Primer on Genes, Language, and Culture

Of Culture

The pecuniary aspects of foreign language and culture

Unlike assets that are easily bought and sold, cultural wealth is often difficult to quantify and package; moreover, it is the kind of wealth that is often better shared with others than consumed alone. No matter how these are acquired and consumed, language, customs, national monuments, art, and music are all economic goods, because they are in demand and utilise scarce resources to acquire, maintain, and develop. Moreover, the time, energy, and money invested in cultural acquisition is enormous.

In order to appreciate the enormity of these expenditures one has only to consider the many hours each day that parents and teachers spend with children raising them from tiny infants to mature, socially well-adjusted adults. This is to say nothing of the enormous sacrifice that these latter make in satisfying the demands of the former. Similarly, foreigners often forego important opportunities in their own country and expend significant time, energy and money in their host cultures in order to acquire foreign language and culture.

With regard to Japan the cost of acquiring foreign language and culture is particularly high, whether one is a Japanese wishing to learn English, German, or Chinese in Japan, or a foreigner in Japan seeking to understand Japanese society. What is partictularly irritating to both the Japanese and the foreigner in Japan is the way in which foreign language is taught and acquired in Japan. Moreover, there are many Japanese who exploit an already difficult situation rather than engaging in a serious effort to change it. Instead of looking for ways to bring an end to the deception that has made it possible, they exacerbate it by perpetrating more of the same. In particular is the commonly held belief that one can effectively acquire foreign language and culture on a mass scale in one's own country without first making these a part of one's own national traditions.

Of course many foreigners are flattered by this situation and have earned lucrative incomes because of it; on the other hand, many others are turned away by it. In this latter regard, it is difficult for a foreigner to learn his host language and culture well, if his hosts insist that half of the dialogue be conducted in English. In Japan this is especially true, because over 90% of all Japanese can barely hold a conversation in English, and most foreigners living in Japan are neither native nor near native speakers of English. To make matters worse many Japanese, who see other Japanese going to school to learn a foreign language and culture, find it difficult to understand why they should be bothered by having to teach foreign residents their own language and culture without direct remuneration.

Before looking for ways to find a solution to this awkward situation, let us examine some of the underlying notions required to obtain a good grasp of the situation.

Culture as a public good

People who fear that they will lose their cultural and language by sharing them with others are mistaken. Cultural and language are much more like beautiful mountain landscapes, carefully manicured shrines, and national flags, than they are closely guarded sake (rice wine) recipes, souvenirs sold at the kabuki-za (kind of theatre) in Ginza (wealthy commercial district in Tôkyô), or Mild Sevens (popular brand of cigarettes) that you can buy off the shelf at your local Family Mart (convenience chain store).

Mt. Fuji is one of Japan's national treasures, and has become a world landmark because of its age, graceful contours, and majestic solitude. Of course each person who sees Mt. Fuji is likely to interpret these features differently. Someone who climbs Mt. Fuji once a year is not likely to feel the same about it, as a person who passes it every day while sitting in a train car on his way to work. Still another, who spends hours in front of this geological and geographical wonder, so as to capture its majestic beauty in oil or graphite on a framed canvas or note pad, is likely to hold it much more dearly than a person who photographs it from his car on his way to an onsen (hot spring) in Hakone (well-known resort town). The individual, who uses photographs of Mt. Fuji to decorate postcards that he later sells for profit, cannot think the same about the mountain, as someone who was born and raised in its shadow, and whose great great grandfather was buried at its foot. Moreover, because Mt. Fuji is a national symbol of Japan and often referred to in Japanese literature, art, and music, it is likely to be much more meaningful to Japanese, than a foreign visitor poorly acquainted with the history and culture of Japan. Notwithstanding, for the reasons given above there are surely those foreigners who appreciate Mt. Fuji much more than many Japanese.

On the other hand, there are Koreans who would sooner burn Japan's national flag, the hinomaru , than to see their children reading Japanese manga (comic books) or their wives scrubbing the backs of Japanese women. There are also USAmericans who would rather bash a Toyota automobile in front of national network cameramen, so as to appear on television screens throughout the world, than to rent one for a weekend visit to Atlantic City.

Surely cultural wealth is a precious commodity that can be appreciated or desecrated depending on one's feelings toward one's own and others' cultures. This said, can the opinions of those who treat our national treasures, as though they were trash, diminish our own appreciation for them? When someone from another country desecrates our national flag or exported goods, do we value our national heritage less, or do we become angry that someone, who has probably never been to our country, has the nerve to trash our national symbols? In the end what each of us thinks about his own country is often personal, and the degree to which the opinions and feelings of others is likely to influence our own, depends inevitably on our convictions, beliefs and knowledge about our country and theirs. During the 1970s many US citizens burned their own national flag in protest against their national government, while others invited those who were against the Vietnam War to leave the United States by placing bumper stickers on their automobiles with the words "America. Love it or leave it!". Is the United States any less for it, today? Many Japanese are angry with their government for making the hinomaru Japan's national flag. Are they any less Japanese as a result? Although there are likely many Japanese who think so, they are also likely terribly misinformed.

