Very good post, JerseyBoy ! I agree with most of your points. I would just like to comment on a few things.

Quote Originally Posted by JerseyBoy
4. Reading the other party's mind is considered a necessity and virtue to be socially functional in Japan. It's difficult to coax what's in his/her mind as you cannot solely count on what he/she says; facial expressions, tone of voice, and such can convey more meaning and accurate thoughts and can aide you with better understanding of what the other party is really thinking.
I agree here too. And in fact, this is mostly why I came to believe that most of the Japanese I've met were nationalists under shy appearances, who believed that their country or culture is superior, from the way they asked me "those questions". When you feel genuine astonishment from your Japanese counterpart when you let them know that depsite of only being a mere Westerner you have managed the great skill of mastering chopsticks although you have only been a few years in Japan, carries the deepest sense of superiority I think someone could be able to express while staying perfectly polite and innocent-looking.

7. Once we start doing which nationality asks most stupidest and dumbest questions imaginable, the contest will be a draw among all the humanity on earth.
I disagree here. Small (non-island) and rich countries, like Luxembourg, have a clear advantadge over bigger countries, in that most people are usually well-educated, and all people will have been abroad, and thus not have this "we vs foreigners" approach, which is the basis of many of my complaints about the Japanese.

8. Like any other people, Japanese will keep some thoughts/opinions to themselves or their inner circle and some to be broadcasted to the general public. Since many Japanese do not say what they are really thinking (this is good and bad as you don't want to say anything which comes to your mind) so that they don't break the social norms, I feel the appearance of ambiguity can be put in the spot light.
Then, they should learn to express their feelings more openely when dealing with people of other cultures who expect them to speak out their mind. I rather believe that many people lack real personal opinions, because they lack critical thinking. In any culture, people with less critical abilities tend to lack personal opinions.


When I was a student in Japan (up to high school and one year in college), I was taught and studied the world geography including climate conditions in each geographical regions (and more, of course). I used to memorize all of the names/locations of the major nations/their capitals along with other high lights of each country when I was in junior/high school years. I believe Japanese textbooks may have over-simplified this topic by comparing the Japanese climate with the world at large (which includes the tropical weathers and all). People tend to have selective memory and will always remember the easiest and simplest things even after years of no use (it is quite rare for people to brush up on their geography, math, science, history, and other subjects after they are done with formal education).
They must be a really bad (even pathologic) memory if when fresh out of university or back from a trip to Europe or North America, or from watching a movie set in Europe or North America, they have already forgotten that snowy winters, budding springs, hot summers on the beach and red-leaves autumn exist on these continents too. The only fact that they know the names of the 4 seasons (not 3, not 5) seasons in English should be enough to give them a clue about British weather.

11. Some Japanese people still consider their mother tongue (Japanese) as un-crackable code which can be understood only among their follow countrymen/women. I also think the Japanese education system portrays Japanese language as complex compared to other Western languages (it's possible this is to drum up the national pride by looking down on other countries/cultures).
I also think that the Japanese education system tries to portray Japanese as difficult, from my inquiries about it. And visibly most Japanese have a much better memory for this than for their geography. It seems that selective memory in Japan always works better with anything that make Japan and Japanese people feel superior (even if childishly so, like for the seasons) to other countries. I always like to remind any Japanese that take a bit too much pride in their "difficult language", than the kanji and half of its vocabulary come from China, and that Japanese grammar is almost shockingly simplistic for speakers of Latin languages (less for English speakers, but still fairly easy in comparison). When they try to deny this (and a few have, believe me - especially men), I question them on the 6 ways of expressing the future in English, the 3 conditionals, 3 perfect tenses, etc. and how they would render that into English, as they no equivalent exist in Japanese.

It's not that I want to make them feel inferior (neither English nor Chinese is my mother tongue, after all), but they just piss me off when they try to demonstrate all the time that Japan is oh superior to the rest of the world - especially for things like language, for which I have a deep interest, and when I hear the nonsense they can utter sometimes.