Personal Intercultural Profile Analysis

Personal/Country comparison tables

According to my “linear-active”, “multi-active” and “reactive” triangle chart, I am not a typical Chinese, since I have more multi-active characteristics and fewer in the other two. However, as what we can tell from the chart, Japan is a typical reactive country. So there are very few similarities but lots of differences between my personal horizon and Japanese horizon.

First of all, Japanese are always good listeners. Usually, they pay full attention to what is being said during a conversation, while they don’t speak a lot. Besides, they barely interrupt or ask questions until the end. Howbeit, although I rarely interrupt during other’s talking, but sometimes I just cannot wait to present my opinion in case the topic of the conversation swift to another. Also, generally speaking, I am not the one who talks most of the time during a meeting, but neither the one who never talks. Other than that, personally I don’t like to plan with general principles, instead, usually I just make a grand outline, while Japanese would love to plan with general principles to avoid disharmonious resistance when the plan is implemented.Other than that, the Japanese communication pattern is very different from mine. I prefer to give direct responses instead of vague and indirect ones, which is exactly what Japanese would do. Also, they never confront and always hide feelings, which directly contradicts my way. My feelings have always been showed even when sometimes I don’t want to. Some of my friends joked me that my feelings are all written on my face. Honestly, I never think it is not good for keeping relationships. However, sometimes relationships may get weaken by my being emotional, especially when I try to confront with other people. As far as I am concerned, one of the reasons that contribute to is the “Giving Face” culture in Japan. Face has been so important that it actually controls all aspects of a person’s behavior. In other words, to some extent making Japanese losing face equals to destroying a relationship, ever and forever. However, for me, I never feel very uncomfortable while losing face and I always find good excuses. For example, when I was learning English in middle school, I didn’t like to communicate with my classmates in English, because I had a concern about my pronunciation and grammar. But my language teacher told me that sometimes we should not be scared of losing face since it also indicates that you have the courage to have a try. There is another obvious difference between my horizon and Japanese culture horizon which is that I put truth before diplomacy while they puts diplomacy before truth. I think it is because for Japanese people, social harmony and politeness have higher priority, so they choose diplomatic language to avoid truths which could hurt their feelings.Besides, during conversation I usually use limited body language, while Japanese tend to avoid overt body language or use subtle body language and signals which may be invisible to me more familiar with freer displays of body language.Therefore, it may be a big problem for me to communicate with Japanese since it is said that body language coveys up to 80% of our messages.

Additionally, there are two aspects in which I share some similarities but also difference with Japanese culture.The first would be that we both depend less on facts. Similarly, we prefer to focus more on what people think about the situation than an objective look on the facts. However, for Japanese facts become unimportant if people trust each other, on which I don’t have much sympathy. The other point is that I prefer to do several things at one time, since I really appreciate the excitement and fulfillment it gives me when I am involving in them at once. And Japanese people also like to keep things open, but they have less interest in starting new activities, but interrelating the different parts of their worlds and responding to their partner’s actions.

As for the similarities between Japanese and me in general, there are four of them based on the second chart. Firstly, using connections is very important for socializing and doing business in our life. Personal relationships based on family, or work groups are the normal channels for facilitating status. Secondly, we both are people-oriented, who focus on the relationships between people and between organizations. It is interaction with other people and other groups that will give most satisfaction.Thirdly, according to my personal culture profile and Japanese cultural profile, being patient is another existing similarity. Most of the time I am a very patient person in any situation unless it really get me annoyed sometimes. Meanwhile, Japanese people are typically patient and rarely show any sign of complaint when they are having a conversation with others. It is not only because of their goal to achieve harmony, but would also be they don’t want to be disrespectful to others to show impatience. And finally, people in my culture and Japanese culture do not try to keep their working life out of their private life. For instance, the company for which my father is working organizesholidays for employees to take trips together to other places in China or to other countries annually, in order to give a chance for employees’ families communicating with each other.

List of additional cultural similarities and/or differences

In spite of what have been mentioned about the similarities and differences between my own horizon and Japanese national horizon, I found there are more of them of which I should be aware after I read the national culture profiles of Japan online.

