Cultures are "templates for living" and it tells us who we are, what groups we belong to and how we live our lives. Culture is an invisible control mechanism operating in our thoughts which kicks in only when we are severely challenged, it influences as well as interprets behaviour. In addtion, cultural values provide the context within which a society's norms are established and justified.
I chanced upon this show called "Kelly Osbourne : Turning Japanese" quite a while back on discovery travel and living channel. Kelly is the daughter of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. Ozzy Osbourne is a lead vocalist of pioneering English heavy metal band known as 'Black Sabbath'. Kelly was brought up in an environment where profanity and harshness were a daily part of her life. However, through this reality show, she has learned to reassess her life and discover the inner peace and placid self in her.
As we all know that Japanese has a very strong culture which is also known as a high context culture. Living in a high context culture has restricted codes and contextual cues. Believes that subtle cues are more important than the actual words spoken and politeness and "face-saving" take precedence over the truth. It sees explicit communication style as rude, coarse and insensitive. High context cultures view silence as part of a communication pattern. On the other hand, in low context cultures, it uses direct, explicit and unambiguous verbal communication style. There is great importance in spoken words and believes that speech is a tool to express oneself, to clarify and to influence. It sees indirect communication style as tricky, deceptive and of questionable integrity. Silence in a low context culture is interpreted as incomprehension.
In this reality show, Kelly discovers the bizarre and unfamiliar high context society of Japan while she is being thrown into a wide range of jobs and after-work activities. The first few episodes showed how she have mananged to overcome the language barrier and homesickness. She further uncovers the unknown stories of Japanese society, compelled regimes and turns Japanese into mind, body and soul. Kelly not only have to observe Japanese life and culture, she also have to go through challenging tasks which is inspired by ancient Japanese culture as well as the modern day Japan.
Will Kelly be able to catch the essence of the Japanese culture despite growing up in a low context culture? Well.................................... Take a guess! :P I'll be back with updates soon!(:
1 comment:
hahz hey how can you leave us wondering wether she will be able to catch up with the essence of the japanese culture? but it would be pretty interesting to find out if she is able to learn their culture. as after all in our notes culture involves the programming of the mind and her upbringing in an environment of profanity and harshness is one of very much difference, in order to learn the japanese culture she would have to overcome the mental barrier within herself. personally i guess she would not be able to do it as the culture she grew up is way too different from the japanese culture and it is a gap too big to bridge
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