OUTSIDE RESOURCE - Ailsa Williamson
I recently met up with a friend who had been to Japan to live and work voluntarily for 7 months after taking a year out from studying.
Ailsa Williamson, was privately educated at Dollar Academy, and was studying literature at Glasgow University, when she decided to take a year out of studying and do voluntary work in a foreign country - she choose Japan!
Ailsa spent time seeking out charities, but it was through a family contact that she managed to get an internship with a graphical designer company.
She raised money to get to Japan by carrying out sponsored silences and holding events to raise the funds, she also got a grant from her previous school; Dollar Academy.
Ailsa described the Japanese as being a very family orientated culture, she explained how honor is a huge part of Japanese culture, and that family and business were greatly inter twinned.
She explained that there was a great sense of honour and duty, especially to the older generation, and that it was traditionally very male orientated within the family. although the Japanese are very traditional and have a Eastern Culture which still very much exists, Ailsa explained how they are Western influenced and have a positive view of Americans and British.
Japanese head of state is the Emperor, and the main religions in Japan are Buddhism, and they worship in Temples, and Shinto, shrines are their place of worship. Religion in Japan is all about a sense of spirituality, Mediation, Harmony. Buddhism is all about peace, there is no sense of God in Buddhism which differs from Shinto, which focuses on good spirits/energy and getting rid of bad spirits/energy.
Japanese will also worship ancestors, offering food to ancestors at gravesides, a way of encouraging/appeasing the good spirits. Ailsa explained how it may also links up to honoring family.
I was told about how Japanese children have great respect for elders and education and will sit exams in order to get into the best secondary schools, and gain access to the best universities.
Ailsa told me about how the Japanese greeted each other differently from the British and were very hard working, barely taking sick days, wearing masks so as not to catch or spread disease, and are very politely spoken.
I asked Ailsa how easily she was accepted into Japanese society, she explained it was very formal, and that she had to work very hard to be accepted into their culture, she explained that the Japanese are very respectful of foreign people as long as you are seen to be making an effort with them. Ailsa explains that she was referred to as Gaijin which meant outsider person. (Gai - outsider, Jin - Person). (Sharlene)
Meeting with Ailsa Williamson