私の敬愛する Leo G. Perkins 氏(明海大学名誉教授)には時々、私のゼミにお越しいただいて、日米言語文化についてのお話を伺っています。そのうちの1回が
「アメリカと日本の文化的差異」でした。後日、氏が、過去に書かれた同名・同内容の論文を下さったので、氏のご了承を得て、そちらを掲載させていただきます。
日本の生活が長く、寛容精神のきわめて豊かな Perkins氏ですが、それでも氏の論考の中には、日本人への疑問や感想がいくつも、冷静な口調で述べられています。たとえば、From
an American viewpoint, most Japanese children would be considered "spoiled,"
"self-centered," "inconsiderate" and "ill-mannered."
と書いておられます。また、Japanese has a word for equals (doryo), but people
seldom use it, because almost always something makes one person inferior
or superior to another. This is very strange to Americans to whom individualism
and equality are very important. のようにも述べておられます。さらに、 In
American companies, almost always one man has final responsibility and
authority, and it's easy to identify him. You only have to ask, "Who's
in charge?" In Japanese companies, usually no one person is in charge.
Responsibility and authority are dispersed among the managers as a group.
The bigger the company, the more people are involved. When there is a mistake
or failure, management doesn't try to single out the person at fault. They
try to focus on the cause of the failure, to try to find out what happened. のように、会社と社員の結びつきの米・日差を的確に指摘して下さっているところもあります。もう1例、日本人の客のもてなし方に言及したところには次のようにあります。Not
many Americans accept the Japanese custom of expressing humility. They
consider it false and deceptive―it's dishonest and irritating and definitely
not sincere. In American society to state something that is untrue ( e.g.
"not delicious" when it's actually "delicious") is
morally unacceptable. Americans believe that expressing humility when a
person isn't really humble is hypocritical. 氏の論文には、日本人として熟考・再考すべき多くのことが指摘されていると思います。
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