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Japanese culture vs. American culture
Japanese culture vs. American culture
Merits and demerits of Culture Shock
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Mahito experienced a certain amount of culture shock. Mahito’s acculturation has been with the challenge of unfamiliar social norms, different educational experience, and his failure to establish social relations. Americans tend to value their individuality whereas the Japanese culture does not conceptualize autonomy or individualization, resulting in a different effect on the human development. Japan is part of an interdependent society and is seen in groups (McCormick, Giordano, & Garcia-Preto, 2010). The skills the Japanese culture develop because of the non-egocentric concept helps them to understand the expectation of their social environment. Mahito expresses his acceptance of the optimistic viewpoints that is a characteristic
-Nara’s Buddhist temples were another result of cultural diffusion, Buddhist began in India in 500s B.C.E. about 1,000 years later, it came to Japan from China by way of Korea.
After living in Japan for seventeen years, David Aldwinkle decided to become a Japanese citizen (Weiner & Aldwinkle, 2003). He has immersed himself in the culture, changing his name to Arudou Debito. He has written a book in Japanese about racial discrimination in Japan entitled Japanese Only, teaches at a local university and he even has relinquished his American citizenship. Throughout that time, he has experienced examples of both ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.
Japanese individuals allow other cultural influence to establish their mindset and actions. As Watters states, “Feelings that Americans associate with depression have, in Japan, been wrapped up in a variety of cultural narratives that altered their meaning and the subjective experience for the individual,” (522). Japanese individuals rely on other cultures to control their way of living and thinking, and therefore lose recognition of the value of undergoing independent experience. Watters proves this perception of uniformity by contending to the belief that, “By applying a one-size fits all notion of depression around the world, Kirmayer argued, we run the risk of obscuring the social meaning and response the experience might be indicating,” (518). Individuals in Japanese culture are so influenced by other cultures that they lack control over their own experiences and in turn, lose their
‘The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority’ by Ronald Takaki and ‘Growing up Asian in America’ by Kesaya E. Noda are both essays that depict the state of Asian immigrants in America. The authors are both Asian Americans themselves and their words bear fruit from a lifetime of personal experiences of being a viewed upon as an alien in their own land. Ronald Takaki was Japanese- American whose forefathers had immigrated to Hawaii to work in the sugar plantations. Having grown up in Hawaii among other Asian Americans and Hawaii Islanders, Robert never felt out of place. Why would he?
1200CE. The Tang Dynasty Tales and The Diary of Lady Murasaki helped surface the Chinese
Reid, who knows Japanese and has studied things Asian for many years, lived in a Japanese community, sent his children to an excellent Japanese public school and learned to put up cheerfully with his Japanese neighbors' codified concerns. ''The Japanese,'' he happily notes, ''are people who love rules.'' Written with grace, knowledge and humor, his book is a sympathetic Baedeker to the Japanese way of life. It is well worth reading for that. Not many foreigners have been able to fit in so well with their neighbors. His explanations of modern Japan and its Confucian background ar...
The Mbuti people are known as foragers because their main source of survival lies on hunting and gathering as they move from one place to another. They originated from a region in Africa called Congo. The Mbuti people even with their fairly decent population prefer to be grouped into smaller groups or bands which are mostly made up of close relatives. They live in the rainforests of central Africa, where they have lived popularly for more than 6000 years now.
The power of social interactions within a culture is often overlooked when determining what has control over an individual. How we perceive our immediate environment is dependent on the experiences we encounter. The effects of the environment on behavior are presented in a narrative written by author Malcolm Gladwell titled “The Power of Context.” Through Gladwell’s ideas, we see how the simple change of one’s surroundings will control what one experiences, which in turn alters how one behaves. Understanding how and why people behave in different cultures is a key focus in the narrative “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan” written by author Ethan Watters. His narrative offers insight to the questionably immoral stratagems of a large
Since my cultural experience was on the Japanese culture, I decided I would continue on with that interest and write my paper about the Japanese culture therefor giving me a chance to do more research about the culture. The Japanese culture is really rich and diverse, there is a particular hierarchy or structure to the Japanese culture, Denison (2002) stated that “Japanese culture is structured around black and white norms for acceptable group behavior. People who do not function by there norms are viewed as outsiders who lack legitimate status. Black and white expectations of behavior produce equally clear cut conformity, resulting in high harmony and certainly of outcome, trust is early through continuous conformity”.This is a huge and really important aspect of their culture because it governs their social standing, interacting with others and the way they are seen, and when it comes to your social standing in the culture, the way you are seen and respected by those around you is very important.
Culture, where and how a person is raised, affects a person no matter how much they dislike the way they are being taught the ways of life. However, moving to different places as a child and coun...
When one encounters a culture that has little in common with own, one may experience culture shock. This is a sense of confusion, anxiety, stress and loss one may experience. One of the barriers in effective intercultural communication is ethnocentrism. It stems from a conviction that one’s own cultural traditions and assumptions are superior to those of others. It leads to a tendency to look the world primarily from the perspective of one's own culture. It is one of the fastest ways to create a barrier that inhibits, rather than enhances communication (Jandt, 2012).
Lebra, T.S. (1992) Self in Japanese Culture. In Rosenberger, N.R. eds. Japanese Sense of Self. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 105-120.
Let us suppose an American boy, who I will refer to as "person A" for the purposes of this paper, visits his Japanese friend, "person B.," In their everyday interactions, they talk about their families, ancestors, history, favorite food, hobbies, etc. Person A, consciously or not, gives knowledge of the reality of his culture. As in any other initial exposure to something foreign, person B enters into this experience with some preconceived notions. As he listens to and observes person A, he comes to understand an identity - particularly, that of person A. Consequently, person B gains knowledge, and uses it to resolve his stereotypes and rightfully adjust his opinions. A more significant consequence of this particular cross-cultural experience is what results in person B. In such an exchange two things come to effect. One, person B becomes compelled to teach person A about his own culture. His appreciation for his new knowledge, as well as his own desire to rid others of misconceptions about his culture drives him to share his identity with those around him, starting with his friend. Eventually, the knowledge spreads; and so does the drive to educate. Two, this exchange allows person B to exercise the important virtue of having an open mind. He becomes open to experience different cultures because of a resulting desire to understand the diverse world. In turn, the world environment continues to develop because, not only are there more people who are willing to educate, more people are willing to learn with an open mind.
In order to be able to consider the relevance of the ie to an understanding of contemporary Japanese society, it is necessary both to understand the full meaning of ie and to have an awareness of contemporary Japanese family life and its variables. I will therefore endeavour to analyse and explain the meaning of ie and, by comparing traditional Japanese lifestyles with contemporary ones, attempt to evaluate its modern-day relevance. In considering the different influences on contemporary Japanese family life – location, education and class, I hope to be able to make a realistic evaluation of the relevance of the ie to an understanding of Japanese family life, bringing in any evidence of the influence of the ie on other aspects of society, before drawing a conclusion.
Japan is a large island off to the east of China it is a great country that has a rich culture. The Japanese religion is based off of two main beliefs, the belief in Shinto and Buddhism many Japanese people believe consider themselves both. The Japanese people were known to be around as early as 4,500 B.C. They have constructed their government style to a constitutional monarchy where they do in fact have an emperor, but he has limited power within the country. The main power of the country is held by the Prime Minister of Japan. Japan is made up of many islands that extend along the Pacific coast of Asia. The land area is made up of a lot of forest and mountainous area that cannot be used for agricultural, industrial or residential use. Japan also has one of the largest and growing economies in the world. They are growing every day and it is all because the people of Japan work very hard in order for their economy to flourish as it has.