Other cultures

[flower]

Food for thought: Did you know that the majority of Japanese women DO NOT bf their babies?
Reason: They dont want to comprimise their perky boobies.....they've heard that bf makes your boosies saggy and thats unnatractive SO thats so much more important than feeding your baby. The newbies here are like fat sausages.......
VANITY is amazingly HUGE in Japan.
O's mom.

[Briannabear]

MY GOSH!!! Thats terrible! :o Its so hard to imagine a culture like that!
It sounds like women are just seen as objects. :(

[aardvark]

I did hear once that the japanese women can also opt to have toilet paper home delivered, so as to avoid them the embarassment of being seen toting it home...........

[AM]

I didn't know that about bf in Japan!
Do you think it is like that just umong young urban Japanese women, and the rates might be different in more rural/traditional areas?
Or is it a really prevalent thing?
Thanks for the interesting - and a bit disturbing - info, it is great to get a peek inside other cultures, much of the time all we get from the outside is untrue stereotypes.

[Chickadee]

I liked the japanese invention for public toilets, that made the sound of a flushing toilet - to stop the women from constantly flushing the toilet to cover their own tinkling sounds.

From another culture, nothing to do with breastfeeding... in some african cultures the tradition is that widows join the family of their dead husband's brother, often marrying them. In the past this has helped ensure the dead man's family is cared for. But with HIV & AIDS it's contributing to the spread of the disease through entire extended families (marriages have to be consumated). How do you change an entire tradition and culture?

[ThomasMum]

Gawd, its def sounds like modern Japanese alright lol. Because some of the “oldiest” are up today still hold their traditional values. I’ve been to Japan, the youth culture are real shockers! And only gets worse these days. Joshua loves the Japanese toilet, that’s all he ever talked about when he came back from Tokyo for his recent business trip lol We also love the way they use the English words. We took a pic of fruit shop with a sign written as "Fluit Markets" Cute!

I’ve got heaps of those motherhood culture shocks to share, we lived in Indonesia on and off for 8 years and had lived/traveled in to Singapore and Malaysia in between. One of them is that, aunties are allowed to breasfed their nieces! Ill add some more later, as I gtg

Have a good one folks! :)

[red crayon]

I can bore you all with the cultural differences in Vietnam if you'd like. While I get lots of women asking me if I breastfeed and approving that I do, many Vietnamese women end up formula feeding. I don't know if it has anything to do with their bosoms, O's mum, but it makes for some chubby little kids.

[wattle]

Gee we really forget how great it is in australia (sorry overseas girls.... don't want to make you homesick). We have such freedom here and such a beautiful country. Women here have so many more choices than they do in most other countries. Lucky us!

[kaydensmum]

That's really interesting about the bf!! We were told by the midwife who conducted our antenatal classes that the main reason a lot of asian women don't bf is because their milk can take up to 3 weeks to come in :confused: . I really thought she was genuine as did everybody else - I don't know where she got this from, I never thought to ask? I did think it was strange that it would take such a long time for the milk to arrive & couldn't quite figure out why it would be so different for another culture (mind you I was and still am a bit brain dead - don't think that will ever change now!!)

Carole.

[Briannabear]

How bizzare!? :confused:

[red crayon]

We had a pamphlet for a restaurant recently that advertised chicken's jump sticks.

Off the subject but sort of on it - my partner had an embarrassing language incident the other week. He's a trainer and was working with some Vietnamese health workers. He got them to introduce themselves and he said that one woman said she'd have to go home each day at lunch time for a dress fitting. Later on, he was talking to the woman via an interpreter and he said to the interpreter, "Tell her that the price for going home each day is that she'll have to show the whole class the result". This caused much embarrassment for the woman who wanted to know why my partner wanted her to show the class her breastfeeding! :p

Now when I have to breastfeed Spencer, I say I'm off for a dress fitting.

[Briannabear]

This is all very funny!! LOL!

[Nickster]

My DH was in Singapore once on business and was taken out for a ritzy dinner. The restaurant he went to featured a pond in the lobby with a lot of fish (carp) in it. When he commented on the pond (making small talk) he was told by his Singaporean business associate that it was considered "good luck to have crap in lobby" :eek: . Each to their own custom!!!LOL!!!!
By the way, he LOVES telling this story, it always breaks everyone up! :D

[red crayon]

I've got a supermarket near me called citimart. it's the most over-staffed store i've ever been two - usually two bored girls attending each aisle. Gives them plenty of time to follow me around so that they can talk to spencer. at the supermarket i can get fresh milk - the trick is to avoid the stuff that has had vanilla essence or sugar added to it. I buy yoghurt but have to guess what's in it. i buy fruit and veg at the street markets, and what i buy depends on what's available. i don't buy meat at the street markets coz it's generally been sitting out in the open with the pollution and flies for a while. there's a place here that sells meat imported from australia - good stuff but not cheap.

Babies and the Vietnamese. spencer is a constant source of fascination esp with his blue eyes. he loves the attention but i can get jack of it pretty quickly. esp when people block my path to touch him or try to unbuckle him from the stroller to hold him. my partner and i try to maintain a 'no kissing' policy but you have to be quick! people are also very vocal with advice - it's like living with a whole country of in-laws.

What's Japan like, O's mum?

[ThomasMum]

Back to culture shocks. My poor DH. He had so many of those culture shocks as he went for business quite a lot in Asia. The funniest one would be; eating dog & ferret soup in Korea when he was invited for dinner by his host because it’s considered very rude to say no to whatever in the table. (It took him months for him to be able to pet Honey (the in laws lil puppy) without feeling sick and guilty lol

When we lived in Java (before DH time), people used to come to our house for "medicine" yet the reason we lived there because my dad had a duty to teach them to continue their traditions not to relay on so much to the western medicine. (My Dad was one of the leading docs sent by UN-WHO & UNICEF to teach/support natives people to keep using their traditional methods in healing etc but in a healthy way). One thing I know though, public over there support and protects mums who breastfed their babies. Wouldn’t be great if this apply in Australia yeah? It was a pity that we had to go back to the UK because I wouldn’t mind living up there forever and ever!

I missed those feelings, spoilt by the villagers. I used to have hundreds aunties, uncles, grandparents, and a whole nation of extended family. Sure it used to drive my mum bonkers because they always giving her a forever advices, but boy what a great memory we had growing up in Asia!

ML :D