I came back to Japan after living in the U.S. for 12 years. It has been 10 years since then, but I still miss heartfelt conversations I had with people in the States. I teach at a university, and my students are really not good at communication either. No matter what I ask them, they only answer me with one word or so. A couple of them are proactive, though. I think they are afraid of doing something different from others. They don’t assert themselves, don’t complain, just follow the manual.
Convenience store workers are not there to be "creative," but to let their customers get things done. If they are efficient and creative at the same time, it's great. But you should expect that only on extremely well-paid concierges. When they are not, I definitely take a clerk who does his job well but not in a "creative" way rather than a clerk who chats with me but slow and imperfect in his job.
The Japanese are one of the most creative and efficient people on the planet. They don't stick their business into other people's noses. They are orderly and polite. I don't think they're robots. They don't need to be like Americans.
Arthur, I saw you on a morning TV show the other day while I was in Japan. You were at a cafe or a restaurant eating or drinking something and being interviwed by a reporter!
I think this would be the matter of how much you want to protect your personal space. Especially in a business setting. Japanese (or at least I) would not expect to be invaded by a stranger. It feels rude and inauthentic. And shop clerk or waiter would not start casual conversation until the customer shows they are willing to talk or having some trouble. (Maybe not in a Starbucks 🙄) This doesn’t mean we don’t like the conversation, but we just mind our own business and try not bother others. However, this could be just in Tokyo. Maybe different in Osaka.
I was born and raised in Japan and now I live in California for 4 years, and I really understand the way the person at McDonald’s who Arthur talked with reacted. I guess that ONE (not only)reason for Japanese people are so robotic at work is because of the education. We were educated to behave the way that teachers expect to, and there were always “right answer” when teachers asked students,and also in exams. Teachers always already have particular answers that they want students to say when they ask. Most teachers didn’t accept answers except the right one. So I think I was “trained” to guess what teachers expect me to do. “What is the right answer for this?” This is the style of education that I have had in Japan in 90s and 2000s. So Japanese people might get confused when they encounter a situation in which they can’t find the “right answer”they suppose to say, or”right reaction” they suppose to do. While, we can see how freely “young kids” say their thought or react using their imagination, to their teachers in preschool in Japan. (I don’t mean that Japanese education is totally bad.)
In English, I thought the word "sucks" was a convenient word and could be used for many situations (especially for people like me who don't say swear words). I often think that Americans use easy vocabulary words in daily conversations but hard words appear when reading books.
I work as a hall stuff at a small restaurant. I don't mind talking with the customers. In fact, some senior customers often want a small chat, which is OK with me. I’ll go and have a short conversation (unless I am super busy.). But, I never ever start a conversation from my side because, to be honest, it is bothersome😅
Maybe you foreigners, you are maybe making a big mistake!! I'm Japanese and 63 years old (!) but to tell the truth even I must say that it's NOT always that I can have warm conversations with people around me. We are so bad at communicating each other or basically don't have true communicating culture in this country, though we have the so long history. Maybe that is because the history has been made among many battles or troubles among prefectures or people who hated each other because of poverty. Japan has been modernized after Edo period, but definitely Japanese POPLE haven't come to get honest conversation among people like western people. I really hope you change this situation like the Matthew Calbraith Perry did at the end of Edo period!! (There is another reason why Austin and Arthur feel lonely at your work. That is because the English we've learned has been so full of nonsense or lie and never has led us to natural conversation. Usually Japanese people are afraid of the conversation with English speaking people)
When I was a junior high school student, I bought some books at a book store. There were book stores every block. I miss that. Anyway, it was a mom and pop store. The clark said, "How was the test? Did you do well on the test?" I thought that was nosy. I had a tutor and studying for entrance exam was stressful. I thought it was not thoughtful of her to ask me that question. I don't think it was a kind of "human touch" you mentioned. My hometown is Toyama. It's a countryside. Maybe she just wanted to be friendly. I thought "Obasan, Don't talk about tests! I don't want to think about tests all the time!"
私は心の底から人々に敬意を抱いてロボットライクしてるんですよ。❤でも貴方達は、そんな私たちを理解しようとしている、ありがとう。
日本や日本人を一緒懸命に理解しようと分析してるんだなぁと思いながら、いつも拝聴しています。面白いし、ありがとうって言いたい。
I came back to Japan after living in the U.S. for 12 years. It has been 10 years since then, but I still miss heartfelt conversations I had with people in the States. I teach at a university, and my students are really not good at communication either. No matter what I ask them, they only answer me with one word or so. A couple of them are proactive, though.
I think they are afraid of doing something different from others. They don’t assert themselves, don’t complain, just follow the manual.
Convenience store workers are not there to be "creative," but to let their customers get things done.
If they are efficient and creative at the same time, it's great. But you should expect that only on extremely well-paid concierges. When they are not, I definitely take a clerk who does his job well but not in a "creative" way rather than a clerk who chats with me but slow and imperfect in his job.
