Boredom
"the feeling and behavior you have when you are bored"|
by Yujin Mori
<Introduction>
When you attend a very drowsy lecture, or you participate in a solemn ceremony, how do you feel and behave? Most people may feel boredom and behave with some typical action. Usually, a feeling of boredom leads up to sleepiness. But in this essay, I’ll focus on the behavior of feeling boredom.
As you know, there are some differences in body language (gestures) between Japan and Western countries. There are not only differences but also similarities. It is interesting to research the cultural differences and commonalities. Feeling of boredom is one of the feedback emotions based on external action. Japanese people use peculiar expressions of their feelings.
And now, I’ll show you some situations in which Japanese people behave to express their feeling ‘boredom’. Perhaps, some of them may be similar with ones of your culture. I’ll give you some examples.
<Conclusion>
The feeling of boredom is not one you made intentionally. No matter how you pay interest, uninteresting things are not interesting. The feeling of boredom is produced with nature. As focus on body language, generally Japanese people are deficient in feeling expression compared with Europeans and Americans. However, Japanese use various types of body language to express the feelings coming from mental fatigue, such as boredom.
It is often said that Japanese people are becoming westernized gradually. Maybe, western people may also use behavior like the examples that I gave. In my opinion, I think that the action of opening the mouth when people are bored is hardly seen in western countries. This is a very stupid expression. In your country, how do you behave when you feel bored? It may be interesting to check other’s behavior when you attend a boring lecture or participate in a solemn ceremony. Perhaps, before you yourself notice, you may have acted out boredom.
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<Bibliography>
Stephen N. Williams
“American & Japanese Gestures”
Published by Kodansha, 1998
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Back to Expressing Feelings Index
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<Situation 1>
In a boring class, people hold up their heads with one hand, with their elbows on the table or the desk. Often, such a situation will appear in college lectures. This is regarded as a very rude attitude in Japan. High school students are under their teacher’s control, so they are scolded when they show boredom. Recently, a lot of students have mobile phones, so they send and receive e-mails while the professor lectures them.
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<Situation 2>
At solemn ceremonies (standing position), people droop and roll or lean their heads to the side. In Japanese culture, there are many ceremonies all year long. Some of them are very boring for the attendees, especially young people. ‘Houji’ (e.g. the 10th anniversary of a distant relative) is one of them. It’s so boring while the priest recites a sutra. So people get sleepy, but it’s rude to sleep. People try to bear their sleepiness and they exercise or stretch some part of their bodies lightly.
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<Situation 3>
When people have nothing to do, they slouch and usually keep their mouths open for several minutes. Generally it is not a good image to open one’s mouth in public. Some people regard it as laziness. Japanese people also open their mouths when they are tired internally. Both boredom and tiredness include an element of languor.
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<Situation 4>
Watching an uninteresting TV show with others, people yawn deliberately, and they try to show others that the TV show is not interesting. While this may often not be deliberate, it is often used to indicate boredom and can vary from a half-suppressed yawn to an open-mouth yawn. Since it tends to be regarded as impolite behavior, most people don’t yawn in public but only with their family or their close friend.
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<Situation 5>
Attending a long meeting, people interlace their fingers and rotate their thumbs for resource. This behavior is similar at solemn ceremonies. No matter how bored you feel, it may be impossible to doze off in a meeting. People hide their hands behind the desk in the posture of sitting in their seats. They try to endure boredom using their hands and fingers. How they use their fingers varies, and is up to each person.
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