ESL21B

Essay 1.2

July 6, 2007

Misunderstanding of Culture

    It is very interesting to visit other country which one has never been {***}MissingW. Also, people who are not familiar with country's culture in which they will visit must be going toAwkward make them annoyWForm and concern their mindAwkward. In Japan, there are many customs that foreigners do not know, and everyWChoice foreigner alwaysWChoice gets confused what to do in front of peopleVague. It is quite difficult for foreigners to realize what Japanese people often eat, go, and workParallel in any circumstances. Since we do not have certain religion that usually people have in other country, we just follow the rule that we have seen and heard for many years. In this way, for foreign visitors, it definitely takes long time to get accustomed to Japanese life style because our thousands of customs cannot tell them about what we usually do in detail. Therefore, people from other countrySing/Plu get nervous to communicateVForm with Japanese due to differences of values, beliefs, andCut communication styles, and concepts of time, I suppose. However, it is possible to get rid of those cultural conflicts, if foreigners knew several habitual patterns in Japan and get reduced their anxiety.

    People who visit and live in short termAwkward in Japan can understand easily about our valueVague. With Japanese,Cut foreigners can feel that Japanese debatesS/VAgreement to them in many scenesVague, but they have a lot of vocabularyAwkward they sometimes use and express their feeling without emotional behavior. In that way, people understand that they should not talk with such people who always use impolite words and complain a lot. Moreover, because we often try not to hermSpl others by handlingWChoice formal, polite, and respectful words, foreigners can easily see their apologyAwkward when Japanese says "I'm sorry" many times when they do not commit bad action. Habitually, we often use the phrase "I'm sorry" in many cases with no meaning such as when talking with coworkers, when chatting with acquaintance, and among friends. In this term, foreigners often misunderstand that Japanese always apologizes and is fault to do everything. Sometimes, it is hard to get it, but if Japanese did those things that is not harmful intoPreposition foreigners because we do not commit those things to people from other countries, so foreigners should not think carefully about that.

    It is necessary that every foreigner makes sense what Japanese foods are good sanitarily. We often eat weird things that foreigners can hardly try to have. Most foods in Japan are raw and fresh so that other country's people feel dangerous to eatAwkward. For example, in {***}Artsushi restaurant, workers take care of fresh fish everyday, and they takeWChoice the raw fish in every morning inWChoice market which is placedWChoice near harbor. In this way, our products are usually safe and are preserved preciselyWChoice. Also, in the restaurant, there are many clean towels and napkins for customers to wash settled in some places inside of it, and that shows they keep clean inside good. Thus, there is no question to getAwkward Japanese maintained foodsAwkward.

    In addition, we are really punctual about time. In all work placeSing/Plu including firstWChoice food restaurants, the workers usually keep time goodAwkward and {***}MissingW never late. For example, no workers come late atWChoice work place and they do not make excuses to people who manage worker. It is really preciseWChoice that people work and take care of themselves.

Lastly, our values to the materials are quite stronger than money. In society, people wear suitable and proper uniformWChoice unlike Americans do. Because we have four seasons that we cannot control ourselves without changing daily patternAwkward, we always change clothes and make proper foods in every season. For example, in summer, we eat ice in the festivals and wear costume which is called Kimono. It is strongly consideredAwkward by other Japanese, so we have seasons that make us shift clothes styles and foods every 3 months.

    In sum up, although there are number of diversities of value, communication style and culture foods, it may be easier to understand than many foreigners expect. People who visit our country may feel uncomfortable, but they can adjust easily Japanese strange culture and custom with knowing these our habits. Even if foreigner does not have many native Japanese friends, he or she can make and get along with Japanese easily because we try to understand other cultural affairs even we are in Japan.