Describe a movie scene: Mr. Baseball eating in Japan

[James Trotta]

For this class we will practice describing a scene from an old American movie. In Mr. Baseball, Tom Selleck plays Jack. Jack is an American baseball player who moves to Japan.

In this scene, Jack has dinner with his coach, the coach's parents, and the coach's daughter, Hiroko. Jack is not used to Japanese culture so when they eat, Jack makes a lot of mistakes.

Your job is to watch the video and describe what happens. What do the Japanese people do that seems strange to Jack? What does Jack do that seems strange to the Japanese family?

Here is the movie scene (about 90 seconds): https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1&v=rgPtMB7KfLA

Please reply here and write your description. I will try to help you correct your errors.

[Erika]

I had never seen the movie before. When the coach's daughter told him that is polite to do the noise while her mother was eating spaghettis, he exaggerate it to make the scene so funny. There is to be so difficult to be in a process of learning another culture. The Japanese culture is very strict and respectful. I am agree with the father to help him learn their culture. He never received orientation before to avoid that situation. I think that I could be so embarrass in the table, but he was normal. I really like this actor.

[Mujer]

I was not familiar with this movie, although I have seen a lot of Tom Selleck movies. He is an excellent actor and very popular here in the U.S. I agree with Erika; the father is right in telling the daughter to teach Jack about Japanese culture and customs. They are much more formal in many respects than we are in America. I think this is probably true in other Asian countries, as well.

[cookiemonstr]

I have never seen this movie but i can imagine there are probably more scenes about being in Japan and having weird stuations about their traditions for him.
In video firstly he saw mother slurped her meal which is a bad behaviour in so many country but acoording to asians it is an expression of enjoying the food. After daughter told him it is ok, he started to do too but more than enough which was a bit awkvard and end up with family gazed at him. Also he had to sit on his feed which was hard for him. Also there was a drink pouring scene which i have no idea what kind of manner need to be that part. And at the end he stabbed his chopsticks in to his noodles but there is a supersition this behaviour brings bad luck so it made the family overreact.

[Mujer]

Cookiemonstr mentions the drink pouring part, which I was curious about too. It looked like the daughter was supposed to serve everyone, but first to the older people. I think there are many customs in Japan about respect for the elders. I noticed Jack stabbing the chopsticks in the bowl and thought maybe it meant to kill someone. I think people would need a book to study from and learn all the different things about their culture!

[James Trotta]

I had never seen the movie before. When the coach's daughter told him that is polite to do the noise while her mother was eating spaghettis, he exaggerate it to make the scene so funny. There is to be so difficult to be in a process of learning another culture. The Japanese culture is very strict and respectful. I am agree with the father to help him learn their culture. He never received orientation before to avoid that situation. I think that I could be so embarrass in the table, but he was normal. I really like this actor.

I had never seen the movie before. Nice past perfect.
When the coach's daughter told him that it is polite to make noise while her mother was eating noodles, he exaggerated it to make the scene so funny. It is so difficult to learn another culture. Japanese culture is very strict and respectful. I agree with the father that they should help him learn their culture. He never received orientation before to avoid that situation. I think that I could be so embarrassed at the table, but he was normal. I really like this actor.

Yes, Tom Selleck is a really good actor. Thanks for doing the assignment.

[James Trotta]

I have never seen this movie but i can imagine there are probably more scenes about being in Japan and having weird stuations about their traditions for him.
In video firstly he saw mother slurped her meal which is a bad behaviour in so many country but acoording to asians it is an expression of enjoying the food. After daughter told him it is ok, he started to do too but more than enough which was a bit awkvard and end up with family gazed at him. Also he had to sit on his feed which was hard for him. Also there was a drink pouring scene which i have no idea what kind of manner need to be that part. And at the end he stabbed his chopsticks in to his noodles but there is a supersition this behaviour brings bad luck so it made the family overreact.

I have never seen this movie good present perfect. Note how Erika used past perfect (she had not seen the moive before but now she has) and cookiemonstr used present perfect (cookie still hasn't seen the movie, just this short part) - both correct

but i can imagine there are probably more scenes about being in Japan and him having weird stuations about their traditions for him. You should see the scene where he tries to use a Japanese toilet

In the video first he saw the mother slurp her noodles which is bad behaviour in so many countries but acoording to asians it is an expression of enjoying the food. After the daughter told him it is ok, he started to slurp too but too much which was a bit awkward and he ended up with the family staring at him. Also he had to sit on the floor which was hard for him. Also there was a drink pouring scene which i have no idea what kind of manners would be needed. And at the end he stabbed his chopsticks in to his noodles but there is a supersition this behaviour brings bad luck so it made the family overreact.


Nice work When they were pouring the drinks, he should have waited. The daughter has to pour for the higher status people first, so her father (the coach) gets his drink before Jack (just a player, not as senior as the coach). Jack got impatient and got his own drink. When you pour your own drink it's kind of accusing the host of not caring about you. I think this is similar in Korea and Japan. I could go to the bar with my friends and no one would pour their own drinks. First the younger person pours for his friends and then someone pours for the younger person. Sometimes i would be the younger person, but being a foreign guest, people older than me would pour for me. But if they went to pour for themselves I would always take the bottle and pour for them.

[James Trotta]

Cookiemonstr mentions the drink pouring part, which I was curious about too. It looked like the daughter was supposed to serve everyone, but first to the older people. I think there are many customs in Japan about respect for the elders. I noticed Jack stabbing the chopsticks in the bowl and thought maybe it meant to kill someone. I think people would need a book to study from and learn all the different things about their culture!

Right about the pouring! Leaving chopsticks in rice is what people in Korea (and Japan I am pretty sure) do when they have a ceremony for deceased ancestors. So having the chopsticks sticking out of the rice like that is a symbol of death, but not really about killing someone.