816-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 16, 1991 Mary Laeger-Hagemeister Dauphin Co. Correspondent HARRISBURG (Dauphin Co.) Her eyes sparkle, a large grin encompasses her face, and her voice portrays excitement. Shar ing her five and one-half months adventures in Japan, Margee Wolff practically lakes her listen ers on the excursion all over again. Those excusrions began last June when Margee left for Japan representing Dauphin County in the International Four-H Youth Exchange (IFYE). The program was set up to help Margee learn what she had set as goals for her self. Hosting her was the Labo In ternational-Exchange Foundation. The primary mission of Labo is education. It is similar to the American 4-H program using volunteers called thtors and mem bers belonging to a neighborhood York Farm Woman Gets National Award Joyce Bupp York Co. Correspondent MANCHESTER (York Co.) When she “stumbled” into a meet ing more than 15 years ago, Ethel Gross could not have imagined how the encounter would change her life. “I just happened to open the door and stumbled into the Ameri can Agri-Women meeting,” recalls the northern York County farm woman. She was attending the 1975 Farm Women’s Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when Ethel came upon the meeting of the fledgling AAW. “I thought it was a terrific idea, of farm women from across the country • getting together to do things for their collective good,” she says. American Agri-Women has since spread to encompass mem bers and affiliates in a non-profit, non-partisan, national coalition of farm, ranch and agri-business organizations. In November, Ethel Gross was named a recipient of AAW’s LEAVEN award, the organiza tion’s only official award, and bestowed on only a small number of honorces since the groups’ founding. The plaque’s engraved tribute reads: “A kind and gentle woman, her encouragement and In appreciation for her work with Agri-Women, Ethel Gross received an award. IFYE Represented Labo club called a Labo Party. The emphasis at Labo is on teach ing foreign languages to children, English being the most popular. As part of her experience, Mar gee attended Labo Camp. Her role was to help with the various pro grams such as games, outdoor hikes, and other special events. Since Margee was able to somewhat tailor-make her own learning experiences, she built her stay around her personal goal of learning business management styles and how employees are' treated. These opportunities in cluded teaching English at a high school for one week, working at a newspaper for two weeks and two weeks at advertising agencies. One of the most exciting experi ences was with a cultural agency. The objectives of this agency in- support have nurtured members to strive for new goals in agriculture.” LEAVEN is an acronymn for six attributes recognized in the awards recipients - Loyalty, Enthusiasm, Anticipatory, Val iant, Effectiveness, and Nuturing. A description of the award likens the recipients to the leavening in bread, where “only a small amount permeates and elevates all it comes in contact with.” Though she protests that others are more deserving. Ethel’s name was submitted for the award by members of Penn’s Agri-Women, Pennsylvania’s affiliate of AAW. She helped organize PAW, serv ing as president for five years, and assisted Mth both the 1980 and 1988 national AAW conventions hosted in Pennsylvania by the state affiliate. Ethel has served on various national committees, including her present appoint ments to the nominating and tim ber issues committees. Ethel has attended all but one AAW convention and especially treasures the friendships she has made with women from across the country. “The conventions are enjoyable because they always have plenty of good speakers, basically agn (Turn to Page B 18) ve Thrilled With Japan Culture dude helping people to learn about and understand the Japanese and American cultures. In addition to learning about businesses, Margee also wanted to gain a deeper appreciation for the Japanese culture. In order to do this, she spent 354 weeks travel ing. She visited shrines, temples, and castles. On the advice of one of her host mothers, she purchased a temple book. When she visited the various temples and shrines, the priests stamped a page with that particular temple’s mark and autographed the book. Margee proudly shared that she was able to completely fill her book with stamps from 48 temples and shrines. “I found out later how valuable that is to the Japanese! In Ameri ca, it’s worth a fortune to Japanese immigrants!” Her tours took her mostly through the southern part of the country. The agriculture industry is comprised of a few dairy farms and many rice farms, all in the northern portion of the country. Cultural Differences “My very favorite activity was the festivals - they are very tradi tional Japanese!” The community gathers together several times throughout the year - similar to our county fairs for a variety of ac tivities. Men from various sec tions of the community take turns carrying the portable shrine called a mikoshi in parades. Children are also equipped with tiny shrines and the women do special dances on platforms. All this is to enter tain the gods. To help Margee feel more at home, one of her host families de cided to have their own little party for Halloween. Since that is for eign