(keitai-l) Re: learning Japan

From: Paul Lester <paul_lester_at_lincmedia.co.jp>
Date: 08/09/02
Message-ID: <3D537AAB.245F78F0@lincmedia.co.jp>
Juergen Specht wrote:

>
> > btw, I used to read a lot of Japanese books on her history and
> > business culture but found out the best people who understand
> > Japanese are not themselves ... the Americans are I'd say.
>
> Thats bullshit and could come only from a foreigner.

    Yes I agree Juergen.  That is true.  A few Americans may understand
a little of Japan better than many Japanese (but not all of Japan).
And many Japanese do not understand all of Japanese. But to say
that "the Americans" (how many  are we talking about here) understand
Japanese better than Japanese people is a very misleading statement.

    That's like saying all Japanese wear pocket protectors, all Americans
are evil, or all Japanese work hard.  These are silly oversimplifications that
are often wrong.

    But you could say something like, the expert Robert Smith
understands more about Japanese culture than most Japanese
and you would be correct, but that's a very silly thing to say.
What good does that do.

    I think that might be along the lines of what you were thinking.
That one American expert on Japan knows more than an average Japanese
citizen about their own country.

    The Japanese who understands Japan, writes in Japanese and
that's why you haven't read them!  A few of them write
excellent books in English as well, but I studied a different aspect
of Japan than you did so the books I read might not interest you.

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Paul B. Lester
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Chief Engineer
Programmer/Chakumelo engineer/DBA/QA etc
EMAIL: paul_lester@lincmedia.co.jp
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Received on Fri Aug 9 11:27:43 2002