Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site sdcrdcf.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!lll-crg!dual!qantel!hplabs!sdcrdcf!barryg From: barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold) Newsgroups: net.nlang Subject: Re: Rabu Message-ID: <2237@sdcrdcf.UUCP> Date: Fri, 9-Aug-85 09:03:02 EDT Article-I.D.: sdcrdcf.2237 Posted: Fri Aug 9 09:03:02 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 13-Aug-85 02:35:52 EDT References: <277@mit-athena.UUCP> <3318@dartvax.UUCP> <723@ptsfa.UUCP> <> <181@proper.UUCP> Reply-To: barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold) Distribution: net.nlang Organization: System Development Corp. R+D, Santa Monica Lines: 17 "Rabu" (Japanese transliteration of "love") implies respectable romantic love, a new concept in Japanese culture, impoted from the West. Traditional Japanese culture viewed the affection existing between husband and wife as quite different from the romantic love a man felt for a geisha/courtesan/bar girl. AS recently as the 40s, an American woman married to a Japanese reported that her husband felt quite embarrassed at being caught by colleagues spending a quiet evening with his wife (instead of out at a bar) and explained to her that it was disrespectful to love one's wife BECAUSE it was treating her like a whore. There's an old Japanese proverb that a man who loves his wife is spoiling his mother's servant. When we were there in the mid-70s, one of my husband's fellow programmers had made a love marriage--and was much teased for it around the office. (For instance, every time he was even a minute late to work, people laughed that his wife had delayed him, kissing him. He'd been married for several years, so this wans't just teasing a newlywed.) --Lee Gold