Every country must have had their own characteristics, and that is what people see to recognize them. It is not doubtful that people around the globe are different each other and so are their nationality. Their habit has built the peculiarity for their nationality, including the cultural life. Then if we talk about culture, which is totally different one another, we cannot judge whether a country is right or not, good or bad, polite or not, since the value of every culture also poles apart. Here, we actually must be very grateful for these differences since it helps us to learn more about what the world has and find the beauty of diversity. Now in this writing, I would like to compare the cultural differences between Japan and Australia, how they live in society, how the student study at school, and many more.
Japan and Australia are countries which has good reputation and well-known among others. Japan lies in Asia while Australia is a country in its continental. Both of them are same in general, however, if take a look deeper, there are actually many aspects that make them look like a black and white side in paper. Apart from language, there is also social aspect that is quite different between these countries. First, let’s take a look at how Japanese eat. Most all of them eat rice every day. It even becomes their staple food, although Japan has many kinds of typical food. On the other side, Australia rarely eats rice since it is not their staple food. They usually eat bread for consuming, and they do not use chopstick to eat as well, not like the Japanese.
The other difference is from the education side. When students of Australia are mostly active raising their hand and answering some question from teacher, Japanese students seem to be passive. Only some of them try to raise their hand. They prefer to wait until the teachers choose them to explain their ideas. Most of them are probably afraid of making mistakes, even one of the anthropologists said that Japanese can be classified as a “shame culture”. Japanese even rarely talk to the stranger, they will not make a kind of conversation to someone they don’t know before, while Australian not, they often make a chat to someone they just know in the train, bus or even shop. It is sometimes not a problem for them to talk to the stranger.
Now, let’s see how transportation in Japan becomes so famous because of its discipline. If we try to come to Japan and around the city by train, we will find it on time. Their high discipline teaches all people in Japan to respect and use the time responsibly. If we do not come on time to the train station, then we will miss the train. That is rather different from Australia. Although some trains are on time, but some of them are also seldom punctual. While many of Japanese use bicycle to go somewhere, Australian prefer to use tram to go. Another difference is how Japanese and Australian greet when they meet one another. Australian usually say hello and hug each other to make a warm situation, while Japanese only bow to respect people when they meet. It is quite strange for Japanese to hug someone when they meet, since they even rarely hug their close friend and family members.
There are still many differences between these countries. If we see their social life, we will find that most of Australian speaks to the point according to what they think and how they feel. When something has gone wrong or do not satisfy them, they will tell clearly. For instance, when it comes to dinner and they don’t like the dishes, they will say it is not delicious. That is totally different from Japan. They prefer to speak politely without showing any dislikes. Japanese really respect people, when they serve the food they don’t like, they will keep saying it is delicious to avoid any offense.
Another different thing is when Japanese and Australian enter a house, all of Japanese always take off their shoes while Australian not. They usually use their shoes at home. In contrast, when young people in Japan talk to the senior person, they often use honorific expression and Australian does not have that kind of honorific expression. There is also an interesting thing, Australian usually predict someone’s personality by astrological sign while Japanese use blood type to identify people’s personality. Every blood type has different characteristic that represent a man or a woman.
It is also different when we see how Japan and Australia produce a movie. Japan keeps their traditional culture by making it into some movies. There are some horror movies whose story is based on their traditional culture, such as The Grudge and The Ring. This is contrast to Australian, because only a small number of them who really appreciate the importance of traditional culture.
The last difference between these countries is about immigration. Japanese doesn’t tend to see people outside country as Japanese, although he/ she has been living in Japan for quite long time. So, if an Indonesian come and live there for 10 years, they are still defined as Indonesian, not Japanese. It is different from Australian, when people migrates to Australia and feel like they are an Australian, they will be treated as an Australian.
After all of these differences, we are getting understand that difference is not a bad thing, it is even just like a pearl on sand. Something different will always make a special taste of living. Live must be so monotone when we don’t find any difference. It is expected that all readers can broaden their horizon by learning about how differences in many countries and culture can pose a beautiful diversity.
