Cultural differences: the words we say when words aren’t enough
I learned a neat thing years ago in a Japanese short stories class, and now I have a burning desire to share it with the Blue Exorcist fandom, so!
There come times in every human’s life where we need to tell a close loved one everything we feel about them at once. Maybe it’s because one of you is dying or going away forever, or maybe it’s just because you really wanted them to know you care right now. Either way, it’s impossible to just sum up an important relationship in a few words.
But despite that–or maybe even BECAUSE it’s impossible to do–we have a default for what to say. A stand-in for all those feelings that can’t get said in the time we have.
Where I’m from, it’s “I love you.”
Right? Just think of corny movie scenes; it’s always like “If I don’t make it back, tell my wife I love her.”
And that makes sense, doesn’t it? It’s like…Thinking about you fills me with joy. I want nothing more than to just be with you. You have left a deep impression on my soul. My life is better because you were in it. “I love you.”
But there’s no reason it HAS to be worded that way, is there? The people you care about make you feel a lot of things and “I love you” is only one convenient way to say them. There are others.
In Japanese, the default If-I-Could-Only-Say-One-Thing-To-My-Loved-One thing isn’t “I love you.”
It’s “Thank you.”
And that makes sense too, doesn’t it? It’s like…You helped make me into what I am. You support me in all the hard times. You’ve done so much for me and I appreciate it so, so much. My life is better because you were in it. “Thank you.”
And like…I’d be crying at that scene from the chapter ANYWAY but I am crying EVEN MORE because I know that little tidbit.