If the challenges that come from abroad are serious and begin to interfere with our ability to uphold our international agreements, inhibit us from conducting routine business across national boundaries, or present a threat to our own countrymen and women living abroad, then they must be addressed. If they are not addressed, then it is likely that they are dismissed as the ranting and raving of still another disgruntled group of foreign neighbors who would sooner place the blame for their own social, political, and economic woes on others whom they barely know, than to confront those at home whom they know much better, but are unwilling to face. It is a natural tendency among humans to blame outsiders for problems whose solution are best found among insiders, but whose resolution might threaten to destroy the solidarity of the group, the status quo, or established interests of the few and powerful within one's own society. Indeed, national and ethnic identities are a strong binding force, when nations are threatened from the outside. Unfortunately, they are often weak when it comes to solving problems of an economic and political nature among those competing for power and wealth in the same society.

The utility and nonutility of culture

Even when we share the same cultural values working together is often much easier said than done, because each of us has different goals, set of preferences, and well-honed habits that are likely to differ from one individual to the next. Then too, it is much easier to wound the pride of those whom we know well, than those whose weaknesses and strengths we can barely distinguish, because we do not share a close relationship with either them or their culture. Intimacy is just as much a source of hate and anger, as it is a source of joy and good feeling, if we are not careful about the other's pride. Wounded pride knows no reason, and strong emotions often no common sense. Small disagreements can easily become blown out of proportion unless they are improperly handled. Moreover, unless everyone agrees on the mechanism to resolve dispute, small disagreements can easily lead to major problems. In this sense society is much more than a set of common values; it is also a network of structured interpersonal relationships that include established mechanisms for resolving conflict among friends and strangers. Although these values and mechanisms are not entirely separable, they are often different, and we should be careful to distinguish between them. People in power with a need to legitimize their authority through a common way of thinking can be just as much a source of oppression as cohesion.

In Japan few changes occur unless those in power approve them first, and many are afraid to introduce new things for fear of becoming the nail that is sticking out. Although this contributes to Japan's stability, it also detracts from its ability to respond flexibly to change, as we have witnessed during the past decade of economic stagnation in Japan.

Quality circles and team work on the assembly floor of a Japanese automobile plant, and neighbors who rarely talk to each other are hardly consistent patterns of human association, but they do characterise much of what goes on in Japanese society. Running a company that is centered around a particular economic activity in which each individual has an assigned role and performs a particular task, and running a nation as vast and complex as Japan are also not the same. When a Japanese worker is asked what role he plays at his place of employment, he is likely able to tell you. If he is asked what role he plays in Japanese society, he is more likely to wonder about the question. In his mind being Japanese is likely to be enough. Yes, cultural values play an important role in the way we form our social relationships, but culture is not in and of itself sufficient to explain the actual structure of those relationships. Political, economic, and technological factors also play crucial roles.

Of course, when disagreements arise between people of different nations, resolution is often much more difficult, because there are few intervening parties with sufficient knowledge to adequately address the cultural needs of both sides to a dispute.

Most people do not talk to foreigners and fellow citizens about one's country in the same way. Culture and language are something that belongs to each of us, but with whom we share these and under what circumstances are often determined by one's nationality.

Being human is no more sufficient to insuring the future peace and prosperity of humankind, than is belonging to a nation either sufficient or necessary to resolving thorny domestic issues of the society in which one lives.

Culture as an "exclusive" good

A bottle of sake can be shared with a few friends, but it cannot be shared with everyone. As a result one is likely to be selective about whose cup one fills. Once drunk, there is none left to pour into the cup of another, until a new bottle is purchased and opened.

On the other hand, the preparation of sake is fairly common knowledge, and almost anyone wanting to produce it can acquire the necessary information. Of course, there are those with secret formulas for preparation who are unwilling to share these with others for fear of having the reputation of their own label destroyed. Nevertheless, taste, clarity, scent, and color are not the only factor that determine the production and sale of good sake. Like wine in France, or beer in Germany, sake is a regional identifier, and many Japanese would prefer to drink sake from the region in which they were born or are working than from a place they have never been or whose label they do not recognize from their own kuni (ethnic region or group). Moreover, the ability of the sake producer to cater to individual tastes plays a crucial role in deciding whose sake gets purchased and whose does not. Marketing and distribution channels, as well as production schedules are all part and parcel to making sure that one's product makes it to the right people at the right time and place.

Clearly sake is an important part of Japanese culture, but can Japanese control who drinks and produces it? Is it even important?

