Very interesting content. This is something we gave to grapple with every time we are faced with a death. As long as we are sincere there is no “wrong” response.
May be off the point a bit, but I’m teaching a class call oral expressions, and what surprises me is the whole idea that funeral speeches or speeches for the deceased can be celebratory, or commemorating a person’s life. Compare that to something like the movie Okuribito, where there is a lot of repressed grieving and the whole procedure seems like artwork.https://youtu.be/vvXRdIHXgaU?si=pzt8SUdTi32o5ukv. Culture IS hard!
This is a complicated subject. The reports of the writing experiments were enlightening. Your article reminded me of several embarrassing moments when I attended the funerals of former employees and customers as a representative of my company in Japan. I was often the only foreigner at such somber gatherings and never quite knew what to say - especially to the immediate family members of the deceased.
The description of how the Japanese students explained how they preferred to gather facts and make a judgment about what to say before saying anything was particularly insightful. I can see that playing out in reality.
Very interesting content. This is something we gave to grapple with every time we are faced with a death. As long as we are sincere there is no “wrong” response.
May be off the point a bit, but I’m teaching a class call oral expressions, and what surprises me is the whole idea that funeral speeches or speeches for the deceased can be celebratory, or commemorating a person’s life. Compare that to something like the movie Okuribito, where there is a lot of repressed grieving and the whole procedure seems like artwork.https://youtu.be/vvXRdIHXgaU?si=pzt8SUdTi32o5ukv. Culture IS hard!
This is a complicated subject. The reports of the writing experiments were enlightening. Your article reminded me of several embarrassing moments when I attended the funerals of former employees and customers as a representative of my company in Japan. I was often the only foreigner at such somber gatherings and never quite knew what to say - especially to the immediate family members of the deceased.
The description of how the Japanese students explained how they preferred to gather facts and make a judgment about what to say before saying anything was particularly insightful. I can see that playing out in reality.