Quote:
Originally Posted by MMM
No one puts soy sauce on rice in Japan.
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I don't mean to be abrupt, but I've heard from Japanese peoples' mouths that people used to do that back in the day. I don't imagine Japanese people would drench it like my brother does, but I could picture them putting a little bit on there.
It's not a far fetched idea as people put soy sauce on sushi and in donburi and stuff like that. I wouldn't be so quick on the draw of "nobody does this" type of statements.
Here's a word for putting soy sauce on rice: 醤油かけご飯
Take a look for yourself on google:
@nifty
白いご飯に醤油をかけて食べると行儀が悪いといわれま すが、それはどうしてですか... - Yahoo!知恵袋
Can you read that stuff? It's obviously not something everyone does and it's most likely a minority, but people DO put soy sauce on rice. The second link, I found quite interesting. I'm guessing the question is from a Japanese person, but it's basically asking "why do people say putting soy sauce on rice is bad? please give me a real answer for this..." or something to that degree.
The "best answer" is an interesting look at this. The reason given is 『お金がない人の食事』. In other words, it's considered a "poor man's food". I'm just paraphrasing, but the answer goes on to explain that when you don't have side dishes or tsukemono and junk, you will still have soy sauce, so in times when you're not exactly livin' large, you can at least put soy sauce on your white rice. Therefore, what is wrong with it is that if you've got money, you should cook something that actually has meaning to eat with your rice, instead of simply pouring soy sauce all over it. At the end the person says if you pour some high quality soy sauce on some freshly cooked rice, then it makes for a great meal. The answer then shows a link to a fan page of putting soy sauce on rice (which is the first link I posted). This is all in Japanese, so I think it's safe to say the majority of the parties involved are Japanese people.
To be fair, this is my first time actually looking this stuff up. I've just heard it from word of mouth up to now. What I've heard basically coincides with that "best answer" quite well.
I was first told something along the lines of what you said, MMM, when I took a Japanese class in high school with a Japanese American teacher. He was on everyone's nuts about putting soy sauce on their rice and wouldn't shut up about how gross it was. I personally don't like it that much but found it offensive and kind of a far fetched idea that absolutely NO ONE in Japan put soy sauce on their rice ever. So I made it a point to ask actual Japanese people when I got here to settle it for myself, and what I found out was a surprising story not unlike the "best answer" I just read talked about.
So as a side note, this is one of those reasons why I can't stress enough about the importance to talking to actual Japanese people (for learning Japanese/culture stuff). It's a quick way to test out myths. I think I'm lucky in that I get to talk to my students about this stuff as well as middle aged and older people. I get a nice perspective across the spectrum on these things. Of course none of it is hard data, but it helps to build a better understanding of the culture, which in turn plays a role in language acquisition for me.