Cultural "Other" Awareness Post

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     As I mentioned in my last blog, diverse cultures require open-mindedness and mutual respect. Embracing people's different ways of living, working, and interacting helps us connect more deeply, no matter where we come from.

     In my culture, we use eye contact mainly to recognize someone we know, not as a way to greet strangers. Nodding and smiling, two warm gestures, are generally reserved for friends or people we are familiar with. When passing someone I don’t know, I always find myself looking at my phone, which masks the awkwardness of not knowing how to react. This seems quite normal in my home country, but now I am getting used to smiling at others instead of hiding behind my screen. If it's such a nice way to show kindness, why not do it?

     Last week's class discussion also made me realize that it’s hard to fully show our personality in another language. I arrived in Japan one month ago, and to be precise, this is the first time I've been immersed in such a diverse environment for so long. Japanese and English surround me all the time, which is a world completely different from how I've lived for the past two decades. I don't mean to brag, but my conversation style in Chinese is quite lively and funny. That said, in English, my words—the baby of textbooks and translation tools—often feel flat and expressionless. Maybe it's the challenge that many people are facing, and that's also why it's so important for us to have discussions about communication in increasingly multicultural societies.

     This is all for this week, see you next week:)

     


评论

  1. 匿名2025年5月6日 23:21

    I totally agree with you! And I’m happy you’re starting to smile to strangers and act friendly, that’s how we do it in Mexico, we live in a stressful environment sometimes because of the country situation so with strangers we tend to act like they’re friends and sometimes we even exchange information about our life experiences, I like to meet japanese people and show them how we use humor, eye contact and smiling everytime, some japanese don’t like this and got scared, some others love it and want more details.

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