Submitted by: Justin Berti – Japan
I want to apologize beforehand of being verbose and unclear in my writing, but what do you expect from an English teacher? When you come to Japan you will see just how easy it is to be confused and unclear about what you really want to say.
I have lived in various parts of the U.S; Connecticut, Texas, California, and the last 5 years in New York City. I think it would be fair to say I have seen a lot of different attitudes, different ethnicities, and ways of going about one’s daily life. I bet you are all thinking I am going to say, “but Japan is totally different from all of the rest”, right? WRONG! What I have learned from my stay in this “foreign” country is that many things are not so strange after all. As the song “Ebony and Ivory” goes, “People are the same where ever you go. There is good and bad in everyone.” People are just people; they love, they hate, they like sushi, they don’t like sushi, etc… It is to be expected that majority viewpoints differ from nation to nation and that the customs and attitudes differ as well. This can lead to stereotyping, which sometimes can be truthful, but there will always be exceptions to any stereotype. It is possible to find an extremely emotional Japanese person who listens to Bruce Springstein, who is not a hard worker, and who hates soy sauce; and it is just as easy to find a reserved American who takes of their shoes before entering a house, who would die for their company, and who does not believe in nicknames. If I were so bold as to sum up the Japanese culture in one thought this is what it would be; it is a society in which people do not cross the road when the sign indicates don’t walk. Where I come from, NYC, the crosswalk signs are only suggestions, if you are a New Yorker you’ll know what I mean.