Not Sorry About Body Language

In Japan, I moved for a brief time into a shared house with a majority of Asian housemates. We had a housewarming party, and I'm so glad that I had my American friend Pennsylvania with me, and another multicultural Westerner from Germany. We were able to make each other feel comfortable when it turns out that we did a lot of cultural faux pas. Hopefully not too many.

The reason I say this is that, I just realized, a full day after the party, that the body language that is considered rude in Japan happens to coincide pretty unfairly with the openness of American body language. Totally shouganai (oh well), and I think I made a bad impression. Not everyone knows this stuff, so take a look at this page about body language in Japanese, though I wouldn't say it's the end-all be-all reference: http://www.tofugu.com/guides/japanese-body-language/

Our American open body language seems to be associated with laziness and arrogance in Japanese body language. Can you see the parallels in the link above?

I am annoyed and frustrated that I had no context for the offense I think I made. Frustrating! Fortunately, there were a few world travelers in the house who understand that American body language is my first language, even before English. So I can't help it if I associate the thumbs-up with anything good — how was I supposed to know it means "man" in Japanese?

And to think of all the mistakes I've made in kids classes with parents watching. Not good for anyone... I think this may need to be remedied in company training. It's important not to overlook these kind of sensitive issues. Now that I have left Japan, there's nothing much I can do besides make blog posts and try to propagate knowledge of the issue! I'm thankful for sites like the one above. Make sure to be a good traveler when you go abroad, and try to find out about issues like this.