While reading My Year of Meats I was studying abroad in Spain. Although this may not seem relevant, I feel I was better able to relate to some of the characters because I myself was a foreigner at the time. Never before in my life had I been a true minority or outsider in society. This made me appreciate the comments Ozeki made in the book about the Japanese film crew and Jane’s own frustrations at feeling “neither here nor there” culturally.
I also noted parts where Ozeki purposefully made errors in the Japanese characters’ written and spoken English. As a native speaker of English, I admit that seeing their mistakes made the characters seem less intelligent because of their linguistic English inferiority to the Americans. I’ve noticed that many Americans tend to judge foreigners if they can’t speak English flawlessly, even though this has nothing to do with their overall level of competence. Sometimes we don’t say that they are “stupid,” for example, but merely that they are “cute” or “funny.” Has anyone else seen or heard comments like this as well?
Since living in Spain, I have gained much more respect for immigrants or travelers who live in the U.S. for an extended amount of time because of these linguistic and cultural difficulties. Now I know that language errors have nothing to do with intelligence or reliability of people, and that all native speakers make errors as well, although generally we are more forgiving to them for some reason. As Ozeki points out, America is made up of so many different types of people that the generalizations learned before arriving are often times untrue and therefore don’t prepare people for the real American experience.
This brings up the topic of Jane’s search for “authenticity” and how it brought her to the home of Lara and Dyann. I think my favorite line in the book was “I mean, lamb was one thing, and lesbians were another, but vegetarian lesbians were something else entirely” (174) not only because of its utter ridiculousness, but also because of its implications of what true American culture is. It is the differences between us and all the different peoples that comprise our communities. I’m not trying to get sappy here, I’m just pointing out that Jane explored so many cultures and lifestyles without leaving the country, and I think that is pretty amazing, especially when juxtaposed with Japan’s homogeneous society.
Aside from the cultural aspects of the book, I became very interested in the meat. I had known about the poor quality of life (and means of death) for the animals prior to reading My Year of Meats and I had even tried somewhat of a vegetarian lifestyle several times before, but upon finishing the book my decision to no longer eat beef or pork was set. It was made all the more easier for me because my host mother in Spain never ate beef and only cooked pork on occasion, so I was lucky enough to become accustomed to that type of diet before returning to the Midwest, and my hometown, Sheboygan (which was mentioned in the book on page 24) where brats and burgers are consumed on a weekly basis.
Now that I am home, I am happy to report that my no-red-meat motto has continued and become even stronger after I did some preliminary research on the topic. I am excited to have the opportunity to talk to other students and faculty about practices for a sustainable ecosystem and hopefully share ideas and learn how we can all work together to change the current factory-farming trend in the world.
-Alexandra Nugent
2 Comments
September 13, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Interesting comment about how Americans call foreigners with an accent or improper English “cute” or “funny.” I know I’ve done this before and never thought of it as condescending, but I can see how it would belittle a person and also how Americans can easily judge those who have difficulty with the language to be less intelligent than themselves.
September 14, 2007 at 1:46 pm
I admire your ability to give up red meat. Although I don’t think the book necessarily calls for vegetarianism, over the summer (when I first read the book) I, too, felt the need to eat less beef and pork. Unfortunately, I was not living in Spain, where lentils appear on the dinner table more often than meat, but rather at my grandparent’s house in the Twin Cities. My grandparents are proud of their German heritage and routinely stock their freezer when they find good sales on meat. Almost every night for supper my grandma made some sort of meat roast or my grandpa grilled burgers, steak, or brats, and although I would try to take as small a portion of meat as possible (or rather take more salad), there was only so much I could do without offending them. I doubt they would find me a good guest after rejecting their food staples. (My grandma made pasta salads a few times over the summer, since she knew I tended to eat more vegetables. When she only included tuna or shrimp, my grandpa would ask where the meat was). In the end, I did my best to eat hummus sandwiches for lunch in order to offset my excess of meat. This decision, however, could be its own anecdote, since my grandpa continually mixed up “hummus” with “humus” and thought I was eating mold. Diet certainly has its cultural/generational characteristics.