The hallmark of human development is learning. Across the world, children growing up in different cultures are taught some basic skills of survival. The imparting of skills is largely influenced by cultural context. Here, we have chosen to examine the differences between potty-training videos of the Americans and Japanese.
Based on Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, one of the first differences we found is that the Japanese video uses more animism as compared to the American video.
“Animism” is being defined as “the belief that all things, including inanimate objects, are alive”. Next, we noticed that the American video uses a jazz song while the Japanese video utilizes a more child-like tune with a greater repetition of words.
Thirdly, with reference to Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions, we observed that the communication style of the Japanese video is high context as opposed to the American video which is low context. This is evidenced by the fact that the Japanese video communicates the message with more imagery while the American video employs mainly words. The “kawaii” (meaning cute in Japanese) culture in Japan could account for the added emphasis on animism, choice of musical genre, and high context communication style. Another reason could be that the Americans tend to treat their children more like adults, while the Japanese treat their children in a way that is more consistent with their age.
To conclude, this comparison has contributed to our understanding of the relationship between cultural differences and child development in America and Japan.
No comments:
Post a Comment