Hey everyone!

 

For my Speech course I'm required to give a 5-7 minute "informative" speech.

It's supposed to be "collegiate" in nature and needs to have at least two credible sources (from research). For mine I'm doing Japan and the culture of its people. =) Anyway, I thought I'd try to get some ideas from you all on how to bulk up the info in my speech. I've got food and such, but I'm just having a tough time thinking out of the box here.

 

If you think/know of some interesting cultural aspects about Japan, please let me know! I'm probably going to tie in how it differs with American culture too so it's a bit longer. I'd be grateful for any info you would be willing to share! Or, if you know of a great website that talks about the culture, that'd rock! Honestly, anything helps! Thank you so much!! ^-^

Edited April 8, 201213 yr by onedaystronger

Why not talk about mythology or holidays or traditions or manga (pretty sure that's part of the culture now, it's the first thing people think about when they think about Japan) or maybe you could research Edo period of Japan or maybe...would you like me to go on?

I always liked the food and the language, Im trying to learn the language.

They call people by their last name unless they're close, if you bow with someone, the person with the lower social status bows lower. Ooh and their Christmas is cool.

somthing about there gaming/anime/manga culture maybe? it is one of their biggest trademarks nowadays..

They slurp noodles to show that they find the food tasty and thanks for it.

Do the samurai and bushido thing...

The best question is: you like samurai better or ninja

To me the best subject to write about would be how different the schooling in Japan is from the schooling in America.

I always found schools in Japan rather interesting.

*cracks knuckles*

• You can start with background history. The fact that Japan is an isolated island is really important to understanding how their customs have come to be.
• For food, fish is a large part of their main diet as they are surrounded by ocean. Weather their is conducive for growing rice, which I believe was introduced by China. They didn't have much resources of plants to eat which is why they have many different mushrooms, roots, and seaweed in their diet.
• Because they are on an island, they were isolated from technological advancements that was happening elsewhere in the world. But Japan excels at taking ideas and making them better so they managed to quickly adapt
• Social issues: If you don't mind getting nitty-gritty, you can talk about social inequality in Japan, which could include status of woman, racism against Korean immigrants and burakumin, and how they view forigners.
• Comparing Japan to America| Main theme: Japan's pluralistic world view versus America's individualist world view. This topic can really hold your entire project because everything in their culture goes back to this. You can explain how Japan differs from America by explaining how they look at what benefits the group (family, business, community, country) rather than America that celebrates individual benefits.
• And I guess you could talk about how their technology is so much more awesome than the rest of the world's. Personally, I don't think it's the coolest part about Japan
• Religion: They are mostly Buddhist, but in the past the country believed in Shinto.
• School system: I'm actually researching this right since I may teach there someday, but you can explain how their schools differ from ours with the ranking system, entrance exams and cram schools/fuku.

Really, I could go on and on about this but this should be enough to get you started. I have read many books, but sadly I don't have much internet resources that are in English. The only ones I have are pdfs about their school system which I can share with you if you want. Just PM me if you have any questions since I am unofficially insanely obsessed with Japan ^^

Thank you all SO much for all the responses!! I didn't expect so many! You guys are the best. ^-^ I really appreciate all of it! =DD I've written them all down and now I'm off to start working on this speech! (which I personally think shouldn't be required to get a degree...but whatever. Hahaha!)

 

 

Really, I could go on and on about this but this should be enough to get you started. I have read many books, but sadly I don't have much internet resources that are in English. The only ones I have are pdfs about their school system which I can share with you if you want. Just PM me if you have any questions since I am unofficially insanely obsessed with Japan ^^

 

I think I'll PM you Oisii, I'd definitely like to see those PDFs because they would really help me out! Thank you ^-^