@Cross-cultural communication i136j@
136) Individualism among Americans
It has been said in Japan since the Meiji era that Westerners tend to be individualistic, and there is no disagreement on this point. When Japanese people think of Westerners, Americans are the first to come to mind, and they seem to think of them as people who value the individual over the group and are tolerant of individualism. While this is not entirely wrong, the situation is not quite so simple. As the saying goes, gThe grass is always greener on the other side,h but it seems that Japanese people tend to idealize Western society. I would like to share an episode from my three years as a resident doctor in Brooklyn in the early 1980s.
In 1980, when I started my residency in Brooklyn, New York, there was a female resident one year above me named Dona. Dona was an Italian-American and was engaged to a law student. She had a kind and gentle demeanor, and despite my lack of knowledge and poor English skills, she patiently taught me the ropes of surviving in Brooklyn. To me, Dona was truly a goddess at that time.
When I entered my second year of residency, Dona became pregnant. This was during my obstetrics rotation (obstetrics is a required subject in family medicine residency in the U.S.). At the time, a female obstetrics resident who was training with me said to me, gYou're a family medicine resident, right? You must know Dona, the female resident. She was rotating through our department last month, and I've never seen such a self-centered resident. I understand that being pregnant is tough, but she just left 10 minutes before her shift ended.h Hearing this criticism of Dona, I was shocked. eMaybe there's some misunderstanding. Dona is a year senior to me, and when I started my residency in Brooklyn last year, she was really kind to me.f I replied. However, during my two-month obstetrics and gynecology rotation, I heard similar negative comments about Dona from several other obstetrics and gynecology residents.
From the perspective of America's individualistic way of life, I had thought that in the harsh residency program in the U.S. at the time, even a 20-something man might want to run away, so a pregnant female resident trying to fulfill her duties to the minimum extent allowed by the rules to protect herself and her unborn child was a reasonable and understandable approach. However, it seems I had overestimated the individualistic nature of American society. Even in the United States, where I had assumed that individualistic and rational thinking permeated everything, there are apparently situations where people might say, gCome on, read the air in the room a bit more and act accordingly.h
As a result of this experience, I now approach statements like eIn the West...f made by eintellectualsf with little practical experience with a healthy dose of skepticism.
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