{"id":50,"date":"2009-02-09T23:49:55","date_gmt":"2009-02-10T03:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/?p=50"},"modified":"2009-02-09T23:49:55","modified_gmt":"2009-02-10T03:49:55","slug":"barentaindee-%e3%83%90%e3%83%ac%e3%83%b3%e3%82%bf%e3%82%a4%e3%83%b3%e3%83%87%e3%83%bc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/barentaindee-%e3%83%90%e3%83%ac%e3%83%b3%e3%82%bf%e3%82%a4%e3%83%b3%e3%83%87%e3%83%bc\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Culture: Barentaindee (\u30d0\u30ec\u30f3\u30bf\u30a4\u30f3\u30c7\u30fc)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barentaindee (\u30d0\u30ec\u30f3\u30bf\u30a4\u30f3\u30c7\u30fc<\/strong>) is the way Japanese people pronounce ‘Valentine’s Day’.\u00a0 It’s customary for Japanese people to give chocolates as a present on Valentine’s Day.\u00a0 In fact, it’s not only customary, in some ways it’s obligatory.\u00a0 Among co-workers, chocolates called giri choco (\u7fa9\u7406\u30c1\u30e7\u30b3<\/strong>) are commonly distributed be female OLs (\u30aa\u30fc\u30a8\u30eb<\/strong>) to male co-workers.\u00a0 At this point you’re probably thinking\u00a0two things: 1) What’s an OL (\u30aa\u30fc\u30a8\u30eb<\/strong>)?\u00a0 Answer: OL (\u30aa\u30fc\u30a8\u30eb<\/strong>) stands for ‘office lady’ and is pronounced as oo-e-ru.\u00a0 2) That’s sexist! How come girls don’t get chocolates?\u00a0 Answer: girls get chocolates, but not on Valentine’s Day.\u00a0 (I’ll write about it in a future post).\u00a0 Only boys get chocolates on Valentine’s Day.<\/p>\n

As I’ve said before, Valentine’s Day is observed a bit differently than the States.\u00a0 In the States, men are the ones who give chocolates to women.\u00a0 Secondly, men give chocolates to women they are romantically interested in.\u00a0 In Japan, giving chocolates to a male co-worker is somewhat obligatory.\u00a0 A female co-worker giving chocolates to a male co-worker doesn’t necessarily imply that she’s interested in him.\u00a0 The word giri choco contains the word giri (\u7fa9\u7406<\/strong>) which means duty or obligation and choco (\u30c1\u30e7\u30b3<\/strong>) the Japanese word for chocolate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While it’s true that people give out chocolates to be nice to their co-workers, there’s also a calculated reason behind this gift-giving tradition.\u00a0 Giving chocolates to your co-worker can strengthen cooperative ties in the future.\u00a0 In the business world, having someone that can back you up or carry the slack when you most need it is helpful to have.\u00a0 Sometimes, it’s a burden to receive chocolates from a co-worker.\u00a0 When you receive something, it’s only polite that you give something in return.\u00a0 This is exactly what happens a month later when male co-workers are forced<\/span>, rather, obliged to give chocolates to women.<\/p>\n

Not all chocolate-giving is obligatory though.\u00a0 For example, honmei choko (\u672c\u547d\u30c1\u30e7\u30b3<\/strong>) is a type of chocolate-giving amongst family\u00a0members or for a significant other, while tomo choko (\u53cb\u30c1\u30e7\u30b3<\/strong>) is a type of chocolate-giving amongst best friends.\u00a0 One thing is for sure though, the chocolate industries in Japan make loads of money on Valentine’s Day.\u00a0 You may be thinking that it’s wrong to combine commericial interests with a day like Valentine’s Day, but I’d rather get something than nothing, even if it’s forced.\u00a0 In other words, I’m glad to get chocolates from someone, even if they’re just doing out of a societal responsibility.\u00a0 So for me, I don’t care that Valentine’s Day is a total marketing venture to sell chocolates, because the chocolates are well worth it.\u00a0 Ok everyone! Time for me to go give out chocolates!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barentaindee (\u30d0\u30ec\u30f3\u30bf\u30a4\u30f3\u30c7\u30fc) is the way Japanese people pronounce ‘Valentine’s Day’.\u00a0 It’s customary for Japanese people to give chocolates as a present on Valentine’s Day.\u00a0 In fact, it’s not only customary, in some ways it’s obligatory.\u00a0 Among co-workers, chocolates called giri choco (\u7fa9\u7406\u30c1\u30e7\u30b3) are commonly distributed be female OLs (\u30aa\u30fc\u30a8\u30eb) to male co-workers.\u00a0 At this point…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[163],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-valentines-day"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}