Japan vs. China vs. America

Essay by kiki1981College, Undergraduate October 2004

download word file, 6 pages 5.0

Downloaded 59 times

The trends of history are most likely driven by different cultures and policies. Each of the countries has different traditions, religions, languages, and educations, which can affect the future of generations. Therefore, it is very interesting to look into one or two specific countries and discover the differences and similarities between our own countries. After I have interviewed Tomoko Yokohama, a very cute and sweet girl from Japan, I have learned a lot of interesting things. Also, I found out many differences and similarities among my country-China and America. In order to discuss the culture among Japan, China, and America, we can divide it into many areas, such as languages, city life, gender role, food, and so on.

First of all, the languages are one of the main differences. Japanese is the official language of Japan. But there are also many local dialects that differ greatly in pronunciation. However, Yokohama said the Tokyo dialect is the standard form of spoken Japanese.

Many Japanese can also speak English, but not very well. Yokohama said that there are a lot of Japanese words, such banana, apple (lingo), group (guruupu), are based on both Chinese and English. Furthermore, written Japanese is one of the most difficult writing systems in the world. It uses Japanese phonetic symbols that represent sounds. The words are composed of many syllables, and endings are attached to change tense, from negative, or otherwise modify meaning. Yokohama said she used to learn Japanese with the letters of the Roman alphabet when she was still in elementary school. Very likely in China, spoken Chinese has many local dialects. Because of the different subcultures and big population in China, these local dialects sometimes even have their own characters. For example, in Tibet, people use their own language instead of the standard form...