The Japanese are one of the most creative and efficient people on the planet. They don't stick their business into other people's noses. They are orderly and polite. I don't think they're robots.
They don't need to be like Americans.
I think 黙れ！is the translation of “shut up!”but Japanese people don’t say that much.
今回もありがとうございます
Canada has both side of social interaction ! Just in between the us and Japan ;))
Arthur, I saw you on a morning TV show the other day while I was in Japan. You were at a cafe or a restaurant eating or drinking something and being interviwed by a reporter!
Yeah. And they said I was 44 😂 im 32
I think this would be the matter of how much you want to protect your personal space. Especially in a business setting.
Japanese (or at least I) would not expect to be invaded by a stranger. It feels rude and inauthentic. And shop clerk or waiter would not start casual conversation until the customer shows they are willing to talk or having some trouble. (Maybe not in a Starbucks 🙄)
This doesn’t mean we don’t like the conversation, but we just mind our own business and try not bother others.
However, this could be just in Tokyo. Maybe different in Osaka.
I was born and raised in Japan and now I live in California for 4 years, and I really understand the way the person at McDonald’s who Arthur talked with reacted. I guess that ONE (not only)reason for Japanese people are so robotic at work is because of the education. We were educated to behave the way that teachers expect to, and there were always “right answer” when teachers asked students,and also in exams. Teachers always already have particular answers that they want students to say when they ask. Most teachers didn’t accept answers except the right one. So I think I was “trained” to guess what teachers expect me to do. “What is the right answer for this?”
This is the style of education that I have had in Japan in 90s and 2000s. So Japanese people might get confused when they encounter a situation in which they can’t find the “right answer”they suppose to say, or”right reaction” they suppose to do.
While, we can see how freely “young kids” say their thought or react using their imagination, to their teachers in preschool in Japan.
(I don’t mean that Japanese education is totally bad.)
In English, I thought the word "sucks" was a convenient word and could be used for many situations (especially for people like me who don't say swear words). I often think that Americans use easy vocabulary words in daily conversations but hard words appear when reading books.
Austinさん、テレビに映ってませんでした？何の番組か忘れたけれど、何か食べてらっしゃったような
ごめんなさい、アーサーさんの方だったかな…
日本人も、小学生までは敬語なんかあんまり使わないんだけど、中学校に入った途端、先生や一歳しか違わない先輩にも敬語で話したり、自分から挨拶しなければいけなくなる。
最初はすごく違和感があった。
日本の社会もきっとそういう延長で成り立ってる。
お二人は、大阪にいらしたことがありますか？大阪人は、電車の中でも知らない人と話しますから、interaction満載で、寂しく感じませんよ、多分♪
Yes. Sometimes people talk to me on the train there.
外人に対する恐怖心（英語で話しかけられても分からない）と言う事が大きいと思います。
それと、日本の学校の教育現場はとても閉鎖的。なので外国人からするととても堅苦しい環境だと想像します。その中でアメリカ風なコミュニケーションは到底無理だと思います。
もしそれを望むのならば、語学学校の様なネイティブが沢山いる環境に移るしかないでしょう。
私も海外に住んでますが、自分から交わらない限り日本に居ようと何処に居ようと同じかも。
I work as a hall stuff at a small restaurant. I don't mind talking with the customers. In fact, some senior customers often want a small chat, which is OK with me. I’ll go and have a short conversation (unless I am super busy.). But, I never ever start a conversation from my side because, to be honest, it is bothersome😅
Maybe you foreigners, you are maybe making a big mistake!! I'm Japanese and 63 years old (!) but to tell the truth even I must say that it's NOT always that I can have warm conversations with people around me. We are so bad at communicating each other or basically don't have true communicating culture in this country, though we have the so long history. Maybe that is because the history has been made among many battles or troubles among prefectures or people who hated each other because of poverty. Japan has been modernized after Edo period, but definitely Japanese POPLE haven't come to get honest conversation among people like western people. I really hope you change this situation like the Matthew Calbraith Perry did at the end of Edo period!! (There is another reason why Austin and Arthur feel lonely at your work. That is because the English we've learned has been so full of nonsense or lie and never has led us to natural conversation. Usually Japanese people are afraid of the conversation with English speaking people)
When I was a junior high school student, I bought some books at a book store. There were book stores every block. I miss that. Anyway, it was a mom and pop store. The clark said, "How was the test? Did you do well on the test?" I thought that was nosy. I had a tutor and studying for entrance exam was stressful. I thought it was not thoughtful of her to ask me that question. I don't think it was a kind of "human touch" you mentioned. My hometown is Toyama. It's a countryside. Maybe she just wanted to be friendly. I thought "Obasan, Don't talk about tests! I don't want to think about tests all the time!"
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It's normal in today's world to take other people's intellectual property.