ESL21B - 1761

Essay 1.2/ Topic #2

Different Cultural Pattern

People believe that the cultural patterns they have grown up with are common until they have experiences to know different cultures in other countries. When they travel to other countries, they have to learn some customs about theWChoice countries. If they do not know about them, they experience unconscious mistakes in foreign countries. {***}ChoppyJapanese cultural patterns are much different from Western cultural patterns. The differences are mainlyAwkward table manners, greeting, time, and individualism.

If you want to enjoy being in Japan, you need to be observant of table manners. When you use your chopsticks, you have got to be careful. You must not use chopsticks to stick withCut foods. If you use them like a fork, it is a bad mannerSing/Plu. Of course, you must not stick in a bowl of rice with chopsticks because a bowl of rice with sticking chopsticks means a meal for dead people Japan. You also must not pass foods to others with using chopsticks each other because its behavior is only at crematory. People pick and pass bones to standing next person with chopsticks which are special twoAwkward after cremated dead bodies in Japan. Thus, it is an improper action. For foreigners, to use chopsticks is look difficult and has a kind of deep meaningsAwkward. If you practice to use chopsticks and learn misbehaviors about chopsticks, you might get proudAwkward from Japanese.

Japanese style of greeting is bowing. It is well known in many countries. TheArt bowing twice is enough for foreigners. If you meet your boss or older people, you should make a deep bow. A deep bow means showing respects in Japan. When you keep looking at their face and bow, it means they are under searching. It is very rude; therefore, you should keep your eyes down when you bow. In the article "Where Do We Stand?", researcher and writer Mildred Reed Hall said that most Japanese businessmen don't look at face{***}MissingW long time, and they keep their eyes down. In this case, the reason why Japanese businessmen keep their eyes down when they talk, they show they are not an enemy; it is also politeness. You should remember they are listening to you when you see they keep their eyes down in conversations.

If you visit to Japan for your business, you should make time for sharing your private time with your business partners and bosses after worksCount/Non-Count. For example, people who live in the United States go {***}MissingWtheir home soon after worksCount/Non-Count, and enjoy having dinner with their families. In Japan, people generally hang out with their coworkers or friends after works. They usually go to drink{***}MissingW bars and also restaurants which are called izaka-ya. They can have dinner and sake or bearSpl at there. They tend to make friendships with them. It sometimes works to get profits on important businesses. For example, if you have a dinner with your boss, and the boss really enjoy having a conversation with you, you might have an opportunity to get a better post on your business. Japanese believe that good business needs better relationships between people in the company. For another example, my mother is a nurse, and she has a meeting at lunch or dinner with her fellow workers once a month. It is after works or on weekends. It is actually annoying her because she is always tired after works and she needs rests on her day off; however, it is all for making a good relationship at her job, she says. According the article "American Values and Assumptions", the author Gary Althen said time is money in the United States. I can say time is human relationships in Japan.

In Japanese culture, parents take care of their children all the time. It means there is less individualism. Althen introduced one of American cultureAwkward that Americans are trained to be individual early. For example, when a little boy wanted to get a juice, his mother suggests him to make a decision by himself; it means she taught him how to spend and save his money. In Japan, parents financially take care of their children; they financially help their children even they get older because it is parents responsibleWForm. For example, even if they give their children a little money each month, they buy what their children want if their children ask them. Most parents do not suggest their children to get what they want by themselves. They usually teach their children how to make a decision for money only if they ask to get an expansive one. For example, when I asked my mother to get an expensive toy in my childhood, she said that I can buy it after a new year. The reason which she suggested this way was I could get money at a new year day or thereabout. In Japan, only children get money from families, relatives, and family's friends at the occasion. How much they can get is depend on how old they are and how many relatives or parents acquaintances they meet. If they are in junior high school, they can get about fifty dollars from each person; therefore, except only special day such as new year, most of time, Japanese children do not have to think about how to spend money. If you visit to your friends' house in Japan and meet their children near new year, you should remember to give money to them.

Japanese culture is quiet strict mannerAwkward for foreigners. These are how to use chopsticks, greeting, and time.Parallel Less individualism in Japan is difficult to understand for visitors from other countries, especially Western countries. Each culture has each value, beliefs, communication styles, and concepts of time. Everybody feels uncomfortable to adjust different cultures, and think the cultures are strange or wrong for the first time. Of course, it is natural reactionsSing/Plu; however, you should remember that you learn cultural characteristics, and accept at least a little from other cultures when you go abroad. If you do what I suggest here, you can adjust to not only Japanese culture, also other cultures more easily{1}.