Japanese Fountain of Youth

In my time at work so far I’ve been getting to know my students and the many other students at my school. During our “lobby talk” time, I try to talk to as many students as I can and get to know something about them. Usually I ask why they’re studying English, what their hobbies are, and try to find out something about their professional life. However, this last one has proven to be a bit of a tricky subject as I’ve found. Basically, I’ve discovered that Japanese people look considerably younger than they are.

When meeting students for the first time, I find it really difficult to tell how old a student is, and whether to ask about school, university or work. So often, I’ve asked students if they are in university, only to find out that they are 10+ years into a high level engineering career. Now I tend to ask a more general question, like “So, what do you do?”. This seems to work out better.

I have to say, I would like to know the secret behind this age-altering appearance. I’ve heard it’s genetics or diet, but whatever it is I’d like to have the same “problem” of being mistaken for a high school student every once in a while. Perhaps in my time here in Japan, I will learn the secret to the Fountain of Youth…