人見知りをする文化

In my opinion, we have a culture of [hitomishiri o suru].
It is a culture [not to speak to strangers].

It is not because the person is timid or shy, but it’s a culture to refuse to speak to others
by the strong will of the person.

Myself has its inclination. I do not speak to others with ease.
I have a strong thought accompanied with strong will never to speak to others
I do not feel necessary to talk to.

I checked if its equivalent expression is available or not among English,
but I have not found what is exactly the same to this [hitomishiri o suru] so far.

[shy] is not the same.
[timid] is also different.
[bashful] is not what I look for.
[coy] also differs.

But, I wonder if it could be similar to French [farouche] or [sauvage] ?
And I wonder it will be telling the difference among cultures.

Formerly I had a wrong impression as the image on French people which I had
perhaps through information on publications or press media. I had time
I used to imagine as if French people were hard to approach.
But I found one day that it was just a complete misunderstanding.

I found that many French people were actually very friendly and kind to me.
I recognized it through my experience while I had a trip to France.

They look to be very proud of their mother tongue French.
And to those who try to speak their French language, they are really friendly.
It is my impression I had while my stay in France.
They do not expect to foreigners for the perfection of their language.
It would be in their head natural that foreigners cannot speak perfect French.
But the attitude to try to speak it will be welcomed by them as it will highly
evaluate their culture.

It’s just okay even if being not so good at French.
By approaching to them in their own language,
I felt I was welcomed by lots of people at hotels, restaurants,
on the streets and even at stations and on the trains of subways
and the other trains etc.

One of the noticeable experience was that I was dare asked at the reception
of a hotel if I wanted to talk with him in French or English.
I have a clear remembrance that he was speaking to me with good face
full of smile to this man (me) from an eastern country.

Coming back to the subject of this memo, recently I attend a French party which is
regularly held once a month in Osaka looking for chances to try to speak French.
I am actively trying to join other parties or gatherings as well where foreigners
get together just to speak English too. It is just because I want to make my skill
of languages better even little by little by using it where chance is available.

If you join such gatherings, you will have opportunities to speak to others
without any hesitation – because it provides the social atmosphere of
getting connected by casual chatting among strangers each other.
What is good is that you can approach to people with a calm and relaxed manner.
Under such circumstances, I can change my basic policy not to speak to strangers
and I will have chances to listen to stories I have not yet known.

タグ：人見知りをする文化 知らない人とも気軽に話す文化