[0:03]If you want to hear a fascinating comparison between British and Japanese culture and get exposed to some intermediate to advanced vocabulary and phrases to level up your British English, then look no further.
[0:17]This is part of a conversation I had with Chris Broad from abroad in Japan. We cover everything from why the Japanese are shockingly polite even compared to the Brits, to the concept of sitting in total silence during a meeting and somehow making it productive.
[0:35]But to be clear, this is a rerun from earlier in the show's history, but it's well worth a revisit, so enjoy.
[0:43]Hello Chris, how are doing? Good morning, Charlie. I'm very good here from snowy North Japan. It's very cold at the moment.
[0:51]Um, I feel like I'm in a postcard, picture postcard for some sort of Christmas setting. Um, it's rather beautiful, but very, very cold. Very different, I imagine to where you are as well.
[1:02]Wow, yeah, that is really different. I'm on the Southern Hemisphere at the moment in Sydney and uh, yeah, it's the peak of the summer. We've got a heat wave coming about 40 degrees around the corner.
[1:14]Um, so you've got snow and um, that that immediately makes me think, I know it's very boring to ask this, but a lot of my students talk about it. Um, do you get heating in in Japan? Is it normal to have good heating like in Britain?
[1:28]We don't have kind of central heating here. I'm not sure why that is. Um, but we've got like a, I've got like an air conditioning unit and uh, all through summer, it's on air conditioning mode and then sometime around like late October, you sort of switch it over to heating mode because the temperature sort of turns in the space of a day from hot and humid to freezing cold and snowy.
[1:50]So no, it's just an air conditioning unit. Um, and you might be able to hear in the background in my room, I've got a little fan heater going as well. So no radiators, no central heating. Um, houses here are not overly well insulated.
[2:01]Right. It's a strange thing. Yeah, futuristic country, bad heating.
[2:07]Quick pause before we carry on with the conversation. I don't know your exact level of English, but even in the first part of this chat with Chris, we've already used quite a few intermediate and advanced words and expressions.
[2:21]Things like born and bred, uh, phased out and even ahead of the game, and there are plenty more coming up.
[2:29]Now, ideally, I'd stop and explain each phrase as soon as it appears, but the algorithm prefers things to stay quick and snappy. So instead, I've made a free PDF that goes with this episode.
[2:43]It breaks down all the tricky vocabulary, gives you clear definitions, examples, natural collocations, and even quizzes to help you properly learn and remember the language from this video.
[2:56]To get it, scan the QR code on screen or click the link in the description, show notes, or comments. That will take you to this screen where you just pop your name and email down and I'll send it straight to your email inbox.
[3:10]Remember, getting active with your learning will three X your likelihood of actually remembering the vocab you'll being exposed to in this conversation.
[3:21]All right, back to Chris. Well, I've heard, yeah, I've heard about this, um, futuristic like expectation of the country, but my Japanese students, they say it's not actually completely true nowadays. Can you enlighten me on whether that's true or not?
[3:39]I think Japan is very good at hardware stuff. So Japan was always ahead with electronics, right?
[3:46]Um, and things that require mechanical components, like a bullet train. The bullet train came out here in the late 1960s, I believe, while we only have one in the UK that came out about 10 years ago.
[3:57]Um, but uh, while though, yeah, I mean, I find with Japan, there is a lot of old technology like fax machines.
[4:06]We still have fax machines here. People use them. I don't remember what they were.
[4:11]I think when I was being raised in the 90s, even then they were sort of phased out and they're a bit outdated, but no, they still use fax machines here.
[4:20]Uh, smartphones where it took a long time to become smart. Uh, yeah, it's a very strange thing.
[4:27]I don't know why it is, but I think Japan has a fascination for handmade things. They like mechanical engineering and they like that aspect of things.
[4:36]But when it comes to software, they're very much behind. So, um, the digitization of things took a long time to finally take off in Japan.
[4:44]Uh, only in the last few years has the country got to the same point that countries like South Korea or even the UK have been at for quite a while.
[4:53]And also because they have such an extensive writing system of 2,200 characters, people like to do a lot of handwriting here so they can remember it, right?
[5:04]So I think that's been another reason there's been a slow transition. The country has so rooted in these ways that it's been difficult to move forward to the era of sort of the Internet digital age and digitization, but uh, it's getting there.
[5:19]It's getting there. The fax machines are still here, sadly.
