not been present, Fulbright itself would have experienced the self-same decline. But because Cynic-GERMANY forged an alliance (out of desperation?) simultaneous to the drop of Fulbright, the two then become convinced they were the forces behind that broad, program-wide trend. Their beliefs, cynicism, prior experiences, skills, and linguistic talents were all unnaturally validated and they built up a false sense of triumph by program end, true only to the degree that things played out as they had wished. That is what happened.
On Monday of the second week the class reassembled in their designated room, sans TUSK, who was off watching the Super Bowl. Living abroad, adopting foreign customs, seeing things from the foreigners’ point of view, TUSK had decided a while ago that the U.S. Super Bowl was the one unalterable, unavoidable thing he would pursue no matter what else was going on in his life. Or so he told himself. Actually in implementation he watched about 1 in 3, with some allowances being made for the teams involved, the run-up to the post-season, the post-season itself, and world events as they were. He had actually taken off from work a few years ago when the Eagles were at the Bowl, but missed the year thereafter in what was widely-known ahead of time to be a dud. Finding games in certain countries would have been a near-impossibility; in others, it was merely a matter of finding the closest sports bar.
The class met up. Grammar structures were studied, conversations were had during break, and FARMBOY started to slowly realize his class was less desirable in terms of extrinsic factors. The Japanese girls in his class talked merely to each other; there were no prospects on the dating front, and the English speakers seemed to be all concentrated in 2/1. QUARTERBACK was also mildly displeased at the lack of fun factor in his class, but as his primary focus at the program was language studies (and not the infinitely delightful Japanese girls), he did not visit 2/1 except to say hello to KANYE. Neither watched the Super Bowl, ironically; QUARTERBACK was solely interested in College Ball and KANYE had no interest in the sport.
As remarked, the primary thesis was the decline of Fulbright and the rise of Germany/Cynic. This phenomenon could be seen in purely visual terms: all of the first week, most of the second, the Fulbrighters were everywhere. Take a look into any corner of the campus, sit down in any convenient location, and all that could be seen were Fulbright American boys talking to Japanese girls, handing out their phone numbers, writing down their email addresses, meeting any of a infinitely delightful number of young Japanese maidens (and others). They were all over the place, mano! By week three, the Fulbrighters’ physical posture had changed. Seeing the whole crowd of the program attendees, the American boys were now tightly-knit together with the American girls; all the Fulbrighters stood around talking exclusively to each other, and the boys’ eyes, once darting over the place, were now only pointed at the American girls, two of whom were okay, but one of whom was a clear super-intellectualized girl and one of whom was forgettable. The experience of the American boys’ had not been happy. But Germany/Cynic still looked outwards smirking at the world; they were pleased as punch at the way things had gone, and until the final closing ceremony, they felt even this twinge of elite superiority.
Tuesday was what started this process. All morning long, 9am to just shy of 1pm, they had drilled basic grammar structures. The choosing of study partners was done by the teacher, resulting in a statistically random distribution of conversation partners, more or less. JOHANN began preening and posturing, showing off his superior command of Korean by varying the sentence structures at will. All eyes were on the people at front at the time; it was the one opportunity people could be studied at will, one that would have been lost to loud, talkative Americans, but appreciated fully by the German-Japanese cohort.
At 12:52pm, ROLLER began the final language sequence, “the making of appointments.” “KANYE, can you please use ‘can you meet’ in a sentence, pick anyone.”
[in Korean] “DEADBOLT-sshi”
"Yes, KANYE-sshi.”
"Can you meet Wednesday morning at the library for study?”
"Yes, no problem, I am free Wednesday morning.”
"Okay DEADBOLT-sshi, now your turn. Pick anyone.”
"RITSUKO-sshi.”
"Yes, DEADBOLT-sshi.”
"Are you free Tuesday morning for listening to music?”
"Yes, no problem, I am free Tuesday morning.”
Around the class the choosing of conversational partner went, with nothing unusual and no undercurrent. But finally it was TUSK’s turn.
"Okay, TUSK, you’re the last one. Pick anybody.”
