Thursday, January 14, 2021

Cross cultural influences during childhood: paying cash

 A long running joke in my marriage is how I always like to put cash payments in an envelope.  Greg has rolled his eyes soooo many times as I hunted around the house for an envelope to pay someone, from a delivery guy to a nanny.  "Just give them the cash, they don't care!" And yet, still I just couldn't do that.  

One of our kids is now editing videos, also called "making Fortnite montages" in modern parlance.  He's gotten pretty good, occasionally winning "shout outs" on YouTube in small competitions.  His friends at school think this is really cool -- as you can tell, I'm still learning about this new world, but he's passionate about something that's creative and productive so that's great.  Productive as in, apparently kids actually pay him money to make these clips that they can then post on their social media.

Based on this reputation, one of his friends at school asked him to make a montage.  Our son came home today and said, "Look!  He offered to pay me $10 for the video! And he put it in this envelope he gave me at recess labeled 'For Fortnite Montage.'  It feels so much more official than getting passed cash!" 

Immediately... Greg burst out laughing. "Now I know why your mom always has to pay people cash in an envelope!" 

Incidentally, I never have to hunt for an envelope here because the stationary stores in Tokyo sell inexpensive envelopes just the right size for yen bills.  So, I simply bought a pack and keep it in my desk - so handy for operating in a society still so cash-based.

1 comment:

Elaine said...

So much fun. I miss Japanese stationery stores. Papyrus comes close.