generalizations

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"the normal German"-
not many of them live
in the woods of Japan



Generalizations about cultural traits are very dangerous, I found.
Whatever we do here, the Japanese keep asking

"Is that the way it is done normally in Germany?"
and my standard answer is

"No.
The normal German
does not live in the remote mountains of Japan."

This is easy to understand.


And after observing the people in Kanto (Eastern Japan, metropolitan area) for about 15 years it was quite a culture shock to come to our village in Western Japan.
There is no one way "the Japanese" do this or that.
There are only generalizations that do not help in individual situations.


The "Western" mind versus the "Eastern" mind ...
these are all traps when it comes to individuals living in one or the other culture.


Take each person as an individual, not a representative of his passport nationality.
Take each haiku poet as he writes his poems.

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. . . Read my Haiku Archives . . .

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