Interesting Differences about Senior-Junior Relationship

Yuiko

It is very important to establish good relationship with people who are different generation, and there are common rules and etiquette between the US and Japan. However, there are also some differences between the two countries, especially the idea about senior-junior relationship. When I visited my friend’s house in Chicago, we talked about our club activities in each country. Then, I found some differences of the rules about senior-junior relationship between the US and Japan. At that time, I thought that Japanese are stricter about senior-junior relationship than Americans, because I realized that Japanese have more rules about senior-junior relationship than Americans. For example, Japanese have specific words which show pecking order of an organization, “senpai-kohai”. On the one hand, Americans don’t have any specific words that show American senior-junior relationship. Thus, the US and Japan have interesting different definitions about the words “senior” and “junior”, and they also have different way to show the respectful feeling.

One interesting difference about senior-junior relationship between the US and Japan is the definition of each country for the word “senior-junior”. When Japanese hear the word “senior-junior”, they may come up with the word “senpai-kohai”, because we call the people who are older or senior members of an organization, “senpai” and the people who are younger or junior members of an organization, “kohai”. These words are often used in order to show to pecking order of a group or an organization clearly. For example, these words are used by students in high school club activities. Junior members of a club should call senior students “senpai”. If a junior student doesn’t call senior students “senpai”, it can be impolite to them and the junior student is regarded as a rude person from other club members. In addition, we can see easily Japanese senpai-kohai relationship by observing high school club activities, especially sports clubs. In Japan, usually sports clubs are stricter about senpai-kohai relationship than cultural clubs. For instance, sports club members who are in freshman year cannot practice with senior members during club activity time, because junior members have to take care of senior members. It means they have to prepare some good equipment for senior members, such as comfortable places to practice. Some sports clubs have a rule that junior members must not to use good equipment and places. Junior members are not able to concentrate on only practicing during club activity time until they become senior students. The seniority system shows definition of the word “senior-junior”; age is more important than individual abilities or personalities in Japan. Japanese should respect older people even if the person’s personality is not so good and the gap of each age is small. This seniority system isn’t only able to seen in many sports club activities but also in society in Japan. Similar things can happen even in society. For example, if there is a young man who has a good ability and an old man who doesn’t have good ability, the younger man has to do what the older man says. To say own opinion to older people is difficult for younger people in Japanese society. In contrast, Americans don’t have so many rules or specific words about senior-junior relationship, and they tend to focus on abilities and personalities more than age. For example, in club activities in high school, there are no specific words to show pecking order clearly like “senpai-kohai” in Japanese. In addition, junior members don’t have to care of senior members as much as Japanese. Members are treated almost equally. This seniority system is common not only in high school club activities, but also in society. For instance, young business men can say their opinions to older business men with less stress than Japanese. When I interviewed some Americans, they taught me the fact. What the person has done or how much skill the person has can be more important than a little age-gap for Americans. In conclusion, Americans and Japanese have different ways of thinking about “senior-junior relationship”.

There is also an interesting difference between the US and Japan. It is the way of expression of their respectful feelings. Japanese have “keigo” which is honorific words in Japanese. There are three kinds of “keigo”, to show respectful feelings, to be modest, and to be polite. These three kinds of “keigo” are used differently in daily life. For example, the people who are waiters of restaurants use the kind of “keigo” which shows the attitude of being polite to their customers. They need not use the “keigo” which shows the respectful feelings or shows the modest feelings to their customers. On the other hand, people should use the kind of “keigo” which shows a respectful feeling when they talk with the people who are older or higher social status than them. Using “keigo” is the easiest and the most important way of expression of their respectful feelings. Japanese need to use the right kind of “keigo” in the right situation or for right people. Learning “keigo” is one of the most difficult parts of learning Japanese. Even for adults, to use the right “keigo” can be complicated. Thus, Japanese have a lot of rules about language of senior-junior relationship. It means that they tend to depend on language when they show their respectful feelings. Compared with Japanese, Americans don’t have so many rules about their language. Of course, there are some rules about words of senior-junior relationship. Americans also have some polite words. For instance, they sometimes use “sir”, “Mr.” or “Ms.” when they speak with people who are older or higher social status than them. Furthermore, they often change words in order to be more polite. For example, they use “could you~” instead of “can you~?” When the people ask something to someone who is older or higher status people than them, past tense helps them to be more polite. However, Americans don’t have specific honorific words like Japanese “keigo”, so they show their respectful feelings by their attitudes. To pay attention and look at the eye of the people who are talking are common ways to show their respectful feeling. For instance, if a student doesn’t look at the eyes when the teacher is talking, the behavior will be rude for the teacher. Americans show their respectful feeling by attitude not only language. As we have seen, Japanese and Americans have different ways to show their respectful feeling, and we can see the fact that Japanese have stricter rules about senior-junior relationship than Americans in some points.

Differences about senior-junior relationship between America and Japan show us the national characters of each country. They sometimes cause misunderstanding among the people who came from different countries, but people will be able to understand another culture more deeply if we know the different ideas of each country about senior-junior relationship. The most important thing is to try to understand each country’s culture and morals. Understanding the ideas about senior-junior relationship of each country will help us to be a nice international person.


List of sources

Interview
Feb, 23rd Timothy Diko
Feb, 28th Christopher Micek
Mar, 1st Anna Marie Swenson
Mar, 3rd Melissa Barcellos
Mar, 4th Megan Morse
Mar, 5th Christine Austen
Heather Austen
Mar, 8th Marie Whalen
Mar, 15th Susan Thompson

Web page address
 Senpai and Kohai – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senpai_and_k%C5%8Dhai
 Honne and Tatemae – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honne_and_tatemae