[5:23]Don't know how to use them. That's funny. That's, that is fascinating though. And that makes sense and aligns with what my students have been saying, how it's the software that's outdated or not updated and, uh, the hardware.
[5:35]Yeah, that came out a long time ago ahead of the game. Um, so let's, um, let's just, um, let people know, so you are British.
[5:45]Where were you, where were you born and bred?
[5:48]So I'm from Kent, which is just outside of London, about 45 minutes, uh, and it's a little town called Maidstone.
[5:57]Um, I don't really know what Maidstone has or what the history is. I think it's the first place they invented chlorinated tap water, but I need to check that.
[6:05]Um, but uh, so I've, yeah, I've been raised sort of in the countryside of, uh, of the UK and, uh, yeah, there's not a whole lot.
[6:13]With very clean water. Very clean water indeed, Charlie. That's funny. Yeah, not a lot else. That's, that's pretty much it.
[6:21]No cholera for you.
[6:24]No cholera for me. Just good, easy access to London in 45 minutes and chlorinated water. What more could you want?
[6:31]Nothing more really. So you've, you've obviously experienced the UK and then you've gone over to, um, another island nation.
[6:39]Um, I think I got you on here for two reasons.
[6:44]No, three, actually. Yes. Uh, one because, yeah. Uh, one because, um, I saw that the most listens come from Japan for this podcast, which is very interesting.
[6:55]Two, because we met before and, uh, we enjoyed making content together with Natsuki. That was hilarious.
[7:04]Yes. And then three, because you are in the situation where you can compare, because when I ask these kinds of questions to British people who have lived in the UK, it's hard for them to know any different, and therefore they don't really know what to say.
[7:17]But given your situation, you might be able to be like, well, that is different, and and these guys have this, whereas we have that, if that makes sense.
[7:26]Yeah, sounds good to me. Yeah. I uh, I it's crazy. I think it's been three or four years since we made those videos together.
[7:35]Uh, for those listeners that don't know, Charlie appeared on my YouTube channel and actually taught my good friend Natsuki how to speak English in preparation for his trip, his first ever trip to Europe.
[7:45]And uh, he did a great job, Charlie, with the with the hand you were dealt. Uh, Natsuki, he knows a lot of English words, but his grammar wasn't so great. So it was, it was really great, uh, you able to teach him and it really did prepare him for his trip to London and to Croydon.
[8:01]So thank you for that. Thank you very much. Yeah, I remember he, he enjoyed learning the phrase the dog's bollocks.
[8:08]Did he use it? He did. He still uses it today. He remembered that. It's impressive stuff. He loves it.
[8:14]Every sentence he sticks it in somewhere and rather inconveniently.
[8:19]No. It worked. So going back to what you were talking about, um, would you say that the UK is quite, um, far ahead with their software and their development of technology?
[8:33]I think so. I, I do think the UK is further ahead when it comes to the Internet and the digital age.
[8:40]Um, I think if you go on a Japanese website, even now, it looks like somebody designed the website in 1994.
[8:49]Um, it's really quite bad and I have a lot of problems. Most people I've met, including my Japanese friends, that Japanese websites are not good, the vast majority.
[8:58]Um, so we lead on that front, but um, when it comes to certain types of technology, yeah, Japan is ahead. Like robots, for example, robot technology, robotics, um, transport. I think I still find it incredible that Japan's had bullet trains, uh, since the late sixties and there's never been a single fatality as a result of an accident on a bullet train to this day, which is phenomenal.
[9:23]So, yeah, Japan is ahead in a lot of ways. It's, it's a difficult one really. It's not a clear-cut thing, but I think a lot of people are impressed and surprised when they find it's not this magical wonderland, this technological wonderland that it's often made out to be.
[9:37]Yeah, right. Okay. Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, obviously a lot more complicated than saying software and hardware, but, um, yeah, interesting.
[9:46]So when you went to Japan, what year did you go out there?
[9:50]I arrived here in August 2012 to be an English teacher.
[9:56]2012, okay, you started the journey like me. Nice. Um, so about eight, nine years ago, do you remember any particular things that really shocked you in comparison to the UK or that still, you know, are significantly different in your day-to-day experience?
[10:15]Um, I think just communication was very different. Like in Japan, people are more reserved in their opinions. They're far more indirect. They won't just state their opinion.
[10:28]Um, and they're very, very polite at the risk of causing confusion. Like I remember I arrived at the local airport in North Japan where I was going to start teaching English and I sort of walked through the gate.
