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Phrase: Bend over backwards
In Japan, when you talk of someone bending over backwards, the first thing people think about is the Ina Bauer figure skating move which was made famous here by Shizuka Arakawa.
Of course, English-speaking figure skating fans know this move too, but it’s not the only meaning of bend over backwards.
You’ll often hear this term used when someone is talking about a charming, friendly and helpful person.
If someone tries to do anything or makes every effort to help you, we say they will bend over backwards for you.
We’ve all met people like this during our travels or neighbourhoods.
People who bend over backwards to help you are the first to help you when you’re lost or need help.
They are the ones who you can call at 3:00 am when your truck breaks down in the middle of nowhere.
I think Japan has an inordinate amount of people like this.
When I first came to Japan, I knew three Japanese words, and they were not words that would help me at the city hall, immigration office or the local cell phone shop (twenty years ago, there were no smartphones).
Japanese teachers used their time to help me apply for a residency card, register as an ‘alien’ at the city office or purchase a monthly train pass.
Quite often, it was inconvenient for them to do so because it was time-consuming and very much out of their way.
However, they did it anyway, partly because it’s in their nature to bend over backwards to help foreigners adapt to the somewhat quirky way of doing things in Japan.
So here’s a shout-out to all the Japanese people who helped me get to where I am today.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 68.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.