A photo taken with Aiko at my houseI believe many of you are aware that the Japanese are rich in culture and their perception towards courtesy are different from ours. When I was in Primary 4, I had this interaction with a Japanese exchange student called Aiko. She was assigned to stay at my place for a couple of days. However, my family and I were ignorant about their culture and thus, resulted in much embarrassment.
When Japanese drink their soup, they drink it loudly to show the chef that they enjoyed the soup and the soup is delicious. There was this incident when my whole family was eating together with Aiko and she drank her soup very loudly. We were shocked by her behavior, and thought that she was unhappy with my mother’s cooking and hence, made the noise sarcastically. After the dinner, I explained to Aiko about the Chinese culture, that eating loudly is regarded as rudeness, and would affect others mood in eating. She then told me about their Japanese culture too, and the both of us laughing at our ignorance towards each other culture. She apologized to my family the next day, and in the subsequent dinner, she did not make her usual sound when drinking her soup.
During Aiko’s stay in our house, I learnt more about the Japanese culture. For example, the Japanese are not supposed to wear shoes inside the house as it will appear to be rude to the owner. Hence, before interacting with foreigners, I believe we should learnt more about their culture first so that we will not result in embarrassment, or even conflicts in worse cases.
Hi Muipeng,
ReplyDeleteYour situation is similar to mine!
Indeed, misunderstanding always occur due to a lack of understanding about other culture. But luckily, through all these different post, we get to know more about other cultures.
Cecilia =)
Hello Muipeng,
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting! Just want to take this opportunity to share a similar type of intercultural issue.
I know that in China, the host will normally prepare a lot of food for their guests and the host will be delighted if there are still some leftovers after the meal. To them, it indicates that their guests are satisfied already. However, in Singapore, we would feel embarrassed if we are unable to finish the food that the host had prepared for us and will try our best to finish the food that was prepared for us!
After reading yours and Ethel's blog post (http://elethel-wong.blogspot.com/), and hearing our tutor Christine shared about her experience with her visitng Japanese friend. I am quite intrigue by the difference of Japanese culture from ours!
ReplyDeleteIn our module schedule, there was also an article explaining about Japanese culture. Intercultural communication is one of the areas which I was totally ignorant about. I am very glad learning this new knowledge. Thanks!
Yes, and I was surprised when I first visited an Australian family. I could just wear my shoes around inside their house, something very unacceptable here and in many parts of Asia.
ReplyDelete2 questions came up - do Australians use shoe racks, and do they need to sweep the floor? :p