[10:41]And there were three English teachers from my future school that were standing there to meet me and they sort of said, hello, how was your trip?
[10:47]And I remember just sort of saying, oh, it was a great trip. I was really long flight, really tired, really hard. I just sort of slurred my words and spoke in my kind of native Kent accent really quickly.
[10:57]And they all sort of nodded along, and I just remember, I remember we then went to a cafe and I kept talking and nobody said anything.
[11:03]And they just sort of kept nodding along as I spoke for 20 minutes about my journey to Japan and how hot I was because it was summer and it was humid and was jet lagged.
[11:12]And then after 20 minutes of silence on their part, one of them just sort of said, could you speak slower? We don't know what you're saying.
[11:21]And uh, I sort of set the tone for the next three years of teaching that I realized I had to speak a bit slower and enunciate my words more clearly and not sort of be myself and speak the same sort of colloquial way that I thought I was accustomed to.
[11:37]So that was one thing. Um, but like, I feel like if that was the UK right off the bat, they might've just said, sorry, can you speak a bit slower? I can't hear everything you're saying.
[11:45]Yeah. But because it's Japan, they sort of were very polite and they let me just talk for 20 minutes and they kept nodding and pretending like they knew what I was saying when they clearly didn't.
[11:56]So being polite and trying to save face, that was one aspect of it. And that is interesting because I've got students from all different cultures and like the Russians, the Germans, and even sometimes the Brazilians, they find us reserved.
[12:12]And then I guess Japan is even further down the spectrum of reserved or being polite. Um, so yeah, you, you feel like the UK is is our norm and then you got to Japan and it was just shockingly polite, right?
[12:28]Absolutely. I think, yeah, Japan, from my experience, I did study intercultural sort of discourse at university and I found then that Japan was the most polite culture in the world if you measure by sort of indirectness.
[12:41]Um, but yeah, it can be a problem and it can be annoying if people, if you're making a mistake or doing something wrong, sometimes they won't tell you until it's too late and, uh, you have those sort of situations.
[12:54]But, uh, for the most part, it's nice. I've lived here eight years and I haven't seen a single fight or altercation.
[13:01]I don't think I've ever really seen an argument in public just because people here are far more polite and reasonable and, uh, they don't lose their temper.
[13:10]Uh, and that's something that I think, yeah, we could do with a lot more in the West, to be honest. Calm collective mindset.
[14:15]Yeah. So that, yeah, that's a very good point. So you have built, um, a company around the idea of Westerners being interested in the culture of Japan.
[14:27]So for Japan, that Japanese people to go to the UK, perhaps. Um, yeah, that that kind of shows that we are really interested in them, right?
[14:36]Absolutely, yeah, I think so. And um, you, I think every time I speak to a person in the UK, and I sort of say, oh, I live in Japan, or I do videos in Japan, they always say, oh, I'd love to go there.
[14:49]I really want to go to Japan. I want to go, but I think we never do just because Japan feels like a very far away place.
[14:56]If you look on a map, it's on the other side of the world and, uh, takes a lot of time and money to get there and it's not going to be much of a holiday, is it?
[15:04]Uh, and I think Japanese people might feel the same. Most people in Japan, when they want to go on holiday, they just go to somewhere in the country because it's so stressful to travel to the other side of the world and where you can't speak the language. So it's the same with the UK.
[15:16]Everyone seems to have a fascination with Japan. Everybody wants to go, but they don't. So one thing I've tried to do over the years by doing YouTube is try and encourage people to do it.
[15:25]Get on the plane and go for it because it will be an incredible, life-changing, potentially life-changing experience that you'll deeply treasure.
[15:33]And I say that to Japanese friends as well, that, uh, they can have a lot of fun in the UK. Oh, fantastic message. Yeah, I completely agree with that.
[15:42]Yeah, yeah, really nice. And have you had many friends come over to Japan from the UK?
[15:47]I have, yeah, I've had a fair few and I sort of take them around. There's certain places in Japan that you've always take people, Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima. Often they call it the golden route because it's so popular with tourists because they say if you come to Japan, you should always see Tokyo, the sort of bustling heart of Japan, and then Kyoto, the more traditional soul of Japan.
[16:14]Uh, and then, so you kind of have those sort of places you always take people and, uh, yeah, they love it.
