Bar Hostess, Native speakers only!

   

It was just a few days later, still in search of a job for survival, and not yet completely absorbed the reality that skin colour in the business world matters here when I came across this quizzical ad: “Wanted: Bar hostess, native speakers only!”

Native speaker of what language, I wondered. We were in Japan, did they mean a native Japanese speaker? But I was, technically, a native speaker, but just of Persian, could they mean that? Or did the term ‘native speaker’ have another meaning here?

This ad was placed in the late 70’s. Japan was enjoying the result of the booming economy of the 60’s and 70’s paving the way for the bubble economy of the mid- 80’s. Everything, was about the three “Ps”: power, prestige, and profit. Only money talked and entertainment was the core of activities. Indeed the concept, like everywhere else in the developed world was like the movie “Wall Street”, in which Gekko in his speech addressed to the stock shareholders, reminds them that: “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works, greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of evolutionary spirit!”

At around the same time, the Zen Spirit, the projected image of Japan which had been highly praised in the international arena, was getting pushed aside by frenzy materialism. The meaningful sense of ‘wabi sabi’, or ‘the beauty in simplicity’ was hard to find. Edwin Reischauer calls this time of history in Japan as “a time of doubt”. “Even to the post-war generation, the products of the new age, Japan sometimes appeared spiritually empty”, he writes.

Out of curiosity, I called the number on the ad.

“Excuse me”, I said, “Could you tell me: native speaker of what language are you looking for in your ad?”

“Um…Ahhh…”

That was the only response I got.

I told the man on the phone that even he was a native speaker...of Japanese! This conversation, like the last, ended up in disappointment. It was a learning moment that here ‘native speaker’ meant light skin, preferably blue eyes, and blonde hair. It seemed it was profitable for businesses to have fair skin; in bottom of my heart, still young and naïve, I should admit, I was envious of the successful applicants.  

In this new country it seemed I did not meet the requirements to teach a language I had studied and perfected for years, or to even pour sake (Japanese wine) in a customer’s wine glass. Do the students and customers want these things, or do businesses insist on this unspoken rule? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  Either way, I thought, what a pity to miss out the rich variations and rewards of diversity!