to their culture, they learned as much about the American cus tom as they could, then they invit ed friends and neighbors for a Hal loween party. “They even had a pumpkin to decorate!” The only costume was Margee in a kimono, but it was a real sharing of tradi tions. One of the biggest cultural dif ferences is the concept of religion. It is believed that 80 percent of the population is Shinto and 70 per cent Buddist, many incorporate both beliefs in their lives, with on ly 2 percent belonging to the Christian faith. Shinto belief, the traditional Japanese religion, has no bible or written rules, their be liefs are based on nature. Wed dings arc performed in the Shinto religion. Buddist faith was brought to Ja pan from China. Japanese people use this form of religion for their funerals. In larger homes there are Buddist altars, which are a tribute to the ancestors and the dead. Pic tures of dead relatives arc placed on the altar as well as food on spe cial holidays. “I have learned to appreciate how much our society and culture is based on Christian values and beliefs!” Wolff said. The Japanese culture com mands a greater respect for the elderly than is typically found m America. Wolff said, “There is be ginning to be more of a generation gap since the younger population is becoming more like die Ameri cans and the older population is still traditional Japanese.” Educational System When asked what’s the biggest difference in the educational sys tem, Margee laughs “everyone wears slippers!” The schools all require uniforms as well. “Chil dren are not encouraged to be indi- iwft Margee Wolff proudly displays all the stamps from her temple book* a priceless treasure. viduals - they’re taught to con form to the group!” She added, “There does seem to be a greater respect for authority.” Children are very quiet, even shy, during classes, they do become talkative during breaks, but know that they have to be attentive in the classroom. In addition, the school year is also longer. Not only do the chil dren attend classes in the summer, but they also go to school 5'A days a week. Education is highly stressed for everyone. Even though the Japan ese culture demands that women stop their careers once married, it is still important for guls to get a good education. Emphasis is also directed tow ard sports. Students pick one sport in gym class and play that all through school. They don’t learn a variety of activities, instead they focus on perfecting one sport. On the positive side of the edu cational differences are no school dropouts, 99 percent literacy rate, no drug problems as of yet, and teen pregnancy is no a big prob lem. “It’s not that it doesn’t happen but abortion is very acceptable,” Wolff said. Japanese Business Since Margee’s goal was to ex perience Japanese business she did spend considerable time in various business settings. “One of the biggest differences is that none of the offices have dividers be tween co-workers. The belief is that if there arc walls, employees will not work as a team,” The team concept is very im portant. Work groups arc the norm with the manager in the same room. The higher a person is in seniority the closer they sit to the manager. There are not a lot of women in business. It is believed to be unac ceptable for women to work after they are married, so even if there are employed women, they are very rarely in high systems. This concept is slowly changing. One option for women is to work for Labo. That is seen as ac ceptable and is helping women to 'T * ' s. * I contribute their knowledge as well as gain success, however, it is not very profitable. Food Of course every society has their own traditional foods. In ad dition to western fast foods such as Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken, there are special dining pleasures for Japanese food. At Japanese restaurants there are displays of food featured in windows that are on the menu so customers know exactly what they are ordering. “Japanese food is very different - very pretty - it is delicately plac ed on the plate.” Women take great pride in their cooking skills. Wolff said, “In order to be ac cepted I had to learn to use chop sticks. The Japanese watched very carefully to sec if I was able to eat with chopsticks.” Margee found the wooden chopsticks to be the easiest to use. Japanese diet consists of a lot of plain rice, fish with the heads on, and sushi - “I really learned to like it.” Although willing to try any thing, there was one food - nattoo, which is fermented beans, that Margee claims “I just couldn’t stomach that!” A unique tidbit is that there is very little milk in the Japanese diet. It was introduced after World War 11, and since then, people have started growing taller. Japan and Beyond “When I first thought about going to Japan, it seemed really scarey - now I can’t believe I ever doubted going.” Wolff’s future plans_ include pursuing a career in either public relations or a communications job as well aS furthering her educa tion. Long range goals involve re turning to Japan to live and work for a couple years. She said, “My trip to Japan was more of a career move rather than just a trip.” All are invited to hear Wolff share her experiences on Monday, February 25, at 7:30 p.m. at the Dauphin County Agriculture and Natural Resource Center, Peter’s Mountain Road, Dauphin, PA 17018. >. "ft