post up about it as soon as possible. Thanks for reading!!