An Experience of Culture shock -- Hana

  I’ve been overseas many times so I expected that I'm going to  feel some culture

 shock during study abroad before I leave Japan. Just as I thought I feel culture

 shock a lot. For example, with foods, also public transport, or I couldn’t get things

 which I could buy  easily in Japan. Especially I was shocked was ‘’ How they use

 time’’.

 I guess many people know that Japanese are strict with time. I feel it when I’m in

Japan too. In my junior high school, the person who couldn’t sit down by the time

 the bell rings had a penalty to wipe all of the classmates desk after school. As you

 can see from this example, Japanese children are educated strictly not to be late for

 anything.

 However, I knew that Japan is too strict with time, so I was thinking if people had 2

 or 3 minutes late, I can forgive even if they didn't apologize. But, when I was

 waiting

 bus on the first day, the bus was over 10 minutes late and no apology. In Japan,

 public transport must always be on time and if it’s late, they will apologize to the

 passengers even if it was only 1or 2 minute wait because they made passengers

 wait longer. I felt so upset at that time. Also, there were so many times that I felt

 people were not caring about time. I was upset at first, but I got used to it later and

 I started to feel ‘’people in New Zealand are more flexible about time’’.

 Since I started to feel that way, I started not to feel upset like before. I got used to 

 the feeling of time here so I’m worrying a little about reverse culture shock after I

 go back to Japan. However I have had a good experience learning how to relax and

 think more flexibly.

Comments

  1. Anh Dam Thao (Cathy)August 18, 2024 at 3:27 PM

    Hi Hana 👋 Just like you, I also sometimes get annoyed with the bus time. There was a time when I finally got on the late bus, the driver announced to everyone that the late bus was cancelled so we had to wait until the next bus😭 Anyway, I know that the Japanese are strict about time, but I have never known the story you told 😧 Love your sharinggg

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 18, 2024 at 9:09 PM

    I agree with you. I suppose Japanese people are very strict in terms of keeping time. I'm an unpunctual person, so I’m worried about working at the company after graduating……
    Yusuke

    ReplyDelete

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