TUSK looked up; there was a hush in the class.
"ERI-sshi.”
"Yes, TUSK-sshi.”
"Are you free Sunday afternoon for dinner?”
At once a gasp escaped the lips of every single Japanese girl there except RITSUKO. Sunday was Valentine’s Day. The sexual dynamic between the foreign boys and the Japanese girls had become crystallized, perfected. And the brilliance was that it was done publicly, it was only the seventh day of classes and things had now been set in stone irrecovably.
"No, I am busy!”
"Nice work TUSK-sshi,” said ROLLER, “Class dismissed. We meet in one hour for the Kim-chi field trip!”
JOHANN saw it. Every Japanese speaker understood, but JOHANN understood it from a Westerner’s perspective. “You put blood on the table,” he analyzed. “Anybody can go around and try to get a date furtively, but you were a political non-entity all week one, and then all of a sudden you become the most prominent of us three.”
What JOHANN did not see, however, was that TUSK was motivated by pure desperation. “KANYE might have listened more to me had he been alone, but he’s part of the scholarship program. And you were saying, ‘let’s wait and see,’ not accepting that I had special insight into the Japanese.”
"Why ERI?”
"She had been making eye contact with me all the first three days and was clearly enamored with me at first sight. I couldn’t stand her.”
"As events proved.”
"As events proved.”
One hour after class dismissal, the students reassemble at the language center main office and every 2/1 student present takes note that ERI has gone home and re-done her hair. She has spent the intervening hour completely on self-appearance improvement, and there is the quality of something rushed and frantic about her actions; the other Japanese girls maintain faces of calm impenetrability, but the more socially devious among them are hiding expressions of smirking sexual dominance. The knives have come out; the outcome only remained to be seen.
"Okay, to make kimchi you do this, you fold this, you sprinkle this.”
At the Kimchi Museum the instructions are given, but TUSK and ERI sit next to each other. In support AJ-3 and then SHINO in turn comes to sit next to them, to observe, to make their observation obvious. The Japanese, once aloof and separate, now seek to question TUSK, to see how much he understands of what he has done. And in careful play with the politeness levels of the language itself, TUSK positioned himself as giving early signs of what will transpire in two days’ time, although the question actually remained open; things were simmering for the two to be alone.
One of the staff members at the museum liked TUSK. TUSK saw it; so did ERI, who mysteriously forgot her watch and took the two of them back. The group went off to the historical site and TUSK and ERI have their first chat.
"You know, I think Japan should build its own atomic bombs. That way it doesn’t have to listen to America.”
The sentiment TUSK felt is not expressed, but went roughly OH GOD. Of all the things to say, of all the ways to begin a conversation, ERI has picked the absolute worst. SHINO would never begin a conversation this way. TABUN never even thinks of the word “atomic bomb.” This is one of the strangest, most deviant psychologies out there, and
completely unfeminine.
"I don’t agree. Japan ’s position is actually subtly powerful, as they have moral high ground in not building atomic weapons but Japan can clearly build the things in a few weeks if it had to.”
ERI disagreed.
"But think, wouldn’t Indonesia build atomics if Japan did? Wouldn’t every country?”
"Hmm, I could see that.”
The drama will play out. TUSK and ERI will talk more, will pose for pictures at the historical site with everyone else. But already he knew things would not happen; it was merely a question now of the wait.
ᴥ
In one sense this issue is not very complicated. Simple application of common sense--say, to the TIJUANA analogue--comes up with a fairly simple and correct explanation of what went on. A Japanese male in a Mexican university class filled with American girls says, 'Hey Lisa, do you want to go out for dinner Friday?' in Spanish when challenged to do so by the class teacher to illustrate use of 'want to meet...on Z day.' Instantly the American girls' posture changes; they go "oooh! so cool!" because the Japanese has confounded social expectations. Instead of being shy, socially withdrawn, he has merely asked a girl on a date, what's the anxiety, what's the fuss? Just like their Japanese counterparts, the American girls later surround the Japanese guy at the next convenient social occasion, trying to puzzle out this mysterious
The Flowers of Keiwha Page 8