I think the two more common traits I need to address here will facilitate the meeting I am planning. First of all, I found that the Japanese share a similar concept of the use of time with me. Instead of being interested in speed, we prefer to take things slow down in order to get it right. In other words, we only tend to take action when an all-embracing solution has been constructed (CultureActive.com). Secondly,we both like to talk business during socializing. Actually I think this is more a common trait between Chinese culture and Japanese culture. Chinese people always say that everything can be negotiated on “table” (The word “table” I addressed here refers to “dining table”). And Japanese people tend to make decisions between meetings. Therefore, I think to some extent this similarity will help facilitate the business negotiation.

Still, however, there are much more I need to pay attention to avoid conflicts and reduce anxiety during the meeting.

Firstly, Japanese people are generally very conservative and introversive, while personally speaking, I am a more open-minded and extrovertedperson. So I am wondering that whether the conflict on personal characteristics among us will negatively influence the harmony achieve process during the meeting.

Secondly, the gender issue may also be an obstacle for reaching a successful negotiation, since in Japanese’ views, woman supposed to be more responsible for family rather than work. Also, as what I have mentioned in the former part, male Japanese workers will expect to do business at social occasions outside the office, like in a bar, where women are not supposed to be part of the group. Therefore, as a foreign woman, I need to get myself involved in these situations with a prerequisite that I won’t be excluded by them.

Thirdly, Japanese people prefer making oral agreements rather than written ones. They see themselves as the most honest people in the world and generally the most reliable. Usually, if they claim an oral commitment, they will stick to it. While in my culture, I insist that written contracts and agreements are more reliable indeed.

Fourthly, their valuing “repetition” during meetings is another business practice I need to adapt to. For me, I always take repeating the same information again and again as a very impolite behavior. I often feel offended when others repeat something to me so many times, since it gives me a feeling that I’m not smart enough to get their points. However, in a typical Japanese business meeting, repeat anything vital at least 10 times is quite usual, because they like to repeat same messages in order to avoid misunderstandings or misinterpretations.

Besides the four additional differences, there are some important specific gestures and behaviors I could possibly misinterpret or overlook. For example, in Japanese culture, nodding head during meetings means they are listening but not agreeing with you on what you are talking about. And when they close their eyes during the meeting, it doesn’t mean that they are ignoring the speech delivered by the speaker, but means they are listening carefully instead. Also, Japanese use their language only as a tool of communication, but what they are saying sometimes doesn’t really indicate what they really thinking about. What they feel and think about is more indicated by the way in which they address, look at and sit or stand near the conversation partner. Thus, for me, a person who is not good at examining subtle nonverbal clues, this is really a big challenge.

My preparation for this intercultural encounter

According to the comparison between my personal culture profile and Japanese national culture profile, though there are much more difference addressed than similarities, I still believe that I can possibly to ensure the success of this intercultural encounter basing on my knowledge about Japanese culture gained from the textbook, from the quiz and test I did on CultureActive.com, and from other excellent resources.

First of all, the several but very important common traits I have with Japanese will facilitate the meeting and my visit to Japan. Those similarities suggest that we are both patient and put our priority to get things right instead of rushing into the decision. So they don’t have the need to worry that they may be pushed to make a decision during the meeting. Besides, we value relationships, both interpersonal relationship and organizational relationship. Therefore, I think the relationship-oriented interaction between us will help produce a most satisfaction for both parties. Furthermore, being interested in socializing after meetings and connecting the social with professional make the business negotiation more flexible. Since Japanese and I both like to talk business in informal social meetings, so it gives us a “second chance” to renegotiate with each other in case of the former meeting was unsuccessful.

However, there are such many differences between us that I need to prepare myself well enough to manage them in order to ensure a successful visit.

The first thing I need to worry about is that how to initiate a successful business contact with Japanese. According to Nishiyama (2000), usually Japanese don’t like to write business letters or give business calls if they want to establish a business relationship with other company. Because they feel that those are impolite means of initiating a business relationship. Generally speaking, they ignore those letters or calls from “strangers” unless they can first meet with them face to face. But it will be taken more seriously if the get the call from a higher-level of another company. Therefore, I think it’s better for me to ask my boss to make the phone call first and then pay a visit to Japan by myself (or with a team?).

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