Cultural Self-Awareness

An excellent article today on the blog site Naked Capitalism. Host Yves Smith posted a long-form article by writer “Clive” comparing and contrasting the different advertising approaches in Japan and the US of smart Internet-connected devices. The author, ostensibly British, is conversant in Japanese and English. He cleverly explores the cultural references and inflections used in the two advertisements and presents a rather unflattering mirror to the US reader. It’s worth a read.

Something Americans acutely lack is self-awareness of our national culture and predilections. So few of us are fluent in languages other than English, and so few of us have passports and have traveled abroad; as a culture we lack knowledge of how others see us and how unique our approach to nearly everything is.

Is that good or bad?  As a country, the US has been admired for taking a fresh approach to ordering our economic and communal lives. On the other hand, Americans can be criticized for blithely failing to learn from other’s mistakes and successes.

As a sixteen-year-old I was sent abroad for a half-year of high school followed by travel. The experience was formative.  The language and cultural awareness that I gained from that experience is irreplaceable. I wish there was a good way to package the cultural self-awareness that comes from speaking a foreign language or living abroad. I’d sprinkle it far and wide across this country. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t agree their experiences abroad have changed their lives much for the better.