Hello there! When I first started this project, I had a lot of difficulties communicating with Japanese people. For instance, they could be two-faced. This means they have two personalities: one is "good person" and another one is "real me". They use two personalities depends on who to talk to. If it were family or close friends, they would show "real me". However, if you were work-related or nah friends, they will just show you only good sides of them and don't tell you the truth or state their opinions. I'm not saying this is applied to all Japanese.
Also, they would never really tell what they actually think. This could be a real problem in business situation. Because if it were between English speaking people, you would make sure what you want and what you can get from others. But Japanese people don't do this in business situation.
So this means I could get nothing after making all kind of effort. I realised that I was wasting time. Therefore, I decided to make sure what I can provide and what the opponent is looking for at the first meeting, Also, when the opponent looks like losing interest, I ask "Did I do something wrong?" or "Are you not happy with my work?". Then I usually get replies. I think "guessing what he/she thinks" is waste of time and it never works. Things got much easier after I started asking for reasons to Japanese people. If they don't answer, I would just leave it.
I was so prejudiced like "this is what Japanese people are like and it can't be changed. I hate Japanese people!". However, I realised I don't need to follow conventional way and I can find a better way which might suits me better. I still have difficulties with Japanese people but I'm trying to figure it out!
Haruka
Gym In Japan: https://gyminjapan.net
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