Are Japanese more hypocritical with foreigners ?

[JerseyBoy]

I would like to add some comments.

I disagree here. Small (non-island) and rich countries, like Luxembourg, have a clear advantage 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.

I should have added a few more conditional sentences in my post. I did not mean the actual head counts on this matter; I am rather referring to the fact there are always some blatantly close-minded (or uneducated) people in each country. I agree the small and wealthy country has higher percentage of well educated populace compared to larger countries, rich or poor. With a larger country, there would be more bad apples.

Then, they should learn to express their feelings more openly 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.

I agree with your comment. The current Japanese education system does not emphasize critical thinking. The typical class rooms in Japan are usually one way street from a teacher to students, not much going the other way around. Students typically take in (or are encouraged to take in) what they were told by a teacher. Debating with teachers on subject matters is not encouraged in general.

I have an exposure to both Japanese and USA education systems; so, comparing both, I can tell, form my experience, the higher education system in USA encourages critical thinking and debating subject matters with teachers/professors. Proficient debating & critical thinking skills will be very important to express your thoughts clearly and convincingly to other parties, especially if the other parties are from different cultures or countries. I feel the Japanese education system does not equip its students with this important communication skill which is a prerequisite for their voices/opinions/ideas to be heard on the world stage. It is foolish or reckless to count on other people to read your minds or between the lines (this type of communication will often cause misunderstanding between people especially if the parties involved are from different cultures or backgrounds).

Because of those reasons among others, I feel some Japanese people are afraid to engage in critical thinking and debates with people from other cultures because they know they are not ready for the prime time.

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.

Yes, that beats me too. If someone on this forum is currently attending Japanese junior or high school, please look up the geography text book on Japanese and world climate to see what it says. I am curious to see what it says on this.

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.

I think those Japanese have not learned foreign languages themselves (taking English classes in Junior and high school in Japan does not count as learning English in a practical sense). I think the education systems and Japanese media have been portraying Japanese as a complex language for decades and if you grow up with that constant conditioning, it is possible you will accept it as a fact (instead of unfounded theory or myth). As more foreign nationals start speaking Japanese, I think this self perpetuated myth will be put to rest.