[16:19]I've never had a friend come to Japan who didn't really enjoy it and didn't want to come back. So I think that's very positive.
[16:27]Um, I think that's positive. Definitely. Yeah. So I asked you about the culture shocks when you got there or or that you experienced now and you were mentioning them and then I distracted you with something else. Did you, did you have another one that you wanted to talk about?
[16:43]I think there is a really interesting part of the culture called Chimmoku, which means silence, and, uh, what, this took me a while to grasp, but the first day I arrived at my school, uh, and I was very jet-lagged, very tired, very bloody dehydrated at the time, given I'd flown from London to Tokyo, Tokyo to Yamagata, this northern prefecture in Japan.
[17:08]And then I was kind of ushered into a room with the school principal and had a meeting, and we sort of sat down and had a short conversation.
[17:16]He was like, where are from, and where you from in the UK, and why did you come to Japan? And, uh, we had some tea, and then he just sort of sat in silence for about what must have been about 60 seconds as I sort of sat there awkwardly sipping my tea, not quite knowing what was going on.
[17:36]And, uh, I thought I'd done something wrong. I thought maybe I'd offended him. Maybe my manners were bad in this really polite culture that I still yet to understand.
[17:46]And then he sort of said, well, it's been great talking. Good luck, and, uh, I'm sure we'll speak to each other in coming days. And I left the room, and I later transpired that, uh, it's just a part of the culture that, uh, we don't have in the UK, this concept of sitting in silence, Chimmoku.
[18:02]Uh, I think to be in silence is incredibly awkward, right, in the West. If you sit in room with someone in that sort of scenario, you've just met, and you sit in silence, it's deeply uncomfortable. You think you've done something wrong, but, uh, it is a big part of Japanese culture where, uh, it's a sort of collectivist society where people don't say their opinions outright, you sort of often have that.
[18:26]And when I used to go into meetings with the Department of English and all the 11 English teachers I worked with, we'd sit at big table, someone would say something, they would all sit in silence for like 20 seconds, and then someone else would speak, and then there'd be another 15, 20 seconds, which feels like an eternity, right, in that sort of environment, but it's just the way people reach consensus, uh, rather than just throwing your opinions out there, people like to gradually reach a consensus so they don't step out of line and, uh, and and kind of get step away from the group, the group think, and, uh, really fascinating part of the culture.
[19:02]But even now, I still feel a little bit awkward when it happens, even though I've kind of lived here a long time and encountered Chimmoku and silence, uh, quite a lot of the years, something I've failed to embrace and do myself.
[19:15]Have you ever tried to meditate or do mindfulness kind of things before?
[19:19]Yeah, I mean, I did go to a, uh, uh, Buddhist temple, do Zen Buddhist training, did some Zazen, which is where you sort of sit in silence and the Buddhist monk chants and then hits you over the head with a stick.
[19:35]I think that sounds a bit more, it's not that violent. He does sort of come behind you and tap you on the shoulder rather firmly. Um, that's the closest I've come to that.
[19:44]That was kind of fun sitting in the temple doing that, but uh, yeah, no, it's not something people do here often.
[19:50]But, um, I quite like doing that and I forget to do it and I should do it more, but that it kind of sounds like they're doing that in their daily habit of, um, communicating.
[20:00]They're kind of being mindful with everything and and they're not just, you know, doing verbal diarrhea until they leave each other. They're thinking about it properly and then they're making their move or they're deciding what to say.
[20:13]That's a great way to do a meeting. Everyone should do that.
[20:16]It is. And it has pros and cons. The pros are people reach consensus and people have their views heard and the consensus is reached a bit more organically.
[20:27]Whereas in the UK, we'd sort of just shout, this is what I think, and this is why we should do it. At the same time, I do think we get things done quicker sometimes.
[20:36]As a result in the West, uh, you know, we get things done quicker and people are more willing to debate. Um, for example, debates weren't really a thing in Japan and, uh, they've only been introduced into schools in the last 20, 30 years, I think.
[20:49]I remember I used to run debates and, uh, it was a very foreign concept, this concept of speaking out your mind and being a bit blunt and, uh, pushing back against people, uh, only in recent years has that sort of kicked off in Japan, I feel.
[21:03]Yeah, again. Yeah, there is such a different culture for them.
[21:09]It makes so much sense why your channel is you have so much content to do because they are two worlds apart. Absolutely.
