東京經濟大學で出題された8題中最後の問題文です。月曜日と金曜日に、パラグラフ毎に解説して參ります。
An American employee at a U.S. branch of a Japanese manufacturing firm was sent to one of the company’s factories in Japan for training. Soon after he arrived, his new Japanese manager led him to a spot on the edge of the factory floor. The manager simply said, “Stand here and watch,” and then went away. The American was confused ―― he had traveled all the way to Japan, and was expecting to receive some training. But instead, he had just been left alone with no explanation.
It is possible that the factory was short-handed and could not spare anyone to spend time with him, or that the manager’s limited English skills prevented a deeper conversation. However, the more likely explanation of this situation was that the Japanese manager expected the American to learn by watching. In Japanese, this process is called minarai. Having learners soak up knowledge by observation is a very traditional Japanese training technique. The American employee was expected to think carefully about what he was seeing. However, this would not occur to most Americans as an explanation of what was happening in this situation. This is due to the very different training and learning style that is typical in the U.S.
Another situation that confuses many Americans is when a Japanese supervisor* makes a large number of corrections to their work. For most Americans, this seems unreasonable. However, the Japanese see this differently. The corrections are viewed as a training tool. This is in line with the traditional approach to minarai; the expert shows how something should be done, and the student watches and imitates it. The expert then corrects any mistakes in the student’s work. Such corrections are the Japanese manager’s way of showing how something should be done ―― of helping someone to learn. Rather than just accepting these corrections, workers in Japan are expected to study them carefully, learn from them, and apply the lessons the next time.
Most training and teaching in the United States is very much based on explanation in words. In contrast, traditional Japanese training techniques do not involve a lot of talking by the person doing the teaching. The person who is learning is expected to watch and absorb the teacher’s technique. The Japanese sometimes say that “learning is stealing” because the person teaching is not really offering the information actively. For example, I once read an article in which one of the chefs at a famous hotel recalled his days as a young kitchen assistant. He and his colleagues were eager to learn how to make the special sauces that the senior chefs were famous for, but the senior chefs were unwilling to explain their secrets. So the younger chefs tried to learn by tasting the sauces on the pots before they washed them, and trying to guess the ingredients* that had been used to make them. From an American’s point of view, this might sound like a very inefficient way to teach someone something. However, in the traditional Japanese way of thinking, one might say that someone who learned in this way is more likely to remember what they have learned because they have put more into the learning process. 【532語】
Notes: supervisor = 監督者 ingredients = 食材
