March 2010
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Do children need Zest?

Some thoughts to chew upon from my brother John, a professor of applied linguistics in Tokyo.

“Zest” is an interesting word–arising from citrus peel, but now extended to intentional and energetic living. The Ministry of Education Science and Technology here [in Japan] has translated its current educational ethos for children, ikiru chikara 生きる力 as ‘zest for life’. I’m not sure if it really cuts it for children and adolescents–because zest is really meaningful when there is none or little of it.

Zest in cooking (as in citrus peel) is often unexpected as in mince pie crust or as yuzu peel in Kansai-style udon. The unexpected sense of zest might be the most powerful, as the fact that “truck farming” plants [wild crafted ginseng, described in the post below] are possible in the North, indicate.

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