[21:17]Yeah, there's always something new to learn, right? There's always a new aspect of the culture to dig into and to try and understand why it's like that. And I find that absolutely fascinating.
[21:27]Yeah, I did write, um, some questions down for you and I thought that, uh, it might be nice to ask you if you were to make a little, um, a child country of of Japan and the UK getting together.
[21:43]Um, what do you think, uh, would be part of it and, you know, what would you say would be good to take from this? This is a child that is, um, wanted. It's, it's a loved child and it's not an accident.
[21:55]Um, so we want all the good things. We don't want all the the unwanted DNA in there. Any thoughts? Unwanted DNA. That's a really good question. So sort of the best bits of Japanese culture, the best bits of British culture, right? Combined into one super child.
[22:18]So we go on to talk about this super child of Japan and the UK in part two of the show, which is available on the website thebritishenglishpodcast.com, where you can also enjoy part one, two and three with the transcripts, the extended glossaries and flashcards as a premium podcast member, which I would like to add is incredibly affordable.
[22:44]And as I mentioned, this is a seasonal episode, meaning it is part of the Academy where I have created exclusive explainer videos and audios diving deep into the usage of the native expressions being used between me and Chris. And then I've also made interactive quizzes, a pronunciation practice lesson of all the hard to say vocabulary in the show and many more things that I will leave for you to find out about if you are interested.
[23:16]But if you're not interested in that right now, then grab the free worksheet that includes a handful of lovely expressions from this part of the episode over on thebritishenglishpodcast.com.
[23:33]Anyway, that is amazing. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciated it. I hope you enjoyed telling the world about your pearls of wisdom of, um, comparison of Japanese culture and British culture. It was fascinating to listen to.
[23:46]So yeah, thank you very much, Chris. It's been good to, uh, to chat again, Charlie. I hope we, uh, we chat again before three years next time.
[23:55]Yeah. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, thank you. And so, uh, for listeners who haven't heard of you or, uh, your content, where could they go to, to get more of you?
[24:05]Uh, head over to YouTube and look up abroad in Japan. Um, it's a, it's a channel with about two million subscribers been going for eight years now. And, uh, if you want to learn about any aspect of Japanese culture, odds are we've, uh, we've covered it in a video at some point. And, uh, be sure to go back and check out the video with Charlie in teaching English to my good friend Natsuki. It's utterly hilarious. And I think the video was called, uh, Japanese man prepares to go to Europe.
[24:32]Um, and it was about three or four years ago, uh, but unmissable content, unmissable video.
[24:38]Brilliant. All right. Thank you so much, Chris. Uh, thank you guys for listening and, uh, I'll see you next week on the British English Podcast. Bye for now.
[24:50]As always, I have gone ahead and created a load of resources to help you not just understand the language, but be confident in using them correctly yourself.
[25:01]The most comprehensive version of these resources that I have made for you is available by joining the Academy, where you'll get vocabulary breakdown videos, um, interactive exercises, weekly Zoom classes with me, and personalized writing feedback, again, directly with me.
[25:20]Um, I highly recommend giving this membership a go because I offer a money-back guarantee, and I've been building it for over six years now and refining it as I go.
[25:32]It's now better than it ever was, the community is thriving and leveling up their English as I speak. And we're all having a lot of fun together.
[25:40]Uh, plus it's the main way to support this show. So if you like listening to the episodes, then joining the Academy helps me continue with the weekly broadcasts.
[25:52]Um, to find out more, go to thebritishenglishpodcast.com/academy.
[25:58]Option two is to join the premium podcast where you can unlock the full version of over 250 episodes along with the official transcripts, um, extended glossaries and flashcards.
[26:11]Again, the membership really does help support this show from, um, going under. And for that, go to thebritishenglishpodcast.com/premium.
[26:21]And then finally, I have made a free resource for this episode that goes over some of the essential vocabulary in a way that helps you to get active with your studies.
[26:33]So you can scan the QR code on screen right now, or click the link in the show notes, description box or comments section to get your hands on a lesson pack that will three X your likelihood of remembering the phrases I exposed you to in today's episode.
[26:52]So if you click that link, it'll take you to this page. Fill out your name and email so I can send the PDF lesson pack directly to your email inbox.
[27:00]For free. But yes, we will leave this one there. Thank you very much for listening to the end of this. I appreciate your listenership. Have a lovely week. My name's Charlie, and I hope to see you again soon on the British English podcast. Bye for now.
