Cultural Differences
However it is far more complex. For when Americans are being deferential, they are seen as being dominant by us. And when we are being deferential, we are seen by Americans as being dominant. And so we have endless misunderstandings.
This is because we have leanrt different ways of expressing dominance and deference.
For instance we all show deference by exhibiting childlike behaviour. But American children entertain the parent, while our parents entertain the children.
So when Americans are being loud and entertaining, they are exhibiting childlike behaviour in order to show deference. However we interpret this loud and entertaining behaviour as parental behaviour and so we see it as dominating.
And strange to our minds, when we exhibit childlike behaviour such as listening and being attentive and appreciative, we are seen by Americans as showing parental behaviour.
We discovered this in WW II when we met Americans in large numbers for the first time. And it was plain we had some problems. In our misunderstanding we called the Americans, loud mouthed Yanks who were over-sexed, over-paid and over here.
So we commissioned a study to find what the problem was.
And we discovered we had different child rearing practices. And we had learnt different ways of expressing deference and dominance.
Unfortunately such misunderstandings continue today, and as the Americans are going to use us as a military base to confront China in the South China Sea, the misunderstandings are set to sharpen.
And unfortunately Americans see us as little America, whereas they should be schooled in cultural differences before they arrive.
