Hello listeners and welcome back to the English with Neil Learn English podcast.
In this episode I'm going to talk about group versus individual thinking.
Now, yesterday I was trying to find some topics to talk to my students about and I opened one of my old textbooks from when I was in college.
I brought some of my textbooks from America to Japan and when I was in college I was enrolled in an intermediate Japanese class.
I have a book that I brought.
Inside of this book was a very interesting section on Japanese culture.
Something that caught my eye was a section on group society.
I want to read this little passage and then share my thoughts on it.
This is talking about Japanese culture.
It says, In Japanese society, the group you belong to is very important.
So when you meet someone for the first time, The first question you are asked might be which company you work for or which university you are attending, rather than what type of work you do within the group.
Maintaining group harmony is considered to be very important.
Cooperative attitudes are more valued than strong individualism.
I want to share my thoughts on this because, as I was reading this, I started to understand why certain countries are in conflict with other countries.
Or why certain countries.
Can't come to.
An understanding with one another.
Like for example.
The US.
Has always had this.
Political battle with China.
It's always on the news.
And I think.
China is similar to Japan in that they value a group mentality and in the US we value a more individualistic mentality, and this has this can cause a lot of problems, especially within politics, because in politics, two countries usually like to come to a mutual understanding, but sometimes countries can't come to an understanding because their cultures and their values are just very different.
And so I wanted to talk about this a little bit.
Um, I've been living in Japan for the past 11 years.
Um, After reading this, it really just opened my eyes to a lot of things that are different between the US and Japan, particularly in this area of thinking, because here in Japan, The group being a part of the group and making a decision as a group is very important.
Anytime you want to make a big decision, you usually consult with your family.
And usually everyone comes to a decision together, collectively.
But in the US, it's more on the individual.
In America, we really value our own opinions and making our own choices.
And just reading this really reminded me of that.
And it's funny how you can watch a movie And sometimes you may not understand why someone made a decision.
Or you may be watching a film from another country and you might think why did he do that?
Or why did she do that?
Well, it's because of their values and it, it.
It all comes down to culture, and you know making decisions in your culture, and so this is really interesting.
This is really interesting because, even though I've been living in Japan for 11 years, I still don't necessarily make my decisions based on the group.
I usually make decisions on my own sometimes.
I like to get the opinions of others.
I like to get others involved, just to make sure that I'm not missing anything or making sure that I didn't overthink about something or under think about something.
So in that regard, I like to get other people's opinions, but at the end of the day I make my own decisions.
But this is a little different here in Japan.
So it was just quite interesting.
It just made me realize that the reason why certain cultures don't get along is because they have different values.
And this is one of the The main ones, especially between Asia and Western countries.
In Asia, they value the group thinking versus in the West, we value individual thinking.
But I wanted to know...
Wherever you're listening from, I know people are listening from this podcast all over the world.
I want to know, how is it in your country?
In your country?
Do you value a group mentality where you make decisions as a group, or is your country more individualistic, where you place a lot of value on making decisions on your own?
I'd love to hear from you.
This would be an interesting topic if we can just all share our opinions in the comments and read each other's comments so we can have a better understanding of the world.
All right, everyone.
So that is it for today's episode.
Thank you for tuning in to the English with Neil podcast.
I look forward to speaking with you in the next one.
Take care everyone and talk to you soon.
Peace.
