I Am Real Japanese

1007 Words5 Pages
Since I was born, I grew up in Japan. I have had few chances to feel foreign culture before I entered AIU. The experience here makes my horizon bigger. I am sure that the knowledge I got in this course, Intercultural Communication helps me in the global society. The impression after whole lectures is that I am real Japanese. I am so used to Japanese culture that it unconsciously controls my thoughts and actions. That fact was shocked me the most. In the following paragraphs I write about what I learned from this course and the changes of perception after I finished this course. Power distance was one of the most meaningful topics for me. Japan is in high power distance culture, and so do I. This topic reminds me of my life in junior high school. The custom among female students was weird. I had to say greetings to every senpai when I passed them everywhere. Wherever I saw senpai’s color of name tags, I made greeting with bowing. Normally senpai did not respond to kohai. Kohai rarely communicated with senpai who have absolute authority. Sometimes senpai called away kohai who made any conspicuous moves: wearing designer shoes, making their skirt shorter, placing sport bag upon their shoulders, unzipping jerseys’ zip, and so on. Those weird customs are based on power distance culture. Few kohai got up against them, so probably we had the aspect of collectivism culture. No one wanted to stand out, but we just tried to fit in with the current situation. I cannot decide which is better high and low power distance, however, as long as I live in Japanese society, I should follow this main stream culture. Thus, the point is that to realize and accept power distance is much more important than reflecting or values. I apparently belong to the high-power distance culture, but it is a little different when I talk with international students. Japanese has honorific expression
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