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Western countries are more heterogeneous, more individualistic, and that includes highly variable selfishness and cluelessness. Japan is an island nation, much
by cmurf 9y ago
Western countries are more heterogeneous, more individualistic, and that includes highly variable selfishness and cluelessness. Japan is an island nation, much more isolated, homogeneous, people are much more on the same page about things often even without having explicit conversations about it. Somewhere in between, Scandinavian countries.
I think it's helpful to say "move, sloth" when people stand on the left side of an escalator, for example. That would be really insulting in Japan, but also it wouldn't ever be necessary. Actually, it's not even necessary in say, London. But in the U.S. there is absolutely zero imagination that someone might want to walk up an escalator, it simply does not even occur to most people.
My favorite: train is full, some people have to get out in order make room for people to get out, and then a bunch of assholes on the platform try to get into the train before the people who got out to make room but intend to get back on. And then these freeloading morons get all pissy when called out for their bullshit. Yes, morons. Like really selfish clueless morons. Again, I sometimes find it useless to ask them if they're stupid. It's somewhat polite, I'm not calling them stupid, and in my delusions I think they might ponder whether they are in fact stupid. But deep down I know I'm wrong, they're so stupid, they will not reflect on their stupidity or ever improve.
shrug
- zardo 9y ago>I think it's helpful to say "move, sloth" when people stand on the left side of an escalator, for example. That would be really insulting in Japan... Is there a place that wouldn't be insulting? Maybe Costa Rica.
- cmurf 9y agoActually, it's an insult to sloths. A sloth can and does move, just deliberately and slowly. Able bodied people who stand on the escalator, don't move at all, are lazy. And when they're standing on the wrong side, they're wastes of space. As in the space they are taking up, is more useful than they are. Sloths are badass.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- marak830 9y agoCareful though, some areas (Tokyo and south), you stand on the left and move on the right. Caused my wife and I a fair bit of confusion one holiday(we live near Yokohama).
- cmurf 9y agoThat's a small adaptation, once you've got the basic concept. Obtaining the basic concept appears to be highly variable and difficult. Funny enough, in London, it's move on the left on an escalator. Pass on the right if you're a car. And mayhem if you're a pedestrian on a sidewalk: half the people dodge to my left in a head on conflict, the other half dodge to my right. I see no pattern (maybe locals vs foreigners).
- Symbiote 9y ago> half the people dodge to my left in a head on conflict, the other half dodge to my right. I see no pattern There is no pattern, but somehow my English brain can read the body language and avoid people 99.9% of the time.
- marak830 9y agoCaused us quite the embarrassment as we weren't paying attention. (I blame my wife and mother in law.... Of course).
- Feniks 9y agoIf you stand on the left of the escalator you better be a tourist, some crimes are simply too grave for society to bear otherwise.
- patal 9y ago> say "move, sloth" when people stand on the left side of an escalator That's insulting everywhere. Even if there was consensus about escalator etiquette (in Europe and America), that's still needlessly offensive. People too often assume how other people need to behave and then freak out when they don't. Apparently, japanese can assume such behaviour, at least on the escalator. Still, throughput is higher when you have two lines standing on an escalator, instead of leaving one line open for rushers. Though throughput would be even higher, if everyone stampeded up the escalator on both lines. So how SHOULD everybody behave?