My First Draft

I haven't finished writing this essay

I am going to change my content of the 3 body paragraphs.

So it would be changed soon.

Look at this picture. This is a picture of president Obama bowing deeply to Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. In another occasion, he also bowed deeply to the King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. From our Japanese point of view, we can assume that the president is showing his respect to them by bowing or that he is trying to show some understanding to the Japanese culture to maintain a good relationship. However, several American media are criticizing his bow as a cultural misunderstanding. According to an article by Fox, previous presidents have greeted Emperor not by bowing but by shaking hands and they claim that shaking hands are considered to be a standard and universal way of greeting. But is shaking hands a standard way of greeting? It is true that shaking hands are used in an official business situation. However it does not always true. For example in Japan bowing is more common than shaking hands. Bowing may cause misunderstanding of its meaning because it is interpreted differently from each culture. In this situation of Obama’s bowing, cultural differences of greeting is causing this conflict. Westerns seldom bow and lower their heads. We should be careful to convey its meaning correctly and we should understand more about the background of each culture.

Bowing is a very common gesture around the world. Though the frequency of the use or its meaning that represents is different from each culture, we can see them around the world. In some cultures, it is deeply connected to religion. For example, Muslims pray to their God by praying and facing the city of Makah, where is concerned as a holy city. They also prostrate to the God to show respect to it. In Europe or in the US for example, people bow on the concert stage during the curtain call or bow to God. However, as you can see how and when it is done, bowing is not so common and it is performed in a special situation. There was a specialist of etiquette in the US called Emily Post in the early 20^th century. According to her book “Etiquette”, she claimed that ladies and gentlemen should bow when they greet to people. In her book, she introduces some ways of everyday use bows. She focuses on bowing in a formal place or bowing to the elders but in the end she suggests to bow casually and informally whenever you encounter a person one knows. Unfortunately, the culture of bowing in the US did not become common and the standard way of greeting was only to shake hands. It seems that the historical back ground of each culture affects the use of bowing. The country that put an emphasis on individuality are less likely to have a culture of bowing as a greeting. People who have individuality view other people as equal to themselves. This means that there is less hierarchical status among people. The movement of bowing requires people to put their heads down. So, it seems to them as if one is obeying to the other.

Some traditional martial arts such as Judo used to require the players to bow as a rule. However, in some cultures such as the Islamic world view this bow in Judo as same as that they are using in praying. Though Judo is not a religion and the Muslims recognize that as a fact, they argue that the bow in Judo is similar to their bow as a ritual. For this reason some of them refused to bow to the opponent player in a Judo game. IJF which stands for International Judo Federation decided to change its Judo rules. After Judo was adopted as a sport for Olympic games, they decided to do so in that they wanted to make Judo as an universal and international sport. The conflict of bowing occurred in the US. An American brother and sister failed the game in the course of refusing the bowing. Bowing was included in the rule of Judo to conduct however, the judge made them to fail concerning that they broke the rule. The 2 children protested and claimed to IJF using the Civil Rights Act that the bowing in Judo forces people the ideas of Shinto thought and violates the Civil Rights of the liberation in beliefs. This conflict ended by these two children losing the IJF since the bowing in Judo does not represent religious beliefs but just a cultural gesture. However this gave a chance for the IFJ to rethink and make rules about the bowing. They abolished the rules of bowing duty of “bowing in front of the opponent” and “bowing to the playground” . These two duties of bowing were abolished for five reason (1) too many bows can confuse the players (2) the purpose is unclear (3) it is difficult for the judges to observe bowing (4) bowing should not be forced but acted spontaneously (5) only “bowing to each other” is necessary in a play. The change of the rule relieved the tense between the Muslisms that participated in the game.

There is a best seller book called Kiss Bow or Shake Hands. This book was designed and published for those who work with foreigners. In addition to the description of greeting in each country, it is also written about a brief history, model of politics, language, religion, population, how they think, how they decide, values, time management, how to negotiate, how to welcome in a business place, gestures, gift and clothing. As it is mentioned, this book gives social backgrounds to the reader. In the introduction of this book, the author says that the lack of knowledge about the opponent leads to a failure of the business. The author also claims that the book strongly helps in opening borders, minds, and markets in more than 60 countries around the world. By understanding the background before hand, one can prevent misinterpretation from the opponent to an extent.