Some Differences and Similarities Between Japan and Canada
It has been one and half year since I arrived in Canada. I have experienced lots of differences since then. Sometimes they made me laugh, happy, or upset. I would like to talk about differences and also similarities between Japan and Canada through my experiences. The differences basically categorized into tow groups : one is people's behavior or characters difference and the other is cultures difference.
First, people's behavior is quite different between Japanese and Canadian. Japanese people are quite shy people to express our feeling directly, consider other peoples reaction so much, or afraid of being said No by other people. Instead of saying directly to other people, we tend to guess what other people think about or feel. We try to match or compromise with other people even if we had strong arguments. On the other hand Canadian people express their feeling or opinion directly to understand each other. They don't need to guess other peoples thought because saying "No" doesn't upset other people so much. I had good example to show this differences. I joined a volunteer activity last May and I packed some stuff for marathon runners with Japanese and Canadian people. I needed more people to pack them with me and waited for someone's help. Only Japanese people realized the satiation and came to help me. I didn't need to say "Hey I need some help to pack them with me, it is too mach to deal with."
Secondly Japanese people are quite groupie people especially in abroad. We enjoy being groupie or being one of the members in the group. I think Japanese people feel more at ease when they are in the group than being alone. On the other hand Canadian are quite individualistic people. Canadian people are independent from other groups like parents or company, so they can enjoy their own choice. We can see lots of back packers especially individualistic countries.
Thirdly, Canadian man love to be macho rather than Japanese man. Once I stayed in Canadian family, they asked me to eat a lot to be a macho man. Also Canadian woman love a macho man. When they watched Olympic game they always talked about men's body shape. It is quite common in North America that people believe in having a strong body means having strong splits. On the other hand Japanese don't care muscular strength or body shape so much. I learned muscular strength or power doesn't relate the real strength so much through Japanese martial arts training. Every power and strength comes form hip and low body movement, timing, and speed.
Next, I would like to talk about cultures differences between Japan and Canada that also relates people's behavior or character. Japan has a long and unique history. It has more than two thousand years old history. Sometimes people misunderstand that Japanese built up new system or change the country two hundred years ago to catch up with Western country. In fact it is not correct. Hokusai's art was most advanced style at that time and later affected lots of other Europeans artists. We had millions of highest qualities guns of the world four hundred years ago.
On the other hand Canada is quite young country but has lots of unique system and culture. Compare to Japan, Canada has two official language French and English. Canada also has multinational society in one country so immigrants can keep their own culture. Once my friend said that Canada is a kind of utopia country to make people get together and has a brilliant future.
Food culture is also different between Japan and Canada. Japanese food is quite well known in Vancouver because there are lots of Japanese restaurants here. Japanese food is not just Sushi, Tempura, and Sashimi, but also Japanese sweets, tea, Nabe (soup), Kaiseki (Japanese traditional food), Omelet rice (Japanese western food) and regional food(Okonomi yaki in Hiroshima). On the other hand Canadian food is basically England or French food using lots of potato, meat and salmon. I think it is difficult for new immigrants country to establish new food culture soon. But I think Canadian food might be mixed food among the world.
Finally, there is one similarity between Japanese and Canadian. We are both so polite people as to say, "Excuse me" or "Sorry" often in public. We both like to help other people in public. When I got lost in Vancouver people like to teach me how to get the place that I want to. It is almost same in Japan that people willing to tell even foreigners to tell or take them to the place that they want.
In conclusion, most difficult point to communicate each other from different countries is to understand different culture or background of their country. But once we can understand differences, we can get along with each other well and understand us clearer point of view.
November 13, 2000