Consider for example a US citizen living in East Texas who decides one day that he wants to produce Japanese sake. Assume that this person's father owns a large rice farm, that he has just married the daughter of a Japanese rice importer, that everyone in both his and his wife's family enjoys the taste of sake, and that he believes there is a market for Japanese sake produced in the United States. Do you think his production of sake would detract from Japan's national identity as a nation of sake lovers? It is unlikely.

The State of California has been producing wines produced from grape vines imported from France and Italy for many decades now, perhaps even centuries, but wine drinking in France and the United States are hardly of the same scale and qualitatively speaking often very different.

For example, when one enters a small restaurant in France, wine and bread are typically set out on the table before one receives one's meal. This is unlikely to occur in the United States. Most French are catholic, or at least very familiar with the catholic faith. Among these French the wine and bread served at meal times can easily remind one of the holy sacraments, an important rite of the christian church. In the United States wine is not drunk with every meal, but in France one is likely to find small bottles of wine available for purchase in a student cafeteria. French youth learn to drink wine at an early age, and there are few French that do not enjoy its taste. This is hardly the situation in the United States. Does California wine production detract from French wine drinking? Competitive pressures may limit France's ability to export its wine abroad, but it will not destroy the French taste for wine.

Of course, many Japanese might not drink sake produced in the United States, because they believe that only sake produced in Japan is genuine. There might be USAmericans who think the same. There was a time when many felt the same way about French wine as well, but this is hardly the case today. Even Australians have begun producing wines that have earned them an international reputation. Have you ever been to Italy and Australia? Do you think wine drinking in these two countries is very comparable? Today wine can be purchased from all over the world in most large cities. Have the identities of southern European cultures been sacrificed because of it? What about wine produced in Chile?

Families in the US typically have two cars, and many even three, because it is difficult to go anywhere of importance beyond one's home without one. Has Japan's being the most important source of foreign produced automobiles in the US detracted from the USAmerican reputation of being an automobile and market culture? Hardly. When US automobile manufacturers went to the United States government to insist that quotas be placed on the number of Japanese automobiles imported from Japan, do you think it was because they were worried that Nagoya would become the world's next Motown, or was it because Japanese manufacturers were cutting into their profits? Is Diana Ross Japanese? Would she ever care to become Japanese? In time it will likely be forgotten that the United States has copied the Japanese method of automobile assembly, but this is the way of technological progress and competitive markets. Good ideas cannot remain hidden forever, and eventually become the property of everyone, if they are truly in demand.

If the United States were to adopt the Japanese custom of wearing uniforms in schools, do you think Japan's reputation for being a group-oriented, regimented society would be diminished? It is unlikely. The so-called free world might pause in amazement, though. Certianly USAmericans would become more like Japanese, and a piece of Japanese culture would have spread to still another part of the world; nevertheless, Japan would remain Japan, a country and people distinctly different from USAmericans living in the United States.

Cultural Differences

If we think of culture in a way similar to that of race -- ­ namely, the widespread occurrence of particular traits within a single society, and the concentration of these in particular cultures-- we soon come to realize that few things found in any society cannot be found in others, as well.

A French person coming to Japan with little prior exposure to East Asian culture and seeking a meal in a tachigui-soba-ya (fast food noodle restaurant with standing room only) is likely surprised when he discovers that everyone is slurping noodles from a bowl with two sticks. On the one hand, he is amazed that it is even possible to eat long thin noodles with two sticks; on the other, he is likely disgusted by the fact that everyone is sucking their noodles from a bowl. Of course, a Japanese, who has never used a knife and fork, is likely to find the eating utensils of Western cultures intimidating and wonder why everyone is eating their food with weapon-like utensils. Then too, those Japanese and Westerners who are uniformed about Muslim culture probably observe with disgust Arabs eating from a plate with neither sticks nor knives, but think little or nothing about stuffing their faces with Moss burgers (name-brand, hand-held, fast food) and Big Macs wrapped in paper. Arabs probably find it strange that Japanese eat rice with sticks and wonder how a people could be so tedious and inefficient in their eating habits. Neither is clanking metal against one's teeth each time they put a morsel of food into their mouth likely to be very appealing. Eating with your hands is far more intimate. Just think how many hours parents must spend with their children teaching them how to eat "properly", and how many tears are shed by children in acquiring these "important" cultural differences. Is it any wonder that by the time they become adults they are prepared to kill in defense of these highly valued skills?

Notwithstanding, Chinese chopsticks tend to be longer than Japanese sticks and are held differently. Then too, most USAmericans use their fork and knife together only when cutting, while Europeans use both throughout most of their meal. Surely their must be similar idiosyncratic differences among Arab cultures. Yes, in this respect each culture is truly unique. In the end, however, are not individual habits within a culture far more diverse than those between cultures?