Culture

The past two days I finished reading a book called Foreign to Familiar that I received from my missions agency. It addressed the differences between what the author called "hot climate" cultures and "cold climate" cultures. Hot climate cultures are relationship-oriented, indirect in communication, group-based, inclusive, and event oriented. According to the author cultures like these tend to include South America, the southern US, Africa, and Asia. Cold climate cultures are task-oriented, direct in communication, individualistic, private, and time oriented. Cultures like these include the Northern US states and most of Europe.

While of course these are not perfect groupings, I found the book really insightful and helpful in understanding other cultural mentalities. I think growing up 4th generation Japanese-American in Hawaii, I have stronger cold climate tendencies but have a lot of experience interacting with or in hot climate cultural situations. I realize many things that my family does such as bring back gifts from trips or always try to make sure there is more than enough food are culturally hot climate but many of the ways I act outside of my home such as booking my schedule full of appointments and asking others direct yes or no questions when I'm wondering if something is bothering them or they want to go somewhere tend to be cold climate behaviors.

I hope that this information will help prepare me to better enter into Japanese culture and minister cross-culturally to the Japanese. I know Japanese culture can tend to be very "hot climate," full of etiquette intended to build relationships and a strong group-based cultural mentality. While this isn't something I'm used to, I hope that I'll now be better equipped to navigate relationships in Japanese culture.

Further, I'm very much amazed at the power of the gospel to bridge cultural differences. While I can now see and understand better how different cultures will react to the gospel differently, I'm more and more amazed at the power the gospel has to transform across cultures and provide universal truth and salvation for those who believe by grace through faith. Culture can even be a strong motivator to promote sinful behavior such as ancestor worship and in no way justifies how people live, but because I understand Japanese culture better, I pray that I'll be better equipped to identify idols that hold people from Christ so that I can help expose them and destroy them so that people might come to know true love and grace in Jesus Christ.

So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

(Acts 10:34-35 ESV)