Essay The windows to the soul By Maria Bromley	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
心の窓 目が隠れるような大きなサングラスを掛ける欧米人と口が隠れるマスクをする日本人 — 筆者はこの違いについて考えてみた。カナダ人の筆者からすると、口が隠れている相手と話するのは違和感を覚えるのだが・・・。

I once went to a seminar about cross-cultural issues at my children's school when we lived in Japan. One of the more interesting things I learned was about the difference in communication styles, and I don't mean a language gap. I'm referring to the sunglasses versus face mask dilemma.

North Americans often sport large sunglasses when they are out, whether to ward off the bright sun or to look like a celebrity hiding from the paparazzi. It is considered chic.

Japanese often sport face masks when they are out, whether to ward off germs or to protect others from their germs. It is considered polite.

What I didn't realize is that Japanese find sunglasses distracting and somewhat rude. They think it hides the eyes and therefore reduces one's ability to communicate. On the other hand, many North Americans have difficulty holding a conversation with someone wearing a face mask. The inability to see the mouth is distracting and considered somewhat rude.

I began to see how my habit of wearing large sunglasses in the schoolyard could be misinterpreted as not wanting to engage with my fellow parents. Meanwhile their attempts to hold a conversation with me while wearing face masks felt equally as confusing.

As I studied this phenomenon in more detail, I noticed other things to support this theory.

I found a similar issue with texting and emoticons. While North American emoticons focus on the mouth, the ubiquitous smiley face for example, :), Japanese ones focus on the eyes, often depicted by pointy carets.

8 Emoticons -- icons with emotions, as the word suggests -- are typographical representations of facial expressions, usually written to express a person's feelings or mood.

Japanese emoticons are known as kaomoji, a combination of the Japanese words for face (kao) and emoticon (emoji). Here are some examples:

ヽ(*⌒∇⌒*)ﾉ、 ( ^_^)／

I have to admit I received many texts from my Japanese friends sprinkled with kaomoji, which I had a hard time understanding.

Masaki Yuki, a social psychologist at Hokkaido University, says Japanese tend to look to the eyes for emotional cues, whereas Americans tend to look to the mouth. He believes this could be because the Japanese, when in the presence of others, try to suppress their emotions more than Americans do.

"After seeing the difference between American and Japanese emoticons, it dawned on me that the faces looked exactly like typical American and Japanese smiles," he said about his research on the topic.

Understanding the nuances of nonverbal communication is difficult at the best of times, but adding in cultural differences makes it that much more complicated. Just something to keep in mind the next time you head out wearing your shades or face mask, or text emoticons or kaomoji to your friends.

Shukan ST: DECEMBER 21, 2012

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