I wanted to choose a culture that was very different from ours in the United States, because learning about vastly different cultures can often be thought provoking, and can give people a sense of the bigger picture. One big component of Japanese society is saving “face.” Face can be considered honor or prestige, but is much broader than the way we use it here. It’s crucial to their society and is affected mostly by denying a request or being criticized or embarrassed. So when someone denies a request, it can be polite to say something like “it’s inconvenient” or “under consideration.” This might have a relation to the idea of harmony.
“Harmony is the guiding philosophy for the Japanese in family and business settings and in society as a whole.” Children in school learn how we are all dependent on one another, and are urged to try and act for the greater good, while trying to offer opposing facts in a polite manner. Working productively means working together, something that is reflected in personal and formal settings. I think they have a good point, although I have to stay objective when studying different cultures. Japan also has a hierarchy, and the oldest person in the group is always respected while the students refer to their peers as senior (senpai) or junior (kohai). When you are sitting down to eat, the elders and honorable guests are the first to start eating.
Japanese language is very different from English, and is spoken by 99% of the country! It’s the sixth most popular language in the world despite being scarce outside of the country. In the United States, almost 18% of people spoke another language in the year 2000. This number has probably grown since then, too. Japanese puts more emphasis towards the pitch of words, unlike English which gives more emphasis to different syllables. A person also uses the family name first when being introduced, and their personal name second – another custom that might be tied to the stress on the universal matters rather than the individual ones.
Non verbal communication also varies, and staring someone in the eye is actually considered disrespectful, especially if they are your senior. There is even a book to help foreigners understand non verbal signs like scratching eyebrows or the back of heads. Greetings also vary, but foreigners are expected to shake hands because they probably don’t understand the subtleties involved with bowing, the traditional greeting. Bowing when you are being greeted shows respect, and the deeper the bow, the more respect is shown. In the movie, The Last Emperor, one scene depicts a crowd of people bowing with their heads to the floor as the little emperor walks among them (although this movie was about the last Chinese emperor, the meaning of the bow is similar). When you walk into a house, you are also expected to take off your shoes and leave them pointing away from the doorway. There are sometimes even bathroom slippers for guests.
Japanese culture is interesting because it varies so much from our own. It seems like there are a lot of crazy traditions and art forms (especially with a huge list of table manners in the sources), but we can only look at their culture through our own cultural lens. I’m positive that when someone who has lived in Japan their entire life comes to America, they are just as astonished at our own lifestyles and silly traditions
http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/japan/pro-languages.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762163.html
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/japan-country-profiles.html
I am sure that anyone who visits the U.S. who has never been and are so accustomed to their own cultural ways and beliefs find our country to be alot less structured. I know depending on religion or family upbringing drives how we may behave at the dinner table. It seems so different here than in other parts of the world and I think the thing that is so strange about it is that we all have dinner, sit at the table, and eat. Like the grocery shopping example Stacy gave in the lecture, we all do it, just not in the same way. We probably look like we are not so well mannered compared to other cultures. At least it seems that way, maybe just because we are so used to how we do things that it seems natural or “right”.
Yes, it just seems so. When you come from the outside, there are a lot of rules to get used to.
I agree with Gina about others thinking we are less structured. We might even be thought of as lazy. How many of us really take off our shoes when we walk into someones home? In Japan they just know to do so. There are so many differences, but in the long run we all have families just the same and always do the best for our children how we deem fit.
Thank you for this overview, it was fun to read. I cannot resist commenting on the following:
A person also uses the family name first when being introduced, and their personal name second – another custom that might be tied to the stress on the universal matters rather than the individual ones.
I just would like to mention that us, Hungarians, do the same: we use the family name first and the personal name second. That is the way I sign my name in my own country. I agree that there is a certain logic behind it: you give the name of the group first, and than you zoom on the individual.
I think this was very interesting. It’s good to see how there are different cultures. We are use to how we do things and to see that we are a lot different then the Japanese. What I found interesting was that if they look into a seniors eye’s it is disrespectful in the Japanese culture. In our culture it’s disrespectful not to look into someone’s eye’s when talking to them.
It’s funny to me that you said “Non verbal communication also varies, and staring someone in the eye is actually considered disrespectful, especially if they are your senior.” I am astonished by this because it drives me crazy when someone doesn’t look me in the eye when I am speaking to them. I think you can tell if someone is telling the truth by looking them in the eye, that is if you are having “that type” of conversation. I’m sure anyone who goes to another country thinks that their traditions and customs are “different.” There are so many things out there that other countries do that I have never even heard of!
I studied Japanese for a while, and the reason I chose it was to get a little insight into a language that is so much different from any other language I am even distantly familiar with. Japanese grammar was wonderfully logical, and even fairly easy (you don’t need to conjugate verbs), yet it reflected a different logic than what we take for granted. All Indo-European languages are fairly similar, so it’s interesting to step out a little and see something different. What makes it hard to really learn Japanese is the culture behind the language.
This information was very interesting, but the thing I found the most shocking is that it is viewed as disrespect if you look someone in the eyes. I would say here it is the complete opposite. If someone doesn’t look you in the eyes it seems they are distant, or not paying attention to what you say. I am wondering where the view of looking someone in the eyes as disrespectful came from. Another thing that caught my eye was that when you take your shoes off you are suppose to leave your shoes facing away from the door. That seems a little overboard to me, because it seems like such a minor detail. I would also like to know where that norm comes from.
I had the pleasure of having a female boss who was from Japan. She was an amazing lady who was very well put together because of her culture. She was driven, and one of the reason that she came to the United States was because she said it was the land of opportunity if you were a female. In Japan, she would not have had the same opportunities for growth, and financial status because she was female.