🚀 go-pugleaf

inagaki@aclab1.resrch.anritsu.co.jp (Shintaro Inagaki) writes:

>In article <2776@aegis.or.jp> davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane) writes:
...
>    >>I think getting a credit card would be a bit different. If beards
>    >>signified University professors (and University professors were
>    >>given credit cards), then maybe it would be useful to appear at the
>    >>counter and apply for a credit card with a beard ... and a suit, and
>    >>a briefcase full of books and papers, and whatever else would help
>    >>your case. 
>    >>

>I am afraid, no.
>If you have beard, go to a bank to apply for a credit card
>and fills in the form that your affiliation is mere office worker,
>the bankers will doubt your character is really all right.
>So you might have trouble to get a card.

I thought it went without saying that you would have to have a
realistic affiliation. The appearance and the affiliation have to
match. Wearing work-stained clothes and trying to get a job in the
construction industry with a meishi which say "Professor xxxx" would
be another kind of mismatch. 

>To persuade people that you have a good character,
>you may have to act, or pretend to act,
>in accordance with Japanese Conventional Wisdom.

Naturally.

>I think this sometimes causes lack of freedom for foreigners.

IMO, a lot of the perceived lack of freedom comes because people
don't realized that their own conventional wisdom only applies to
where they learned it. Each culture has it's own CW; if you want to
get along, it's useful to learn what it is. 

Dave

--
Dave McLane  davidg@aegis.or.jp
You're free to copy/quote/translate as long as credit is given. 
Nagaokakyoshi, Kyoto Japan Tel: +81-75-951-1168 Fax: +81-75-957-1087