high school students' opinions 0420

Do you think your parents are traditional?
A girl said
Though the definition of traditional is different depending on what we focus.
Regarding an academic background, my father doesn't seem to be traditional. He used to work as an engineer at a big company, but now he works as a school janitor to stay with his parents and us in the same house. He doesn't care about promotion.
On other hand, on the surface  my mother doesn't care academic scores and academic backgrounds, however she really cares about  my scores.  I know she wants me to get into a solid occupation, like a teacher, a doctor, a nurse, or an employee for a big company.

Additional question is, do you think it's acceptable to live together before marriage?
The same girl said.
I consider myself as conservative. However, if I'm caught in such a situation, I'll accept living together before marriage. But a mutual assumption is necessary. It is that we are going to marry.
Through living together before marriage, we know our real good points and bad points and it will bring us more understanding of each other. Well, if we broke up, it probably would be very miserable.


Mieko's opinion
In her talking, the word "miserable" is used.  I know breaking up is not always miserable. And I learned  such saying "you doge a bullet", meaning a temporary hurt is better than long-term one. It's definitely right. However here in Japan, divorcing might be an unhappy thing, the record is remained in a family register, which might be called " a bad point". Moreover if the woman chooses her single life with her child or children, it seems not to be easy here in Japan for her and their children.
However divorcing is considered  "it can't be helped". It is not denied ethically.
On the other hand living together before marriage is even now considered as immoral by some people in Japan. And if their living together ends without marriage, it is not recorded in a family register, but some people consider her immoral. Of course these days such people are a few, but there are. So from this point, the girl seems to be "traditional",( she said she is conservative), even though she doesn't realize it. Because she uses the word "miserable".



Another topic

Provided you have the opportunity to run your family business, would you rather take it over or do something different?

 A boy said (in his case, his father owns his small electric engineering firm.)

I'm interested in his business. Even if I might be expected to take over my family business, I'll do it. However before doing it, I'd work somewhere to gain experience as a businessman. Employers need to know the feeling of employees.


A girl said
If my family ran a restaurant, I'd prefer to take it over. I'm interested in becoming an owner of a restaurant. I know it is difficult to start up a new restaurant without the necessary background.
And if the restaurant had a long tradition , I'd continue to keep the history, and I'd like to leave my name in the family history as one of successive owners.