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.
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