Understanding and Respecting

As well known that a country has its own culture, history, education, mentality, language and so on, I have faced so many different ones and learned various things from the many different countries. Needless to say, I came across culture shocks especially in USA and France for the first time visit. It was extremely difficult to adapt the way of living due to my communication skill/language so I just concentrated on learning how to communicate without mastering basic grammar. As the result, I realized naturally that understanding and respecting one country were extremely important key, no matter what, to succeed in living, learning, communicating, coaching, teaching, managing and so forth in the different country.There is one good example in my experience in USA. In that time, I was in a position to coach junior national players. And all most all the players were so ambitious and motivated to learn Japanese fundamentals and techniques. So they often asked me "why should we do this? Do that? And How come?" I often asked myself why they ask me why. It was amazing to me in every session. But I found out that once they understood the reason or purpose of what they were supposed to do or demanded to do, they could achieve to do properly and find their way to develop the demands. So it is totally different attitude/mentality and education from Japan or other Asian counties, in which there is tendency that a person who is learning or studying, always respects a teacher or coach to follow his instruction without asking any questions as they are in military, saying only "Yes Sir".

In fact, this change makes big difference to be a winner or loser in not only sports but also everyday life. Additionally, mentality of young generation now in Japan and other Asian counties differs from the one of the past and similar to those who I have encountered in USA or European countries. So one important remark for coaching and teaching comes up here that a coach or teacher needs to make a person understand clearly first then have him or her execute what they understood.