Comments on: Differences between Western and Asian Culture

By: Nikko

Nikko — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:31:29 +0000

Haha, actually they were originally from a pic gallery of showing thinking differences between Germans and Chinese.

By: Doug

Doug — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:38:14 +0000

For the Chinese I’d say the punctuality is spot on. When I was at college there was a very large Chinese student population. They’d always get into class anywhere from 5-to and 10-past the lesson starts.

Used to wind me up!!

By: bingobangoboy

bingobangoboy — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:01:55 +0000

Yeah, Japanese people are great at forming lines while waiting for the train. When the train actually pulls up… Was there a line? What’s a line?
In Japan, a person’s punctuality is a good way of gauging how they feel about you — the “Japanese people are very punctual” stereotype tends to be true, but only in formal situations. I don’t think Japanese people actually intend to be so consistently late for people they’re comfortable with, but it sure seems that way sometimes.

By: claytonian

claytonian — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:07:12 +0000

To go along with Alex’s point, I get the impression that volunteerism is compulsory, children rarely get adopted… etc…

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:18:33 +0000

One thing I’d like to add, Harvey - In Japan, people only maintain a line when it is explicitly asked of them to do so. When there are three counters open (like at Vie de France), instead of forming one so that it is a temporal-based order, a lot of Japanese (especially middle-aged and older women) jump in to the fastest place possible, regardless of whether or not someone was waiting in the center for the next available register.

Tsutaya has done a good job of herding the cattle in with their blue guide-lines, though. What I’m getting at is that the Japanese only do what’s right when it is requested of them.

My boss is actually attending a night-time university course up here in Tohoku, and they just covered this in a social psychology class - Westerners are more likely to do something we’d consider “kind” without anyone telling them to do it. The experiment was conducted using money, where Japanese would gladly pay “required fees”, but Westerners were more likely to give more money in unrequested charity.