Red light, blue light?

Someone once told me that the arguments you have before marriage and as newlyweds will be the topics that you’ll always disagree on. For some people that topic is money. Others never see eye to eye on chores and how responsibilities are divided. 

One of the “hot topics” in my marriage is colors. What it really boils down to is a cultural difference. In Japan, children are taught that traffic lights shine red to tell people to stop; yellow means caution or prepare to stop; and BLUE is for go. The traffic lights themselves are actually green, so you might understand why I’m so confused by this. 

Back when I was teaching English, I tried to play “Red Light, Green Light” with my students.  It is the old game played when you yell red light and face the competitors, they must freeze; yelling green light and turning away gives them time to run toward you; the first person to tag you is the next light.  The students were super confused when I yelled “green light” and they stood there staring at me instead of running. The assistant had to explain about the naming convention. This is how the subject was first brought into my relationship and it has never left. 

The color confusion extends beyond traffic lights (which I understand were initially blue before they conformed to international standards).  The sun is always called red in Japan, despite pulling out a yellow crayon to include it in a drawing. When I challenge people on this, they say “this is how we have always described it.”  This response always makes me want to scream. Just because something has always been done a certain way, doesn’t make it correct. 

Today, the battle in my marriage resurfaced. While waiting for a light, my husband was distracted and didn’t notice the light had changed. I simply said “it’s green.”  He replied, “you mean blue?”  Nope. I really meant green.