Cultural Gaps

 

     Because Stream 1 students all come from different backgrounds, one of the topics Rab gave us to discuss was about what culture dominates us. Personally, I lived in the states for 8 years, and it's been roughly 6 years since I came back from the states. I remember being incapable of speaking "keigo", bowing to teachers and "senpais", and acting like I was shy. A lot of students that come back from the states (including myself) at first absolutely hate Japan, and would do anything to return to their home country where they grew up. This is because we know that the cultural differences between America and Japan are enormous. We know that it is not easy to adapt to Japan's way of socializing. We become to hate Japan as a result of such cultural gaps.

     However, as we get used to the way of Japanese living we slowly adapt to the culture, and become more and more Japanese. Our values and the way we see things change as we adapt to the new environment. I believe that which culture dominates us depends mostly on how long you have been in the environment. The longer the time, the more time there is to adapt to the environment.

     I have made an observation that although we do adapt much to the environment we are currently in, we do not turn into complete Japanese or complete Americans, but rather a mix of the two with one more dominant than the other. When I was in the states, because my parents are Japanese, I was partially Japanese but mostly American. Currently, I am partially American and mostly Japanese. I believe the ratio of the mix depends on the duration we lived in the certain cultural society as I stated earlier, and also the kind of education we were given. Students that went to international schools in Japan obviously have more of a chance of being American than Japanese, when students that went to Japanese public schools have less of a chance of being American. The values taught in Japanese schools and American schools are extremely different and contradict each other at times. It may be only myself, but I found myself confused of which value system to trust.

     This kind of chaos led to me to realize that this is the reason for bad relationships, interpersonal or international. It is difficult to understand each others values because a lot of times, their values contradict each other. However, we must understand that everyone has different values and we must respect them, even if they are the exact opposite of what you believe, instead of trying to force your opinions and beliefs to them. I believe this kind of mindset is necessary in order to understand cultures and races, and also to think critically so we do not have harmful biases.

(image source:http://japanesestudynow.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/logo-hash-mark-400x200.gif)