The above is a quote from the famous-in-japan, born-in-my-hometown Dr. William Clark. He helped found Hokkaido University and has something big to do with the University of Massachusetts as well. Cool dude.
Anyway, today it pertains to the boys in my class and their apparent complete lack of cajones.
In my middle class, there are two boys and 16 girls. That is an incredible ratio of 8:1. It doesn't get better than that. I think in high school and college, I would've killed for something like that. These boys have no idea how good they have it. Yet, instead of taking full advantage of the situation like I thought they would, they pretty much hide. Are Japanese women so scary? I think not. Whenever we do pairwork activities or group activities that involve mixing the class, the two boys inevitably end up talking to each other and no one else. "Back in my day" I would've been all over this chance to talk to cute girls in my class. Naturally I would have been met with resistance and derision, but hey, I tried valiantly.
It happens in other classes too, where the girl:boy ratio isn't so extreme. At first I thought it was because they were so outnumbered, but larger classes disprove my pet theory. Everyone says that Japanese men are really passive and "weak" when it comes to approaching women. It really is disenheartening to see this trend start at such an early age.
Start thy pimphood young! Boys be ambitious!